Does it even matter?
A young lad after a
struggling and seemingly hopeless living decided to visit a sooth-sayer to see
if his future held any promises of riches and fortune. The sooth-sayer wasted
no time in revealing the poor lad’s future after a brisk scanning of his left
palm. “You will be extremely poor… until you are forty” he said calmly and with
an assuring gesture.
With an expression of
great worry on the poor lad’s face, he first paused in bewilderment, and then
asked desperately as if his soul was in his mouth.
“What about when I’m forty,
what happens next?”He asked.
With a casual glance, the
sooth-sayer simply replied.”Don’t worry lad, by then you’ll be used to it.
How relative can riches
be? Apparently our thoughts and perceptions in proportion to the systematic
pressures, expectations and the judgmental inclinations of the society are
massively whopped if not entirely flawed. We can choose to be rich in love,
rich in content, and rich in quality and not to make little, but the
stereotypical concept of riches definitely draws a virtual line that distances
us from ourselves on unhealthy grounds that breed lust, hatred, envy, complex
and many more unnecessary conditions.
“When she
tried to seduce me, I got suspicious, thinking she was just after my massive
fortune. Then I relaxed, when I remembered I’m poor”…Jarod Kintz
Character
There is a saying in
Nigeria which goes like this: You don’t know your true self when you are poor,
whom you really are, unfolds just as you become successful. A school of thought
claims that there is perhaps a justification for some peoples despicable
attitude when they become wealthy, displaying arrogance and lordship over the
less privileged.
It is said that man
naturally has the tendency to dominate territories as a show of influence and
superiority, and that it only takes patience, seduction and emotional intelligence
to hesitate and be self disciplined in order not to override people’s rights,
interests and fragile emotions.
A quick one by the way, in
your vivid opinion, would you consider anyone a rich person in Nigeria? Wait,
before you question my saneness and refer to my perception as shallow, especially
after the vague and transient show of exuberance of the stereo-typically rich gets
in the way of your judgment.
Well, I’ll comfortably
give my answer as an absolute no.
Why you ask?
In as much as I’m a
Nigerian, I might as well do a truthful assessment from a general perspective.
We have a massive attitude problem. Yes we constantly claim to be poor, but we
fail to address the more worrisome form of poverty which is of the mind. We do
not love ourselves as we loot treasuries and cheat innocent people of their
finances, only to ignorantly alter the psychology of our living which by
principle makes our wealth and our hearts toxic, transforming us into beautiful
monsters, constantly famished for blood monies that caused accidents on the
roads and bridges we have failed to construct, and many more undone or
unfinished projects that were meant to be infrastructures that would support
our lives.
You think you’re rich?
Then explain to me how you get power if you haven’t spent through your nose to
maintain a generator, or how much did it cost your neighbour to treat himself
at the hospital after the petrol explosion happened in his kitchen, why did he
have to store petrol in his house just to have alternative power supply in the
21st century anyway?
You think you’re rich,
have you ever called the emergency line for medical and security reasons and
got a reliable response.
If you think you’re rich,
then what is the value you get for your money when you buy fuel when you know
the metre has been tampered with, don’t you feel like crying when you pay your
kids’ school fees and then you hear their class teacher make a grammatical
error?
Aren’t you scared or
ashamed to buy made in Nigeria goods and even clothes for you and your kids
because you know they are sub-standard and the standard organizations are
probably compromised due to the obvious corruption?
And with the present rate
at which the fluctuation of Dollar value has greatly affected the prices of our
commodities especially due to our lack of manufacturing and total dependence on
oil and imported products, my friends, without prejudice, we are as poor as can
be.
“If a free
society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are
rich”…John F. Kennedy
Who are the elites?
Yes, from time immemorial,
there have always the cream of the crop of society recognized as the most
influential, even respected by kings. History teaches us the elites of old were
men and women of integrity and unquestionable character; they were
philanthropists that added colour to the lives of ordinary people.
Fast forward several
centuries into the future which gracefully represents our present day, when
moral values and standards have greatly depleted, and as glaring as it is we
might as well use Nigeria as a case study, elites have indeed become a negative
word in this part of the world.
Currently in Nigeria,
being rich is synonymous with being a greedy thief who is wicked, blatantly
shrewd, and an exploitative sabotage of government who cares less about the welfare
of the voiceless and less privileged people crawling at his feet, which reminds
of the saying that
“Some people are so poor
that all they have is money”.
With the present
anti-corruption campaign moving like a train in Nigeria and the unbelievable
thieving in high places that has been discovered, it is obvious to the world
how wicked and insensitive we are to ourselves even in the midst of fast
declining infrastructure which is imperative for our sustenance. And unknown to
them, all these ill gotten wealth are toxic to their souls and by implication
materializes in their bodies.
“I have
rubbed shoulders with the rich, the powerful and the armless. It’s how to
network when handshakes aren’t an option”…Jarod Kintz
Handshakes are really
underrated in our present day. In the times of old, handshakes were a bond
signifying trust, loyalty, friendship and a promise. These days we just shake
for familiarity or for just the sake of formality.
Rubbing shoulders with
people however does make a larger statement. Imagine a king requesting you
accompany him to an event, how honoured would you be?
Groups and associations
are being accorded respect to the degree of the intellect of their members and
who they relate with. In the light of this, it is gravely important to have
healthy relationships with great people, great not necessarily by face value,
but great in character and emotional intelligence, and in that my dear lays
true riches.
So are we rich or poor?
Indeed the entirety of life is relative after all, it seems so shallow a
question to answer, yet how deep it is when you make to ponder.
Eventually, depending on
the extent of a discerning mind, it is found that so far you have hands working
in the right direction and a good heart pounding well in the right sections, if
riches do matter at all, it is all in your mind just the way you require it.
Thank you.
SOURCES:
Google
Wikipedia
History
Goodreads
BBC
Brainy Quote
Time
