I was cleaning up the other day, and came across an old notebook from my uni days. I went through it to see if there was anything I needed to keep, and I found one page that I’d written that I wanted to post for posterity.

Considering the obscene (though incredibly uneven) wealth of the Western world and the extreme poverty the rest of the world largely suffers, I thought this comment had to be recorded. To put it in context, on the 22nd of May in 2001, I was in an elevator at UTS, my university, and two teachers got in with me. As we were dragged up to the 20th floor, I overheard this simple comment.

“We could make the other house into a big kitchen, but I’m not sure we really need that.”

The comment was passed in all seriousness and the man who was listening didn’t react in any particular way. I, on the other hand, nearly fell over, and pledged to write that comment down when I got the chance. Seven years later, with the housing boom and resultant housing crisis, I wonder what they did with that second house? On a larger level, what does it say about western excess? Can we justify this level of wealth when such inequality exists? Or are we supposed to be just grateful that it’s not our children starving in Ethiopia? It’s a mixed up world isn’t it….