Just the other day, in midst of talking to one of my relatives, he quipped. "Oh! I have to call Japan. This is the best time to move to Japan."
He was not talking about uprooting his family and settling down in Japan. Neither was he planning on a mercy mission to give a helping hand to the unfortunate victims of double whammy victim of earthquake and tsunami of Sendai. (Believe me, it is the last thing on his mind!) He was, of course, talking of moving his investment and loose change to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the indices were down at a bargain. As far as he is concerned, he is smart to earn for himself and his family as well as help to develop business and rebuild the damaged infrastructure and get the grieving Japanese economy back on its feet. He is actually doing them a favour.
On the other hand, the way I see it, it reminds me of predatory vultures and hyenas moving in to prance on the remains of the lion kill in the savannah of Africa or a scene from 'Snows of Kilimanjaro' where vultures await patiently perched on the skeletal tree awaiting Gregory Peck's leg to rot so that they can feed on it! And in Clint Eastwood's western movie, a cowboy stranded in the desert bordering Mexico dying of dehydration.
Or the touts who hang around accident victims in a hospital to prance on them to make a kill either way. If the victims survive, he would introduce a lawyer for a cut to fight for compensation as a helpless innocent victim or a cut from the funeral parlour if otherwise! Or the businessmen who build private medical entities called hospitals to thrive by making a sick person think he is sicker than he is and making him poorer as well. And the insurance people who would make you think of the worst accidents and diseases that may afflict you to cajole you to sign up and commit yourselves in their protection plans while they make it to the billion dollar boys' club.
But hey! Everyone is doing it and has been doing it from the time known to men.
Why do you think the noble Missionary Men and Women came over to the savage land to tame the lost savages? True, they changed the landscape of the underprivileged who were downtrodden and outcast by their own people in the case of lepers and Harijans and gave them dignity and reason to live. Father Damien undauntedly touched and cared for lepers in isolation. Father Damien I am referring to is of course not the one in 'Friday the 13th' horror flick but the Flemish Saint in Hawaii. And the nuns and the La Salle brothers and who devoted their lives to the work of God and building convents and English schools to educate the unfortunate subjects all over the British Empire. Of course, the critics would reminisce the good old Islamic and Eastern civilizations of the yesteryear and how the Westerners destroyed it. But, hey! Whatever said and done English is the lingua franca of the modern world!
Acquiring brownie points and serving the fishes caught to the Lord were the fringe benefits of this exercise. It cannot all be bad. There is still hope in humanity. Not everyone has an ulterior motive when performing a good deed.
What do you think makes Father Damien and all these people do the things that they do? He lived amongst victims of Hanson's disease at a time when they were ostracized and sent off to live in exile. He subsequently contracted the disease and died amongst them to be beatified later by the Pope.
A few days after the conversation about Japan, I had the honour to chat up with an honourable individual who had dedicated her life to the work of the Lord. She had just come back after serving in Sudan for 2 years. She had a lot of stories to tell about the war-torn and ethnic tension raged country which was on the verge of separation into 2 countries. Corruption and in-fighting have left this oil-rich country into a basket case. People living where the Blue Nile originates were dying off, of all things, dehydration. There was recently a cooking gas shortage in a country which produces oil and natural gases. Again, in this 'poor' country many multinational companies have set up businesses to prosper themselves while the city still lives in absolute poverty. It is mighty courageous for her to go around to spread the word of the Lord in this volatile Muslim nation.
There is hope. There is hope...
In the end, everything can be compared to a scenario of the visit of a circus to a town. There is a lot of hype before the arrival. The circus will come to town. All activities will centre around the circus. The circus will have its show. Circus managers will collect their collection and leave. Town dwellers will be poorer by a bit but will be contended and richer with the memories. Everyone will be wiser in handling a function of such scale in future and perhaps better. And life will go on...
He was not talking about uprooting his family and settling down in Japan. Neither was he planning on a mercy mission to give a helping hand to the unfortunate victims of double whammy victim of earthquake and tsunami of Sendai. (Believe me, it is the last thing on his mind!) He was, of course, talking of moving his investment and loose change to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the indices were down at a bargain. As far as he is concerned, he is smart to earn for himself and his family as well as help to develop business and rebuild the damaged infrastructure and get the grieving Japanese economy back on its feet. He is actually doing them a favour.
On the other hand, the way I see it, it reminds me of predatory vultures and hyenas moving in to prance on the remains of the lion kill in the savannah of Africa or a scene from 'Snows of Kilimanjaro' where vultures await patiently perched on the skeletal tree awaiting Gregory Peck's leg to rot so that they can feed on it! And in Clint Eastwood's western movie, a cowboy stranded in the desert bordering Mexico dying of dehydration.
Or the touts who hang around accident victims in a hospital to prance on them to make a kill either way. If the victims survive, he would introduce a lawyer for a cut to fight for compensation as a helpless innocent victim or a cut from the funeral parlour if otherwise! Or the businessmen who build private medical entities called hospitals to thrive by making a sick person think he is sicker than he is and making him poorer as well. And the insurance people who would make you think of the worst accidents and diseases that may afflict you to cajole you to sign up and commit yourselves in their protection plans while they make it to the billion dollar boys' club.
But hey! Everyone is doing it and has been doing it from the time known to men.
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| The leprosy patients of Molokaʻi gathered around Father Damien's grave in mourning. |
Acquiring brownie points and serving the fishes caught to the Lord were the fringe benefits of this exercise. It cannot all be bad. There is still hope in humanity. Not everyone has an ulterior motive when performing a good deed.
What do you think makes Father Damien and all these people do the things that they do? He lived amongst victims of Hanson's disease at a time when they were ostracized and sent off to live in exile. He subsequently contracted the disease and died amongst them to be beatified later by the Pope.
A few days after the conversation about Japan, I had the honour to chat up with an honourable individual who had dedicated her life to the work of the Lord. She had just come back after serving in Sudan for 2 years. She had a lot of stories to tell about the war-torn and ethnic tension raged country which was on the verge of separation into 2 countries. Corruption and in-fighting have left this oil-rich country into a basket case. People living where the Blue Nile originates were dying off, of all things, dehydration. There was recently a cooking gas shortage in a country which produces oil and natural gases. Again, in this 'poor' country many multinational companies have set up businesses to prosper themselves while the city still lives in absolute poverty. It is mighty courageous for her to go around to spread the word of the Lord in this volatile Muslim nation.There is hope. There is hope...
In the end, everything can be compared to a scenario of the visit of a circus to a town. There is a lot of hype before the arrival. The circus will come to town. All activities will centre around the circus. The circus will have its show. Circus managers will collect their collection and leave. Town dwellers will be poorer by a bit but will be contended and richer with the memories. Everyone will be wiser in handling a function of such scale in future and perhaps better. And life will go on...
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