Poverty's Influence on 9-11 (satire)

After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that the Afghan and Iraq wars may have been instigated, not only because of 9-11, mainly due to recession caused to US involvement in the Yugoslav wars, the second Gulf War and financial problems caused by globalism. However, it is mainly because of a strong desire for financial gain that a financial recession preceded the wars in both fronts.

Had the US Government and its corporate sponsors not been so focused on gain, perhaps a different scenario might have played out following 9-11. For there is a strong tie between gain and revenge, as evidenced by the many different corporations that played a part in the drama unfolding in Kabul as well as Baghdad.

One strong proof that US-based multi-national corporations may be playing a role in Iraq cones to light in the revelation that a certain VA official who recently stepped down was also the same individual nobody listened to when he stated that a total withdrawal from Iraq would lead to disaster.

When his words came true, the Bush administration lost credibility and their days were doomed.

When Blackwater attacked civilians later, it took seven years to bring six of the men caught in the firefight to be brought to justice. In the fall out of that incident, Blackwater became Academi. As well, there were never any WMD in Iraq. For the Iraq War is the result of a decade of propaganda, and has left Iraq more vulnerable to attack by al Qaeda than ever before.

All that the Afghan War has done is push the Taliban into Pakistan to their backers among the Pakistan warlords. How can launching drone attacks do anything more than polarize the Pakistanis?

Today it has been three years since Arab Spring, and the Syrian uprising has morphed into a purported civil war, with the rebels supported by the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. al Qaeda operates on two fronts, through al Nusrah and ISIS, with ISIS being unwanted because of their criminal acts against both sides.

Meanwhile, in northeastern Nigeria, the Boko Haram have stolen over 300 girls, all because GoodLuck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, has amassed an oil fortune worth billions, billions of oil dollars that he only shares with his in-group. Once again, oil has led to corruption.

In Saudi Arabia, four beautiful princesses are slowly starving to death due to the Saudi King's ill-will towards their mother. This too is due to corruption caused by oil wealth.

In my opinion, financial gain is in part the root of the world's ills because despite seeking it, the world corporations give back very little. Corruption is the result of concentrating wealth in the hands of a limited amount of people. It is this inability to share wealth that is rooted in a certain mindset that believes power and control is determined by the amount of wealth you amass.

Yet the truth is, the more you share what little you have, the better off all of society is. Free-market capitalists will never understand this truth about wealth because they only believe in physical wealth. They do not understand that true wealth consists not only of what you own but also of what is in your heart.

Without generosity, only the richest people are powerful. Because of generosity, even the poor are enriched. That a nation thinks only of Wealth in terms of how to amass it without considering generosity astonishes me. For without charity, what good is wealth?

9-11 was done as a revolt against globalism because of its impact on the Third World and especially on the Middle East. After 9-11, the people fighting for freedom around the world were recast as terrorists, even though it is freedom that they fight for. This includes Chechens, Palestinians, Moroccans, First Nations, Turks, and Uyghurs among many people fighting for the right of self determination. It even includes the Tibetans.

This even includes the freedom of Russians in the Ukraine.

However, with freedom comes the challenge to not morph it into license and abuse the freedom gained from struggle. Rather than using freedom to amass wealth and the challenges that brings, it may be even more freeing to make enough money to afford to life simply. That way, it is possible to avoid much of the problems that financial success brings to us.

For what good is wealth if when you become successful, someone else is going to steal it? It could be a better life to live simply and not to make a lot of wealth, but enough to stay alive without wanting more. However, that takes a lot of sacrifice to accomplish.

None of what happened after 9-11 surprises me. It became unnecessary to use encryption to validate email immediately after until the recent revelation that Canada spies on its citizens. Then the use of HTTPS became more common, though the majority of web traffic is unencrypted because most people assume that by having nothing to hide, there is no point in encryption.

Even so, would you open your router to everyone by removing the password to WiFi access?

