Saturday, June 23, 2012

Fantasy Islands and the Super Rich


There's a certain irony in reading about the mega rich who buy their own private fantasy islands...in the same week that we read about the epic failures of the Rio+20 Earth Summit and the ongoing Euro debt crisis: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/jun/22/larry-ellison-private-island-rich

"As Larry Ellison buys the Hawaiian island Lania for around half a billion dollars, the Guardian Datablog takes a look at the elite club to which he will now belong: very rich people with their own private islands. Billionaire businessmen dominate the list, while actors Johnny Depp and Mel Gibson are among the more familiar names." [The Guardian]


Personally, I always thought there was something a bit creepy about Fantasy Island...and from my own limited experience of ownership, I think it might be better to have access to things rather than ownership of them....it may be a cliché but it's often true that possessions end up owning you, contrary to the other way around...  

A quote from the Guardian datablog comments section:
  • exportale
    22 June 2012 2:34PM
    And this is happening in a world where large numbers of people live and die in abject poverty. Anyone else think we've lost the plot as a species?

No comments:

Post a Comment