The winner takes it all, God 'Elp All Of Us

It's the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. For that occasion Oxfam issued a publication titled 'Working for the Few'. This is the picture that goes with it:

If that doesn't make you stop and think, how about this:

• Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.

And

• Seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years.

You can read all about it here.
With growing inequality putting more and more stress on the social fabric that holds nations together, this does not bode well for our collective future.

One more statistic from Davos: Chinese investment in the UK in the past 18 months was equal to that of the previous 30 years.

For some reason this week there were some human interest articles about 100 years of commercial aviation. I say 'for some reason' because the first scheduled flight happened on January 1 1914, so our dear journo's are lagging about 20 days behind. That first flight was between  St Petersburg and Tampa in Florida and was operated by SPT Airboat Line. Airboat because the aircraft operating the route was a Benoist Type XIV. It made me think back to those exciting pioneering days of aviation and about the legendary flights of the Vickers Vimy. It was the first airplane that made a successful transatlantic crossing (June 15, 1919). John Alcock and Arthur-Written-Brown were the pilots. After having crossed the Atlantic John Alcock said "Yesterday I was in America... and I am the first man in Europe to say that." Statements like that make my world stop for a moment!

Later that same year the Vimy (registration G-EAO God 'Elp All Of Us) also flew from London to Adelaide. They left Hounslow Heath (now Heathrow) on November 12 1919 and reached Darwin on December 10, 1919. They continued on to Adelaide the home town of the Smith brother's (the pilots). If that ain't adventure, nothing is.

I saw a replica of the Vimy at Farnborough in 1996. The replica repeated the 1919 flight in 1994. Again quite an accomplishment! There is a magnificent book about the 1994 journey of which I have a copy signed by Peter McMillan one of the two pilots (the other one was Lang Kidby).

Vicker Vimy G-EAOU  Farnborough 1996

Vicker Vimy G-EAOU  Farnborough 1996

Vicker Vimy G-EAOU  Farnborough 1996