The Tiny African Fishing Community On Lake Victoria's Migingo Island...

The tiny island of Migingo on Africa's Lake Victoria is roughly the size of half a football field but the tiny jumble of rock is home to about one hundred and thirty people.
Nearly the whole community is involved with fishing and trading the rich stock of River Nile and when they're not fishing or crammed into  their corrugated iron and wood huts, they're enjoying the five bars, a beauty salon, several hotels and numerous brothels that the island boasts. Why they live in such cramped conditions is strange as there's a wonderfully lush green and virtually uninhabited island less than two hundred metres away but perhaps it's the entertainment that keeps them on their funny little island. Or staying close to the mother lode.
There's more about the little community here.
Because the River Nile catch is worth a lot of money both Uganda and Nigeria are often involved in hostile disputes as to who owns the island and it's valuable resources.
Greed is everywhere...

5Points. New York's Historic Graffiti Mecca, Is No More...

In the middle of the night on November 19, 2013, the owner of the famous 5Points building, Jerry Walkoff, who wants to knock the famous building down so he can make more money developing high rise apartment buildings on the site, whitewashed the building and obliterated the works of more than fifteen hundred artists who had come from all around the world to be a little part of the iconic building's history.
Mr Walkoff decided that whitewashing the artworks was a more prudent approach than attacking the art with a wrecking ball which could well have caused a very ugly confrontation.
He would have been right.
He will probably still incur the wrath of New York's artists who hopefully will use his new development as a wonderful new canvas...

In Canada's Ontario, Nestle Pays $3.71 For One Million Litres Of Water And Then Tries To Retail It For More Than $3.71 Per Litre...

In Ontario, Nestle, the giant Swiss food company pays 0.00000371 cents per litre for water and expects the customer to pay more than $3.71 per litre bottle at non discounting retailers.
Nestle has been getting its 1.13 million litres of water a day from Guelph in Wellington County but they want to increase it to 3.6 million litres a day at a time the area is subject to water restrictions due to drought.
As you'd expect the local residents, conservationists and environmentalists are up in arms and seeking a review to the situation.
There's more to know here.
But back to the million percent profit margin. Sure there are costs involved in getting that litre of water to the marketplace including the bottle, labeling, packaging, shipping and handling but that's an amazing potential mark up at the point of purchase isn't it... 

I Like What Pope Francis Says...

I like Pope Francis and I like what he says.
And no, with a name like Levy, I'm not Catholic.
Again recently, Pope Francis has been denouncing the global financial system, blasting The Cult Of Money that he says is tyrannising the poor and turning humans into expendable consumer goods.
In his first major speech on the subject, Pope Francis demanded that financial and political leaders reform the global financial systems to make it more ethical and concerned for the common good.
He said Money Has To Serve, Not To Rule. 
Of course, making these statements to the world's leaders and policians is like expecting the deaf to hear.
Perhaps this Pope of the people will sell off some of the Vatican's vast worldwide wealth and distribute it to the poor.
I could love the man for that...