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Topic tags: Pakistan, flood, disaster, Indus River, NGOs, greed
If there's one thing that the recent election campaign and its outcome demonstrated, it's the depth of the divisions that exist in our Australian community.
Our politics is focused on point-scoring, personalities, and name-calling across party lines. The media, for the most part, don't help, driven by the 24-hour news cycle and the pursuit of advertising dollars into a frenzy of click-bait and shallow sensationalism.
What does it mean to be an Australian in times like these? What are the values that unite us?
Eureka Street offers an alternative. It's less a magazine than a wide ranging conversation about the issues that matter in our country and our world; a conversation marked by respect for the dignity of ALL human beings.
Importantly, it's a conversation that takes place in the open, unhindered by paywalls or excessive advertising. And it's through the support of people like you that it is able to do so.
Greedy people are common in the general population however it seems that they go up a level, several levels when there is desperation around. They should be reported and 'greed' should be made 'illegal' during such troubling times. It's at these times other countries should be sending in their troops to monitor such situations. At the end of the day even during these situations, the greedy, rich individuals profit.
Thank you Simon for the empathy in your article.
Does anyone wonder why India has not been as affected by these rains? At least partly because they have invested in dams and canals, and general flood prevention strategies. But not the feudal princedoms of Pakistan, dominated by corruption,exploitation, militarism, nuclear arms spending, terrorism, fundamentalism, bad governance etc etc.
While I'm sure there are lots of greedy people in Pakistan, their existence doesn't explain the hike in transport costs. If greedy X makes a supernormal profit, it's in the interest of greedy Y to enter the market with an identical good or close substitute, underprice X and take a piece of the action. Greedy Z will do the same to both. This will go on until the price begins to approach the interest rate. If the price stays for long at the plateau of three times the normal price, this would suggest that perhaps the profit is close to the long run interest rate already. IE, that no super-normal profit is being made, perhaps because the extra revenue is being offset by extra costs (rising local petrol prices due to difficulties of supply?) Also note that not just transport services, but (according to reports) prices of food and most other goods have skyrocketed all through the regions affected. Is every shopkeeper over there “greedy”? Hardly – in this time of tragedy and unpredictability it’s perfectly understandable that they’ll hold on to essential supplies for themselves and their families, so that only significantly higher bids will induce them to sell.
Correction: "This will go on until the price begins to approach the interest rate." should read "This will go on until the profit level begins to approach the interest rate." Apologies.
What do young Australians take away from John Marsden's novels - and now, the film Tomorrow, When the War Began? They are more than escapist fantasies. They convey value messages, calling on young Australians to cherish our country, not to take it for granted, and to be prepared if necessary to kill and die for it.