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Tuesday 26 September 2017

248. A Rich Woman Died!

Yes – an extremely rich woman is extremely dead and it made the news.

I know. You are shocked – even while distracted by the two squabbling fat stupid spoilt brats with the really bad hair who want to nuke the planet and the news that fascists are back in the German Bundestag. But it’s true. Last week the amazing phenomenon that the rich die too, was proven, yet again, by the death of the “world’s richest woman” – a strangely empty epitaph all things considered.

Early in the life of this blog I penned a piece called ‘Dinosaurs cured my performance angst’ (blog 4). It outlined how understanding one’s lack of importance in the great scheme of things can be hugely liberating and, in fact, could  allow you to achieve much more. This is not to be confused with the sense of entitlement, self-aggrandisement, selfishness and arrogance imbued in the ranks of elite school boys who have made a pretty good job of trashing Britain with their over-promotion and un-earned privilege (see blog187. British boarding schools breed posh psychopaths).

But Lilliane Bettencourt, described in The Guardian on 21st Sept as “heir to the French L’Oréal hairspray empire” is dead. The same paper also drops this wonderful little gem…
She was the daughter of Eugène Schueller, a chemist and one-time Nazi sympathiser who made a fortune as the inventor of modern hair dye and founder of L’Oréal.

Despite her estimated fortune of £29bn I’d never heard of her but then I’ve not been to a hairdresser in over 15 years. Ms Bettencourt was wealthy beyond imagining due to money made from cosmetics, which makes mad sense in a world where we fete the shallow and image-obsessed. Her family didn’t find a cure for cancer or invent the jet engine but they have done everything to help keep hair in place. For that, this woman was lauded, indulged, lived in opulence few can imagine and for that this woman died among claims by her family that various hangers on and vultures were trying to con her out of some large sums of dosh.

And I say again – if only the rich would get over the idea that they are also immortal – they might behave better.

A new drug-resistant strain of Malaria is spreading in Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of SE Asia but there is still no magical human made wonder drug to deal with that potentially global disaster. While the mainstream media are preoccupied with avoidable man-made horrors such as Trump’s America and Brexit Britain, real issues with the ability to put a serious dent in humanity’s time on the planet are way down the agenda.

If you want to know what is wrong with the world you cannot do better than look at the strange anomaly laid out in the fact of Lillian Bettencourt’s death (and life!). This woman – who may well have been pleasant enough – did nothing of note with her existence other than be born to an old Nazi who invented hair product. She died a modern day Ms Midas. 

Several months ago I posted, Viagra – Yes. Effective Cure for Malaria – No! blog 97. It was an indictment of mankind’s stupidity, vanity, wrongness in all ways. I thought nothing would top that. But, in the face of the massive threat from this new form of Malaria, surely news of a woman dying – the richest of her sex – not because of the invention of something that would genuinely benefit all humanity but because of a horrible, chemical vanity product, shows why we are, as a species, truly and monumentally messed up.

As the avaricious and empty, squabble for cash over Lillianne’s cadaver, her death delivers the same message as all the other unread signs and portents around the planet – humans need to start spending time, effort, money and intellect on caring for each other and the earth because – surely ‘we’re worth it’.

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This Thurs 28th Sept is NATIONAL POETRY DAY – Check out Casey & the Surfmen. Performed this year in The Scottish Parliament as part of 2017 Environment week, this poetry story was originally a spoken word piece. It is now in a brand new print version.
Casey & the Surfmen is an environmental story for all ages, written in verse.
This contemporary fable takes form somewhere between The Rime of Ancient Mariner and Avatar.
With magic, menace and mystical creatures, the verses take the reader onto the expanse of a child's imagination, on to a dreamscape apocalypse and back to the shore of humanity's original promise.


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NB – What happened in relation to the BT nonsense? (See blog 233 – BT ignoring your customer complaints – just do a doodle) I waited to see if the new debt collecting firm engaged by BT would get tired of sending monthly threatening letters. They did not, so a couple of weeks ago I sent them a cease and desist or I’ll sue you letter and have received now a full written apology (19th Sept) and confirmation that I will not be hearing from them again. To be fair – they also say they bought the ‘debt’ in good faith from BT. Dealing with BT ‘in good faith’ seems to be not a great idea…