My misadventures into Advertising

My relationship with advertising and branding has some parallels with my relationship to learning and schooling. In my blogs on schooling and learning, I have made it very clear that I was a person who struggled and suffered considerably under a compulsory 11 years of schooling. That happened because I had an idea of what learning and education should be and schooling not only frustrated my personal development but damaged my goodwill towards the idea of helping people learn.

My relationship to branding and advertising, thankfully, did not last 11 years and I did not suffer the same emasculation of enthusiasm from it. I withdrew from the path early enough before the delusions of 'career advancement' and the dependence on a 'salary' and 'a particular lifestyle' weakened my reserve. But in both instances, schooling and advertising, I entered full of hopes and ideas and philosophies, thirsting to learn and grow so I can add more value to people's lives. But in both, I found that the players were more interested in what they want to hear, say and do than to create value for others. In both, their own idea of their own importance, 'abillity', seniority or ability to suck-up to whoever to get the next bonus/promotion seemed to trump the importance of putting their ears to the ground, understanding and delivering the goods.

But my experience in both schooling for a diploma and schooling to learn about advertising wasn't for nought. My favourite part of school was learning languages and my favourite part of LICT was the psychological aspects of branding and consumer behaviour. Both were about how people perceive the world and then express themselves based on the messages and symbolisms they received. Like language expression, consumer behaviour isn't android behaviour. The belief of both advertisers and researchers that consumers will react and behave in highly predictable ways year in and year out is highly flawed, just as the Skinner-Pavlovian school of thought about language learning is. It might take decades for the people vested in these industries to take notice but it's harder to change a person than it is to replace them with someone else. In other words, by the time 'archaic' teachers and advertising people turn around, they would be rendered null and void. Not only is information doubling at a faster rate than any other time in human history, it is my opinion that teachers and advertising people are too into themselves to want to accept learning and change.

Advertising people and teachers want to position and re-brand everyone else, but themselves. Schoolchildren resist the indoctrination happening in school and consumers' resistance to (sometimes, distaste for) traditional advertising messages is getting to the same level. Many people experienced schooling as a dumbing down process; many consumers feel the same way when coming across most ads these days. It's no longer just 'dissonance' consumers feel, it's outright disassociation with a brand.

When I was a freshman in college, I chose one of my assignments on the topic of "How Effective is Advertising." I remember I was the only one in class who did not advocate the merits of advertising. Everyone else was going the way of what the textbook says - you know, 4Ps, creating awareness, image, etc. My classmates were horrified at the stand I was taking and the way I chose to respond to the question of whether advertising is necessary to creating astronomical sales. They were horrified at me because, here we are paying top dollar to take a course in advertising and, I was saying Advertising is not necessary. I had chosen the brand CLAIROL to illustrate my points and tell my 'story' as 'the target audience they missed by a mile and a day.'

That assignment was to be marked by one of the leading women execs in the industry then. To the rest of my classmates, I was marking my own advertising-wannabe grave; I'd never get a job in an industry that requires its workers to BELIEVE that advertising WORKS because our salaries and advancement in the trappings of life DEPEND on that to happen!

I got an A+ and my lecturer, this really awesome lady (married to a Mat Salleh, hint hint)asked the class to applaud the essay that no one else would write. I wouldn't want to speculate, but I think her approving of my stand against advertising being the 'King' of branding efforts might have something to do with her withdrawal from the industry just a few years later. I had prepared myself to get an 'F' for my paper if my lecturer had thought I was being so stupid for coming to advertising college just to say advertising isn't King.

Word got around soon after that I was the first person who had gotten an A+ from that particular lecturer and for a good 7 minutes, I had a reputation of being the slacker from Penang who outdid the kids from the big city. I had two minutes of glory of being 'intellectually respectable.'

