I can't pretend it's not disappointing to see who is bothering their arse to attend tax-dodging rich dick's wedding. Of course we see the usual suspects, a sprinkling of Kardashians and Jenners, Ivanka Trump, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom etc. My expectations of people like this are on the floor, so I am not surprised. However, two people that stood out to me are Oprah and Bill Gates - to be fair my expectations of him are also on the floor.
Now I don't want to be one of those 'open letter of disappointment' people, the letter to Glennon Doyle still pisses me off. How very dare she use Substack in much the same way as everyone else and have a paid Subscription? Honestly, people. But I am disappointed by some on the guest list (I’m sure more names will emerge).
According to the Fair Tax Foundation’s research (TaxWatchUK), Amazon’s UK revenue in 2021 was about £23.3 billion, with a global net profit margin of roughly 8.1%. That implies their pre-tax profits in the UK were around the £1.9 billion mark - which is actually nothing compared to Bezos’s $237 billion net worth. Anyway…at the standard UK corporate tax rate of 19%, that equates to around £359 million due in corporation tax...they paid £10.8 million. Makes you sick doesn't it?
Add in the fact, that loads of us are working hard at recycling and reusing, looking into home energy alternatives to oil and gas and limiting car journeys and mine are already pretty limited! Meanwhile Bezos and pals are descending on Venice in superyachts and 96 private jets creating around 354 tonnes of CO2.
Legendary.
So when you see Oprah, who says all the right things, with her hands up in the air, waving to the crowds, ready for maximum celebration, it raises my hackles. She even names climate change, alongside systemic injustices and poverty, in her speeches, saying it holds people back economically and socially. I guess I didn't expect her to be the kind of person who would want to celebrate someone like Bezos, but then he owns Amazon. Maybe he has some kind of power over her, or maybe she just wants to go to an obscenely indulgent party.
For me the biggest hypocrite of them all, although he has form, is Bill Gates.
Bill Gates, ‘philanthropist and Climate Crusader’ - he probably even has a cape - men with egos like that need capes.
Gate's organisation Breakthrough Energy, is meant to be funding and accelerating climate tech and he talks about the need for deep investment in sustainable solutions, in adaptation, in innovation. Because, in their words…
We need to go from 51 Billion tons of emissions per year to Zero
And here he is rocking up in one of his four private jets from his $200 million collection. According to this article Inside Bill Gates' Private Jet Collection from Simple Flying, he owns “a private aviation management firm and has invested billions of dollars in the world's largest business jet service provider” and in 2022 he took more than one flight per day. All the while his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster has 4.5/5 stars from over 10,000 reviews on Amazon (I am not hyperlinking the book or Amazon).
You cannot make this shit up.
Who the hell is he to tell me how to avoid a climate disaster?
Now as I'm writing this I'm questioning how I'm supposed to ethically run my business. I use Office 365, it's good, reliable and I know it well, but should I move to Google Workspace. Not for ethical reasons, no. Having looked up both companies on Ethical Consumer UK, Microsoft scores a low 21/100 and Google and even worse 16/100 - both are shady as anything.
For your information, Amazon.com Inc scores 16 and Amazon Web Services, Inc. scores 0. Amazon is listed as a company to avoid, which I try to do (more on that below), whereas Microsoft and Google aren't. Substack isn't listed by the way!
It turns out that writing this piece has been quite the journey. The more I question and rationalise, the more I am drawn into the cycle of realising that whatever I do is barely a drop in the ocean, especially as we have a handful of techy oligarchs shaping the world to suit themselves. Still, I continue on my little march. I will continue to avoid Amazon, and the like, as best I can, although I feel I should give full disclosure:
I get caught out by niblings birthdays and get sent links to Amazon products by my brothers - usually not with enough time to source the item elsewhere. So yes, I still sometimes buy directly from Amazon. Must do better.
I have a kindle. If you could recommend alternatives please do.
I have Audible. I love audiobooks and often listen to available titles on my library app Borrowbox but I am slightly addicted to Audible. My annual subscription went through in April before I realised and I currently have 11 credits left. I have set the reminder to cancel my subscription (last time I did that I lost access to features that should've been included in my paid for account) and next year I'm switching to Libro.fm
I suppose what I’m left with is this: I am in no way perfect. None of us are, but I am trying and I’m a damn sight better than Bezos and Gates, even if my innovations aren’t ground breaking.
It’s about trying to live in a way that feels aligned with my values, trying to notice when things don’t sit right and trying to stay awake, even when it’s easier to scroll past.
Maybe that’s all we can do, keep noticing, keep choosing what we support, where we spend and how we show up. It might not topple Bezos or Gates, but it has to matter for something.
Side note: I have been planning a second publication for a while now. I know, how am I going to manage a second publication when I can’t manage this one? Good point. It’s on the back burner for now, but it may appear later in the year or early 2026. It’s called Second Thoughts and it’ll be the home for pieces like this: the ranty, ragey ones. The ones where I’m incandescent about the patriarchy and the global rollback of abortion rights, and this will remain the safe space of gardening, Orkney & house renovations.
It is indeed so hard to stay positive when these high profile ones are demonstrating do as I say not as I do. But all we can do is keep chipping away doing things which may seem little but add up. On the ereader front - I've never had a kindle, my current one (only my second in nearly 20yrs) is a kobo. I'm sure Kobo (owned by Rakuten) aren't perfect but they are a lot better than kindle. I've never not found a book I want, you can borrow library books on them and bookshop.org is working with them too enable us to buy ebooks to benefit real bookshops.
I share your struggle. My blog is primarily about living off the grid in Mexico, but because I am a human being and things bother me, my beliefs tend to bleed into the things I write. I am not sure I want to compartmentalize, though. If my views of anti-corporation, pro-environment,and pro-marginalized groups make someone want to unsubscribe, I would wager it wasn't someone I wanted in my community anyway. Too political? Too bad!
I'm saying all that to say: You do you, my dear. I for one will be sticking around because I do like what you write. Keep it up! And of course, keep writing about the house...I love reading about that too. 🙂