I had a very strange experience this morning. We were
sent to clear out a vet clinic, which was part of a company that my employer
was appointed as the receiver of. By some fluke, we managed to find a buyer for
the vet clinic and as part of the sales process, we had to clear part of the
unit.
One of the biggest issues in clearing this particular
clinic was the fact that there were several containers of used syringes. The
key issues with a used syringe is that it is not normal waste that can be
tossed into the bin. Used syringes are classified under “Medical Waste” and we,
the clever people with qualifications and comfortable jobs, didn’t know what to
do. The clever young thing who was part of the team, proceeded to seek advice
from the clever things that had appointed us and the clever people who used to
run the clinic.
Nobody had a clue as to how we could dispose of this
stuff, until by some fluke, we saw a member of the town council touring the
estate with his contractors. Chatted them up and before anyone could think a
clever thought, the town council rep told us to engage his contractor on a
private basis. The Bangladeshi chap knew how to dispose of the stuff and for a
token fee, he got his guy to do the job. Our problem was solved.
The problem was a “rich” person’s problem. Vets around
the world, are known to make good money. In the UK, there was a quip that it
was the smart ones who left medical school to become vets. The reason being,
there is no NHS or any form of socialized medicine for pets. Everything is
dictated by private enterprise and funnily enough, people are willing to spend
good money on pets to ensure that the pets get the best.
Yet, it was the simple Bangladeshi worker who had the
solution. In the Singapore system, Bangladeshi workers are classified as “poor”
people. These are the guys who build our homes, keep our roads working, the
sideways green and clean. To the jobs that Singaporeans won’t do, a Bangladeshi
worker would consider himself a lottery winner if he was paid anything more
than S$3,000 a month (As a British friend who works in a shipyard points out – “It’s
the Bangladeshi guy who runs the how but gets paid the least). Then, let’s not
go into the conditions that most Bangladeshi workers live in other than to say
that Singapore’s explosion of covid cases came from dormitories inhabited by
construction workers. Sadly, the only reaction you’re going to get from many
Singaporeans is “Well, they’re better off than where they came from.”
This got me thinking. How many of us, who are for all
intents and purposes “rich” people do things without thinking of who bears the
consequences.
This is a problem …… if you can afford the car……copyright Car Throttle
Take the debate on climate change and rising sea
levels. Look at who are the people denying that climate change and rising sea
levels are an issue. For the most part, they live in the “rich” part of the
world like the USA and Europe. This lot will inevitably feel most at home in
gatherings of members of the Republican Party, which have infamously been
funded by the oil industry. Ask any of these people if they think that climate
change is real and they’ll tell you that it’s a “hoax” invented by left-wing
members of the “wokerati.” They will “rubbish” any discussion on the move to
renewable energy and continue to guzzle oil through high consumption cars or
through using their toys live private jets.
As long as this crowd can use their jets like there’s
no tomorrow, climate change is at best, a topic that gets certain Swedish
teenagers all worked up and that on its own has become enough of a reason to
continue flying private jet and encouraging the use of fossil fuels.
Let’s look at the other end of the scale. The people
who know that climate change and rising sea levels are very real, happen to live
in the insignificant atols in the Pacific Ocean. These are “poor” people who nobody
cares about and whenever the people in the rich world are told they may need to
give a bit of room to people from places like this, they will scream for
greater border controls to keep the poor people out, without any thought to the
fact that their actions may have been the very cause of what sent the poor
people scurrying to reach the countries that are rich both in monetary terms
and geographical ones (for example, your country is not in danger of sinking
into the sea).
Let’s go back to the example of the Bangladeshi who
solved my disposal issues today. Do people really care about him? This is a man
who works day in and day out to solve our issues. He keeps the trash bins empty
and our common spaces clean. We have no “cleanliness” issues because of people
like him.
Yet, we don’t care about him. When he goes back to his
dormitory, we think of him as a “darkie” who should bless the day we allowed
him to clean our crap. When Covid broke out in the workers dormitories, we
thought of it as a problem and there were too many vocal remarks from people who
felt that Covid out breaks were deserved.
We keep seeing the poor as a problem. Poverty is
something that needs to be solved and there have been plenty of innovations to
make life easier for the poor:
https://borgenproject.org/innovative-solutions-to-poverty-and-hunger/
There are many people trying to help the poor and needy and these efforts need to be commended. However, shouldn’t we also work at understanding that our actions have consequences and these consequences are not always paid by us but more often than not the less fortunate?
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