Thursday, October 29, 2009
My American Living
Living in eastern part of Virginia, my life has rewarded me pleasant activites of beach walks, stunning historic sightscenes as well as some disturbring spectacle of thefts, armed burglaries, shootouts, drug problems, and more problems associated to capitalism. This big community has bundled my living with the package of blessings and tragedies.
Residing only three hours away from Washington D.C, now and then, I hear endless political pledges over which political party is going to take a bigger stake in brining safer communites. Here is the sanity part: God gave us two ears and two eyes, and sometimes I wonder this is why he made us that way, more or less to save ourselves from political gimmicks. Between wiping out swine flu, passing healthcare reform bill, mitigating recession, downsizing troops to send to war, all needs expressive concerns. Of course. All should include in our national priority list.
How soon are these problems going to be fixed that’s a whole new ball game. For now, all these problems definitely have imparted a brand new responsibilities among our congressmen and congresswomen, to raise millions of dollars to nominate themselves for next congressional candidates. For sure, this has kept them super busy. I bet! their abilities to raise money have never mattered more than today. This is no joke.
Let the problem of high unemployment and deficit budget run. It has been running one way or the other, we can always counterclaim unsatisfactory outcomes to our previous administrations. Why not? It has become the basic tradition of our system for years.
From class room to the Congressional floor, we reward publicy, take pride and award honor medals, power and positions for the excellence. It's like a society in general -- capitalism in the classroom to Capital hill you might call it. Oh, wait: how about the people, who felt left out, and thus have carried a bruised feelings.
The truth is, we have made no good places for losers. This scheme is so effective that these losers might end up causing extra damage to themselves and to the society thus increasing the substantial financial and social costs to the communities, states, and to the nation ultimately.
This is a fine example of why our crime rates have sky rocketed today, why there are more high school dropouts than ever before. Approximately 1.2 million students fail to graduate from high school. We are not only running budget deficits but soon we will out run of money to fund nation’s penitentiaries. Imagine yourself living in place crowded with felons. Sounds like, we are welcoming big masses of our own misfortunes.
Increased crime rates has spurred residents; business and government into action to improve safety and security and thus have hyped the cost to direct law enforcement resources and priorities. Moral of the story, one way or the other we are becoming an unwitting tool of capitalism.
Contemplating I asked myself, how healthy is to live with this level of Capitalism? Where is it eventually going to lead us? It has not left any places that I have occupied. I feared that it may not have already built a culture of greed among us. Time has come to wake up and ask a question to ourselves is big always the better. Remember there is no silver bullet to this mess that we have created unless we don’t pay attention and participate more in our political system.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Beyond Money
“I would not want to be rich, but if it makes of me a brainless, heartless and selfish spending machine with no compassion.”--- Anonymous
For many years, there had been little laughter and even fewer smiles throughout the world. People are quickly sensing the cheerless atmosphere, and words like, “inflation”, “unemployment” and “bankruptcies” have commonly grounded in our daily descriptions. The richest people in the world have gotten poorer just like rest of us. In the midst of summer, I began to question, why money has become eminently desirable more and more, every day. So, before I allowed my allusions to intrigue me, I decided to speak my mind that has been unwittingly captured by the essence of money.
In a true economics sense, money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services. Although when we say as, one has saved a lot of money in his/her investment portfolio, or makes a lot of money, nonetheless, we are talking about the wealth and salary here. More to the point, how much ever I would like to spotlight the definition, the money’s creation and growth seems intangible.
Money is the center of our society. From my personal standpoint, I do admit that life is way more fun when one can stop thinking about money and just live life. Regardless of whether I admit it or not, it costs money to bring a new life into this world and run a soul. It is the money what makes thing happen in the world. I know this runs contrary to everything we have ever heard since childhood about money—“It cannot buy happiness, it cannot buy health, and it cannot buy love.” Reality opposes to these innocent childhood tales. The fact is that money solves all the problem of being poor. Whether it could be an affordable health care coverage which money buys to save an injured life or the roof above one’s head to bring a good night sleep. Nagging truth is that, lack of sound finances has crumbled up many more families, has crunched many businesses worldwide.
There is no shame in admitting that I care about money. By all means I would like to garner wealth that can be utilized in productive ways. I admire Bill Gates and Warren Buffett not because they are rich because they could capitalize their mind abundantly. Talk about the jobs they have provided to million of households, children’s who are able to go to schools and ménage have been fueled because of their richness. Therefore, I hold the deep respect and understanding of what and where money precedes us.
Although the thought of owning money seemed too cumbersome, its ramifications as to how much is too enormous to even pinpoint. Bible quotes: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I am perplexed to resolve this religious faith. Curelessly, I am more driven to an amorphous concern why in the world does the society gives money owners/ holders so much power? A sensation of poor being neglected is unfair and unhealthy. A county’s fate is defined by the per capital income, no body counts on how faithful, hardworking and genuine citizens are really. Really struck me. More than, I began to wonder where does the non-economic factor such as honesty, unselfishness exist in establishing economic hierarchy?