We know the cliche that those who do well on school papers and exams don't always do as well in real life. That was very true for me. A few years after that A+ paper, I spent a total of 6 months in various advertising agencies as a copywriter before realizing how contrived the whole thing was. I know people are bound to say I'm stupid for writing for free (blogging) now but what's dumber is writing something that totally isn't you for a client that has no vision of what they want. Granted, it's the agency's 'job' to 'create' a 'vision' and paint consumers a rosy picture of the values the company's brand represents. In the advertising world, that's called being a gifted spin-doctor; if the Halo Effect follows, you get a promotion or bonus or both. If the dominos don't fall on cue, you're fired. - But if you try pulling that same spin in all other industries of 'real life' you could get sued for false representation or arrested by the Securities Commission for misleading information. The Consumers Association of Penang has a container(trailer) load of articles on this, so you know.

I could lie to myself and work harder than 20 hours a day to be in line for a ticket to the 'Emerald City', but I had one currency that couldn't be traded for Ringgit. I could not live with myself for being part of a team of spindoctors lying to the average Joe for "mindshare". The tough part about believing in a definite unravelling is that everyone thinks we're insane to give up something promising. I've written a blog recently about how people frame their future based on their past experiences and then base all their other observations and choices on that illussion. I still believe to this day that those people who thought 'advertising was a promising avenue' for me framed their expectations from the big bonuses and maverick appeal of larger-than-life copywriters of the 80s and early 90s - a bygone era where the kopi-writer was a romanticized icon of "the new creative workforce". Since 1999 and the years that followed, I had found it difficult to lie about what I studied for and did for a living; I dare not say I'm a copywriter because I know the image it conjures in people's minds and it was not an image I believed to be valid nor has significance. It's not that I'm completely ashamed of my naivete for choosing to study advertising instead of, say, journalism at Brown University or Law at Harvard....hahah, as if! But it appeared to me as if the market is so desperate for someone who can proofread, write copy and edit 'releases' that any one who 'has some kind of writing experience' gets offered a job.

Advertising has one big flaw : the belief that assembling a motley crew (someone to give creative direction, a designer, a copywriter, a sales face with a short skirt, a fallguy and an errand boy) could somehow outdo the best research in sociology, anthropology,psychiatry,logotherapy, economics, etc to come up with the answer of how to elicit a desired set of behaviour/response from the general populace. I can hear the argument that beauty advertisements 'succeeded' in making women feel insecure about themselves but who's to say whether the chicken or egg came first? I could easily say that advertising did the bidding of astute entrepreneurs who understood the hidden insecurities of women in certain societies. The entrepreneur wrote the score and arranged the symphony, the ad-agencies just played the tune for the audience.

I respect humanity too much (in general) to see them that way, as if they are like anemone that sway to the "Creative Wave" The Team created. The truth is, sooner or later, young 'advertising wannabes' grow up and realize they need meaning in order to have a fulfilling life. Being part of a team of spin-doctors, living in a world that cares about nothing else but the client's and their own bottom lines and awards, young people grow out of the neediness for approval and become weary of the glitter that isn't gold. I feel guilty in a way for not writing this 10 years earlier because I recently heard that a distant cousin of mine isn't doing so well in life after going to the same college I did and working herself to a frenzy in an industry known for not having night or day. I don't know her well enough to tell her anything about the choices and philosophies she builds her life from. I can just hope that it wasn't my aunt who opened her big mouth years ago about how fantastic my college was going for me, prompting other people to buy into the illussion those full page black-and-white ads conjure. Because I know of at least 3 other people my aunt could've talked to whose children ended up in that particular college. The Hair might've been pretty pleased with himself for 'realizing' his dream of setting up a world-class institution but I really don't think it was the advertising that was working. Whether he realized it or not, whether it was a factor he had manufactured or a coincidence, it was his ability to enter the market at the right time, when Gen-X-ers were looking for other choices other than Law, Medicine, Engineering and Business. He had the good fortune of attracting the most radical, creative, affluent children to accept the old bungalow and 'metal' containers as 'classrooms'. Looking at the new campus now, no one could've ever believed that classes were once conducted in rectangular, industry-standard trailers and in a building which creaks with every step you take.

Am I cheap?

