Moneh

A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune. 

- Unknown

One curse about living calmly and at ease without a care in the world is whispers that, "Hey! He's living calmly and at ease without a care in the world! He must have a million dollars in savings!! Quick, run after him!"

Yes, a contented life can be hazardous to your health. Out of politeness to my elders, I've spent many an afternoon listening to fraudulent schemes like the ones highlighted by The Sun a couple of days ago. I've heard it all - MLM, forex, ponzis, Nigerian scams, even a hawt but elusive chick in Singapore who tried hard to entice me. A hunch told me 'she' was actually a bunch of African scammers. The way they wrote their emails was a dead giveaway. Morons.

What's worse than these schemes is the number of kampung people who fell for them. I mean seriously, what can you say when a lucky draw SMS makes people say, "Oh hallelujah!! The Lord has answered our prayers at last!"  Well, God works in mysterious ways right? Who am I to say its not the work of the Almighty?

Funny how these things always require up-front capital, and funnier when the perpetrators justify it by saying you don't expect Him to do all the work right? So there was a time when hardly a week went by without someone calling me and asking, could he borrow Rm100k? No? How about Rm80k? I'll get back 10 times the amount by the end of next week, the caller swears. To add some urgency, he'll say if he doesn't get this loan by tonight, he'll lose the land and the house. Surely I don't want to see Auntie Minah and her children out in the streets do I?

When guilt trips didn't work, some tried to disguise it as an SOS call for food money. Caller says desperately, "Help! I need $5,000 to last my family through the week!" Hmm... $5,000 for groceries for a family of 6 in a kampung where a large family can survive on $500 a month? :-)

I'd give nothing of course and after disappointing a bunch of people, I was bestowed the honorary title of the Great Meanie. Orang tak kenang budi. Lit. the ungrateful one. Nice title.

Ha ha, if only I'm worth a fraction of the millions they think I'm worth. That's not the point though. The point is how long can you stand seeing good people get grounded to dog meat because they ignored your advice to stop playing with these scams. Its worse than gambling. At least in gambling, you roughly know the odds. In a ponzi or African scam, they tell you some confidence building religious words, tell you to have faith in God, then disappear with the thousands you borrowed.

And you know what the funny part is? The same con man can brazenly come back a few weeks later and tell you it was God's will. Its your fault, you didn't pray properly that day. God was angry and made your money disappear. But He's willing to give you another chance so if you could just borrow another Rm50,000, he'll try to get you at least Rm5 million.

And the fool, smarting from the loss of Rm80k but fearful enough of God's supposed wrath, runs all over the place seeking to borrow more money. When that fails, the pressure to pay back his debts builds until something snaps. Suddenly everything's game, even outright gambling, tempered of course with hard prayers to make it legit. Surely God will understand. Surely He'll forgive. As the victim proceeds to lose more than he wins, he goes into an uncontrollable tailspin. A debt of Rm80k balloons to Rm500k and gathers daily interest. All of a sudden strange men are seen hanging around the house. Not angels. Ah Longs.

If people say education is expensive, wait till they see how expensive ignorance is. Oh the blind faith. The surrender of all rationale.

If I seem to have extreme views on gambling and debt of late, this is why. I've seen sinking ships first hand. Its not an easy thing to watch, especially when your advice had fallen on deaf ears, and especially when you're haunted by the desperate screams of the innocent who went down with the ship.