A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
Jack London (1876 - 1916)
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Charity
A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
Jack London (1876 - 1916)
Friday, June 13, 2008
Five dollars for humanity
Uncomfortable with beggars coming up to you when you’re having a meal or merely passing by along the road? Yes, I know. Most of us, myself included, would readily turn a blind eye and scurry along the way before anyone could even make an attempt to say “please”.
At the back of our minds, we’ll go “it’s all a syndicate and it’s better to give your dollar to a legitimate charity organization” while some others would have it as “we must not encourage this as it’s quite a lucrative business for them (to beg)”.
But let’s be real. How many will actually take the effort and time to make regular or even irregular contributions to any charitable organization? It’ll be another “I’ll have to scrutinize” the organisation’s accounts first because…”
The truth is, we aren’t the least interested to help out anyone else but ourselves.
Having said that, I am often troubled by the Biblical words that some who help the poor are not even aware that they are helping angels in disguise. Ouch, that hurts! Yes, vivid thoughts of how that’s going to hurt my pocket more than my humanitarian self (haha… like there’s one!) start flowing and my waking hours become nightmares.
So, if you’re anything like me, what do you do?
Well, I now make it a point to have at least one five dollar note in my wallet at all times, the price of a meal, reserved for anyone begging for a little handout. Now, I know it’s not a whole lot of money, but at least it’ll get me started on being a little kinder without having to question the world and God for an explanation for everything.
Now come on. How much a difference does it make to your life to give away five, 10 or even 50 bucks to the occasional beggar or homeless chap that can ill afford to live, much less work? If we really want to, we can force ourselves to be a little more charitable. After all, we don’t come across scores or hordes of beggars everyday or even every week.
Heck, we spend more than that everyday just for parking or toll charges. And while that same amount may not mean much to you, it sure means the world to someone who needs it for his/her next meal. Seriously folk, who in their right mind would want to beg for a living if he/she can help it? You’ll have to tear out all of your self-dignity and whatever little honour you have left to do that.
So, please… let’s just be a little kinder. Your five dollar is what’s standing between a meal and another day of starvation for someone else.
At the back of our minds, we’ll go “it’s all a syndicate and it’s better to give your dollar to a legitimate charity organization” while some others would have it as “we must not encourage this as it’s quite a lucrative business for them (to beg)”.
But let’s be real. How many will actually take the effort and time to make regular or even irregular contributions to any charitable organization? It’ll be another “I’ll have to scrutinize” the organisation’s accounts first because…”
The truth is, we aren’t the least interested to help out anyone else but ourselves.
Having said that, I am often troubled by the Biblical words that some who help the poor are not even aware that they are helping angels in disguise. Ouch, that hurts! Yes, vivid thoughts of how that’s going to hurt my pocket more than my humanitarian self (haha… like there’s one!) start flowing and my waking hours become nightmares.
So, if you’re anything like me, what do you do?
Well, I now make it a point to have at least one five dollar note in my wallet at all times, the price of a meal, reserved for anyone begging for a little handout. Now, I know it’s not a whole lot of money, but at least it’ll get me started on being a little kinder without having to question the world and God for an explanation for everything.
Now come on. How much a difference does it make to your life to give away five, 10 or even 50 bucks to the occasional beggar or homeless chap that can ill afford to live, much less work? If we really want to, we can force ourselves to be a little more charitable. After all, we don’t come across scores or hordes of beggars everyday or even every week.
Heck, we spend more than that everyday just for parking or toll charges. And while that same amount may not mean much to you, it sure means the world to someone who needs it for his/her next meal. Seriously folk, who in their right mind would want to beg for a living if he/she can help it? You’ll have to tear out all of your self-dignity and whatever little honour you have left to do that.
So, please… let’s just be a little kinder. Your five dollar is what’s standing between a meal and another day of starvation for someone else.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
MLMs
Generally, I don’t like to hang around multi-level marketing (MLM) people (or insurance and unit trusts salesmen). They are always trying to either recruit you or sell you something and many honestly don’t have simple courtesies of listening to you. Their only goal is to make that sale regardless and think that the more words they can get into one breath, it’ll impress the daylights off anyone.
Well, many are not impressed, especially when hailstorms of saliva start heading towards one’s face and do waves of bad breath.
However, this is not to knock MLM per se, for I have seen how powerful it can be. Yet, I would just like to draw a parallel (if you can call it that) with who must be the greatest MLMer the world has ever seen. No, it’s not those Amway fellas. They were only apprentices to the real master.
Not wanting to sound religious (haha… me religious? I’m fortunate that I’ve not been stoned to death as a sacrilege sod), I still can’t help admiring Jesus’ approach to perfecting MLM.
Investing time, energy and literally his life for “members” (a.k.a. Christians), definitely knew a thing or two about the impact of his relentless investment in humanity itself. The only difference, however, is that his format of MLM is not just a downward linear equation like how every MLM works these days with downlines concerting more downlines for a piece of the pie.
His model was spread in all directions. See, the impact of his teachings spread not just through a “downline” of followers, but it had the impact of influencing his follower’s own uplines. Their parents and their parent’s parents… in addition to children and the children’s children. Heck, it even goes sideways to friends, acquaintances and even some that are mere observers.
So what am I getting at? Well, MLM is a good start. But what really separates the master from the students is this – he listened well and truly care enough.
