Enjoy today as the world could end tomorrow
Friday, 12 September 2008
Maswood Alam Khan from Washington, USA
There are shops in America that won't accept cash for anything you buy as handling cash invites complications as to handing back changes to a buyer and verifying genuineness of currencies on the part of a seller. The salesman will ask for your credit card.
Credit cards are smart to rid both the buyers and the sellers of the jingles and hassles of cash in coins and notes. The validity of a credit card is smartly verified in a matter of few seconds by an 'electronic verification system' that reads the card's magnetic chip to crosscheck everything as to credit limit or balance availability etc., against the card and gives the green signal to the seller to go ahead with the sale. Living in America without a credit card is, allegorically speaking, like moving on a rainy day without an umbrella.
Credit cards are cool as issuers of credit cards usually waive interest charges if the outstanding balance is paid in full each month. If, for example, you had a $1,000 transaction and repaid it in full within the grace period of one month, there would be no interest charged for all the goods and services you have enjoyed without having any money in your pocket or in your bank. You may have enjoyed even some discounts on your purchases for your using credit cards, instead of cash. It seems you were all too gainer and had squarely cheated both the credit card issuing bank and the seller.
But the story is not so simple and the bankers not so naive! Behind your back the bankers and the traders are in discreet pacts to make money out of all your small and big purchases. Further, they eagerly wait for the moment when you, unmindful of the financial burden you have ultimately to bear, step into their traps---when you fail to resist your temptation to buy a necklace or a pair of cufflinks made of artificial gold dazzling inside a glasshouse-like showcase as you stroll in a posh shopping mall.
If, even $1.00 of the total amount of your previous month's transaction of $1,000 remained unpaid, interest would be charged on the whole of $1,000 from the date of all your purchases until the payment is received. That is the price of your credit card you have to pay and the banker waits to prise from your wallet.
In the last week of every month a great majority of Americans who depend on their monthly pay checks find their cards are all maxed out, meaning the limit up to which the credit card could be charged is over. At such a time an American spends pitiable days when if you buy him a simple soft drink it would mean to him a bonanza showered directly from haven.
I was surprised as I was talking to a black American in Berkeley who was narrating the story of his painful living. He was enamoured as I offered to buy him a mug of coffee in a Starbucks coffee parlour. To reciprocate my hospitality he offered me a free ride in his car from the California University campus to my brother's house nearby, a ten minutes drive. While talking to him on my way to my brother's place I appreciated his new Volvo car and asked for its price. "US $ 1,300", he quickly replied. "Are you kidding?" I retorted, "Such a car for only $1,300?" "How much is it in Bangladesh?" he enquired. "Not less than $ 500,000", I made a guess. He couldn't believe me. After conversing on the issue for about two minutes I could realize at last that $1,300 is the monthly instalment he has to pay to his bank---not the price of the new Volvo car!
In America buyers don't much bother about the price of a product or service. Because, to their opinion, paying for something is none of their business, it is the bank's headache. The buyers only consider whether they can pay the monthly instalments out of their present income.
And the banker knows his client has no savings, nor any tangible property; so a bank keenly observes a prospective client's track records as to his/her present income, age, health, and knowledge to foresee how much s/he would be earning. Accordingly, in the absence of any collateral security the bank offers loan to a client mortgaging his future ability only and extracts from his/her weekly or monthly pay checks their investments along with interests accrued---thus making the client the bank's cash cow.
We all have bumps in the road, that's reality in America as well as in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh there is a natural propensity for us to save and spend as much as we can afford. We save money and build a home so our children, when they will grow up, may encash our savings left out and find a home ready to live in when we would pass away.
But, in America people believe in living today as best as one can manage by taking everything on credit, because they don't bother about what would happen tomorrow to themselves or to their children. Tomorrow, to them, is not alive. Americans are typically wired to pay home mortgage and the car payments as long as they can; but, they rarely invest cash in a bank's savings account. Their houses and their cars are taken away by the banks as they stop paying their monthly instalments.
