Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the third richest man on the planet, whose net worth of $238 billion is larger than the GDP of several countries combined, including Costa Rica, Iceland and Afghanistan, pulled out all the stops, burning close to US$60 million in his three-day long wedding to fiancee Lauren Sanchez in Venice.
The couple cavorted in lavish pre-nuptial festivities, which included a foam party on board Bezos’s $500 million superyacht Koru anchored in Venice lagoon even as luxe private jets and megayachts unloaded their star-studded A-list passengers Into the City of Water.
Such displays of decadent luxury as Bezos’ multi-million dollar wedding are the visible signs of a society where wealth is concentrated among a tiny elite, often disconnected from the realities faced by the world’s marginalized populations.
Jeff Bezos is a specific case in point. As he and his fiancée spent enormous amounts like money was going out of fashion, feasting on caviar and champagne and frolicking during their lavish three-day wedding in Venice, people in Gaza and in other conflict-ridden places in the world are withering away from starvation.
The World Bank (WB), in a study released last week (27 June 2025) said conflicts and their fatalities have more than tripled since the early 2000s, refueling extreme poverty.
Economies in conflict-affected regions across the world have become the epicenters of global poverty and food insecurity, a situation increasingly shaped by the frequency and intensity of conflicts, the WB stressed.
Conflict and inequality exacerbate the plight of those living in depressed conditions, with millions, particularly in conflict-stricken areas, unable to access basic necessities like clean water, nutritious food, and adequate shelter.
In Gaza, 1.8-million Palestinians are experiencing extremely critical levels of hunger, with 70 percent of crop fields destroyed and livelihoods decimated during the ongoing Israeli military offensive.
Such strife and human suffering are repeated in many other places around the globe. The aforementioned WB study revealed that this year, some 421 million people are struggling to live on less than $3 a day in economies afflicted by conflict and/or instability. And the WB projects that number to rise to 435 million, or nearly 60 percent of the world’s extreme poor, by 2030.
There has been global attention focused on conflicts in many countries, including Ukraine and the Middle East for the past three years, but half of the countries experiencing conflict and/or instability today have been in such conditions for more than half a decade, according to World Bank Group chief economist Indermit Gill.
Currently, 39 economies are said to be facing dire conditions and 21 of them are being rocked by active conflict, he said.
The list includes Somalia, Ukraine, South Sudan, the West Bank, Iraq and Gaza.
On a five-year basis, the frequency and lethality of conflicts have more than tripled since the early 2000s, and high-intensity conflicts — those that kill more than 150 of every one million people — are usually followed by a cumulative drop of about 20 percent in GDP per capita after five years.
M. Ayhan Kose, the WB Group’s deputy chief economist, pleads with the global community to “pay greater attention to the plight of these economies. Jumpstarting growth and development will not be easy, but it can be done, and it has been done before.”
Indeed, conflict-stricken Gaza, where famine looms, and other places including Yemen, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Afghanistan could greatly benefit from the philanthropy of Bezos and his fellow billionaires, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, and others.
While governments and such world organizations as the World Bank and the United Nations play crucial roles, individuals — particularly those with the capacity to make a difference — likewise have a vital role to play.
Billionaire philanthropists have the power and enormous influence which they can opt to use to channel resources into transformative projects that address immediate needs while laying the groundwork for long-term peace and stability in Gaza and in other conflict-stricken areas where people need a caring world — and compassionate, generous individuals — to survive another day, another week, hopefully longer, on this planet.