Dodgy accomodation

Solved my accommodation dilemma. Found some chap in a houseshare who’s going on holiday, so I can move into his place for 6 weeks to cover his rent. It’s a reasonable size room on a quiet street, fairly central and walking distance to work so it’ll do the job nicely. Only downside is one of the housemates is a young lesbian who bragged about her liking for expensive powder. So good bye to my rustic hotel. No more living of takeaways. And no more nutters? Last night hung out with a couple of the hotel’s long term residents. The bloke clearly had Tourette’s and would greet everyone passing through the door with a tirade of insults. The woman was insane and clearly delusional. She thought she was sophisticated good looking and rich. Errrr why then is she a permanent resident in this down and out hostel? Then some other bloke started shouting how he was going to have a bath in the ladies room, and stated that if anyone had a problem with this “They would have to deal with Ted the Butcher!” – Hmmm Okay. I soon left these crazy alcoholics. Oh sometimes I do wonder - what the hell am I doing here? Living in these shitty short term cheap accommodation places just to experience Sydney. Maybe I’m as crazy as they are.

I know we are all lucky really to be rich, have a roof over our head, food on the table, fresh water and plenty of material possessions. But living in Sydney has made me realise that the living standards in London are terrible. Doing an admin job in Sydney I am earning exactly the same money as I would be in London. However rental accommodation is less than half the cost. Buying a house is around a third of the cost. Transport and food is cheaper and so is everything else come to think of it. I’m much better off here. It’s true; it really is rip off Britain! I think that there is far too big a divide between high income earners and low income earners in the UK. They tell us that the average wage to living ratio is as good as Australia but it doesn’t paint an accurate picture. The average wage takes into account the many people in the UK on ridiculous earnings; stockbrockers, company director’s, footballers, celebrities etc. People working in bars, cleaning jobs, low level office workers and even skilled jobs such as teachers, nurses etc are far worse off. It’s just not cricket! It’s not balanced. We need to sort it out. And it can’t be right when middle income earners can’t even afford their own flat.

Taking a global view, the situation is even more absurd. Billions are starving; don’t have running water or electricity, when the developed countries just bathe themselves in unnecessary wealth. Its obvious capitalism/globalisation hasn’t worked! Well basically it’s worked for the developed countries at the expense of the developing / third world countries. But that’s not right is it? We’ve all got shit loads of stuff and sod the starving people. And charity doesn’t solve the problem, granted its better than nothing, but give a begging man something and he’ll keep begging. Fair trade, job creation and the sharing of expertise and profits to poorer countries is needed. It’s not difficult! Currently, for example, a jar of coffee costs $2 and the coffee grower in Bolivia or wherever will earn say 2p. What should happen is that the grower should get half the money and then decent wages should be paid. I know communism doesn’t work either, but neither does capitalism in its current form, as always some compromise is needed.

But I suppose it’s easy for anyone to sit on their arse and spout of shit like this. Nothing will change because there are too many parties with too much self interest at stake. Maybe I should do something, but I probably won’t, like most people I’ll put number one first. I want to get a house of my own and live comfortably and sod everyone else.