The old in America are neglected not only by their banks as they have lost their income-generating capacity, children of the old also shiver at the thought of bearing a part of their parents' burden, a situation unthinkable in our country, however poor we are in Bangladesh. Retired life in America is 100 times worse than that in Bangladesh.
Of course, intelligent Americans start investing in different modes at their young age with a view to balancing his/her today's life with life in the future. The most common investment is in homes they buy with their little savings as their own equity and asking a bank to bear the major part of the price assuming that the realty price would ultimately go up, which actually goes up, and the home owner would get at their twilight years a nice nest egg in the form of appreciated value of the home thus purchased. But, with recession looming large over the whole world the possibility of hatching such a nest egg now seems uncertain.
That the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is our belief and I thought 'American grass is the greenest in the whole world' before I had embarked upon America as a visitor. True. Everything American is impeccable. Every home is picturesque. Public amenities are neat and clean---a situation not quite imaginable in Bangladesh.
But the more I dug deep into the living patterns of Americans the more I discovered to my dismay that beneath the well-manicured green grass of America are laid the greyest realities of living a life in the western world.
Apparently Americans are happy and content when you look at their houses, their cars, their roads and highways, their chic shopping malls, their trendy dresses, and their foods. But, if you spend a little bit of time with anyone of them and ask him/her to honestly answer 'how is life?' s/he will keep mum; his/her silence speaks a volume about the haplessness in the West.
Peace in the truest sense of the term is a rarity in America. Because, almost everybody has to pay back debts and there is hardly anyone I have come across who has savings in a bank to repose on. So, as they start feeling the weight of age a gloomy phase looms up ahead of them.
There is a wonderful Jewish teaching that I came to learn from a novel many years back. The Jewish teaching tells us that before a child is born, God infuses that child with all of the knowledge and wisdom he or she needs in life. Then God puts his finger on the child's lips and says, "shh", making at that moment a secret pact between the child and God. As the story goes, that's why every one of us has that indentation on the upper lip; it is God's fingerprint, according to Jewish teaching.
But as time passes by, that purity and wisdom God infused into unborn babies get eroded. Children become socialized and shaped by experience. Life changes them into something different.
A few days back I visited the famous Empire State Building on the 34th Street of the 5th Avenue in New York. As I was enjoying the beauty of nocturnal New York silhouetted against a dazzling skyline someone at my back in a low tone uttered: "You are Bangladeshi, sir?" "Yes, I am", I answered politely. I was delighted to meet a Bangladeshi at the Observation Deck above the 86th floor when a chilly wind was lashing at my face and ballooning up my half-sleeved Hawaii shirt as I was shivering in cold. Suddenly I felt warm talking to someone in my mother tongue.
He is an elderly man neatly shaved with a butterfly moustache like Hitler's. Nicely attired in his official uniform and a cap adorned with a badge saying "Security" he introduced himself as one from Netrokona of Bangladesh. We talked for a while, and he seemed unusually bright and insightful. I wanted to get to know him a little better. When he told me he served in Bangladesh Navy and when he could recollect some of my friends who held high ranks in Bangladesh Navy, I got more interested.
As it turned out, he had left Bangladesh Navy about fifteen years back to settle in USA. When he was a young cadet, he wanted to become an Admiral. As he told this, he turned reflective. "It's a funny thing about life," he said, gazing skyward. "I thought I would be an Admiral and instead, here I am guarding a gate of Empire State Building in New York." To assuage his remorseful feelings I told him, "Man, life is like that. Enjoy whatever you are blessed with. When I was young I was brilliant in Mathematics and I dreamt to be an engineer and instead, I am now busy with debits of credits of my bank's clients. I had a dream to settle in America too." I added: "I think we are born square and we die round."
Birds fly hundreds of miles in quest for warmer climate; grazing animals migrate from dry to wet areas for greener plants. As the waters of life wash over us, we humans too migrate from one continent to another in quest for havens. During our voyages we often lose our sense of directions as we lose some innate insights a wise man should have; we lose some of our sharp corners and turn roundish. We forget what God whispered to us about wisdom when we were waiting to be born. But the evidence of that wisdom stays with us---right under our noses!
