All revealing tales of the rich and unhappy

As he said, not all members are rich, but they attend all meetings even when there is no such thing as a meeting allowance. As the organisation is launching a project that requires funding, these members are also donating their own money, within the limits of affordability.

They do that because Thai society is terribly sick, he says.

It's like what he said.

The income gap and the disadvantages of the underprivileged drive people to beg from the rich and powerful. This leads to a vicious cycle. Now, criticism is growing that politicians are willing to keep people poor so that the cycle will continue. Only then will politicians maintain their social status - the status that opens up the way to a stronger status.

At a seminar last week hosted by Nation Multimedia Group, panellists agreed that Thai society has a misperception about getting rich. A politician has just set an example that he could be corrupt, as long as he produced something for the country.

All the panellists were against the misperception. They just didn't know that when politicians are corrupt, that means the underprivileged are deprived of limited resources. Without corruption, Thailand could be richer, as resources would be properly allocated and all would benefit from it.

A panellist suggested that the media should do their job in changing the misperception by reporting on the lives of the unhappy rich. That is an awesome suggestion, but will the articles find readers?

Certainly, they would prefer knowing the names of millionaires and the new millionaires. That explains why Forbes' lists attract readers around the world. But Forbes indeed has devised something special. On Wednesday, it released its findings on the richest state officials in Russia.

It turned out that Moscow's controversial, long-serving mayor has been dubbed Russia's richest state official, according to a new rating published on Wednesday aimed at exposing the wealth of the political elite.

Yuri Luzhkov topped the list with a family income of 30.9 billion roubles (Bt32.1 billion) last year, AFP quoted the Russian edition of Forbes magazine as saying, despite a relatively modest declared income in 2009 of 7.98 million roubles.

Luzhkov's wife, Yelena Baturina, heads a construction and real estate empire and is listed by Forbes as Russia's richest woman with an estimated fortune of US$2.9 billion (Bt92.3 billion).

A populist figure in a flat cap with a hobby of bee-keeping, Luzhkov has led Moscow for 18 years.

Now 73, with his term ending next year, he has faced a squall of criticism in recent weeks over his failure to return promptly from a holiday to deal with the Russian wildfire crisis.

The Forbes Russia rating, published in the September issue of the magazine, is the first to focus on civil servants, lawmakers and the heads of state corporations.

Certainly, the articles on the unhappy rich might not find readers because of the sad elements, but reporting of the political elite's wealth should. Let's start it.

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