Of Fire and Ice

A number of recent-day world and other events seem intertwined with the life of MB.

Two days back, a friend of MB lamented the number of poor and underprivileged in the world, versus the wealth of the 1% at the top of the tree. MB voiced his opinion that the wealth of the 1% has nothing to do with the poverty of those at the bottom. And the “1%” catch-phrase is actually a distraction and an easy-out for politicians who are guilty of bad governance and corruption in many countries. It’s also used by many well-intentioned others who are calling for change, but in the opinion of MB, it’s ultimately an irrelevance and a distraction to finding real solutions. Doctors differ of course. Like MB and his friend. And patients die.

Recent days have seen the story of the fire in Paris and its aftermath. In a conversation with the mom of MB (MOMB!) earlier today, MB discovered that MOMB had attended mass in the Cathedral with some Belgian friends many years ago, which brought added poignancy to the fire story for MB.

Many on social media have lamented the speed that the 1% put their hands in their deep pockets to contribute to the reconstruction compared to the relative ‘ice-in-their-veins’ inaction by the same people, or the world at large, to the greater issues of the day, such as poverty, hunger and climate change.

The linking of the generosity of the 1% to both the ‘fire’ and ‘world inequality’, is an obvious headline grabber and of course, and makes us all sit back and reflect on the type of world we live in. But ultimately, in the opinion of MB, is not much more than a headline and yet another distraction to attempts at finding real solutions to real problems.

At the end of the day, MB is just glad that those who have deep pockets are digging deep. And that a historic and iconic place of worship and devotion for so many will be rebuilt asap. A problem and a solution. Great. No apologies required from anyone. That’s not to belittle the world’s greater problems in any way of course. And maybe the knee-jerk opening of wallets to reconstruct a fire-damaged cathedral will encourage those with power to solve those greater problems to do so, sooner rather than later.

But what does MB know?!

A week or so back, MB was in Budapest, which is awash with historic buildings of every sort, particularly ones of Roman Catholic/Christian association.

The daylight shot below is of the Hungarian Parliament Building, taken from the vantage point of the 700-year-old Matthias Church, named after one King Matthias who was married within. Matthias Church occupies an elevated position overlooking the Danube River in central Budapest and is a great location for shots of the cityscape which stretches out below. The church is on the Buda side of the river, close to Buda Castle which featured in one of MB’s recent posts.

The night shot is of Mathias Church itself, taken from very close to the Hungarian Parliament Building, and also features a Reformed Church in the foreground.

Our heads are spinning MB, trying to work out the geography and the juxtaposition of the two shots!

Is that a correct usage of the ‘juxtaposition’ word guys?

We haven’t a clue MB.

Thought so!