The Paradox !

Australia's three eastern states are locked in a battle to create the richest horse race in the world. The Melbourne Cup certainly holds the prize as this country's premier racing event, but both New South Wales and Queensland are studying the ways and means to launch a challenge.

Magic Millions owner Gerry Harvey is proposing a $ 10 million prize to focus horse racing on the Gold Coast while NSW Premier Mike Baird is pondering reducing his state's high rate of gambling taxes to fuel a cash prize that should bring world racing rushing to Sydney.   Expanding the horse racing industry will not only create more jobs but the spin off in associated industries will hopefully reimburse the tax pool for the initial outlays.

It seems to be a paradox that at the same time enormous amounts of money are being gathered to provide a "winner takes all" pot for a horse race, the UNHCR is warning that it simply lacks the funds to feed the refugees displaced by wars in both Iraq and Syria.   The northern hemisphere's winter has started and 1.7 million refugees have fled the fighting and are gathered in camps in Turkey, Lebanon,Jordan and Kurdish enclaves.  Many of these refugees are women and children amount to more than half the numbers sheltering in appalling conditions.  UNHCR has already been forced to stop issuing food vouchers because it lacks the money to pay for the supplies needed.

UNHCR has asked for $16 billion - and so far it has received only a trickle of funds.   The world is suffering "charity over reach "at a time when their own economies are struggling and the "Charity belongs at home "message is gaining resonance.   There is a very real danger that some people will actually starve to death or perish from lack of shelter when the worst of the northern winter hits the wretched refugee camps that have been cobbled together in parts of the world that are still in danger from war.

One of the problems is a reluctance by most countries to open their doors and accept their share of resettling those displaced by war.  Many economies are struggling to come out of recession and still have high unemployment rates.  The prospect of refugees competing for scarce jobs is anathema to many people and entry doors are being slammed shut on a world wide basis.   Those countries with borders to the war zone have even tried to keep refugees out, but the human tide has been overwhelming - and now there is the prospect of famine to haunt the rich western world.

Of course the ideal situation would be for the war raging in Syria and Iraq to end - and those refugees to return home and start to reconstruct their lives with a little help from surrounding countries, but there seems no prospect of that happening anytime soon.   In too many instances, once refugees find safety they put down roots and become a permanent underclass.   Eventually, they are so resented by their unwilling hosts that their presence becomes a simmering tribal war.  In time, such refugees can claim a right to citizenship of the country giving them shelter - leading to a schism that goes on for countless generations - and has been the source of much of the conflict within the states of Europe.

We risk a generation of children growing up without the benefit of education.  Much of the existing world can barely provide primary grade facilities for it's vast hordes of young people - and this at a time when manual labouring jobs are being replaced by robotics.   If we have legions of young people lacking the ability to read and write - and totally unsuitable for any sort of job which requires an understanding of basic science - then someone will see an opportunity to employ them - as soldiers.

The dispossessed are usually angry people and that anger is directed at whose who have achieved a better outcome in life.  History is full of charismatic leaders who have emerged and taken their people to war as a means of fulfilling their lost dreams.   We see it now where tribes that have been denied the rights of citizenship have taken up arms and are fighting the government of their country as a guerrilla force.   Sometimes it is the clash of religions that fuel the battles.

No doubt at least one major new horse race will become an eventuality here in Australia - and no doubt UNHCR will beg and plead successfully and manage to stave off disaster for the majority of the refugees under it's care,    Such is life in this strange world in which we live.