Yes, I enjoyed writing that title (just call me Tom Wolfe). Two extraordinary facts caught my eye as I scanned my morning newspapers this week so far. According to an article in yesterday’s Financial Times, the late Gabon ruler, Omar Bongo, had over seventy bank accounts. Over seventy! How the hell do you manage over seventy bank accounts? Of course, you’ll say ‘well, he must have had managers who managed the accounts.’ But who managed the managers? And where do you put all the cheque books? One thing is certain; he must have had a massive wallet to carry all of those bank cards. The second article came from the Guardian. ‘World spending on arms rises to record $1.46 tn’ was the headline. Apparently, worldwide spending on weapons has risen by 45% over the past decade. I shall refrain from further comment other than to observe that there is an interesting coincidence: the country which accounts for over half of that total increase also houses most of the top arms-producing companies.
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