And
now for tonight's economic indicators
Gold
is trading @ $1 695.13 per ounce
What
does this mean I ask?
Gold
is a store of value, they say, Gold is a measure of wealth.
But
whose wealth? is my question
It
measures how the value of things has increased or declined
Oh!
I say, does this include the value of mineworkers' lives?
Does it incorporate
the number of
deaths at Kloof, Savuka, Deelkraal, Driefontein, South Deep, Elandsrand, Harmony, Mponeng and these are just the recent ones…
What
about the widowed women, the fatherless children
And
the costs to transport dead bodies across the border to Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, ?
Back
to our economic indicators
Platinum
rose to $1 551.25 per ounce
Yes,
another precious metal, they tell me
It
is a high value commodity, used for catalytic converters of motor vehicles
I
can’t help but wonder if the workers who died at Implats would ever own cars in
their lifetime…
Platinum
is generally non-reactive, I am told, it exhibits a remarkable resistance to
corrosion, even at high temperatures.
Why
then were the miners mowed down in cold blood when they demonstrated the same
resistance to the corrosion of their humanity?
The
purity of platinum will forever be tainted by the blood shed at Marikana
But
I digress!
This
must be a new one, I wonder?
They tell me it measures the
telecommunications, media and technology stocks
They
say it’s about innovation, automation, pharmaceuticals and the like…
Is
it innovation when cheap imports flood our markets at the cost of local jobs?
Is
it technological advancement that makes healthcare so inaccessibly costly?
Is
it because of this that people continue to die of diseases despite advancements
in technology?
The
strength of the NASDAQ comes at a high cost to people’s livelihoods, to
people’s lives
Moving
on with the economic indicators…
The
price of petrol will go up by 93c a litre on Wednesday
What
determines the price of petrol, I ask
It
has to do with demand & supply, I am told
With
the price of a barrel of oil as determined by Opec
Aha
I say, is this the same oil paid for by the lives of the Ogoni people of
Nigeria, Ken Saro Wiwa among them?
Could
this same oil have a little something to do with the war on in the Mid-East?
The
increase in the price of petrol will never cover these atrocities
The all
share index is currently at 35,129.00,
Whose
shares I ask?
It
represents all the shares of companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange,
Industrial
companies, mining companies, manufacturing companies, commercial companies,
everything, I am told.
Wouldn’t
it be great if those who work in these companies owned these shares?
That's
the end of this bulletin, another bulletin of Economic Inequities,
Oops!
I mean Indicators - comes to you tomorrow same time.
Jackie Mondi
