Other/self
The credit crunch is taking over everything now. For a generation of people who have not been used to the 'privations' we are facing, it's a terrible feeling. What? You mean we can't have everything that we want? You mean that we money doesn't solve everything? You mean that our unhappiness is going to be compounded by the lack of funds?
I remember when we were growing up, my mother would reguarly say 'no' to us. No, you cannot have that chocolate. No we cannot get a new doll. No we do not need a new dress. No, you may not be a member of the Polo club. Now, apart from the last one, money was not the issue. The issue was that we learnt about limits. We learnt about limits and we lived within them. We were put out of course, but we did not NEED to have the thing that we wanted. And everything was driven by need. Being a postwar baby and the third in a family of eight my mother knew about needs. Sometimes they didn't even have what they needed. But it was ok. They survived. And they did alright.
So world, let me tell you, stop your fecking whinging.
I can't bear the constant drone of so-called pundits, media luvvies and lifestyle commentators. They are going on and on and on like spoilt children. Talk about the Unbearable Lightness of Being. Lightness in this case refering to the superficial. They are going on and on like spoilt children and the government, well they are going on and on like a dysfunctional couple blaming everybody for the situation now and not taking any resposibility.
It takes between 2 and ten planets to resource the life that we were living. Something had to give. For a long time it was the really really deprived in the world who paid for us. The children who lived in slums. The factory workers in China. The child soliders in Africa. And now we are paying for it. And we are discovering that we have no money. Oh yes, on money.
We might have to go to the IMF. It's not humiliating going to the IMF, says lackey in the cabinet. Sure it isn't. The same way it isn't humiliating when going to a money lender. It's just plain stupid. I remember when the Indonesians had to go to the IMF. Why would Indonesia have to go to the IMF? It must be one of the world's richest resourced countries. As my dad once said. Indonesia has black gold beneath its soil and gold on its surface (rice). Logically it should never starve. Never. It has minerals, incredible scenery and the gentlest, most beautiful people you'd never hope to meet. It has culture like no one has culture. It lives and breathes multiculturalism. And yet, it's leaders are so horribly corrupt. When it went to the IMF in the late 90s, the IMF chair signed the document and stood behind the president with a look to disdain and contempt on his face. And well he might. But that photo started the riots and deposed Suharto.
I never understood the Indonesians. Especially the rich Chinese. When the massacres began, did they not understand that they could not live in this way? They began to say that the Malays were racist. Like the Chinese were not racist. Chinese people are some of the most racist people that i know. Because of our inability to share, we incur the wrath of the other upon ourselves. Only when we find our reflection in the eyes of the other, only when we are able to relate with the other with compassion and equity are we going to find safety. The walls we build and the guns that we forge will not keep our soveregnity for us.
Only by losing ourselves do we retain the individual. That is the paradox of the self.
I remember when we were growing up, my mother would reguarly say 'no' to us. No, you cannot have that chocolate. No we cannot get a new doll. No we do not need a new dress. No, you may not be a member of the Polo club. Now, apart from the last one, money was not the issue. The issue was that we learnt about limits. We learnt about limits and we lived within them. We were put out of course, but we did not NEED to have the thing that we wanted. And everything was driven by need. Being a postwar baby and the third in a family of eight my mother knew about needs. Sometimes they didn't even have what they needed. But it was ok. They survived. And they did alright.
So world, let me tell you, stop your fecking whinging.
I can't bear the constant drone of so-called pundits, media luvvies and lifestyle commentators. They are going on and on and on like spoilt children. Talk about the Unbearable Lightness of Being. Lightness in this case refering to the superficial. They are going on and on like spoilt children and the government, well they are going on and on like a dysfunctional couple blaming everybody for the situation now and not taking any resposibility.
It takes between 2 and ten planets to resource the life that we were living. Something had to give. For a long time it was the really really deprived in the world who paid for us. The children who lived in slums. The factory workers in China. The child soliders in Africa. And now we are paying for it. And we are discovering that we have no money. Oh yes, on money.
We might have to go to the IMF. It's not humiliating going to the IMF, says lackey in the cabinet. Sure it isn't. The same way it isn't humiliating when going to a money lender. It's just plain stupid. I remember when the Indonesians had to go to the IMF. Why would Indonesia have to go to the IMF? It must be one of the world's richest resourced countries. As my dad once said. Indonesia has black gold beneath its soil and gold on its surface (rice). Logically it should never starve. Never. It has minerals, incredible scenery and the gentlest, most beautiful people you'd never hope to meet. It has culture like no one has culture. It lives and breathes multiculturalism. And yet, it's leaders are so horribly corrupt. When it went to the IMF in the late 90s, the IMF chair signed the document and stood behind the president with a look to disdain and contempt on his face. And well he might. But that photo started the riots and deposed Suharto.
I never understood the Indonesians. Especially the rich Chinese. When the massacres began, did they not understand that they could not live in this way? They began to say that the Malays were racist. Like the Chinese were not racist. Chinese people are some of the most racist people that i know. Because of our inability to share, we incur the wrath of the other upon ourselves. Only when we find our reflection in the eyes of the other, only when we are able to relate with the other with compassion and equity are we going to find safety. The walls we build and the guns that we forge will not keep our soveregnity for us.
Only by losing ourselves do we retain the individual. That is the paradox of the self.
Comments