Friday, July 11, 2008

Slavery Today

So what is slavery all about today? According to Sepp "Mad as a" Blatter, president of FIFA, it is exemplified by Cristiano Ronaldo's plight at Manchester United. Poor Cristiano is earning a mere one hundred thousand pounds a week (that works out at two hundred times the average wage in the UK). I seem to recall that the artist formerly known as squiggle (now Prince again, I think) used a similar description of his relationship with his record company, when they asked him to fufil his contractual obligation by making more albums.

Forgive me, but I thought slavery was a social-economic system under which people are captured, and made to work against their will for little or no compensation. Maybe it's been re-defined while I wasn't looking. It seems that Cristiano, and Prince, signed contracts, of their own free will, that made them pots of money, for not working that hard. Presumably the leg-irons and whip have not been used (yet) by Sir Alex.

As that great and loyal servant of Manchester United, Sir Bobby Charlton, said in today's Daily Telegraph "If this is slavery, give me a life sentence".

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