In Malaysia, we are fond of saying we can take every Tong, Teck and Ah Lee from the village but not the village from them. While we admire people moving up the social ladder and living in upmarket, gated residential enclaves, who is actually having a better quality of life depends on our perspective.
The following story has been going round for sometime but is worth repeating for the benefit of those who have not read it before:One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from the trip, the father asked his son, ‘How was the trip?’
‘It was great, Dad.’
‘Did you see how poor people live? the father asked.
‘Oh yeah,’ said the son.
‘So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?’ asked the father.
The son answered:
I saw that we have one dog and they had four;
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end;
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night;
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon;
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond;
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs;
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.
The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added,
‘Thanks Dad, for showing me how poor we are.’
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