(The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He may be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com)
There are shops in America that won't accept cash for anything you buy as handling cash invites complications as to handing back changes to a buyer and verifying genuineness of currencies on the part of a seller. The salesman will ask for your credit card.
Credit cards are smart to rid both the buyers and the sellers of the jingles and hassles of cash in coins and notes. The validity of a credit card is smartly verified in a matter of few seconds by an 'electronic verification system' that reads the card's magnetic chip to crosscheck everything as to credit limit or balance availability etc., against the card and gives the green signal to the seller to go ahead with the sale. Living in America without a credit card is, allegorically speaking, like moving on a rainy day without an umbrella.
Credit cards are cool as issuers of credit cards usually waive interest charges if the outstanding balance is paid in full each month. If, for example, you had a $1,000 transaction and repaid it in full within the grace period of one month, there would be no interest charged for all the goods and services you have enjoyed without having any money in your pocket or in your bank. You may have enjoyed even some discounts on your purchases for your using credit cards, instead of cash. It seems you were all too gainer and had squarely cheated both the credit card issuing bank and the seller.
But the story is not so simple and the bankers not so naive! Behind your back the bankers and the traders are in discreet pacts to make money out of all your small and big purchases. Further, they eagerly wait for the moment when you, unmindful of the financial burden you have ultimately to bear, step into their traps---when you fail to resist your temptation to buy a necklace or a pair of cufflinks made of artificial gold dazzling inside a glasshouse-like showcase as you stroll in a posh shopping mall.
If, even $1.00 of the total amount of your previous month's transaction of $1,000 remained unpaid, interest would be charged on the whole of $1,000 from the date of all your purchases until the payment is received. That is the price of your credit card you have to pay and the banker waits to prise from your wallet.
In the last week of every month a great majority of Americans who depend on their monthly pay checks find their cards are all maxed out, meaning the limit up to which the credit card could be charged is over. At such a time an American spends pitiable days when if you buy him a simple soft drink it would mean to him a bonanza showered directly from haven.
I was surprised as I was talking to a black American in Berkeley who was narrating the story of his painful living. He was enamoured as I offered to buy him a mug of coffee in a Starbucks coffee parlour. To reciprocate my hospitality he offered me a free ride in his car from the California University campus to my brother's house nearby, a ten minutes drive. While talking to him on my way to my brother's place I appreciated his new Volvo car and asked for its price. "US $ 1,300", he quickly replied. "Are you kidding?" I retorted, "Such a car for only $1,300?" "How much is it in Bangladesh?" he enquired. "Not less than $ 500,000", I made a guess. He couldn't believe me. After conversing on the issue for about two minutes I could realize at last that $1,300 is the monthly instalment he has to pay to his bank---not the price of the new Volvo car!
In America buyers don't much bother about the price of a product or service. Because, to their opinion, paying for something is none of their business, it is the bank's headache. The buyers only consider whether they can pay the monthly instalments out of their present income.
And the banker knows his client has no savings, nor any tangible property; so a bank keenly observes a prospective client's track records as to his/her present income, age, health, and knowledge to foresee how much s/he would be earning. Accordingly, in the absence of any collateral security the bank offers loan to a client mortgaging his future ability only and extracts from his/her weekly or monthly pay checks their investments along with interests accrued---thus making the client the bank's cash cow.
We all have bumps in the road, that's reality in America as well as in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh there is a natural propensity for us to save and spend as much as we can afford. We save money and build a home so our children, when they will grow up, may encash our savings left out and find a home ready to live in when we would pass away.
But, in America people believe in living today as best as one can manage by taking everything on credit, because they don't bother about what would happen tomorrow to themselves or to their children. Tomorrow, to them, is not alive. Americans are typically wired to pay home mortgage and the car payments as long as they can; but, they rarely invest cash in a bank's savings account. Their houses and their cars are taken away by the banks as they stop paying their monthly instalments.