I feel sorry for my daughter sometimes - from the point of view of a child, I'm sending mixed messages. See, we were out 'furniture browsing' (for me) to get some ideas about my new office which I'm hoping to be able to move to by July. I didn't see any sofas I liked until I saw this particular one at arredo, the right height, design, fabric design, material ......and best of all, price. I have a particular design in mind and this was pretty close. The other choices available seemed to either make it look like someone's living room, lawyer's SOHO or cosmetic surgeon's waiting room. (Of which, you should know by now, I'm neither.)

So there I was sofa-scouting when I saw this couple who was giving the salesgirl a really hard time, kicking one particular sofa in a gesture of how little it's worth, saying it's an old display model from 4 years ago (Wow, they've been eyeing and tracking the movement of one particular sofa for 4 years?). The particular piece was already on sale price, from a high of $5,000 to the $2,000+ range. A part of me giggled, because I remember my brief experience with selling; customers like giving you a hard time. I think customers do that not because they're mean people, they just want YOU to solve for them all the doubts they have. They're just waiting for YOU to give them the excuse to buy, not personalising an attack against your job as a salesperson. Well, suffice to say, this is Penang, and Penang people are known to be shrewd in their financial transactions.

Anywho, I felt it was funny to (1) eye furniture for years, which proves you want it and then (2) acting like you really don't want it. I understand the psychology that you're supposed to act like you're not so into something, to tarik harga...but......

Then it occured to me that I do the same thing, with different products. Does that make me cheap too? There are certain things I never ask for a discount, things which add beauty and value in my life. I would never want to insult a designer or artist by asking for a discount on a piece of tailoring or art/photo or a discount on a haircut! I wouldn't go for a haircut at the cheapest place I could find. And if I'm quite happy and my neck isn't cramping by the time the hair-person is done, I think it's fair to leave a tip amounting to 20%, or at least, 10% of the price.

I don't think that means I'm 'trying to act like I'm rich'. There was this incident about 5 years ago at a birthday party for a friend's child. I had had a really great haircut which came with added-extras that provided that look and was complimented on it. Naturally, people ask me where I had my hair done and how much it was, so I said I had it done when I was on holiday in KL a few days before and it was about RM400 overall. I felt it was great value for money because I've never felt like a million bucks until that day. To spend RM400 and feel like a million bucks is a bargain, don't you think? (Especially if that's the day you were going to meet up with an ex-boyfriend and he goes,"WOW! Can I touch your hair!!" I thought that was pretty awesome.)

I didn't see it coming but I was attacked by the 3-4 Mdm.s sitting around me. The one who led the attack made sure everyone agreed with her how stupid I was to pay for getting my hair done of all places in Megamall. Her list of question included, "Were you aware of the price before you asked for a cut?"

"Yes, they have their list on the glass window"

"And did you ask for the extras?"

"Well,the guy convinced me with what he could do for my head shape, face shape, hair texture, the length I wanted, ..........and I agreed to the price."

"So, you allowed him to add one when you just wanted a haircut?"

"Yes, because that's why I pay for haircuts...coz these people are trained to know better than me what would look better on me. I don't even look at fashion magazines and I have completely no sense of style."

"So, what if you didn't have that amount of money in your wallet?"

"Errr....I think big salons in KL malls take card."

"But what if you were already overdrawn on your card?"

.....errr, in general I don't make it a habit to go to malls if my cards are overdrawn....in which case, I would have to tell the dude before he starts the extras that he's going to have to trust me to go down to the cash machine while the chemicals set in. Or...I could call my friend to come by and pay first, coz I was going to meet him for lunch,...errr"

I had no idea where the conversation was supposed to go. It's just a really nice haircut but I was getting a sort of lesson on frugality and multiple-choice questions about how I would pay for it. It didn't make sense because no one would ever go for something they don't think they can afford, or at least that's how I think when I was in my late 20s.

