During the first few days of the Chinese New Year, I received literally hundreds of festive messages, greetings, photos and videos from various social media groups ... most were simple festive greetings, some were quite funny and a few were creatively done.
Like all other people, I too shared some of the good ones
with my friends who celebrate this festive occasion.However I have some concerns for a couple of the videos that I received and I believed they were being shared by many in social media groups ... one video was about a group of people using stacks of RM100 bills to make a money tree. From what I saw on the video, these people must have used at least a couple of hundred thousand to make the money tree ... really, every bit of the tree was made with $$$$$$$$$$$$.
The other video was of a group of people performing the celebratory “lou sarng”... but instead of the usual “yee sarng” (fish salad), they placed a big heap of RM50 and RM100 bills on a huge plate and tossed these bills with the usual shouts of auspicious words and wishes.
Now why am I so concerned about these videos?
First ... I want to ask ... why do people want to make these
videos? Is it tradition? Is it custom? Is it religion? Is it value? Is it ethics?
Is it belief?
NO ... none of the above!
Second ... why do we want to share these videos? What do
they give us?
Happiness? Do we suddenly feel very happy? Do they give us
love? Do you suddenly want to hug someone? Do they give us satisfaction? Or
appreciation? Or maybe orgasm?
NO ... nothing!
Videos like these only tell us one thing ... the people who
make these videos ... they just want to show off. To show off that they have
money ... using money to glorify themselves. It is like using a 100 dollar bill
to light a cigarette ... it is like Jho Low splashing millions of dollars on
expensive champagnes ... just to
show off.
Maybe there is nothing wrong sharing these videos ... but there is nothing right either. I don't share videos like these ... I don’t encourage people to show off ...
especially showing off with money.
Now, instead of using the money to make a money tree ... why
not use the money to help the needy? Hey, donate the money ... or use it to buy
necessities and donate to old folk homes, orphanages and charity organizations.
Help someone who is sick ... donate a dialysis machine or pay for someone’s
education ... how about that? Then make a video and share it ... now that will
definitely be something worth spreading in the social media.
And talking about donation ... I would like to offer a few
words of my opinion on what I saw just last week while on the way to our
weekend trek. We stopped by at Serendah for breakfast and at the coffee shop I
noticed a big manila cardboard with writings posted near where we sat. At a
closer look, I saw what was written on the big card ... it was a list of names
of who donated how much to buy fireworks and who sponsored how many
“kongming lanterns”. I guessed it must have been for the celebration prayers to
“tien gong” (god of heaven)... it is a big thing in many villages.
The list was long with people offering from RM50 to RM500.
I think the total must have been a few thousand dollars at least. For those who
donated, their intentions were good ... they wanted to help make the
celebration prayers a bit better and merrier ... and maybe to show off a bit
too ... telling the people they have done a part for their village.
It is customary that during festive occasions people want to
make it joyous and merrier by setting off fireworks and fire crackers ... I can
understand that but collecting thousands of dollars for fireworks just to make
a big show off out of it ... that is not good.
Why burn away the money collected? Why not donate the few
thousands to the needy and the poor? And then put up a cardboard with names of
those who have donated to some orphanages or old folk homes or maybe help a kid
from their village through college or university ... now, isn’t that more
meaningful?
