THE CHALLENGES OF RICHNESS
By: Lubnah Abdulhalim
By: Lubnah Abdulhalim
Being
rich is many people’s ambition and everyone is running up and down in search of
money. It is what is creating a lot of misery all over the world; the reason
for people being declared poor or wealthy. While all the poor are struggling to
be wealthy, the wealthy are yearning to be wealthier so when is the end of this
race?
What
most people have never thought about is the other side of the coin about this
issue. Being rich is associated with class but is this what we really want? A
rich man is surrounded with cars, factories, huge houses and much more to fancy
about. It is the majority’s dream to have their own bungalow, with lots of
servants to serve them, a company of their own maybe? Well, as a matter of
fact, the rich can’t do without the poor. They heavily depend on them. It is
the poor who wash the clothes for them, iron for them, cook, and work for them
in their companies and much more. In a sense, the poor are the backbone of the
rich!
Apart
from all that, let us analyze the lives of these two; a boss and his employee.
The boss wakes up in the morning to go for work. It is the end month. His
employee has already prepared the breakfast for the family, ironed his clothes
for the job and is sweeping around the house. The boss finds a number of bills
on his table; the water bill, electricity bill, house rent, company taxes and
he has almost ten employees who are waiting for their salary on this particular
day. As he leaves for job, he realizes he has to add more petrol to his car. He
also has to pay the school fees for his three children who are studying at a
private international school. Their mother has been sick for quite a while and
she is admitted in a private hospital, he needs to pay the bills too. All these
thoughts are in his mind as he drives. He is listing down all what he is
required to do mentally. The machinery in the company also needs service. There
is also the client he has to meet and pay off a large amount of money to which
he was indebted. His company has gone through a loss this time and he needs to
work on gaining it back.
The
employee on the other hand woke up in total darkness. He took his candle, lit
it up and started his preparations for the day. He went to the river, fetched
water and took a bath. He goes to his small shamba picks some fruits to eat and
walks to his work place or rides a bicycle there. His small mud house doesn’t
need rent nor does he need fuel for his bicycle or money to buy food. He goes
to work and uses his energy to earn money. The salary he gets goes to the small
basic necessities likes clothes, cooking oil and washing soap. His children go
to the public school and the demands are less compared to private schools and
even if his family gets ill, he would take them to the public hospital. Sometimes
he doesn’t even go to hospital. He would just go back to his shamba and pluck
some herbs and boil it to use as medicine. His only problem arises when he is
totally jobless but on the other hand, he doesn’t have much to think about like
the rich.
It
is for such reasons that majority of the rich end up being stressed up and
depressed most of the times more than the poor. They eat a lot of starch and
snacks and oil that makes them unhealthy and ill a lot of times more than the
poor. There is a lot more of challenges of being the wealthy of the society. It
is for this that we are supposed to appreciate whatever God has bestowed upon
us for it is for sure, for our own best.