Without wealth there is poverty. Yet with poverty, there is the means to climb out of it, not to become immensely successful, but to live simply. And a rich man cannot live simply.

This is what 9-11 has taught me.

The Big Question on Wealth (satire)

"People who value being wealthy as an end in itself (rather than an outcome on achieving other life goals) are less happy and more prone to depression." — J. M. Zwenge & W. K. Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living In The Age of Entitlement; "Ninjas in McMansions", page 129; Chapter 8: "I Deserve The Best At 18% APR."

Eventually, state the authors, materialism that raises one's status is self-destructive. Why is status-driven materialism dangerous? Such materialism is self-destructive, and may lead to bankruptcy, unhappy marriages, and even divorce.

Yet narcissists would be the first to deny that their desire for status has destroyed their lives, as long as they have credit cards, a couple million hidden away in the Grand Cayman Island, and a limousine driven by a trusted chauffeur.

Indeed, who in their right mind would declare to the world that "money is nothing" and transform their energy to practice materialistic consumerism into humanistic philanthropy? By framing the question as such, the narcissist lives in denial of moral poverty.

Earning power is not dependent on soundness of mind, for a few of today's billionaires have never finished college. Sometimes, even their behaviour when seeking status and power takes appears sociopathic.

Are we really entitled to wealth as a measure of our success? This question cannot be answered with a firm "Yes" or "No" because money is supposed to be a measure of your achievement in your life, rich or poor.


Keeping Up with the Joneses

Suppose we have two brothers we'll call Gerald and Samuel Jones. Being the financial success in the family, the older Gerald dotes on his elderly parents for helping him to succeed in life. Meanwhile, Samuel has become the "black sheep" of the family.

Years ago, Samuel had been financially cut off because he couldn't pay his bills on time. After the $15,000 bailout for a student loan, all Samuel does instead of completing his degree in Computer Science is spend too much time on the computer.

In contrast, not only is Gerald a financial success, he has recently married Louise. He has argued with his mother over giving Sam any money, to which Mrs. Jones replied "If I don't give him spending money, then he will leave me and go on welfare. That would ruin the family name if he did it."

What Mrs. Jones means is, Sam is captivated by his mother's narcissistic personality; and is willing to trade his independence for dependence on her.

If this imaginary family seems normal to you, except for Sam, then you have not read between the lines. Mr Jones died 15 years ago, but left the family with a hefty inheritance. With Mrs. Jones as the executor of Mr. Jones' will, and Gerald as co-executor, he has ensured that he could invest wisely and maintenance an active investment portfolio which made him a millionaire.

However, Sam was the pampered child, due to ADHD and depression, plus years of Ritalin use. Currently he lives at home. Once a week, his mother gives him spending money. Due to his lack of employment, she pampers him and sometimes may be hear to say "You don't need to go find a job. Your dad left you with a trust fund."

Sadly though, this trust fund is managed by his brother, Gerald, who only doles out his brother"s weekly stipend. Originally he had allowed the trust fund to fund Sam's slow but sure path from college student to drop out with only six months of work, and an offer of internships.

In the end Sam never sought out work because he likes it at home. Although he is fine with the arrangements as it is, Sam wishes he had mone control over his finances. Luckily he knows better than to be a spendthrift but his ADHD in adulthood has made it difficult to hold a job because his behaviour is "odd". At one point, the college president considered him a security threat due to rumours of him being "psychotic".

Since colleges are not in the habit of measuring the learning disabilities that might be comorbid with ADHD, the college staff and some students who have interacted with Sam socially are unnerved by his sometimes erratic and often confrontational behavior.

Honestly, Sam did not quit university; he had to quit because after his brother Gerald got married, nobody could be at home to help out their mother. A housekeeper was totally out of the question, since Mrs. Jones has a peculiar way of putting away the dishes and glasses.

In this story, the mother of two boys might have an undiagnosed narcissistic personality. We do not know about the father, but since he left his surviving family, he must have been a CEO who spent a lot of time away working to afford the mansion his younger son and wife now live. He may too be undiagnosed.

