Monday, March 23, 2009

Mystery solved. What is wealth?

Those who have been looking at the last few AKIC blogspot entries, know that a mysterious commentor named "H" had left a comment on my blog. You should also know that I guessed that this certain "H" was Heather, and it turned out that I was correct. Heather lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I know her from my time attending the University of Winnipeg a long. long time ago. We have kept in touch over the years. But since I moved to China, she disappeared, internetly. I have almost given up reaching her again until she left that comment.

Heather! You can see what I have been up to by reading this blog. Please visit AKIC as many times as possible. This month is shaping up to be a record month for numbers for AKIC blogspot. So, if you could encourage all your relatives and co-workers to visit as well.....

I should also praise Heather to the hilt. What should I say? If she was a millionaire, it would make me happy like learning my kid brother won the lottery. Some people you just want the best for and you would never think to begrudge them their good fortune. You wouldn't think to go over and sponge.



What is wealth? I briefly talked with my students last night. I told my students that, in my opinion, wealth is having a lot of what you consider to be valuable. I asked the students if having a mobile phone meant they possessed wealth. Most of them said no. When I asked them why, they told me because everyone has a mobile phone these days. It seemed that their definition of wealth was having a lot of things that others considered valuable. Even after I told them that in the palm of their hands, a mobile phone contains things that the greatest emperors of China never possessed, they didn't see a mobile phone as wealth. They even said that China was wealthier in the past than now. Their reasoning was that in times past, China was the greatest empire on earth and so at that time, it had the greatest wealth. Wealth it seemed to them was relative. I think it is subjective.

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