CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

Ever day we can read about millions of children dying for lack of clean water and food. Many hundreds of thousands of people are trying to survive on less than a £1 a day and yet at the same time we can read of this obscene piece of conspicuous consumption. "A 200-year-old bottle of white wine has been sold, setting the record for the most valuable bottle of white wine sold commercially in the world. The bottle of 1811 Chateau d'Yquem was purchased for £75,000 by French private collector Christian Vanneque. It was sold at the Ritz, in central London, by rare wine specialists The Antique Wine Company. The record for the most expensive bottle of wine sold at auction was set at £192,000 last November. That record is held by a bottle of 1947 French Cheval-Blanc, a red, which was sold at Christie's, in Geneva." (BBC News, 26 July) RD