It seems incongruous, to say the least, for delegates at this particular conference to be gorging on mountains of lobster, oysters and fillet steak and washing the food down with vintage champagne, fine wines, spirits and liqueurs, while people are going hungry at shanty towns just a couple of miles away.
What bothers me even more than the GBP 35 million cost is the likelihood that this summit won’t do a bit of good for the starving people it’s supposed to be helping. That’s the real scandal.
“Lobsters, caviar and brandy for MPs at summit on starvation”
I don’t know what the lobsters are meeting about, but it seems cruel to starve the little guys. Maybe someone should order the arachnids a pizza or something.
But…sometimes, wining and dining people does serve a greater good. I know this as a hard fact from being a saleswoman (when mandated) that sometimes you can get a serious amount of money from people by treating them right.
I can make no judgement at all as to whether or not more than 35 million Pounds of benefit will derive from this. But it’s not automatically an unsound thing to do.
That having been said, it just seems woefully extravagant to me. And in poor taste.
I would like to apologize for my crack earlier. Lobsters are not arachnids and I am seriously sorry for any self esteem problems I may have caused to our crutacean friends through my mistake.
well, hopefully the conference will do alot of good. I do disagree with the luxury they are being kept in, but then again I dislike excess regardless of where it is being used.
I’m not of the opinion that people from a culture that affords them the opportunity to eat well have to pretend to be starving to get together and work on the problem of other cultures where people are actually starving.
As a dedicated lil’ capitalist, and a believer in helping people do better by participating in the economy, I hope they pork down all the lobster and pate they can chew.
Provided they bought it locally, or paid to have it imported.
And while I can see the ironic contrast here, I also think human nature dictates you’d get a lot less participation – or less enthusiastic participation, or participation by minions as opposed to chiefs – if the accommodations consisted of a bowl of rice and ketchup served in a grass hut, and not too much ketchup, either.
Let’s see, there are 60,000 delegates and 5,000 oysters.
That works out to 0.083 Oysters per delegate.
Each will also share in an average of:
[ul]
[li]0.0167 Lb lobster, an equal helping of bacon[/li][li]0.073 Lb steak ( That’s a full 1.17 ounces ! )[/li][li]0.0075 Lb salmon.[/li][li]1 1/3 bottles of mineral water per delgate.[/li][/ul] This is a FIVE DAY conference ?
Dare I employ the rolleyes smiley over this shocking example of Clintonian excess ?
Yes, I think so :rolleyes:
The conference organizers DID put some effort into limiting conspicuous consumption. It was in the news weeks ago. It’s remarkable how often december misses important little tidbits of fact when he starts these flames.
december:What bothers me even more than the GBP 35 million cost is the likelihood that this summit won’t do a bit of good for the starving people it’s supposed to be helping.
Would somebody please strike a commemorative medal to preserve for posterity this moment when I actually more or less agree with december? I really couldn’t care less whether a bunch of diplomats at a five-day summit eat lentils or oysters, but there is indeed a great deal of widespread concern that “Rio+10” or the Johannesburg “Earth Summit” is going to wind up as all talk and no action—largely because the wealthier countries will do everything they can to avoid getting pinned down to actual commitments on environmental protection and development aid. As a Reuters story remarks:
Jeff: Bravo to the Bush administration for staying out of the summit […]
Seems to be some confusion going on somewhere as to whether or not a Bush representative is in attendance. I was passing along what I had read in other articles.
Well, that does it! This thread has made me hungry, and I will now be forced to go to my favorite sushi bar for lunch. They have a tasty “All-you-can-Eat” special, designed for fat-pig bastards like me! The sushi-chefs all know me by now, and make all my favorites for me faster than I can eat it. (I don’t even have to order! They just start whippin’ it at me!)
Ummmmm…Lobster, shellfish, cavier, oysters!!!
She said she loved me like a brother. She’s from Arkansas, hence the Joy!
Not that it’ll happen, but the Bush Administration is actually in a position to wag a disapproving finger at representatives of some of the other countries at this summit, over an environmental issue.
Our government is currently attempting to ban importation of Beluga caviar because the poor egg-laden moms are being wiped out by overfishing in Russia. (There was a story recently in the N.Y. Times about this; no mention of similar conservation attempts in other countries high in caviar gluttony).
I hereby call on the French delegation to abstain from Beluga caviar in favor of some nice orange roughy.