As for the older son Gerald, his narcissistic personality is in check. This allowed him to date, court and marry his wife, who may have had the neurotic urge to avoid moving into his parents' house due to her poor self image.

Lastly, Sam has ADHD but had controlled it throughout childhood. However, the stress of finishing college led him to "drop out" to support his mother. Since both he and his brother have worked together on their mother's will, they both know they will be entitled to a lot of the inheritance when their mother passes on.

In my imaginary family, it appears that nobody is sociopathic except for the reason why Sam actually dropped out, for he was actually asked quietly to leave due to his ineptness in a failed romance with a lovely lady named Sue whose intelligence matched his own.

College life meant that she had to go to pub night, and was well on her way to become a chronic alcoholic in denial, often convincing Sam to come to dances and maintain her legal drug of choice. Sam rarely drinks, because his father died of alcohol-related causes.

When he tried to break off the relationship, Sue tried to convince him that they would surely get married. So when she asked for money for a wedding dress, he gave it to her. When she suggested they get engagement rings, again Sam obliged.

However, Mrs. Jones was canny, and figured Sue was up to no good. "Nobody for my Sammy unless she is honest and trustworthy. Her drinking like a fish rings a bell." Sammy thought he was in love, until Mrs. Jones asked Sue if she had picked out a wedding dress.

"Well, I'd put a down-payment with the money your son gave me," Sue replied. "But, no worries. It'll be worth it, Mrs. Jones."

Then Sue went out with Sam to pub night at the college. At some point during the night, she got him drunk. The next morning, Mrs. Jones got a call from Sam. "Mom, Sue's gone. So's our engagement rings."

In this imaginary world, Sue has the narcissistic personality to work her charms on a neurotic such as Sam and also his mother. Yet the clues were hidden in plain sight: the first clue is drug addiction. A disturbed character like Sue may be highly intelligent, but likes to engage in risky behaviour. For Sue, that consisted of drinking since age 12. After a string of boyfriends, she managed to avoid pregnancy via safe sex.

Each and every ex-boyfriends of Sue, if asked nicely, would admit Sue was a high-maintenance woman. If they were to offer any advice, then it would be "Don't give her money. Buy her things."

So, this is where the story ends: Sam is going to look after his mother until the day she dies, with Gerald and his lovely wife, Louise, occasionally visiting to provide updates on Louise's pregnancy and other chitchat.

Overal, their narcissistic personalities are under control, barely. However, Mrs. Jones put it simply: "Blood is thicker than water. My late husband worked hard and invested wisely. His legacy has been passed on, and when it's time for me to go, my sons will be well looked after, especially my Sammy."

In truth, the Jones' family is wealthy. Even though each of them have some sense of entitlement, they earned it in their own way. Gerald got a wife while Sammy lost at love only to decide his one true filial love is his mother.

In stark contrast, Sue lives in moral poverty. Although Sammy's potential wealth was apparent, it made him an easy target for Sue. When she realized that both Sam and his mother were pressuring her to get married and settled down, she showed her true colors and left before following through.

Epilogue

After declaring the money for a wedding dress and the engagement rings as theft to the police, Mrs. Jones and her son Sam, have yet to recover the money, let alone the engagement rings. Though it is possible that the rings may be recovered one day due to the engraving on both rings: one says "To Sue with love and respect" and the other, "To Sam with honor and trust."

Is Buddhist Wisdom the Cause of Success?

Success is determine by the number of your failure.

If you think you have not failed, then your success has blinded you to the little failures you swept aside on your way to riches.

In Buddhism, wisdom requires many hours of meditation. The test of wisdom is determined by who remains calm under stress because of meditation. Those people who never practice meditation only have the wisdom of experience to guide them.

However, such wisdom is useless when being mugged by robbers or getting a bailout from the gov't (corporate welfare).

