A Sunday Sermon on hypocrisy

‘Pope Francis gave a stirring denouncement of "the idolatry of money" and wealth inequality in a statement that should be heeded by people of all religions and atheists alike. There is a desperate need to address the unjust economic structures now in place.

Pope Francis was absolutely correct in calling the workings of the prevailing global economic system "sacrilised", but this is a point rarely made by people with real influence.’

I received this comment in an email referring to the Pope’s speech reported in the Bangkok Post. The idolatory of money is as good as idolising Satan. When people carry Satan on their shoulders and worship him as their God, what is right or wrong takes on a different meaning. This is best reflected in the media articles on corporate honchos talking about ethical business practices and good corporate governance. These are the idolators of money and making money is right, the means is not an issue.

The biggest hypocrites are those in the big banks, and financial institutions, when they sold derivatives and traded against their clients. Some even resorted to stealing clients from their staff by unfair deals, undercutting, just to make money. When confronted, they would say they did not know. Several big banks like Stanchart, Citi, Goldman Sach and many others have been made to pay huge fines and they willingly paid through diluting the shareholders’ equities. The culprits authorising all the gamings and fraudulent schemes are still there sitting at the top designing more scams to cheat their clients.

The whole stock exchange in New York is a scam. The NYSE management needs to be put behind bars for creating a system that cheats the innocent investors. They redesigned the systems to facilitate computer trading and HFT to cheat the rest of the investors with no qualms and concerns for fair trading practices. Cheating is good and not a crime. The American law makers are not fools that could not see the crime right before them. But many are paid to look the other way. And the top dogs could go on talking about good corporate governance and ethical business practices like angels.

The best part, the authorities that are supposed to check on them idolise them as the talented that could bring in the money. No one wants to know the meaning of cheating. They said, the fish rots from the head. How true.

Would anyone heed what Pope Francis said about idolatory of money and addressing the unjust economic structures?  I only hear laughters. When a corporate honcho talks about ethics and honesty, it is better to listen to a pimp.