The old in America are neglected not only by their banks as they have lost their income-generating capacity, children of the old also shiver at the thought of bearing a part of their parents' burden, a situation unthinkable in our country, however poor we are in Bangladesh. Retired life in America is 100 times worse than that in Bangladesh.
Of course, intelligent Americans start investing in different modes at their young age with a view to balancing his/her today's life with life in the future. The most common investment is in homes they buy with their little savings as their own equity and asking a bank to bear the major part of the price assuming that the realty price would ultimately go up, which actually goes up, and the home owner would get at their twilight years a nice nest egg in the form of appreciated value of the home thus purchased. But, with recession looming large over the whole world the possibility of hatching such a nest egg now seems uncertain.
That the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is our belief and I thought 'American grass is the greenest in the whole world' before I had embarked upon America as a visitor. True. Everything American is impeccable. Every home is picturesque. Public amenities are neat and clean---a situation not quite imaginable in Bangladesh.
But the more I dug deep into the living patterns of Americans the more I discovered to my dismay that beneath the well-manicured green grass of America are laid the greyest realities of living a life in the western world.
Apparently Americans are happy and content when you look at their houses, their cars, their roads and highways, their chic shopping malls, their trendy dresses, and their foods. But, if you spend a little bit of time with anyone of them and ask him/her to honestly answer 'how is life?' s/he will keep mum; his/her silence speaks a volume about the haplessness in the West.
Peace in the truest sense of the term is a rarity in America. Because, almost everybody has to pay back debts and there is hardly anyone I have come across who has savings in a bank to repose on. So, as they start feeling the weight of age a gloomy phase looms up ahead of them.
There is a wonderful Jewish teaching that I came to learn from a novel many years back. The Jewish teaching tells us that before a child is born, God infuses that child with all of the knowledge and wisdom he or she needs in life. Then God puts his finger on the child's lips and says, "shh", making at that moment a secret pact between the child and God. As the story goes, that's why every one of us has that indentation on the upper lip; it is God's fingerprint, according to Jewish teaching.
But as time passes by, that purity and wisdom God infused into unborn babies get eroded. Children become socialized and shaped by experience. Life changes them into something different.
A few days back I visited the famous Empire State Building on the 34th Street of the 5th Avenue in New York. As I was enjoying the beauty of nocturnal New York silhouetted against a dazzling skyline someone at my back in a low tone uttered: "You are Bangladeshi, sir?" "Yes, I am", I answered politely. I was delighted to meet a Bangladeshi at the Observation Deck above the 86th floor when a chilly wind was lashing at my face and ballooning up my half-sleeved Hawaii shirt as I was shivering in cold. Suddenly I felt warm talking to someone in my mother tongue.
He is an elderly man neatly shaved with a butterfly moustache like Hitler's. Nicely attired in his official uniform and a cap adorned with a badge saying "Security" he introduced himself as one from Netrokona of Bangladesh. We talked for a while, and he seemed unusually bright and insightful. I wanted to get to know him a little better. When he told me he served in Bangladesh Navy and when he could recollect some of my friends who held high ranks in Bangladesh Navy, I got more interested.
As it turned out, he had left Bangladesh Navy about fifteen years back to settle in USA. When he was a young cadet, he wanted to become an Admiral. As he told this, he turned reflective. "It's a funny thing about life," he said, gazing skyward. "I thought I would be an Admiral and instead, here I am guarding a gate of Empire State Building in New York." To assuage his remorseful feelings I told him, "Man, life is like that. Enjoy whatever you are blessed with. When I was young I was brilliant in Mathematics and I dreamt to be an engineer and instead, I am now busy with debits of credits of my bank's clients. I had a dream to settle in America too." I added: "I think we are born square and we die round."
Birds fly hundreds of miles in quest for warmer climate; grazing animals migrate from dry to wet areas for greener plants. As the waters of life wash over us, we humans too migrate from one continent to another in quest for havens. During our voyages we often lose our sense of directions as we lose some innate insights a wise man should have; we lose some of our sharp corners and turn roundish. We forget what God whispered to us about wisdom when we were waiting to be born. But the evidence of that wisdom stays with us---right under our noses!
(The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He may be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com)