Thank you, Mr Kirch – but what are the others doing?

From Don Filleul.

FROM the Sunday Times ‘Rich List’ and from features in the JEP I have noted the remarkable number of wealthy residents we welcome in this Island, some of them very wealthy indeed.

It has given me particular pleasure to note the generosity of David Kirch, who has lived here for many years. He has been especially kind-hearted to those less fortunate than himself, not only by giving millions to the elderly at Christmas time but by other deeds of selflessness not so widely reported but nevertheless known to many of us.

I have no doubt that other local residents of even greater wealth have given of their bounty in a similar fashion but this has not become apparent. Indeed, among the list of ‘givers’ also published in the same Sunday Times supplement not one of our tax-saving multi-millionaires was to be found.

There is no absolute requirement for philanthropists to make public their generosity but it would do no harm. It might make some really hard-up local people feel a bit more contented, perhaps even a bit less bitter, were they to become aware that most of those who enjoy an especially high level of luxury in our midst do open their purses and share their good fortune.

It is said that we are a wealthy Island but this, unfortunately, is true for only some of our inhabitants.

I have no complaints. Like many other Jerseymen I have made my own way to a reasonable degree of comfort and envy is not one of my attributes.

But I suspect that there are those among us who could, if they wished, make life more tolerable for those in unavoidable poverty.