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THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE have gathered today to officially open the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC.
US President Barack Obama addressed the crowd on the Mall, stating that Dr. King’s “glorious words” in his famous 1963 “I have a dream speech” sparked a period when barricades began to fall and bigotry started to fade.
“Yes, laws changed. But hearts and minds changed as well,” he said. “America is now more free, more fair and more just.”
He said the preacher – even though he did not have a formal title – “stirred our conscience” and made “our Union more perfect”.
The King monument is the only statue on the Mall not dedicated to a US president or to war. It is also the first to honour a black leader.
The crowd was full of well-known faces, including singers Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, as well as other members of the King family.
King’s older sister, Christine King Farris, said she witnessed a baby become “a great hero to humanity” on that day in 1963 win Washington. She said the memorial will ensure her brother’s legacy will provide a source of inspiration worldwide for generations.
King’s son and daughter, Martin Luther III and Bernice King said their father’s dream is not yet realised. Martin Luther King III said the nation has “lost its soul” when it tolerates vast economic disparities, teen bullying, and having more people of colour in prison than in college.
Following Obama’s speech, Stevie Wonder performed Happy Birthday. Earlier this week he had asked to ‘see’ the statue. He was raised up on a scissor lift and felt the face of the American hero, reports 9News.
-Additional reporting by AP
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Fair play to him. I’m sure his board think he’s worth it.
Do his shareholders though ?
They are never asked are they – just silent money piling on top of silent money and everytime it moves the sharks take a bite …. the big adjustments then come and they are called Depression , recession and austerity – they are running out of words at this stage !
‘The huge increases being seen are a result of an annual incentive award of €2.1 million (a performance-related bonus) and a whopping €4.5 million in long-term incentive vesting (a reward based on the appreciation of IAG’s share price since 2012).’
And nobody has a problem with it? Its enough to make you despair. How did we end up with a world like this? Where people’s only response to such inequity is ‘fair play to him’?
Usually comes from people who look up to money wh0res like walsh. People who feel smaller than him and wish they were more like him. Look at the amount of Austerity Apologists we have in this country for instance. People dancing merrily to their own doom and ridiculing those of us that resist….. It has always been thus…. Remember every rising in this country has been spat on by the large majority of sheep…. Of course now we conveniently forget this and get ready to celebrate 2016 when the vast majority of the countries decedents hated the 1916 leader until they were actually shot…. So you can where that “fair play to him” comment came from… These people were looking up in awe at Seanie Fitz, Brian Lenihan. Sean Dunne and all the other cretins before the collapse.
Can’t argue with his outstanding results. What a guy.
Good on him.
Yup and I think there is a nice pad on gorse hill for sale if he is up for it
£901 an hour X 24 X 7 X 52 =£7,900,000..
And no USC to pay….
No but he’ll pay almost £4,000,000 in tax
Where ?
He’s flying it at €1.03 per minute.
The UK…obviously. But less than £4m as they don’t pay as much tax as we do.
45% income tax rate plus 12% national insurance.
No National insurance on pay above £42,000 per annum. 45% kicks in at £150,000 pa.
Anything you earn above £41,865 a year, you pay National Insurance at 2%. He will pay
45 % on over £7.7 million
In the UK where is based and works that’s UK tax law .
It’s €60 per minute.
So a former politically appointed (I presume) head of Ireland’s National Airline is now living in England working for the competition and targeting our most valuable assets in the industry he works in !
Words like conflict of interest and insider information are not floating around my head right now – no way sure he’s a Capitalist Hero !
I wonder if he plans to invest in Centrica ?
Quick to jump to conclusions aren’t you! He started working in Aer Lingus in the late 70s and worked his way up. Was a pilot for a good part of his time there.
Seamus, you’re talking rubbish! Fair play to Willie Walsh. Sick of begrudgers like you banging on…stinks of jealousy to me. Why not admire what he’s achieved to earn the big salary
I agree! Success should be rewarded. Pitiful how begrudgers slag the successful and those who take a risk to succeed.
There are a lot of begrudgers on the Journal. The ones that cant put a sentence together are the worst~!.
I agree. Fair play to the man. Obviously fantastic at what he does. Plus he seems fairly grounded. I begrudge noone in private business high salaries.
If you don’t like it don’t buy their products. Simple
@John; not jealous in the slightest. Nobody praises hard work more than I do, but some of us value principles and ethics, and realise that glorifying monetary wealth is not something that is healthy for humans in general.
I personally could never accept such a ridiculously high wage, as accepting it would come with the knowledge that I’d being exacerbating the wealth gap, I’d be perpetuating greed and no matter how hard I may have worked for it I would know that people all around the world would be working just as hard, if not harder, but would never earn even a tiny fraction of that in their lifetime.
I have a live and let live attitude but I am diehard anti-greed because, for the sake of one man/woman living in ultra-comfort, thousands are trapped in abject poverty way below the bread line without ever being exposed to any sort of opportunity to escape it.
You’re a great fella
That’s rich living on this island where the Euro is king and greed is God.
@danielplainview; well argued
Excellent post Kugel – you are not alone !
@Hermes; thanks, glad to hear it!
Talk about sky high wages
So this is what, approximately 40 times what the Taoiseach makes and yet Kenny’s the one who constantly has to defend his earnings.