The problem does not underline for having it. By all means, money allows us to buy all the conveniences and other people’s time when needed. Money becomes a problem when people make it the most important thing in their lives at the expense of everything and everyone else. It becomes a problem when it becomes a royal obsession.
I excluded my thought of owning money for a minute. I then asked myself has life been preserved beyond money. I smiled and replied back to my own riddle, may be anyone who thinks money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know where to shop because everything in this world whether good or bad, costs MONEY!
For many years, there had been little laughter and even fewer smiles throughout the world. People are quickly sensing the cheerless atmosphere, and words like, “inflation”, “unemployment” and “bankruptcies” have commonly grounded in our daily descriptions. The richest people in the world have gotten poorer just like rest of us. In the midst of summer, I began to question, why money has become eminently desirable more and more, every day. So, before I allowed my allusions to intrigue me, I decided to speak my mind that has been unwittingly captured by the essence of money.
In a true economics sense, money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services. Although when we say as, one has saved a lot of money in his/her investment portfolio, or makes a lot of money, nonetheless, we are talking about the wealth and salary here. More to the point, how much ever I would like to spotlight the definition, the money’s creation and growth seems intangible.
Money is the center of our society. From my personal standpoint, I do admit that life is way more fun when one can stop thinking about money and just live life. Regardless of whether I admit it or not, it costs money to bring a new life into this world and run a soul. It is the money what makes thing happen in the world. I know this runs contrary to everything we have ever heard since childhood about money—“It cannot buy happiness, it cannot buy health, and it cannot buy love.” Reality opposes to these innocent childhood tales. The fact is that money solves all the problem of being poor. Whether it could be an affordable health care coverage which money buys to save an injured life or the roof above one’s head to bring a good night sleep. Nagging truth is that, lack of sound finances has crumbled up many more families, has crunched many businesses worldwide.
There is no shame in admitting that I care about money. By all means I would like to garner wealth that can be utilized in productive ways. I admire Bill Gates and Warren Buffett not because they are rich because they could capitalize their mind abundantly. Talk about the jobs they have provided to million of households, children’s who are able to go to schools and ménage have been fueled because of their richness. Therefore, I hold the deep respect and understanding of what and where money precedes us.
Although the thought of owning money seemed too cumbersome, its ramifications as to how much is too enormous to even pinpoint. Bible quotes: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I am perplexed to resolve this religious faith. Curelessly, I am more driven to an amorphous concern why in the world does the society gives money owners/ holders so much power? A sensation of poor being neglected is unfair and unhealthy. A county’s fate is defined by the per capital income, no body counts on how faithful, hardworking and genuine citizens are really. Really struck me. More than, I began to wonder where does the non-economic factor such as honesty, unselfishness exist in establishing economic hierarchy?
The problem does not underline for having it. By all means, money allows us to buy all the conveniences and other people’s time when needed. Money becomes a problem when people make it the most important thing in their lives at the expense of everything and everyone else. It becomes a problem when it becomes a royal obsession.
I excluded my thought of owning money for a minute. I then asked myself has life been preserved beyond money. I smiled and replied back to my own riddle, may be anyone who thinks money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know where to shop because everything in this world whether good or bad, costs MONEY!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Rolling Time by Riwaj Kharel
Rolling Time…
Together we grew together we played.
Moments of laughters and cries, together we shared.
What’s going on now, where have we reached.
Except miles of distance, what have we achieved?
Where would I find you, if I need to cry?
How would I see you, whenever you smile?
And what are we running for in this walk of life.
Are we living enough or just drifting with time?
Sometimes I miss you when I am alone.
Sometimes I cherish all those moments gone.
Those silly mischiefs and our little fights
Sometimes I see them in my dreams all night.
When was the last time we sat together?
Without any rush, talking family matters.
And when would it be again in future
To fill this emptiness, to get a suture
I don’t want any piles of paper.
No medals or nothing, for not being together.
What would it cost to live a time
Together all again in same old style…
riwaZ.
Together we grew together we played.
Moments of laughters and cries, together we shared.
What’s going on now, where have we reached.
Except miles of distance, what have we achieved?
Where would I find you, if I need to cry?
How would I see you, whenever you smile?
And what are we running for in this walk of life.
Are we living enough or just drifting with time?
Sometimes I miss you when I am alone.
Sometimes I cherish all those moments gone.
Those silly mischiefs and our little fights
Sometimes I see them in my dreams all night.
When was the last time we sat together?
Without any rush, talking family matters.
And when would it be again in future
To fill this emptiness, to get a suture
I don’t want any piles of paper.
No medals or nothing, for not being together.
What would it cost to live a time
Together all again in same old style…
riwaZ.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Freeridership
I have long felt that we are alluded by free-rider problem. The degree of its adversity is not only a concern among my folks, but to a great extent, very unfortunately, the problem is wide-spread evenly to the both worlds which I am part of, the United States and Nepal. As much as I want to avert the free rider problem, in reality, the problem seems more abundant and long ignored within us.
Without being bias, let’s explore the possibilities of how and why this problem has ruled our day to day activities. Can we blame ourselves for building up this kind of mind set up?
