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MONEY ILLUSIONS
MEANING OF WEALTH
In material terms, wealth is the individual or collective accumulation of assets over time. In the context of this article, assets are items of value against which, in modern economic systems, monetary worth may be attached. These items may include land, structures built upon it, contents thereof and their applications towards management and accumulation of more wealth. They may also include objects perceived to be aesthetically precious, such as gold, diamond, pearls, and works of art of all kinds.
©Simon Chilembo 2017
Other items of value may be ownership of stock in business enterprises, and possession of hard transactional cash both outside and inside the banking system. A summation of all the mentioned gives total wealth of the individual, organization, or nation concerned. When liabilities are subtracted, a net worth is derived. The higher the net worth of an entity, the wealthier they are.
In principle, material wealth ought to facilitate acquisition and provision of life’s basic needs and wants, and much more, for those in possession and management of it. When this happens, a state of opulence has been attained. The wealthy, i.e. possessors of net positive wealth, are defined as such because their wealth gives them almost unlimited possibilities to access and acquire as their needs, wants, and demands dictate. This is manifestation of power. As to the judiciousness of the wealthy’s use of power in society is another discussion outside the scope of this presentation.
Genuine wealth is, by definition, a functionally non-static concept eroded over time. A state of poverty is reached upon when time has, for any reason, eliminated the symbols of, and access to wealth and the benefits thereof accruing for the formerly wealthy.
Wealth is regenerative, self-sustaining, and seeks to perpetuate itself indefinitely, to the extent that natural and social forces permit. Social forces referring here to the mechanisms through which society is organized politically, economically, and culturally. The essence of wealth is growth, that with reference to quantitative and qualitative aspects of existence, for both the individual and society. This denotes progress, leading to overall societal development.
At my age, 57 years old, I have reached a stage in life where, with a mixture of wonder and sadness, I have watched my contemporaries go through the most amazing transformations in life. Some have died; others are dead-people-walking with terminal diseases, or pursuing life-style choices slowly but surely sucking the lives out of them. There are those who have lost, and are losing their loved ones in the same fashion.
Many others have been married and divorced at least once. A few have found more fulfilling lives after divorce. Others have lost their children and everything they had owned, including self-control contra temptations of the world. The latter lead miserable lives of constant searches for ever non-gratifying pleasures of life, also dying slowly inside.
Some of them have, with varying degrees of success, even been on the suicide path more than once before. Watching them go by their tragic lives, every day is like on a tick-tock-tick-tock time bomb rhythm. When the lethal explosion finally comes, I hope it’ll find each one alone in each their valleys of death. I hope further that they will finally find peace on the other side, if the other side does exist at all … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA BLOGS – As I See It”. Order Simon Chilembo books on Amazon)
Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
Tel.: +27 81318 5271
June 15, 2017
38 YEARS AN EXILE: XXIII
HOME AT LAST! Part 23
WALOBA AWARD 2015
Diaspora Friendship, Brotherly Love Celebration
Anele Malumo, Waloba Award 2015
©Simon Chilembo, 2015
To introduce the recipient of Waloba Award 2015, I take the liberty of reproducing an edited version of my speech to him on his 50th birthday earlier in 2015:
- You don’t know what it’s like
To love somebody
To love a Brother
The way I love you … - Modern, enlightened, liberated men happily declare their love for one another openly even if their love is not of a physically intimate nature. Some call it Bromance. In any case, in South Africa, land of the free, home of the brave, people love who they love, as provided for, and enshrined in the constitution of the land.
- I’ve heard it said somewhere that if you are not grown up yet by age 50, forget it, you’ll never grow up … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA AWAKENING – home in grey matter”. Order book on Amazon).
Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
June 26, 2015
38 YEARS AN EXILE: XIX
HOME AT LAST! Part 19 SOUTH AFRICA AFRO– XENOPHOBIA – The Myths
Simon Chilembo, CEO/ President ©Simon Chilembo 2015
Regarding the renewed, more grave, xenophobic violence rocking major cities of the land at the moment, on the ground, enlightened and critically thinking South Africans know that there is more to South Africans’ apparent envy over foreign nationals’ business acumen, as well as their apparent resultant financial success.
There aren’t many social interaction spaces as revelatory of the true colours of individual and collective human behaviour and attitudes as in places of trade, market places. It’s only natural, therefore, that when shit hits the fan, as is the case with the current xenophobic hassle in South Africa, it will be in and around retail business outlets … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA AWAKENING – home in grey matter”. Order book on Amazon).
Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
Tel.: +4792525032
April 18, 2015
38 YEARS AN EXILE: XIV
HOME AT LAST! Part 14
DIASPORA SCUMBAGS
©Simon Chilembo, 2014
The worst thing any Diasporants can carry with them in their luggage is the superiority complex attitude, as manifest through racial, religious, and cultural arrogance from their lands of origin. More so if it is, in the first place, racial, religious, and cultural persecutions they have ran away from. We put what we put in each our own different luggage when time to say goodbye has arrived. But not all will be useful when we get to our final, often chance, destinations with promises of a brighter future. Sometimes not even a single item in the luggage will be useful at all. Herein lies the difference between winner and loser Diasporants in time … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA AWAKENING – home in grey matter”. Order book on Amazon).
Simon Chilembo
Riebeeckstad
Welkom
South Africa
Tel.: +47 92525032
January 21, 2015
38 YEARS AN EXILE: XIII
HOME AT LAST! Part 13
BRAIN DRAIN
By its very nature, life is, and has to be hard. Life is by design brutal and short. The world is an ugly place to be. It is an inherent feature of the world that evil forces will prevail everywhere, relatively more in specific areas of the world than others, in different epochs.
The brain is by default and function, the antithesis of all that is abhorrent by way of human behaviour, as well as state of the world and being. The brain will, by inclination, gravitate towards all that is good and beautiful.
All things remaining equal, a normally functioning and cultured brain will, as a spontaneous process, seek to create and sustain beauty and well-being against all that is anti-life, all that is anti everything that is beautiful, uplifting, and life supporting.
The brain will defy pain and death in pursuit of freedom in the name of beauty and happiness, including the right to enhance the development of these … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA AWAKENING – home in grey matter”. Order book on Amazon).
Simon Chilembo
Riebeeckstad
Welkom
South Africa
December 20, 2014
UNDERSTANDING (SOUTH) AFRICAN INTER-PERSONAL POWER RELATIONS DYNAMICS, Part 2
EQUAL BEDFELLOWS?
©Simon Chilembo, 2013
Whether or not my body will be draped in the finest Armani Suit material, crematorium flames will consume my flesh just like that of another person dying in an inferno somewhere. Lying dead six feet underground, decomposition breaks down, and the worms consume of, our flesh all in the same manner.
A Tsunami will take you if you are in its way, regardless of who you are. In the event of a global nuclear war, we all gonna go. Tastes and preferences considered, pieces of compelling music move us all one way or another.
In a perfect world, the long arm of the law grabs us all when we commit criminal offences. In His/ Her non-bastardized form, whether He/ She really exist or not, God is there for us all. We are all equal, like bedfellows, in the face of forces and powers beyond the realm of our direct control and/ influence, these be natural phenomena, or man-made systems of checks and controls of human behaviour.
Given that from the outset the earth is a given as a unique, closed eco-system with all its attributes of abundance and relative scarcity of resources, we are at birth all equal no matter where and when on earth we are born. This is as far as it goes. Period. Beyond this, life-long differentiation characterizes human existence, and determines how human beings will interact with one another, thereby establishing often very specific social relations, as the world goes round and around.
What lies at the core of this differentiation is how, primarily, people as individuals and, secondarily, as collectives of all sorts and kinds, organize their thoughts and behaviours in relation to how they choose to deal with nature and its given attributes, as well as challenges.