It wasn't until a good 4 years later that I understood where that all was coming from. After the incident, I never got invited by any of the Mdm.s anywhere, and these were people who had known me since I was a schoolgirl living on the same street. I found out from another friend who herself had chosen to disassociate from that group - apparently, these people were so deep in credit card debt they were borrowing six-figures from her or face declaring bankruptcy and running out of the country to escape loan-sharks. They weren't really talking to me, they were talking to what they thought was a version of themself who dug their own debt-ridden grave.

It took a few years to come out of my 'financial naivete' but I realized something now; people who hate other people for having money are people who have none. They want to punish other people who have cashflow because they don't and insulting is one way of doing that. They want to give salespeople and hairstylists a hard time because they are unwilling to part with their cash. They are unwilling to part with their cash because they have been smarter at spending than earning and completely incapable of leveraging their debt, allowing bad debt to snowball and control them instead.

The Gift of Madness

[consider the lunacy of our world]. To not participate wholesale in that lunacy is a form of madness.

And in this case, madness becomes a gift - a gift to the world. One has to step outside the confines of set rules and norms to be able to create - or be creative. To half subscribe to the traditions and inhibitions of lunacy yet wanting to thrive in creativity, to make a difference while being confined by the same, is another pattern of lunacy. Outright rejection of the major norms, not for the sake of rebellion or being different, but to own the freedom to create and be is labelled madness - and perhaps that's really what the world gone looney needs this Christmas.

Creating a model of business not for the end-all goal of profit but to benefit society. Not to create more lust and desire but to create a platform where awareness and consciousness can flower in learning, so that those lusts and desires are turned into introspection which will, hopefully, fan the ember of insight and self-awareness.

What is business today? A cold, mechanical method of meeting bottom lines and a superficial attempt at bettering livelihoods by creating 'jobs'. The aim of business is not faulty, it is one particular element of humans that gives it the energy and moementum to wreak havoc on earth and on human souls. Greed. If the entire system of doing business can be replaced with concepts which still operate under the same methods of meeting bottom lines, increasing efficiency, creating jobs, etc but not in a cold, mechanical way - in an empowering, creative way. The value generated towards the economy remains, the profits of enterprise harvested through jobs created, the benefit of proliferation of affluence, skills and knowledge inherited by the next generation.

Makes no sense that a person possessing the knowledge, skills, on both sides of the technology, product, distribution channels, marketing would not want to increase capacity exponentially and profit from it. It makes no sense only to the looney world we're in, but makes perfect sense in meeting the ideals and ethics of a better human race, of an economy that genuinely guards the physical environment of human beings and the spiritual environment of mankind.

Argument that those who can't refuse to compete. But the premise and spirit of competition in itself is flawed. What is competition? And what does it lead us to? What does it etch and carve into the values of society and eventually, creating the lust and the drive that thrives on such competition? Does competition in itself creates the value of a thing? Conventional business studies cloaks the word competition to mean a kind of rivalry that creates a market force for producers to improve on their goods and services. But would it not be a higher motive if producers create the highest quality product for the sake of the creativity in it and the benefit for others? What happens if producers are only motivated to improve based on fear of losing market share? Would it also mean that they will withold technology, knowledge and other information that can immediately improve on their product/service until they lose some market share before releasing the benefits? Would it not mean that producers would in a way, 'cheat' consumers to pay premium prices for products they know will be made outdated and obsolete, to cheat consumers of the same dollar that could buy the improved product, to cheat consumers of the time they spent using the old product at the same time they could've already owned the new one?

That is the way businesses are currently operating. Example, the electronics industry which contributes to tonnes of e-waste in the end. It makes the producers complete winners; they withold technology until the last model loses market share, launches the new one and in that creates a never-ending cycle of desire for more, newer and shinier.

Argument that that is what makes the economy (and the world) go round, that conservation and prudent spending will cause these industries to contract and the loss of billions of dollars, not to mention jobs. But take a look around, the current models for business has created this exact nightmare and hellish experience on a global scale. The anxiety attacks, dog eat dog situation is pandemic.

