Wednesday 31 October 2012

Was he worth it?

I see that the one-time boss of a British retailer was recruited by Apple in April this year.  He was to receive a "golden handshake" of £36 million.  £36 million! Admittedly, that was payable over five years, but all the same, it seems to me an obscene amount.  Can any man really be worth that?

Incidentally, he left Apple this month having been with them just six months.  No mention was made in the paper as to whether he jumped or was pushed.  Nor do they say whether he will still receive all his handshake.

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In other news we are told that there will be a world-wide wine shortage.  The French grape harvest is down almost 20% although it seems the Italians are OK.  The Argentine harvest was down 24% and Spain and New Zealand have also seen falls.  The US, on the other hand, saw an increase of 7%.  There was no mention of those other two big players, Australia and Chile.

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I have no wish to belittle or make light of the problems facing the inhabitants of the east coast of America, but it is noticeable that our papers and other news media are giving much more prominence to this affair than they do to, for example, flooding in Pakistan or Bangladesh which kills hundreds of people and where communities are much less able to care for themselves in these disasters than are New Yorkers.

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I think we've had enough pictures of France for the time being and it's time to get back on the South Downs, though perhaps not when the cloud comes down like it did yesterday morning as seen from the bedroom.


4 comments:

Suldog said...

You're right, of course, about the greater losses of life and limb in the other places, but when disaster strikes world capitals (New York, London, etc.) the effects are felt elsewhere. Financial markets shut down, production ceases, and so the smaller disaster, in terms of life and limb, actually causes more continuing problems for a greater amount of people overall?

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

Part of that news coverage might be that' where NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox have tons (literally) of resources in place.
It's that if it's happening to me, it's news syndrome. Bloggers do it all of the time.

Buck said...

Bloggers do it all of the time.

We do? Really? ;-)

Brighton Pensioner said...

Jim, you are - as usual - quite right. What's more, New York is better known to English people than are, say, the backwaters of the Ganges.