I have been thinking about how Singapore has been, and still very much is, Mammon Inc.
It was stark 20-30 years ago when I was schooling, and when I read the book, and when I started work and was trying to make sense of society and my place in it.
Many years later, my values have largely remained the same, reflected in my choice of workplace and lifestyle.
Lately, I have been thinking of this even more, as the future beckons.
People in this materialistic, power-hungry if not wealth-desperate society are impressed by young people who can make millions faster than themselves.
I look askance, and say I am far more impressed by the young man who has decided to devote a season every year to fund raise for a border hospital, and now villagers in a slum who cannot afford roofs in the monsoon season.
Instead of lamenting and feeling paralysed by the falleness of this completely broken world, taking a tiny step to make any life better, should be the human way forward.
Who you surround yourself with matters.
This is so basic, and any parent will tell a child that.
But who do these parents surround themselves with?
The rich and successful, hoping that some of it will rub off on themselves? Or that they will be as such by association? Is it more subtly called, building the right networks? It has become so pervasive and insiduous, parents routinely fight for places in elite old-boy schools to start their kids off ‘on the right foot’, so that they ‘build the right networks’ and belong to the ‘right alumni associations’ from the get-go.
It may be a tad rich for me to criticise this, since I belong to many of these circles (though my offspring don’t). But I suppose there can still be a choice on who to mainly associate with on a daily basis, and why one does so.
Instead of hob-nobbing or deciding to work closely with the well-heeled and famous, those who wield power in rarified stratospheres, I found myself reflecting on how I should commit my time and energies to those whose lifework is pleasing to the Lord. It does not have to be in Christian circles, or specifically Christian work within the church, for the Lord knows that there is usually enough efforts and funds in those areas.
Rather, perhaps NGOs or VWOs that could have Christian affiliations or not, but who work with the least, where the need is great. Might not be where the need is greatest, since it also depends on whether I am useful in those contexts. But an area of need where I can be the most useful.
And therein, I believe, would lie true meaning, if not true greatness, in the upside-down economy of our Lord.