Understanding economics helps you understand that it is how people actually behave based on incentives. If more people see the incentive of creating a unified world instead of a fragmented one, to gain more self-respect and self-esteem in helping to heal instead of to divide, etc.....that is how the world will be. Creativity generates value and collective production of a set value creates an industry and industries creates economies. It is a simple matter of replacing a wasteful, destructive way of manipulating creativity with a sustainable, empowering form of economy.

The Twin fears of Greedy People

I cannot understand people's greed. "There is enough in the world for our need, but not for our greed". I seriously cannot understand the concept of greed. We need a certain amount of money to run our lives in a way where we have the freedom of not having to produce everything we need, enough money to facilitate our lives so we have more free time, we have our basic needs met and we have money to multiply money so we can exist in a world of growth and advancement, where money helps the cycle to grow other people and ourselves. 

The whole point of having money is not the money itself but the gratification of becoming the type of productive, intelligent, resourceful, creative person in that process. What is money? It is not paper and numbers. Money is a symbolism of the value generated by an individual, a collective group, a society, a country, an economy. It is Economics 101. Any high schooler should know this. 

So it goes to mean that in order to have more money, you simply become a person who generates more real economic value with the resources you possess. To have more money, you help more people, says T.Harv Ecker. And then when you have more money, you help even more people. You do this through your creative use of your resources and the resources around you. For sustainable wealth, you must also use resources in ways that does not diminish their numbers in an unreplenishable way.  That sounds like a plan to me. 

This being the case, it is absolutely not necessary to practise corruption or wasting taxpayers' money. Why should there be a need to be greedy and to impoverish others for  your own vulgar accumulation of money? Fear? Fear that you can't get into an "inner ring", fear that your kids can't afford to go to college, fear of losing your job? 

Well, it isn't written in  blood that you have to go to college. You go to college for the love of learning and challenges and to gain from other people's experiences and expertise, not for a piece of paper that said you attended for a set amount of time and somehow managed to pass a set number of exams. 

And, like C.S. Lewis says, the "inner ring" is an illussion, a circle of people we want to belong to in order to feel important. Well, if you understand that this need to be "in" is simply a manifestation of preconceived ideas of importance (i.e. Ego) and choose to simply Be instead of "being in", then there is no need to need to belong to an inner-ring, which C.S.Lewis describes as an onion -  you get through one layer, there's another, then another...until you are alone and find nothing there that matters. 

Or maybe you want to feel safe; but if you've robbed so many people of the life they deserve, how can you possibly feel safe even in your gated community? All that needs to happen is a revolution that takes apart the systems you have put in place to repress others. 

What is wealth if you eat alone because no one respects you as a person? Or you eat with associates you know want to see you fall so they can take over? We fool ourselves that money is the solution to everything, that it will bring us complete power and that a life of decadence is desirable. Has not history shown us the foolishness of this notion?

Money cannot buy the most important things : faith, loyalty, trust, love, friendships, solidarity, virtue, honour. So why covet it?

Money is supposed to be an enabler to bring more intellect, health and prosperity to others. That is why I cannot understand this concept of greed. Money is supposed to connect us more, not separate us from the rest. Wealth is used to educate, bring progress, bring health, bring unity, bring beauty and preservation. To own all these things as an exclusive group that is unproductive but drains the resources of the more productive groups in order to finance these ideals is futile. It is futile because all these things are not supposed to be exclusive. 

I shall summarize greed as this : Unproductive people who want other people's cake and eat it. If you're creative and productive, you will not feel a need to exploit others and deny them their share in order to increase your own. 

Two streams.

Simple in virtue. Steadfast in duty. 

Simplicity has now become synonymous with stupidity. Whoever coined the term 'simple-minded' to refer to ignorant red-necks or a segment of a populace that refuses to think with their capacities has done an injustice to the principle of simplicity. 

I wrote about what's wrong with having the simplicity of a child's thinking. Children have such clarity and have their priorities about life spot-on. Then I imagine people saying, 'The whole point of growing up is to not be like a child anymore.' Ok, but has anyone challenged that notion? Is that the whole point of growing up? I just realized that we live in a society that is anti-children. We treat children as incomplete people when technically, they are closer to The Light than we are, having had less programming from our misrepresented,highly delusional, collective 'reality'. 

