Recently, I read about the 65th Birthday party of Prince Charles that was funded by a "philanthropist" Indian origin couple based in London. The party had apparently cost 500k pounds, and I couldnt help but wonder why any self respecting individual who wanted to known as "philanthropist" would spend money pampering the royalty of a country whose colonization and plundering has resulted in the sorry state of affairs that many countries face today. People from this country amassed great wealth either as loot, pretty much the same way pirates do their job. If it wasnt straight forward theft, they did it by enslaving the natives of the country they were colonizing. I wonder how they can look at their history and not feel shame. Do they teach their children what really happened or do they teach them about "conquests" that brought in great wealth?
It is not just England that has this type of history though - if one looks around the Americas, one can see that Portugal and Spain did the same thing. The Spanish were in fact worse - they usually exterminated the natives if they could not be converted into slaves, and then shipped Africans across the sea and used them to work the land. Why was there nothing similar to the Nuremberg trials for colonialists? How did their conscience permit them to act in such inhuman ways? Why was it not considered genocide? And what on earth was the church doing meanwhile? What was their role in all of this?
But that was not what I started out saying.. So why would this Indian "philanthropist" want to host this birthday party?After amassing more wealth than they know what to do with, I guess they hear a little voice in their heads that tell them that the only thing they lack is "titles". If one wants to buy titles, one must know someone who can sell them, right?
Enormous wealth makes all kinds of things possible - one gets powerful, knows all the right people, can fund political organizations - which means one can have a hand in almost all decision making processes, can fund election campaigns, fund universities - which means one's children will most likely receive the best education, and finally, one can also control the media.
And that is how the New Royalty emerges.
Like Reliance Royalty.
Or Kingfisher Royalty.
Or Mittal Royalty.
Think I exaggerate? One of Mittal's palaces was built with marble from the same quarry that was used for the Taj Mahal. This residence is jokingly referred to as "Taj Mittal". His daughter's wedding was the second most expensive wedding in recorded history, second only to Prince Charles and Diana, and followed by Prince William and Kate Middleton who got the third place. Doesnt that sound like royalty?
So what has really changed over the last 100 years?
It depends on your perspective.
From the average Joe's perspective, nothing really has changed. He is born, he lives an ordinary life, reads about the New Royalty's excesses and has dreams that will never come true.
From the perspective of an entrepreneur though, everything has changed. If one is born with enough ability, ambition, a willingness to work hard, and got a few lucky breaks in life, one could join the ranks of the New Royalty almost overnight. Trust me, this was not something that could be done in the old world. In the old world, one really had to be born into wealth. So in that sense, the world is now a lot more democratic. Any one of us can be Royalty tomorrow. In fact, no one knows who the next member of Royalty will be. What we have really done is taken away the ability to be wealthy from a few who were born privileged and made it possible for anyone to be wealthy. It will still be a few, but it could be anyone.
Since "wealth" is a relative term and being wealthy would no longer mean anything if everyone had it, I suppose this is exactly how we want our world to be.
It is not just England that has this type of history though - if one looks around the Americas, one can see that Portugal and Spain did the same thing. The Spanish were in fact worse - they usually exterminated the natives if they could not be converted into slaves, and then shipped Africans across the sea and used them to work the land. Why was there nothing similar to the Nuremberg trials for colonialists? How did their conscience permit them to act in such inhuman ways? Why was it not considered genocide? And what on earth was the church doing meanwhile? What was their role in all of this?
But that was not what I started out saying.. So why would this Indian "philanthropist" want to host this birthday party?After amassing more wealth than they know what to do with, I guess they hear a little voice in their heads that tell them that the only thing they lack is "titles". If one wants to buy titles, one must know someone who can sell them, right?
Enormous wealth makes all kinds of things possible - one gets powerful, knows all the right people, can fund political organizations - which means one can have a hand in almost all decision making processes, can fund election campaigns, fund universities - which means one's children will most likely receive the best education, and finally, one can also control the media.
And that is how the New Royalty emerges.
Like Reliance Royalty.
Or Kingfisher Royalty.
Or Mittal Royalty.
Think I exaggerate? One of Mittal's palaces was built with marble from the same quarry that was used for the Taj Mahal. This residence is jokingly referred to as "Taj Mittal". His daughter's wedding was the second most expensive wedding in recorded history, second only to Prince Charles and Diana, and followed by Prince William and Kate Middleton who got the third place. Doesnt that sound like royalty?
So what has really changed over the last 100 years?
It depends on your perspective.
From the average Joe's perspective, nothing really has changed. He is born, he lives an ordinary life, reads about the New Royalty's excesses and has dreams that will never come true.
From the perspective of an entrepreneur though, everything has changed. If one is born with enough ability, ambition, a willingness to work hard, and got a few lucky breaks in life, one could join the ranks of the New Royalty almost overnight. Trust me, this was not something that could be done in the old world. In the old world, one really had to be born into wealth. So in that sense, the world is now a lot more democratic. Any one of us can be Royalty tomorrow. In fact, no one knows who the next member of Royalty will be. What we have really done is taken away the ability to be wealthy from a few who were born privileged and made it possible for anyone to be wealthy. It will still be a few, but it could be anyone.
Since "wealth" is a relative term and being wealthy would no longer mean anything if everyone had it, I suppose this is exactly how we want our world to be.
