Wednesday 6:00 Early Morning Polemics (or A new Lord above)

Bruegel: The Tower of Babylon

There used to be days when church spires or towers occupied the skies and the skylines of any city or village, and people were in awe of the heavens and felt small and insignificant. No-one else was allowed in that realm or they would get smacked good in an old testamentary fashion; remember the tower of Babylon?










Something of that was lost along the way. Today everyone is the greatest. And if they encounter someone small and insignificant, it is best to ignore the poor bastard, because it's most likely his own bloody fault (There were so many stock market winners; he should have bought some shares of RIP or YOU or OFF or at least buy an iCRAP so we can respect him). But at the same time everyone very nervously seems to be looking over their shoulders for an approaching heavenly plague.

Nothing's changed: You don't have money; you have faith! as KO puts it ;-)

The Mill and the Cross:  Recognize that expression?

News spires pierce the heavens. And the names of the so-far unpunished owners of those towers usually contain the word BANK. What struck me as strange to funny, was that the Hong Kong tower of HSBC resembles a roman catholic cathedral, while the Bank of China and other edifices remind me of a Minaret of some infidel faith. Did someone at HSBC think that they should build some appeasement into their tower as insurance?  Or does the Bank of catholic Hong Kong take The Lord's Prayer literally:

Our Father in heaven, ...

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

I'd think it'd be wiser to concentrate on:

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

HSBC Cathedral

The cutting edge of Bank of China

Mirror, Mirror, on the ...

Cassandra