Haves and Have-Nots

Thursday, 22 June 2007
11.15AM
Koningsstraat, Amsterdam

I called my mom yesterday and we got to talking about her job. Being a 'public servant', the higher your position is, the more people treat you like royalty. My mom, with her non-feodalistic, 'egalitarian' approach refuses to be treated this way. She emphasised on how she thinks we are all supposed to be the same; that the rich, the educated, the physically capables - are all so by chance. Some say it's God's will and some say it's nature's course. But nonetheless, it's a thought to ponder: if all the fortunes we have are due to opportunity, how do we deal with inequality?

From all the Friendster photos of your friends, which are taken in the office (small cublicles and uncomfortable-looking office clothes) - perhaps hundreds of them - how many of these people actually have the necessary capabilities needed by a multi-national and/or national company to excel as manager within 5 years? How many of those who excel as manager, have the networking skills to become director in 10-20 years? How many of them got their position in the first place because a member of their families pulled some strings?

I wish I had numbers, but all I can do is assume that the answer is: a few (honestly, the thought that most of them will be stuck in dead-end jobs for decades scare the crap out of me). The underlying logis is: not everyone can be excellent, not everyone falls into the category of the 'social haves' - because if everyone is special, then no one is special. If everyone is smart, then everyone is mediocre.

Though fortune is fortune, it's not a curse and at most times, it is well-earned. However I think it's important to embed in our minds that in order to get to the position we are in, there are so many other variables other than ourselves that are put into play - including the 'have-nots' of other people, that supported some of us to be 'haves'.

This is why I really support the concept of zakat, persepuluhan, tax, charity - what have yous; in its broadest sense. If some of us are so fortunate to be able to be distinguishable and be the few who are weeded out as 'leaders', then in our money, in our capablities and in our achievements - lies the rights of others. If it were not for them, 'we' would never be. As Albert Einstein so elloquently puts it, "Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."