I ended my blog entry on Scary Childhood Stories with the question above. For the fact that I'm not using my brains as much as I would like too, I've been pondering over this question for the last couple of days.
I remember I was an intern in Pan Pacific hotel and there was once when this middle aged man who was working in the reservations department that asked me what I wanted to do with my future. I looked at him and answered, I want to be able to make SIN$5000 a month within the first five years of my graduation. He looked at me incredulously and said, 'what you want to work on the streets of Geylang is it? And he laughed. It was at the tip of my tongue to say that I was going to get my degree unlike you...a loser in the reservations department. Of course one has to bite one's tongue and hold back.
Well, I did make SIN$5000 within the time I set out for myself. Actually, I took a little quicker. But it was hard work. I taught tuition like crazy. But what did I get out when I made that figure that I had in my head. Did it make me happier? Did it make me a better person? Tell you what it made me....It made me to want more and more material stuff in life. I wanted a nice mobile phone, I wanted nice clothes, bags and shoes. I had heaps of stuff. To a point that some of my stuff still had it's price tag when I gave them away. And in the midst of making more money, I was spending more money and getting myself into debt. Have to say that if I didn't spend that much, I would have been able to pay off for my master's program in Sydney without any issues at all!
And when I look at myself, what did I become? I became a person that was consumed by money. I would not teach tuition to students that could not pay more than SIN$30 per hour. I remember telling one agency never to call me back because they wanted me to teach a student for something like SIN$10 an hour. I even told them that if I wanted to do charity, I would do charity and teach for free at the children's home. Looking back now, I couldn't believe that I did that. Sure, money is important but at what extent?
To be honest, sometimes, I'm disgusted with myself. Do I measure success with the amount of money one makes or should success be measured by how one contributes to the society? So what I made decent nice money, what did I do with that money? Did I use that to help others? I've got lots of clothes, shoes and bags. And how does that help others? Does having that nice, branded bag makes me a better person? Finally after years and years of working that I've decided to sponsor my first child. Why didn't I do it earlier? I don't know and don't have the answer.
Having money is nice and great but it's also important to share some around and help others in need. How often do we do that? And how can we let money corrupt us? How can a person be so evil to the point and use children to peddle drugs and sex just so to get more money out from a child? That sickens me to the core! How can a person chop off another person's limbs to make money out of that person? How can people take advantage of the misery of others to profit? How can money be such a good thing and yet at the same time corrupt one so badly?
Can money really buy happiness? If a child is poor, starving and sick. All the child need is a slice of bread but obviously the child is too poor to buy it. So at that point, money can buy the child a loaf of bread and provide the child with momentary happiness. So money can't be that bad, right? But in reality, it is human nature that corrupts money. It's us....Humans....
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