Amazon founder and billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos married journalist Lauren Sanchez earlier this week in Venice, Italy.
Over 200 guests, including Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump, Kim Kardashian, Queen Rania of Jordan, Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio, were in attendance even as hundreds of locals protested the three-day festivities. The venue of one event was changed following the demonstrations.
“We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people… while the conditions of this city remain precarious,” one demonstrator told the Associated Press.
Some of the issues that the protesters cited have been raised previously, but the wedding of the world’s fourth-richest man provided an opportunity to highlight them. Here is what to know.
Overtourism, environmental concerns, and more
One reason is the growing frustrations over “overtourism” in Europe. Multiple factors — increased global travel post-pandemic, long-haul movements becoming more accessible and social media adding a sense of glamour, trendiness and aspiration around travelling — are held responsible for tourists flocking to the continent.
While Europe has long been a global tourist hotspot, locals in cities like Venice and Barcelona have increasingly become critical of the after-effects. Last year, thousands of people in Barcelona fired water pistols at tourists in protest, raising slogans of “Tourism Kills the City” and “Barcelona is Not for Sale”.
With a population of approximately 1.6 million, the city has seen a significant increase in tourist numbers after the Covid-19 pandemic. From 9.7 million tourists in 2022, the number rose to around 26 million in 2023. They generated significant economic activity, but at the same time, higher demand has raised prices, making renting houses expensive for locals.
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Explained | Strike at Louvre Museum & growing menace of overtourism
Overtourism at beaches, mountains and other natural areas can also add to environmental pollution and degradation. The famous Venetian boats, as well as the speedboats at the Bezos wedding, can adversely impact water flows and aquatic life. To tackle this, some caps have been imposed on the number of tourists allowed in some cities, and additional payments have been mandated for short stays.
However, not everyone agrees that the wedding in question will have a net negative impact. Caterer Rosa Salva told the AP, “Events like this bring quality tourism to Venice,’’ he said. “I don’t see how an event with 200 people can create disruptions. It’s responsible tourism.”
Bezos has also reportedly donated 1 million euros each to three environmental research organisations working to preserve Venice.
Bezos, billionaires and a perfect storm
Beyond overtourism, another factor at play may be the people in question. Bezos is not the first celebrity to wed in Italy — the Kardashians, actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, and closer home, actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are among the many to have done so in the last decade.
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What sets Bezos apart is his net worth of $231 billion, a fraction of which (around €40 million or Rs 400 crore) will be on display. Extremely wealthy businessmen are also not a new phenomenon, but the wedding comes at a time when public perception of such displays — and the mere existence of billionaires — has become a moral issue for some.
According to the AP, the protestors were joined by the British group “Everyone Hates Elon,” which has smashed Tesla cars to protest billionaire businessman Elon Musk. Lauren Sanchez also came under fire in April for using a spacecraft from Bezos’ private company, Blue Origin, to take an 11-minute trip to space with an all-women crew, dubbed by some as a “vanity project”.
Bezos, meanwhile, has come under criticism over the years with reports of Amazon workers at warehouses being made to work in difficult conditions, including in the United States. This has been contrasted with his rise, and against excesses such as the ninety private jets that flew in the celebrity guests to Venice. Other billionaires, such as the singer Taylor Swift, have previously been heavily criticised for using private jets for short rides in particular, given the large amounts of fuel they burn. Those critiques, especially online, often sarcastically compare such actions with the general calls for the masses to use paper straws to lessen their carbon footprint.
Also Read | Why Taylor Swift’s private air travel is a problem for the planet
The negative perception also goes beyond the actions of billionaires. One protesting group said they had no problem with the wedding, but were “against unchecked wealth, media control, and the growing privatisation of public spaces.”
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In a 2019 article in The Washington Post (“Why does everybody suddenly hate billionaires? Because they’ve made it easy.”), journalist Roxanne Roberts noted that following the 2008 global financial crisis, high-earning bankers who were at the centre of it largely went unpunished in the United States. This gave birth to the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York in 2011, with slogans such as “We are the 99%”.
This cultural shift is also backed by data on increasing income inequality. “In the 1950s, the average chief executive made 20 times more than their employees; now, chief executives earn 361 times more — about $13 million per year at the country’s top corporations,” Roberts wrote.
“This isn’t about blaming any specific billionaire, but a growing resentment that the richest people and corporations have somehow managed to get richer while most working stiffs are just one or two missed paychecks away from a food bank… It’s a gut feeling that the game is rigged, and the middle class and the poor are losing,” she added.