Clever people are either egocentric or other-centric e.g. are of service to others, and helpful to everyone.

Cunning people mainly are egocentric, which helps to amass wealth as the cunning are notorious for giving away their tips of making the ego work for you. For this is where our vanity comes from.

A person with a healthy ego will let other people take the limelight as their egocentricity is great while the guy is people-centric.

Success thus requires truthfulness even if it means a handful of people will not buy your sales pitch and shop elsewhere.

Success also requires learning from experience. This requires humility i.e. the ability to feel shame and wish for repentance.

It is not became of Buddhism that a lama of the red robe such as the Dalai Lama becomes a Buddhist.

Rather it is a sense of pride to know that your brother, sister, mother or father is a Lama that drives mothers and father to tell the lamas, "My child is the new rinpoche because she preached the Dharma to her rag doll, and also to her plushies." Ok, I apologize for that joke.

If I Won a Million Dollars...

Real estate & gold & silver certificates are great for investment.

If I won $1,000,000 in the lottery, then I'd pay off my debts ($25,000), and later pay taxes on my winnings ($150,000).

This would leave me with $825,000 which is enough to buy a duplex for $750,000 in suburban Metro Vancouver.

I could then use $25,000 to furnish and secure both suites, living in one-half of it and rent out the other half for $2000 / month.

This will leave me with $10,000 to pay for food, utilities, cable, and telephone for at least two years.

With the remaining $40,000 I could put half of it in a RRSP over four years, and use the remaining $20,000 to cover extra taxes.

Yes, I know this is unrealistic, but it's a what-if scenario. The taxes on $24,000 a year for rental income would be $1,215. That leave an income of $23,785 annually.

For sure, I'd screen my tenants and ask prospective tenants for a list of references, including employer's contact information.

The real world threats to this scenario would be physical illness, scam artists, and changes in income tax and property rates.

One thing I will not be doing is gambling any of my money; I'd probably donate to worthy causes, instead.

Reality check: I feel that I would need to take an extensive course in alternative health education to make this all happen.

Why I Hate to Be Financially Successful

This rationalization about being deliberately a person who works part-time is a raison d'être, which consists of the right to exist as a person who works at a job that is beneath him.

For a Japanese person, being a security guard does not have the prestige of being a policeman or a soldier. Though, becoming a pharmacist or a doctor has higher prestige than police and soldier.

IMHO wealth represents power, and as Lord Compton wrote, "absolute power corrupts absolutely". To me, this implies that wealth may lead to unwholesome acts, both in acquiring wealth and spending money.

I'll leave it up to the gentle reader to imagine what kind of unwholesome acts profits a person financially, and will not amplify the kind of acts purchased which may be considered unwholesome.

My reasoning for being coy is not done out of privacy, being the closet exhibitionist that I am in my blogging; rather, it is done to respect the intellect of my readers.

For it is not my place to redefine the English language by giving a graphic example of the kinds of unwholesome acts which leads to accumulation of wealth, nor is it my place to describe in detail what kind of unwholesome acts may be bought with money.

Having said this, I confirm the reason why I hate to be financially successful as being related to a certain unwholesome act which money buys.

By not being able financial to commit that act, I thus retain the bright and pure life I now live - a life of poverty, unashamed of stigma due to a lifelong disability caused by neglect and trauma.

I do not write of this to elicit sympathy from anyone, for my writing has been first a form of catharsis and a crude form of self-therapy, due to the escape which intellectualization provides for me.

Now having show the rawness of my inner self, I hope to withstand the fear of exposing private self to the world, which only the length of time this blog entry remains for complete strangers to read shall suffice as proof that that fear has been conquered.

If the reader finds these words to less than terse in explaining my wish not to be successful financianlly, then I have expressed myself without clarity.

Otherwise, I offer this blog entry as a sincere expression of my reason for being poor by conscious choice. It is up to the reader to decide how sincere these words are, after all.

YMMV ;)