Last week I learned that …
Monday, I learned that with economic growth and prosperity the weak and malnourished land on the compost heap. From my experience in UK it is the always the middle classes who make the most moise who get the fine and sustainable resources
Meanwhile those at the bottom of the pile with little more than a thread of life; struggle and drop out of the economic garden.
I noticed this on Saturday when going to a local flea market at Praça XV,a favourite haunt of my daughter when searching for useful home requirements. I have spoken about this previously this market underneath the motorway possible the site for the weekly market for generations. Providing a space for would be ultrapreneurs to make a small income from a minimal output. A section of life serving a community, some well below the the poverty level.
So the bottom end of the under-street market as it follows the shade of the overpass begins with the garbage sellers with a few bits salvaged from bins, skips and the road side, spread on a bin liner that is serves as a container for his precious load.
As the path meanders so the traders have tables for their goods, still little more than rubbish but more pleasingly arranged. Nonetheless not yet top-notch in the realms of a flea market. Until we turn the corner where the tables; still only clumsy trestles have covers; crumple free and some with a significant flair. Their wares express the place of Market Trader and his world … the book, pencil, fine glass, and jewel collectors … while not yet antiques, here is where you might find a gem or in keeping with the garden theme the hybrid rose!
However back to the beginning of my story and the less attractive part of the so called growth in the economy. A policeman stands and just beyond sit a shabby mass with their bags of ‘goods’ discarded.
The policeman tell us that these vagabonds who incidentally do not pay for the spot on the so called ‘state property’ cannot display they wares or even come into the economic garden,