Without a doubt, the notion of fairness is controversial. Time and again it is tough to relinquish the opportunity, undeniably. And on top if it is provided for free, then who would want to pay for it? Of course the Government, who else could hold such a generous heart. Although through the government the societies address free rider problems, nonetheless, the government cannot alone ensure to reduce the shrinkage of the current economic situation if we ourselves are not held accountable to our actions. Understanding the verity, in the U.S, we have had 3 surpluses and approximately 37 annual deficits since the great depression (1969). How long can the Government hold to fix churning labor market or guarantees to pay the social security benefits to the retirees when the social security trust funds are depleting slowly. Matter of fact, by 2041, Social security trust will run out of fund completely when our demographics revels that we will bear influxes of baby boomer generations. What we have not realized is that we already have too many problems to void and pass it to the government to fix it.
I grew up in Nepal seeing people riding free on the voting preference of others. I did find here in the U.S with some folks who have stretched their last few dollars to pay health insurance, yet others have ridden free without paying any part on premiums. The existence of free riding is everywhere. I question to myself why are we reluctant to tackle the problem that we encounter with our own capabilities? Without even contemplating the problem twice, we quickly resolve it by generalizing that we ought to think this way because why only we should initiate. Let the other people ache their head. We are so accustomed to somebody doing it for us, and it is heavenly safe if other does it for us, atleast we don’t have to put up with the risks.
As much as I don’t want to acknowledge the situation, yet it is stunningly shameful.
I do understand the fact that societal norms may have grounded us to array our clean, white, shiny and lovely of ourselves. Circumventing, we portray our living by forming a culture of outsmarting at the cost of others. As if it has been our trend and we could never excel otherwise to our endeavors. Let’s not even whisper of considering and respecting others because that might conflict our interest right away. We ought to have shortsightedness in being accountable.
On the other side, we live in the society where the media poses constant threat, as if one slides away little bit from the fancy presumable world, that could be the end of it. It is tough not to be preoccupied with the thoughts of gaining perfection by competing others constantly. When the outcome is so laudable in the eyes of others, who wouldn’t want to compete? Such practice has jeopardized many ventures. Afterall it is all and only about winning the game. The message we get from our medias is no different than those infomercials whose purpose is to promote their sponsor’s product, rather than to search for the best way to improve it.
Time and again when the going gets tough, we demonstrate it by riding it on free.
This ever lasting trend of freeridership has distorted us and our community. I question to myself, “Why do we exhibit so disparate preferences? How far should we head to redeem ourselves free from freeridership???
Without being bias, let’s explore the possibilities of how and why this problem has ruled our day to day activities. Can we blame ourselves for building up this kind of mind set up?
Without a doubt, the notion of fairness is controversial. Time and again it is tough to relinquish the opportunity, undeniably. And on top if it is provided for free, then who would want to pay for it? Of course the Government, who else could hold such a generous heart. Although through the government the societies address free rider problems, nonetheless, the government cannot alone ensure to reduce the shrinkage of the current economic situation if we ourselves are not held accountable to our actions. Understanding the verity, in the U.S, we have had 3 surpluses and approximately 37 annual deficits since the great depression (1969). How long can the Government hold to fix churning labor market or guarantees to pay the social security benefits to the retirees when the social security trust funds are depleting slowly. Matter of fact, by 2041, Social security trust will run out of fund completely when our demographics revels that we will bear influxes of baby boomer generations. What we have not realized is that we already have too many problems to void and pass it to the government to fix it.
I grew up in Nepal seeing people riding free on the voting preference of others. I did find here in the U.S with some folks who have stretched their last few dollars to pay health insurance, yet others have ridden free without paying any part on premiums. The existence of free riding is everywhere. I question to myself why are we reluctant to tackle the problem that we encounter with our own capabilities? Without even contemplating the problem twice, we quickly resolve it by generalizing that we ought to think this way because why only we should initiate. Let the other people ache their head. We are so accustomed to somebody doing it for us, and it is heavenly safe if other does it for us, atleast we don’t have to put up with the risks.
As much as I don’t want to acknowledge the situation, yet it is stunningly shameful.
I do understand the fact that societal norms may have grounded us to array our clean, white, shiny and lovely of ourselves. Circumventing, we portray our living by forming a culture of outsmarting at the cost of others. As if it has been our trend and we could never excel otherwise to our endeavors. Let’s not even whisper of considering and respecting others because that might conflict our interest right away. We ought to have shortsightedness in being accountable.
On the other side, we live in the society where the media poses constant threat, as if one slides away little bit from the fancy presumable world, that could be the end of it. It is tough not to be preoccupied with the thoughts of gaining perfection by competing others constantly. When the outcome is so laudable in the eyes of others, who wouldn’t want to compete? Such practice has jeopardized many ventures. Afterall it is all and only about winning the game. The message we get from our medias is no different than those infomercials whose purpose is to promote their sponsor’s product, rather than to search for the best way to improve it.
Time and again when the going gets tough, we demonstrate it by riding it on free.
This ever lasting trend of freeridership has distorted us and our community. I question to myself, “Why do we exhibit so disparate preferences? How far should we head to redeem ourselves free from freeridership???
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