Some may give in to the might of nature and God; letting these dictate how they’ll live and lead their own lives. Losers. Others will strive to understand the workings of nature with the intention and purpose of finding out how to harness some of the forces of nature towards improving both the quality and potential of life and living.
The latter will often be pioneers, resourceful visionaries; they will be leaders of others, influencing thoughts and behaviour through various social engineering tools and mechanisms. It may be good, it may be bad; that’s how we roll. Good-bye equality!
©Vika Karateklubb, 2013
When, a total stranger from far, far away across the world, like Professor Stephen Chan, comes into my life and allows me to grow up under his guidance and tutelage as my Karate teacher, he does so from a position of age advantage, more and higher knowledge and understanding of the ways of the world.
He comes with greater skills, as well as greater and wider appreciation of the Martial Arts, their principles, and history. Through his intellectual and academic might, he has inspired me to want to read, write, and think more about my life and how I fit in the wider game of living as a decent member of society wherever I am at any one time … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA BLOGS – As I See It”. Order Simon Chilembo books on Amazon)
Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
Tel.: +4792525032
August 24, 2013
DONATE, SHARE, SACRIFICE
A DISCOURSE ON SACRIFICE
The difference between donation and sacrifice is the outcome of the trade-off between or among relative values. I donate excess value the disappearance or lack of which will cause no harm to, or reduce, my sense of self-worth and/ or well-being; I donate when “I got more than I asked for, (and) there ain’t nothin’ I need…”
When I by conscious choice or otherwise give away all or part of what I have of material and/ or subjective value for what I consider to be of greater good than my ego considerations, I make a sacrifice.
I share when I am indifferent to personal gain or loss to the extent that that which I endeavour to give a part of, or parts thereof, to someone/ others, or a cause is such that its value neither diminishes nor grows when I have, and hang on to it all by and for myself alone.
I donate, I share; and carry on with my life, living happily ever after. It is the application of sacrifice in practice which has been a major area of fascination in my youth and subsequent adult years.
We must have been in Form 4 (Grade 11) when one day in 1980 our then Chemistry teacher at Kamwala Secondary School, the ever affable Mr Mehta, brought an elderly visitor from India to our class. The latter gentleman not only came to greet us, but he gave us an inspirational talk about, if I recall, growing up, education, and leadership. I now understand that the man was a spiritual leader visiting some of his disciples in Zambia at that time.
I recall him emphasizing that we should take it for granted that we were all in the class going to be highly educated and influential in society as adults. He went on to say that we would fill up all key positions in all aspects of societal organization, as well as development. We were all going to be top doctors, engineers, scientists, business people, military generals, politicians, etc. And, given our potential future influence, owing to our apparent superior individual and collective brain power, we were all destined to be very, very wealthy. We would have the biggest houses, the flashiest cars, and the most beautiful families.
I have always been optimistic about a prosperous future full of all material trappings of financial success and power for myself. However, that day, I got this awesome mind picture of my classmates and I as having become the strongest and best ever rulers and power brokers of the world when grown up. The imagery was so intense and seemed so real that I to this day become hot and moist in my hands whenever I think about it.
I must have come to when I heard the Guru asked, “But what is all this education, wealth, power, and influence about then?”
I imagine that we were all so mesmerized by this man that no one in the class found the breath to say a word. He told us, I recall, that it was all about the responsibility to share with others who may not be as lucky and privileged as ourselves.
He went on to say that we in essence become educated, wealthy, and powerful in order to serve society, starting with our smaller family units and immediate communities. This is so, the man argued further that … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA BLOGS – As I See It”. Order Simon Chilembo books on Amazon)
SIMON CHILEMBO
Oslo
Norway
Telephone: +4792525032
June 17, 2012
(Dedicated to my Karate students everywhere)
Simon Chilembo 