DAVOS might want to consider selling expensive socks to fight inequalities

This is the wisdom of a pair of expensive socks that the World Economic Forum currently meeting in DAVOS might want to consider.
Who would have thought that one pair of socks could feed a school of 500 children for 42 days! Only one pair of socks and school children somewhere in Africa would have a decent meal for over a month and save some change to offset some electricity or water bill.
To the rich club of 42 and Co. sitting in Davos right now pretending to espouse the world’s poverty and inequality woes over a toast of exotic cognac and munching caviar, the solution could be in the socks you wear – sell your socks and feed the world!
Please hold on to that socks thread for a moment;
An Oxfam report says they are about 42 Billionaires, who hold as much wealth as the world’s poorest 3.7 billion people – only 42 whose wealth combined is much more than over an entire half of the world’s worth. It is in itself astounding to comprehend. However for all 7 Billion of us in planet earth to be able to understand Davos and to ultimately create a shared future in a fractured world, we must seek this wisdom from a pair of expensive socks.
Yes, you got me right – a pair of socks.
As the glitz and “feigned guilt” of DAVOS dazzles us and blinds us from focusing on the realities of the inequalities of our fractured world, I stumbled on to this gem that blew my mind and gave me new insight. So apparently sometime in 2013, globally acclaimed brand FALKE produced the world’s most expensive socks. Mmmh…a pair, it was reported retailed at 726 GBP…ok...that could be around USD1023…or to bring it closer home, a whooping 105,000 KSH! Yep! That much for a pair of socks…yes, those that you wear without re-use and sometimes gain an unpleasant smell for that much money!
Just let that sink in.
In 2013, the world’s richest individuals were about 4 or 5, three years later as Oxfam tells us, the club of the world’s richest has grown to 42 and 42 is the number that is poking us today through this narrative of the world’s most expensive pair of socks.
Work with me here.
You see in the expansive ironic- circus that is Davos, 42 of the world’s riches men, all white, probably all men, could all be wearing the world’s most expensive pair of socks.
Even though I read then that FALKE produced only 10 pairs of socks and were sold out in a jiffy, it so could be that specifically for the club of 42, more pairs have been produced elsewhere for them to wear and walk the meticulous corridors of Davos with over 700 GBP on their feet. How luxuriously to afford such opulence beneath your feet!
Let us fantasize for a moment on what could happen if the Davos 42 had the consciousness to do something “drastically ridiculous” as abandon their expensive socks for just one day, sell the proceeds charter one of their private jets to some remote continent called Africa and declare they want to offload all socks proceeds in a massive school project. Two things; first the people will die of chocked laughter to imagine that someone in their right mind would spend that much on a pair of socks and then secondly, lives could actually be changed, literally.
Back here in the “so-called shithole” that is the global compass for poverty and deprivation, a simple school in one of Nairobi’s down-town shanty areas could well benefit from the sale of the world’s most expensive pair of socks. They could build a school; stock their libraries, pay the teachers, and literally run the institution from a damn pair of expensive socks!
Seriously, with over $700, a school of 500 children with their teachers could comfortably have access to lunch for 42 days and if the plan was to feed more schools in one day out of one pair of socks, then guess what? Over 21,000 children in some of the world’s poorest corners would have a meal, all from one pair of expensive socks!
Okay so maybe we forget the food angle and instead look at just how many children could benefit from school fees were they to be targeted oh by the “philanthropic sale” of a pair of expensive socks at DAVOS. Very important to keep focused on this.
So in some of Africa’s poorest, school fees and requirements could amount to about $80 a term, peanuts, right? Wrong! Because growing inequalities which the Davos 42 must be privy to prevents even the poorest of the poor from accessing quality education even at the paltry cost of $80 term! So then, if one pair of expensive socks was to be sold by one of the Club of 42, then about 131 children somewhere in Africa would have their school fees settled for an entire month! How about then, if by a stroke of sheer luck or divine intervention all the rich club of 42 did the unthinkable and all of them decide to sell their pairs of socks and instead pay school fees for some bright but deprived kids in parts of the world’s most disadvantaged areas? Believe it or not, then we would have 5,502 children in school all from the glorious sale of a pair of socks!!
So the World Economic Forum in Davos is apparently dripping with bold tidings of “peace and prosperity” but why the heck not, the global billionaires’ index has more than tripled over the past few years, and suddenly, the term “billionaires boom” does not sound so offensive to anyone. Things are look up, this choreographed annual week of elitist theatrics much to the chagrin of global inequalities is greatly appreciated and very “Successful” so far.
Reality can be as harsh as the blistering cold in Davos right now but it can also be the flagellation that dulls the “nagging nuisance” that is the wealth gap exacerbated by tax evasion, illicit financial flows especially from poor countries, exploitation of workers’ rights and the plain refusal to bridge the gaps of inequality. This is the kind of elitist reality that places a hallow over the heads of the club of 42 & Co assuring them that tax evasion, neo-economic imperialism and flawed economic partnership agreements are actually part of the accepted norm in the game of wealth accumulation.
Today in Davos, the above terminologies will definitely not feature as agenda for concern and neither will the price of a pair of expensive socks.
However, somewhere in the trenches of the world’s poorest of the poor, the astonishing enormity of just what the price of one pair of socks can do will continue to inspire dreams of a more equal future some day.

*Mildred Ngesa is a Kenyan-based Journalist and a #FightInequality Alliance member