Three assignments to complete by next Tuesday, but I’ll be celebrating my birthday non-stop from Friday onwards.
My birthday wish : For someone to complete my assignments for me kwa kwa kwa~
*Stress*
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In one of the comments brought about my one of my readers with regards to my entry about the rise in the number of poor, it was mentioned that the concern should not only be for the real/pretend poor, but also be for people who, on the other side of the scale, pretend to be rich.
I think all of us have encountered such people throughout our lives – people who live beyond their means, and apart from living paycheck to paycheck, also owe the bank (or relatives) thousands of dollars in their pursuit to attain ‘luxury’. Honda sleeping in the carpark, Louis Vuitton bag slung over shoulder and that holiday to New Zealand? All credit, baby – roll in the interest rates.
I think one of the bigger social issue that Singapore encounters would be that all of us have been ‘educated’ from young that being rich equals to being successful. When we live in a private property, when we drive a car, when we carry a luxury label, it is a given that will be immediately labeled as a person who has ‘made it’.
Image Source : http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/3027534098_f568868b9e.jpg?v=0
However, not many realize that such things have been made more easily attainable by the use of credit cards and bank loans. Really, when was the last time you’ve received a call from the bank to attain credit from them? I have not even reached the age requirement to have a credit card and yet I have received two calls from them just this month alone.
The question is then – How successful can one person be if everything on display are expensive and luxurious, but all these things were actually bought using the bank’s money (thus belonged to the bank) and all that the owners truly have lots of are bills screaming of rolling interests and late payments?
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Someone I know personally has been declared bankrupt after failing to pay the bank months’ worth of credit card bills. In his pursuit to give his family a ‘better lifestyle’, he has, in the end, shortchanged them by selling his soul to the financial devil. Now, he cannot even leave the country (not even to JB, my dears), and he has to readjust his kids to a life that they are not accustomed to since young.
If you view it on a larger scale, it is this same need to have more than what you can afford that caused the current economic crisis that we are in. Throughout the United States, banks were releasing housing loans like nobody’s business, even to people who cannot afford them. The end result? A subprime mortgage crisis. Ditto the current situation the whole world is in currently.
Image Source : http://farm1.static.flickr.com/95/256941993_3d0d31a148.jpg?v=0
In my opinion, the only cure to this ongoing social issue would be for people to understand that they should just live within their means; that it is of no use to portray a rich image when you’re really pretty much a pauper, begging the bank personnel for just ‘one more month’ or ‘lower interest rates’ when you finally realize how deep in debt you are.
On a religious note, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was one such person who led an average life and even in Christianity, two of the seven deadly sins asks are Pride (needing to show people how rich they are) and Greed (wanting more than what is enough for ones’ self).
Personally, I think even I am a victim of one who pretends to be rich, in the sense that I stretch out my finances so much so that I find myself struggling to breathe. With my meager pay and the lifestyle that I am leading now, I think that the ONLY reason why I am not spiraling out of control is because I do not have a credit card or other credit terms. As such, since I have no means whatsoever to spend more than what I have, I am forced to learn to reign in my spending and try to at least have some spare for rainy days.
Are you or did you become a victim of the ‘Pretend Rich’ disease? How do we rehabilitate a person to start seeing his dollars as it is and not some ballooned amount that he wants to see? After all, speaking from personal experience, (hur hur) it really takes a gargantuan amount of effort to reel in ones’ spending if one is accustomed to having a more luxurious lifestyle *meh*
If it is not obvious enough, yes, I readily admit that I am having a problem maintaining a healthy balance sheet and still am trying to correct this kwa kwa kwa~
Some of you were telling me that my blog layout looks off and I think that the reason might be that you are using an old browser. So let’s do both you and I a favour. UPGRADE kekeke. I have linked below the browsers that should be compatible with the site. If you have downloaded and still my layout looks off, please leave a comment and I’ll find a better theme :) Thanks everybody!
Anyway yeah I know I haven’t been updating much and you can stop screaming in my face “FADDY! Your blog is so boring now I don’t read it anymore!”. My only defense is the lack of time in my hands, and also the lack of LIFE I am having now hahahaha. Only turning 21 next Saturday and already turning into a bore? Bayeeek ah!