Well, yeah, because his is a company made up of private shareholders whose main stream of income is the public buying their service.. Enda Kenny is paid by the taxpayer
Enda and Willie is the same as coal and diamond.
Related but vastly different.
The taxpayers pay for Ryan Tubridy’s salary too and he gets more than Kenny.
The source of the money is less important than the responsibility a position brings and the effort it demands.
Failure would carry serious consequences for Willie and sure Enda could oversee tens of millions wasted in some new utility with not dicky of a consequence
How can any publicly listed company justify a salary of that level. No wonder the world is the way it is. I’m not for one second suggesting he doesn’t work hard but that’s a disgrace.
@Adam; Couldn’t agree more. There are people all over the world that work equally as hard if not harder but will never earn a tiny fraction of this. His salary only increases the wealth gap and perpetuates greed. I personally wouldn’t be able to sleep at night taking such a salary.
He’s far from the world’s best paid CEO
@Fiannaoicht; if you’re earning minimum wage in the UK you’re already more wealthier than 80% of the world’s population. This guy is likely wealthier than 99.999%.
Adam, his complete renumeration was agreed by shareholders in IAG. It’s not just salary, and you know that! Stop being a troll.
IAG can justify it because it is a tiny fraction of their overall turnover – since you asked.
Big Willie shtyle
Meanwhile, employers union ibec, will challenge any pay rise to improve the living standards of the working poor. Some of the comments on here are disgraceful supporting what is an obscene wage packet.
He has increased the value of IAG by c.£2.3bn over the last 3 years. His annual pay is less than 0.5% of this growth. Seems to me like a good deal for the shareholders.
@Seamus; I agree – it’s quite baffling and disheartening. This wage packet perpetuates the greed and desire for riches that was experienced during the Celtic Tiger :(
Have you ever bought a lotto ticket Kugel?
@Fiannaoicht; No, I have never played the lotto. I have no interest in becoming rich.
I believe you ;)
@Fiannaoicht; is it scary to you to thin that there are people out there that don’t need crazy riches to be happy??? As Pete Seeger once sung, “I would like to see a world where nobody wants to be a millionaire”. After all, it is primarily the cutthroat and ruthless desire of people to become rich that accounts for so much that is wrong in the world.
The basic is below £1 m, but with performance related bonuses and other incentives…
Anyway, market forces dictate CEO pay packages in these mega plc companies
The man appears to be doing a powerful job in consolidating BA and Iberia into the monster IAG Group and creating serious value for IAG shareholders, so hopefully he could grow Aer Lingus substantially, should a take-over ever occur.
We could do worse than buy a few shares each month in some of these rock solid plc’s with growth potential, and in ones that pay annual dividends, to have for retirement years or to pass on to the grandchildren!
Tis better than leaving any spare cash in the banks and earning a fifth of a per cent, or even less, per annum.
Over 30 years or more fellas like Willie Walsh and Michael O Leary can seriously grow the total Market Value of the plc’s the head up.
Agree!! Though IAG not yet paying dividends however their shareprice has increased by over 20% in the past few months. Fair play to Willie, obviously earning his wages
Bang on Adam. God forbid if the working poor get a pay rise.
I wonder if he got to tap those two mots in the picture afterwards.
More luck to him.. Private Company.. Give me some
Boy done well
Fair play to him.
When he takes over Aer Lingus I hope the well paid new jobs he stated would be created are as generous in pay :).
Well the folk in BA and Iberia are certainly not well paid unless you’re a ba pilot!
True Tony. Was a pinch of sarcasm in my post btw.
Willie did state clearly tho the new jobs would be good well paid jobs!. Can’t wait to see what Willie calls well paid compared to his own pay :).
So a former chief executive of a national airline harvests all its secrets/turnover etc. and then lo and behold if he isn’t promoted to another company that specifically targets his former employer …
Keep it up Willie !
Why are we still talking about this man, didn’t we turn down the offer , didn’t he say there won’t be another, so shouldn’t that be that .
New C.E..O for Aer Lingus parachuted in lately wasn’t there – when and where and who made this decision ?
Massive salary on the backs of the employees who do the hard work and have little to show for it!
Greed!
@Tony; Unfortunately many people fail to appreciate how fundamentally wrong such a large wage packet is. You point this out and you’re accused of being jealous, as it’s inconceivable that there are people who don’t need crazy riches to be happy in life.
Nothing wrong with it. If the chap is paid 5million it’s only because he implements strategies that make far more for shareholders and as a result companies grow and more employment.
Here is idea when you are as good at business as he clearly is go for his position. Generate vast profits and pass yourself average wage. See how that goes for you.
If you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Personally I’d buy this man a pint. Give him a pat in the back and say well done
Good lad Charles – buy the drinks for someone that is probably richer than you …
who would be the fool in that situation – if there was a fool of course ?
@Charles; I haven’t trained to do the job he does, but I’m quite good at the job I do, though I take a much more modest wage than he does.
You’re arguing that just because he’s good at generating returns for his company’s shareholders/speculators he deserves the millions that he gets? I’d respect him more if he disseminated that money equally to the bottom of IAG or if he diverted most of it to charities. In sharing his salary with those beneath him would they not be inclined to work harder and thus yield greater return for shareholders/speculators?
.
salary reflects the position, well done willie
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