“For every firm that has gone under, a new competitor — lured by the juicy fees on advising mergers, trading securities and underwriting stocks and bonds — seems to have sprung up,” Breaking Views writers Rob Cox and Antony Currie write today in an op-ed titled “Like Roaches, Wall St. Survives,” which appears on the Times website. “In the case of Lehman, one failure even begat two entrants,” they continue, before repeating:
“Like roaches, Wall Street names may come and go, but they rarely die off altogether.”
Roaches. That’s weird. Where have we heard that metaphor before? Oh, RIGHT.
Roaches. That’s weird. Where have we heard that metaphor before? Oh, RIGHT.
It was this:
In the vacuum left by the collapse of the traditional collective memory, ethnicity became the only point of reference. This eventually led to the demonization of the Tutsis in order to justify their exclusion from society. The Tutsis were dehumanized and dubbed inyenzi (cockroaches), just as the Nazis had called German Jews “vermin”. Many terms of abuse were used to indicate they were unwanted parasites. It is easier to crush a cockroach underfoot than to kill a person.
We’re sure they didn’t mean it that way. But still … unfortunate.
