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Today I read two newspaper articles. Not an unusual event, I know. In one article three young (believed to be under 18), vulnerable women had been allegedly lured from Thailand on the promise of student visas only to become sex slaves in Australia. Due to a tip-off to the Salvation Army, the poor young women have been rescued.
The three women, believed to be under 18, claim they were told they were travelling to Australia on student visas but, once here, their passports were confiscated and they say were taken to the brothel and forced to work as prostitutes.
No, despite what you may believe after my recent article titled “E for Employment” I am not on a spree of writing about brothels. It was the contrast of the above article with another about poor little rich girls, one claiming to be down to her “last $60,000”, that irritated me.
Gina Rinehart is the very rich daughter of Lang Hancock. It appears that despite what I believe will have been her best efforts (Gina has always been known as a very no-nonsense woman) , she has raised some very spoilt children. One, living in America, claims to need up to $225,000 a year to hire a chef so her daughter is “fed right”. Is this woman such a lousy mother she can’t actually COOK for her own child? Oh, young Hope wants a few other staff as well, complaining she would hire them herself, but the poor little mite is “down to her last $60,000”.
One of Hope’s emails to her mother is quoted in the media as ending with:
“I should have enough money to have a bodyguard, housekeeper and cook. Even my friends who have nothing compared to your wealth have more staff. It’s not fair you are selfishly pressuring me to move to Singapore and Australia just because you hate America.”
Hope, a word of advice. Get off your butt and earn a living instead of expecting your mother to fund your lifestyle. Whether Gina can afford it or not is irrelevant. Perhaps your husband could try earning more than the $1 a year you complain your mother pays him. Admittedly, I don’t know if he actually works or not, but I do hope he didn’t just marry you for your money! While I don’t know Gina, I’ve not read anything in the past about her “hating” America. Sounds like a spoilt child comment to me.
Several of the children are trying to remove their mother as the trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock trust, alleging “serious misconduct”. I’m guessing this serious misconduct involves Mum not handing out the dollars as fast as the children deem appropriate.
Would those children, I wonder, prefer to be in a situation similar to the three young women from Thailand? Would they have prefered to have been in the situation our children were in while their parents desperately battled to get them into a family home, hoping none of them were kidnapped off the street during that time? What we could do with $225,000 and I can assure you, it wouldn’t be hiring a chef!
As a mother, I am sure Gina is probably wondering where the hell she went wrong. I can’t answer that question, I wasn’t there. I do know this story sounds like many others that have circulated over the years of the “Rags to rags in three generations” syndrome. The first generation in a family makes money (goes from rags to riches); the second generation holds or keeps the money; and the third generation squanders or loses the money (and so goes back to rags).
I am reminded of Princess Diana ensuring she raised William and Harry to know not all were as privileged as they were. Listening to William’s and Katherine’s wedding prayer which they composed together was a strong indication Diana’s message was received.
God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.
http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/blog/2011/April/29/The-Bishop-of-London-s-Sermon
It seems to me the three oldest Rinehart children need to spend some time in far less privileged surroundings and see how the “other half” live. Volunteering in a third world country is something the court might well consider ordering for them before the court rules on the removal of Gina as the trustee.
I’m not a billionaire. I’m never likely to be one. I believe that billionaire or not, all parents want their children to grow into mature, responsible adults. Gina, I hope you win the case.
I would like to stress Gina Rinehart’s views on climate change, the mining tax or ownership of Fairfax media are completely out of the scope of this article.
Related articles
- Illegal Immigration and Sexual Servitude (teamoyeniyi.com)
- Tip-off leads to trio of young Thai women who were ‘held as sex slaves’ (theage.com.au)
- Gina Rinehart’s bid for secrecy backfires (news.smh.com.au)
- Rinehart’s $17 billion family feud (heraldsun.com.au)
Random Observations of Life 
[…] “would you be a sex slave“. I do hope they found the right articles: I see they found Would you prefer to be a Rinehart or a sex slave? but it doesn’t look like they found Illegal Immigration & Sexual Servitude. Pity, they […]
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So much of what we do as parents, I think, is re-raising ourselves. Think having it rough “made” us who we are today? Then we might be rough on our kids. Or, the opposite, we might give them all the things we always wanted and never had (even stuff they never wanted, like, say, ballet lessons). Few parents really look at their kids and try to meet what the kids need, and try to find balance.
In some ways, I do feel sorry for those raised with a silver spoon in their mouths, because they may have lacked the kind of discipline and love that gives perspective (as you point out, Diana tried to do with her boys despite their privileged upbringing). Other times I think, some people are just rotten apples, and would be regardless of how well or poorly they were brought up.
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Very good assessment, Beverly. I agree. The bottom line is parenting is not easy. There are a million books out there, many of which contradict, but we never REALLY “learn” how to be a parent and each situation is so unique anyway. Parenting is the one thing in life we tend to “muddle through” in some respects. We don’t necessarily see the results until way too late!
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I’d rather be me… Enough with these mind boggling stories… I know. We must stay informed. 🙂
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I just feel for the mother. I am sure she tried to raise responsible, balanced kids! Look what happened!
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These spoiled brats should be sent to the slums and let them see how majority of the people in this planet have to live with so much less if nothing at all and still have smiles on their faces and are not complaining.
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Agree! Well said!
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Totally agree with you Robyn, the Rinehart kids will just squander what the previous generations managed to amass. I also read the same story yesterday and thought “what the hell, to pay a cook that much money?” What´s wrong with her, learn to cook!
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Thanks Sami. Just makes me angry that those who have it so easy can be so damn STUPID.
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A thought provoking post. It’s a shame Diana ever married that Wazock Charlie boy – she was true Princess and her sons are a real credit to her.
You are certainly spot on re. the rags to riches and back to rags. Boils down to greed. I constantly debate How much money do we need to make us happy with our kids
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Thanks Carole. It was one of those situations where I was browsing the paper over my lunch and I just thought of the contrast between the two articles and what COULD have happened to our kids while we were fighting our battle. Those Rinehart kids need a dose of others’ reality. Their own reality is distorted.
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How unfortunate…that is not even a sheltered life to say the least
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I’m seeing first hand how kids adapt so quickly to their environment and forget about the rest of the world. I have to remind ours exactly WHY we sponsor a child in Mozambique. John reminds them they used to have to walk miles to collect water when the infrastructure failed in Nigeria, only 8 short months ago. Keeping children grounded about the realities of life in other places can be hard work.
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Robyn this really pushes my buttons! There are so many inequalities in this world. One of my pet hates is footballers pay! Millions of pounds for kicking a ball around, it’s obscene arghh!
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Agree! The salaries for all of the codes of football are totally ridiculous. Unless they play for a third world coutnry, then I don’t think they are so fantastic, but relative to the fellow citizens, they probably are.
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There are far to many “spoiled brats” wandering around with a sense of entitlement. 😦
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And these ones seem to be the top of that list at the moment! Argggggggggghh. I thought of one of your articles when I was writing, but I knew I’d never find it, so if you know which one I am thinking of, let me know!
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