Inequality

The image above was derived from three photographs. The background clouds are from Cambodia. The man in the suit was photographed in the financial district of the City of London and last but not least the boy carrying goods on his head was spotted weaving his way through a crowded street in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The boy – repeated 5 times provides a runway for the man. Both are oblivious to each other but are inextricably linked in terms of the way inequality is locked into the worlds economic system through the dependance of the accumulation of vast wealth – concentrated in the hands of a few – acrued from cheap labour and the pillaging of raw materials from poor countries. The world is vastly unequal, extreme wealth coexists with extreme poverty. The poorest 50% of the global population share just 8% of total income. At the same time, the richest 10% of the global population earn over 50% of total income.

Inequality is deadly. According to Oxfam International it contributes to the deaths of at least 21,300 people each day—or one person every four seconds. This is a highly conservative estimate for deaths resulting from hunger, lack of access to healthcare and climate breakdown in poor countries, as well as gender-based violence faced by women and rooted in patriarchy and sexist economic systems. Millions of people would still be alive today if they had had a Covid-19 vaccine—but they were denied a chance while big pharmaceutical corporations continue to hold monopoly control of these technologies.

Here’s a hard truth that the Covid-19 pandemic brought home to us. Inequality does not only create immense suffering: it contributes to the death of 1 person every 4 seconds.  

Over the past two years, people have died when they contracted an infectious disease because they did not get vaccines in time. They have died of other illnesses because they could not afford private care. They have died of hunger because they could not afford to buy food. Women have died due to gender-based violence.

And while they died, the richest people in the world got richer than ever and some of the largest companies made unprecedented profits.

Inequality is not an abstract issue. It has devastating, real-world consequences. It has made the Covid-19 pandemic deadlier, more prolonged and more damaging. It is rigged into our economic systems and is tearing our societies apart.

Inequality is deadly for the future of our world. The extreme concentration of money, power, and influence of a few at the very top has pernicious effects on the rest of us. We all suffer from a heating planet when rich countries fail to address the effects of their responsibility for an estimated 92% of all excess historic emissions. We all lose out when the world’s wealthiest 1% use double the carbon emissions of the bottom 50%, or when a few powerful corporations are able to monopolize production over life-saving vaccines and treatments in a global pandemic.

If you want to arrange a visit to see Phil Maxwell’s studio and gallery then email: maxwellphotouk@yahoo.co.uk.