Editor's Picks

29 April 2011

Royal Wedding & Poverty

I prefer to start this topic after this saying of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (PBUH) said - 

"The worst food is that of a wedding banquet to which only the rich are invited while the poor are not invited. And he who refuses an invitation (to a banquet) disobeys Allah and His Messenger.

(Book- Sahih Bukhari)

It may be the stuff fairytales are made of — but Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding comes with a hefty real-life price tag.


And amid the nation's joy, that has some Britons grumbling such lavishness is inappropriate for this age of austerity.

For thousands of the newly unemployed, the poor struggling from slashed public services, and students facing sharp rises in university fees, there's little to celebrate.

The famous wedding Kate & William is estimated to cost around more than USD 40 Million 

Lets's look into more details of this wedding cost

WePay, (an online way to collect money from groups), has analyzed the upcoming royal wedding and says it will cost almost 3,000 times as much as an average U.S. wedding. In fact, says WePay, it will be the second most expensive wedding ever.

Some other royal vs. commoner wedding comparisons:

Kate's wedding dress is estimated to cost $41,000. The lacy piece of apparel for a U.S. bride averages $2,450. Costs
  • The royal wedding's flower bill is estimated to be $360,000; Westminster Abbey is big and Kate has a lot of attendants. The average U.S. marrying couple pays "just" around $1,230.
  • William and Kate are expected to spend around $655,000 on their honeymoon, although where the young British couple will canoodle is still secret. U.S. newlyweds spend on average $4,000 on their post-ceremony getaway.
  • Even more royal wedding costs are illustrated in WePay's Royal Wedding vs. Normal Weddings info graphic.
I was able to make this list via browsing the internet 


"THE MOST EXPENSIVE WEDDINGS"

12-  Donald Trump and Melania Knauss - $ 1 million 
11- Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes - Cost: $2 million
10- Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar - Cost: $2.5 million
09- Paul McCartney and Heather Mills - Cost: $3 million
08- Liza Minelli and David Gest - Cost: $3.5 million
07- Delphine Arnault and Alessandro Vallarino Gancia - Cost: $7 million
06- Wayne Rooney and Colleen McLaughlin - Cost: Over $15 million
05- Vikram Chatwal and Priya Sachdev - Cost: $20 million
04- Aleksandra Kokotovic and Andrei Melnichenko - Cost: $30 million
03- Prince William and Kate - Cost $ 40 million
02- Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia - Cost: $78 million 
01- Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Princess Salama - Cost $ 100 million 

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the vows of Kate and William, it's not the most expensive wedding in history, says WePay. That honor goes to the seven-day affair in 1981 when Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai married Princess Salama. Its estimated cost was $100 million in today's dollars.

These are the most expensive weddings and the total cost of all of the above weddings passes more than $ 300 Million

Ok! Now lets move into reality of the world from dream world!

925 million hungry people in 2010  statistics :FAO

Hunger concepts and definitions

Hunger is a term which has three meanings (Oxford English Dictionary 1971)
  • the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food
  • the want or scarcity of food in a country
  • a strong desire or craving
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? the above definition means "In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world. Thus, with an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, 13.1 percent, or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry."


According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source

"Spend your wealth for the cause of Allah. Do not, by your own doings, put yourself in harm’s way. Do the right thing. Of course, Allah loves the righteous." [Quran 2:195]

WHAT ARE WE DOING? Royal Wedding (Prince William & Kate) is spending $ 40 million for just 1500 guest to enjoy the party for less than one day -  i.e. more than $ 2600 per head while...

Half or more of the population in the 50 least developed countries listed above are estimated to live at or below the absolute poverty line of U.S. $1 per day.

THE UN CLASSIFIED 50 POOREST COUNTRIES

Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia.

To illustrate the income inequality between rich and poor countries, consider these facts: the world's richest individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million; 982 million people out of the developing world's 4.8 billion people live on $1 per day, and another 2.5 billion (40% of the world's population) live on less than $2 per day. In addition, the poorest 40% of the world population accounted for 5% of global income in 2005, the richest 20% accounted for 75% of world income, and the richest 10% for 54%. (Human Development Report)

In the Video: Just one story to represent over 1.4 billion poor rural people who live on less than $1.25 a day. This is the story of Séraphine and her daughter Maria who live in rural Madagascar. They struggle daily to keep food on the table and believe that the only real future Maria can have is far away from home. Their story is unique yet ever so common in rural poor areas, according to the Rural Poverty Report 2011 prepared by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It raises a critical question -- with the world's future food needs expected to increase by 70% by the year 2050 and with more and more people leaving rural areas to live in cities, who will be left to farm?



Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality in - 2002

The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.

To understand how many inhabitants of a country are poor, it is not enough to know a country's per capita income. The number of poor people in a country and the average quality of life depend on how equally or unequally income is distributed across the population. In Brazil and Hungary, for example, per capita income levels are quite comparable, but the incidence of poverty in Brazil is much higher. In Hungary the richest 20% of the population receives about four times more income than the poorest 20%, whereas in Brazil the richest 20% receives 30 times more than the poorest 20%.

Are we concern of taking care of the poor and the oppressed?

There is no doubt, Humans are not fulfilling the obligation of their lord, we are enjoying  this life by wasting time & wealth for this short life!

"The life of this world is nothing more than play and pastime. The abode of the hereafter is certainly far better for the pious. Do you not understand?" [Quran 6:32]
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