Nevertheless, I am trying to pick up the pieces of my life and have been texting and calling everyone I know, trying to organize meetups. Hopefully I manage to seek at least a resemblance of the uber fun life I once had :P
When you start to know someone, all their physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in their energy, recognize the scent of their skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That’s why you can’t fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and your body but not your heart. And that’s why, when you really connect with a person’s inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant. I nourish you even more :)
Original text from Shidah
Image Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixx0ne/1037963176/
Whilst having dinner with mum a few minutes ago, she shared that for the past few days, she has been asked to ‘donate’ multiple times while she was manning her shop, more than she has ever been asked before. The stark difference between what she had just went through the past week and her past experiences, is that the people asking for donations comprised more of ‘normal’ people like you and I, instead of kids wielding tin cans.
Just this afternoon, she was stopped in her tracks by a middle-aged lady carrying a baby in her arms, who asked her for $2 so she could buy something for her kid to eat. Later on whilst she was sitting around, a man came up to her, started to say some prayers ‘for her’, shoved some prayer materials to her face and ‘forced’ her to pay $2 for his ’services’.
Last week, my brother was approached by a teenager who asked for $2 so he could go home. I myself have encountered people of many different ages asking for donations so that they could ‘go home’, ‘eat’, ‘feed their kids’ or things to that effect.
Image Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/minebilder/318943587/
My question is… Are these people really poor? Are times that tough for them that they cannot even get proper jobs to pay for their basic necessities and have to resort to begging? Are they part of a sindicate? Or are they just being choosy about the jobs they apply for, and thus would like the ‘easy’ way out?
After all, I still remember the newspaper article I read a few years back which showed a middle-aged wheelchair bound lady who not only resorted to begging, but managed to have a better than average income of more than SGD $3,000 a month. Her well decorated flat had a flat screen TV and even a helper, things which even MY family cannot afford up till today.
Another question that has also been plaguing me is how does one differentiate the ‘real poor’ and the ‘fake poor’ that has risen in numbers in this time and age? Are we helping any of them by giving in to their $2 requests?
Three to four more years and I am gone, InsyaAllah. Lord please give me the courage, strength and determination (and Your blessings) for me to be able to do the only thing that I have ever dreamed of doing :)
Have a good Monday everybody!
Still not done tinkering with it yet… feels like something is just not quite right, especially in the colored form… hmm…
Around four to five hours of sleeping in Sinh Cafe’s sleeper bus, we were awaken by loud renditions of Vietnamese folk songs through speakers that were resting innocently next to our heads.
Still in a dazed state, we looked out the windows and saw a view that we could not catch of Saigon five days back; one that had a sparring number of people and even lesser numbers of vehicles dashing around.
Grabbing our now spilling backpacks which had been thrown haphazardly onto the gravel pavement, Peah, Ikah and I stood still for a moment, digesting slowly the situation that we are facing right now – Nary a cent in our pockets due to the boy at Mui Ne, on a lonely street at 5am with nowhere to go.
Slinging our backpacks over our shoulders, we walked towards Luan Vu Hostel, the only place we could call home here in Saigon. Sleepy, exhausted and wanting nothing but a place to rest our tired bodies, we began envisioning the comfortable beds that Luan Vu had granted us the first two days in the country.
It came to a shock when we saw Luan Vu’s gates all closed up and locked. Knowing nothing else that we could do, or anywhere else that we could go, we desperately knocked on the metal gate, and let out a sigh of relief when a familiar face (albeit sleepy hehe) pushed the creaking grills open.
Seeing us, she smiled but with a slight dismay on her face, pointed out that they had no rooms left at all since we did not make any reservations. However, upon noticing that we look terribly disappointed and on getting to know that we really had no money left and only needed a place to crash for a few hours or so, she gestured towards the sofa at the lobby where she was sleeping at. Insisting that we sleep there, she gathered her pillow and blanket, and joined the rest of the hotel staff to sleep on the kitchen floor :’)
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All text and images brought to you by Team Gimme Gimme.
Photo by onkel_wart
I don’t have a favourite place.
I don’t have a favourite number.
I don’t have a favourite day.
Nor do I have a favoured color.
I don’t have a favourite friend.
I don’t have a specific hobby.
I don’t know what to do tomorrow.
What do I know of having an identity?
I can do a million and one things.
And I’ve yet to find my calling in one.
I still don’t understand who I am.
And already I am turning twenty one.
What do I like?
Love?
Dislike?
Hate?
Who am I?
Who was I?
Who will I be?
Where will I be?
So many questions…
but I don’t quite know where to find the answers.
sigh.