Care? Well, every MLMer will always tell you they care. Really? Try making a claim on your insurance or something like that and hey, presto! I’ve never seen people vanish faster than the speed of light. Heck, when I stopped my insurance policy some time ago, my so called good insurance “friend” even had the audacity to tell me that I would be affecting his sales target!
Naturally, I have since excommunicated him. With “friends” like that, who really needs enemies?
Well, many are not impressed, especially when hailstorms of saliva start heading towards one’s face and do waves of bad breath.
However, this is not to knock MLM per se, for I have seen how powerful it can be. Yet, I would just like to draw a parallel (if you can call it that) with who must be the greatest MLMer the world has ever seen. No, it’s not those Amway fellas. They were only apprentices to the real master.
Not wanting to sound religious (haha… me religious? I’m fortunate that I’ve not been stoned to death as a sacrilege sod), I still can’t help admiring Jesus’ approach to perfecting MLM.
Investing time, energy and literally his life for “members” (a.k.a. Christians), definitely knew a thing or two about the impact of his relentless investment in humanity itself. The only difference, however, is that his format of MLM is not just a downward linear equation like how every MLM works these days with downlines concerting more downlines for a piece of the pie.
His model was spread in all directions. See, the impact of his teachings spread not just through a “downline” of followers, but it had the impact of influencing his follower’s own uplines. Their parents and their parent’s parents… in addition to children and the children’s children. Heck, it even goes sideways to friends, acquaintances and even some that are mere observers.
So what am I getting at? Well, MLM is a good start. But what really separates the master from the students is this – he listened well and truly care enough.
Care? Well, every MLMer will always tell you they care. Really? Try making a claim on your insurance or something like that and hey, presto! I’ve never seen people vanish faster than the speed of light. Heck, when I stopped my insurance policy some time ago, my so called good insurance “friend” even had the audacity to tell me that I would be affecting his sales target!
Naturally, I have since excommunicated him. With “friends” like that, who really needs enemies?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Envy
Actors (and “actresses” for the politically-correct uninitiated crowd)… we all envy them, hate and love them as though they were ourselves. Yes, we all see ourselves in the many characters that they play. We follow their every move, news and scandal in the papers as though they really mattered.
Well, I guess in a way, they mattered. Their movies and TV shows are what keep us sane in these days of social madness and upheavals, almost always providing us a place of refuge to hide our daily frustrations and unending sorrows for at least an hour or two to be lost in lives of fantasies and possibilities.
Lest we start condemning actors as sordid characters that have nothing but money packed to the hilt and attitudes as horrendous and the depth of one’s imaginations, I believe that there are lots of good things we’ve failed to see, especially so for those with a regular 9-to-5 office job.
I have seen how hard they work under very tiring conditions for what amounts to nothing more than a few minutes of screen time. If you’ve had the opportunity to be on a set, you’ll definitely know what I mean. Sometimes, I even wondered whether they were human to begin with, what with the amount of mental and physical endurance needed to act.
In addition, many would go the extra mile just to get into character. Whether it be bulking up twice of one’s body mass or trimming down to skeletal frames, doing one’s own stunts or even to sleep and experience homeless street life for months on end, actors are prepared to put their mental, physical and emotional selves through a roller-coaster of sorts.
Now, how many of us are truly willing to do that? We talk about wanting to lose 10 pounds in the next six months, only to resolve it by adding another two, refusing exercise, diet or any form of regiment. Likewise, we talk about the homeless and how we have a grandiose plan to “save” them from their predicaments, only to tell the infrequent beggar to shove off as they’re disturbing our mealtime by haggling us for a handout.
Yes, we talk a whole lot and bitch a lot more about others whom we envy but do almost nothing to improve ourselves to become better human beings. In fact, we often pick the most disgusting and downright inhuman ways to try and get what we want, without paying a whim to the many others that we have to “bury” to obtain our treasures.
Well, I guess in a way, they mattered. Their movies and TV shows are what keep us sane in these days of social madness and upheavals, almost always providing us a place of refuge to hide our daily frustrations and unending sorrows for at least an hour or two to be lost in lives of fantasies and possibilities.
Lest we start condemning actors as sordid characters that have nothing but money packed to the hilt and attitudes as horrendous and the depth of one’s imaginations, I believe that there are lots of good things we’ve failed to see, especially so for those with a regular 9-to-5 office job.
I have seen how hard they work under very tiring conditions for what amounts to nothing more than a few minutes of screen time. If you’ve had the opportunity to be on a set, you’ll definitely know what I mean. Sometimes, I even wondered whether they were human to begin with, what with the amount of mental and physical endurance needed to act.
In addition, many would go the extra mile just to get into character. Whether it be bulking up twice of one’s body mass or trimming down to skeletal frames, doing one’s own stunts or even to sleep and experience homeless street life for months on end, actors are prepared to put their mental, physical and emotional selves through a roller-coaster of sorts.
Now, how many of us are truly willing to do that? We talk about wanting to lose 10 pounds in the next six months, only to resolve it by adding another two, refusing exercise, diet or any form of regiment. Likewise, we talk about the homeless and how we have a grandiose plan to “save” them from their predicaments, only to tell the infrequent beggar to shove off as they’re disturbing our mealtime by haggling us for a handout.
Yes, we talk a whole lot and bitch a lot more about others whom we envy but do almost nothing to improve ourselves to become better human beings. In fact, we often pick the most disgusting and downright inhuman ways to try and get what we want, without paying a whim to the many others that we have to “bury” to obtain our treasures.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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