Meet Marcus after the Amazon but Danny Boy Turns Up!
I guess my role as a the parish minister is a bit ubiquitous. One week I'm in Peru talking to health specialist and social workers about how to improve the lot of Street Children or exploring with others how the ships in the Amazon can be used to help save a Tribe known as the Matses from extinction. Finding the money to keep all this work going can be to say the least a bit daunting. It's when you come home and hear people argue about their worth gauging it in terms of monatary reward that you find yourself asking some big moral questions
This week being back in the UK I'm no longer thinking about a tribe dying of TB facing and facing extinction Instead I'm forced to consider the rights and wrongs of bankers who have once again grabbed the headlines. I'm not talking about your average bank clerk no I'm talking about the directors and top managers who award themselves huge salaries and big bonuses.
Top bankers have proved themselves so unpopular in fact that the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, has been forced to give up a bonus of nearly £1m while his predecessor, Sir Fred Godwin, has been stripped of his knighthood.
Now while there may be a part of me that says this is the right thing, there is another part of me that says, all of this is too easy too hypocritical. Were there not more than two people involved in this whole affair? While Godwin may be reaping the harvest of his past practice many others in this industry including politicians need to act a bit more honestly humbly. In fact were we not all guilty of over extending our wealth and influence? One other thing that gets to me while I'm on the subject of salaries. While Hester forgoes his million what about the many footballers who in a time of austerity are being paid absurd wages? The thing is its people on 25K a year and less who are buying the season tickets which in turn pay these huge salaries.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK0liqUG038&list=UUEP7RyXysg0pfAPVXtCEjnA&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]
Anyway you can imagine I was glad to be chilling out with my friend Marcus Ford in his studio this afternoon. Marcus was having some down time from his recording session. I'm so glad tat Marcus has decided to record an album of his favourite tunes. I asked him today so are you a jazz guitarist or how would you describe your playing? His replay was ubiquitous "I'm a guitarist who loves to play music that touches the soul" What better tune to pull at the strings of your heart than "Danny Boy"
Posted By: Helmut On: 12 Feb 2012 At: 9:06am
Maybe it is because even if we do not agree with the pop star or sportsman in question, we do get something back, even if grossly overpaid. And if they fail, they usually are broke, no golden handshakes. With financial people, they do not really tell us what they are up to (and I am well aware that some financial doings actually are beneficial), they get money by the cartload even if they disastrously fail (and on to the next well paid job), and we never know (how should we) whether the banker in question will not be the next one to cheat people out of uncounted billions, we only know that there already have been many golden handshakes, many cheats, and total disconnectedness from the effects of their doings.