By: Anjo Chu
Jeff Bezos is under fire, yet again, for requesting a permit to dismantle a historical bridge in the Netherlands for the sake of being able to park and roam the water with his $500 million designer superyacht.
Before any of the internet’s controversy, an official from the mayor’s office confirmed a plan to reporters, “Mr Bezos will set to foot the bill through Oceanco”. Stories started to arise in Dutch media on the 8th of February, that the middle section of the city’s bridge (Koningshaven Bridge - De Hef) will be temporarily removed to allow Bezos’ superyacht (130ft tall) to sail pass smoothly.
This caused huge controversy online, not just because of the absurdity of such a request, but also because of the history behind this bridge. It was built over the Maas River in 1878 but was damaged due to the Nazi invasion of Rotterdam in 1940. After the partial disruption, it was up for renovations again in 2017. The Rotterdam council pledged that they would never allow for the bridge to be dismantled again, even declaring it as a national monument. Many internet viewers in the states wondered as to why there was so much discontent with the dismantling of the bridge, not understanding the complexity that comes within this anger. The citizens of Rotterdam explained that it was disheartening seeing yet another example of the rich infiltrating culture and a nation’s history for the sake of their comfort.
In response to the backlash, Rotterdam's mayor told reporters on February 10th that, "No decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," according to The Guardian. The mayoral spokesman also tried to calm the public down by stating, "It's the only route to the sea,", which many believe is a way to justify Bezos’ actions. It seems as though the authority in power have no desire to change the situation, and is in favour of Bezos, perhaps for the compensation they will receive.
This plan was also heavily criticised by many politicians. Stephan Leewis - a local politician and self-proclaimed environmentalist, stated on Twitter, "...tearing down our beautiful national monument is a bridge too far”. In fact, many civilians are planning a summer egg-throwing event, in which they throw rotten eggs at Bezos’ superyacht to show their disapproval.
This news eventually reached an international scale, and a lot of anger has been detected in the US. Ongoing at the same time is the Amazon worker union strikes. Union strikes are something we see quite often in the media, especially surrounding major conglomerates such as Amazon.
The reason this strike struck a cord and got more attention than usual was because of the recent data that shows while the rest of America’s employment plummeted to 9.6 million more, Bezos’ wealth increased to $1 trillion dollars. Many have found the irony in Bezos paying over millions of dollars for an ultra-designer superyacht but can’t seem to spend less than half of that budget on paying his workers fairly.
The worker unions are protesting for higher livable wages, better working conditions, and better treatment from their employers. The average factory Amazon worker receives around 28,000 a year, even during 2020, when Amazon stocks increased by 2.6% and in 2022 when Bezos’ net worth increased to $207 million a day. The mass majority of America’s public eye perceives this to be incomprehensible.
The mistreatment of workers has also been put at the centre of the current media ruckus. Not only are the workers there forced to wear wristbands that track their ‘productivity’ - many have reported several cases of injury due to the lack of care the machines get. The irregularity of care for the workers and treating them like robots have led to media outrage, it didn’t help that within the span of a week, Bezos’ superyacht news was also released to the public.
Although Bezos’ name was trending on Twitter for a couple of days, it got lost within the chaos of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Individuals have tried to speak out about the situation again but just seem to be drowned out by the incoming tweets about the war. So far, there has yet to be action taken from anyone holding Bezos accountable, there have also been no changes within the fine prints of Amazon changing anything about working environments. Countless speculate that this situation will die down, just like many of the previous attempts at worker union strikes at Amazon. The situation seems to be put at a halt given current affairs but there is still hope that justice will be brought upon and that we can finally see change in Amazon.
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