Perception in Life

I'm not sure about my friends or people around me, but as far as I can remember, I was always about the money. To be more precise, I'm a materialistic and money is my main objective in life. One could say it is poilitically incorrect, but money is prevalent in almost everything in all aspects, including a relationship. Being brought up in a metropolitian city of Kuala Lumpur (KL), the society evaluates a person's status by the value of your assets. From primary school I was surrounded by poiliticians, the group of people where they could obscenely drive around with Ferraris, wearing Gucci Prada bla bla bla and so on. While I didn't understand much of all this materialism, I was subconsciously influenced by all these people. Even in Australia, again I was surrounded by the rich and powerful furthermore cementing my love of materialism, money and power.

I have to say that my parents are of middle class. My family lived comfortably and could afford luxury items now and then. But for me it wasn't enough. I remember constantly bugging my dad for the latest handphone, laptops, shoes, clothings and even car. Looking back, I thank god that my parents weren't obscenely rich as I would be truly and thoroughly a spoilt brat by now. Even then, my parents gave me anything to their financial capability. I then demand more and more and more as there is never an end to material posessions. I remember the first major thing I got was my Nokia 8250. I was so obsessed by it that I saved my own money somehow and paid RM 850 for it. Since my dad was against me getting a new phone, I kept it out of sight from my dad for a good few months before realizing since when my son's phone is goldish in color? It didn't end just there, I got many other stuff especially when my sisters were in the US and I was back in Malaysia. I can imagine how much my sisters dread to come back as I would give them a long list of items to buy and bring back ranging from hard drives to sunglasses. Being my lovely sisters, I would always say that I would pay them back but in the end they always give it to me ehehehehehe! As time goes on the more I got what I wanted, but I realized one thing; the happiness of getting that handphone or the sunglasses is only shortlived. Hell, I know use a lousier phone right now compared to 3 or 4 years ago. Thinking back, it was a good thing after all that my beloved family gave me everything I wanted, as I now realize that these material posession are just that, materials. I still have my occasional wants like a HDTV now but I'm not as desperate as how I bought my Nokia 8250 last time. I realized in life there's just more to material posessions.

In a capatalist economy we're caught up with the rat race of earning money, isolating people in the process. It comes to a point where everyone is backstabbing each other in order to get ahead. In a way I like the idea of communism, and no I'm not some radical Russian or Chinese communists. It's just that the idea of doing something for the community is appealing. Instead of focusing upon yourself, the economy focuses upon the community as a whole and also helping people along the way.

Before I could understand this complicated idealogy, my dad used to tell me that the most self satisfactory thing is to help other people. This means that you really help people because you are concern for the person, not because you're expecting back a favor. I used to think that my dad is crazy saying that, but as I grow older, his statement makes more sense now.