Now, seriously - is there really anything wrong in never owning a car, a big house with a pool and a membership to an exclusive country club? These are just extensions of the imagination and toys we had as a child. Wouldn't it be OK to continue just playing the toy versions instead of covetting the above? Aren't we spending too much time fleshing out our material fantasies instead of answering the questions we asked a child? i.e. "Why did I come to this world?", "How can i make the world a better place?"

I have been torn between the material stream and my spiritual pursuits. Making a lot of money can necessitate a lot of things - but without purpose and vision behind those actions, they will not amount to anything. It is a fact that no amount of money or material things we amass, we can bring with us after we pass by this world. Yet it is also a fact that our deeds, thoughts and actions, impact the world long after we have passed by this world. 

So, how do I choose? Can I taste the fruit that is out of my reach? Didn't Buddha say, wealth, if used properly, is like a pristine lake where everyone can drink from?

Like art.

My entire life, I've hated artists. Especially the visual artist. I have colored them as people who dramatise life for personal effect and personal gain. I find their self-inflicted torture and actions which exarcerbate the circumstances of their self-inflicted torture, to be painfully superficial and vain. 

But a few months ago, in an epiphany where I realized that if we can really slow down and focus on the things around us; the scent, shape, colours, existence........the lucidity of their beauty and design accentuates our senses in ways that makes one feel like, "Life can stop at this slide, and I'll be framed this way, for eternity" - I realize how important the work of artists and poets and musicians are. In a world where everything has become so routine and mechanical, and where an insatiable materialistic drive for status and wealth is sugarcoated as a pursuit of happiness, it is truely the artists and poets and musicians who are the gatekeepers of paradise. 

The world of endless pursuits is an ugly and mechanical one. One lost in our own spin of our illussions and cravings. An ugly race that rips and tears everything in its path and paints them back with sorry patches designed by greed and lust. And it is those poets and artists and musicians that retain the wonder and charm of nature as it is - telling the stories that will remind us of our own humanity. The artists, must live. 

And a few months or weeks after having those thoughts, I enter my first art exhibition. Everything worth experiencing in life comes as a random act. And on the way to buy noodles, I walk into an art gallery - on the one day that I wear all-black, I walk into a studio of colours. And this is a first in my life -  I felt so elated in the presence of this exhibition. I have always imagined myself petrified in the midst of artistic thingy-thingies I cannot understand. (Creative people, in general,  petrify me - and worse if I had to be in the midst of people who seem to possess so much academic and technical knowledge of a subject.) I walked into the gallery on the third day of its launch - it was a quiet late afternoon, I was the only one there. I had the luxury of having the gallery manager all to myself to tell me about the paintings which delight me so much. - The art pieces were talking to me. They were frames of my happy moments in my life, captured and designed. Designed by hands that could never be mine but who interpreted my feelings and expressions through her hands.  Ahh...so this is why people spend a lot of money buying art and collecting them! I get it. I get it now. If you can't do it, pay for it to be done. :)

Rich people aren't stupid after all. They simply reached a point where money gave them the liberty to get out of that web of materialism the rest of the world is still spinning in, to swim to the banks and enjoy the stream flow past, instead of drowning in it. And rich people are thankful for the artists that offer them beauty; the artists that did not conform to the ugly stream of life, who persevered and preserved elements of inspiration, creativity, beauty, wonder and charm - things that are, when everything else is being destroyed and severed, worth paying for. 

In a life where everything is a chore and not an art, where every act is laborious and not a joy - artists preserve that fabric of existence that is truly Living - that which reminds us what life is really about. That life is coloured by the strokes you paint with the acts you do, that life is the voice of the song you sing with the words you speak, that life is the stage you narrate from with the story of your life. 

Have you ever bought something for relatively a lot of money - and wanting to thank the person for giving you the opportunity to spend your money in a way which allows you to acquire a symbolism of the beauty in living? I think I might be on the way to acquiring my first piece of art. 

The Haves and the Have-nots - privilege does not often come with wisdom and insight

Malaysians live under a false sense of security unlike our neighbors, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines. We honestly don't think anything bad is going to happen to us - so bad that we could not go ahead with our daily lives. 

I obviously sound like an alarmist when I say, "That shiny car? Won't be of much use if you can't get any petrol. And you can't get any petrol if petrol pumps can' be filled because the petrol tank couldn't get there safely. It was blown up in the midst of all the civil unrest going on. Or maybe the entire oil refinery had to stop production, because people couldn't get to work, or the whole refinery has been blown up."

Or, "that dream home? Wouldn't be much of a dream home if the streets outside are licked with flames and strewn with broken pieces of things, and you can't get any food, running water, electricity, etc." "That nice showroom? That big mall? Would amount to nothing if a mob broke into it and cleared out all the supplies............and shelves are going to stay empty because no transport trucks can load or move goods....no factories producing them......." - All that we know right now, simply will not function. 

This is war. This is what happens when people who cannot afford to eat or find a fulfilling and meaningful way to earn a living, revolt. Whatever you have which you did not give to others, you are now under threat. Wealth and affluence without security is not prosperity and happiness. 

I've heard rich Indonesians and rich Filipinos simplify things that "those people are just lazy." They truly put the entire blame of poverty on the poor. They do not see a civic responsibility to use their advantage in life to ensure that economic policies and daily attitudes towards life provide a level playing field to all. 

In the midst of the escalating increase in the price of rice, I broke down in the middle of having dinner with my daughter. I was asking her what she wanted to eat, and have made it a practise that she never thinks about price when ordering, to just order whatever we desire. I then  realized that it has not always been this way for me. It dawned on me then that to those who bought rice per kg, like how I had to live many years ago, to have it increase from $1.70 to over $5 per kg means $3.70 less to get on by. $3.70 is another pack of large fries for some, but to others, it's whether or not they get a 1 kati of veg, 1 kg of potatoes and onions, 1 dhal dish that night or 5 omelettes for the family. It's one entire botol of kicap tamin to go with the rice. 

People who were born into relative privilege and education cannot understand what it means to have lived in a way where they are incapable of being informed of the things the privileged take for granted. Those who grew up in middle-class families with sports clubs to go to and private lessons this and that, whose parents leave them enough money to make more money, or who gave them a lifestyle and education which equipped them with a mental blueprint to get ahead, cannot empathise with those without and instead,look down on them. They lull themselve into believing, "If I can do it, why not them?"

But what the privileged fail to see is that it was their upbringing and their association which provided them with the way of thinking they have now. They apply their way of thinking to the lives of people who have a completely different programming and then judge them by that. The privileged are the ones that can tell a tyrannical boss, "Fuck you, I'm quitting this shit job!" while the poor have been programmed from the very beginning to submit to abuse and bad treatment by those they perceived as more powerful or superior.  

The educated woman can say, "This isn't the way you're supposed to treat another human being"and leave the abusive relationship. Or, "This isn't the best environment to raise a child" and walks out the door while knowing how to build a wall of security around her that the abuser cannot penetrate. Also, the educated woman can decide whether motherhood is something she is ready for and will embrace. These are not the same options for the uneducated or disempowered woman. 

It goes to show we cannot judge other people from their actions even if knowing what they've done or did not do upsets us so much. Actions are a consequence of Thoughts - and skillful or unskillful thought is a collective of the influences we've had growing up and the amount of examining and sensitivity our mind is capable of based on the learning we've received. 

To unprogramme people, we have to enlighten them. We have to put into words and in details they can visualise - the story of their life and their beliefs and how they came to be. Then only can we teach them the story of other people's lives and to make them see the only true difference between them and others is the inherited ignorance, pessimism and fear which breeds their fear and stumps their creativity and straitjackets them into their poverty-stricken, soul-crushing 'reality'. 

It is an almost impossible task- I still find myself trapped in my past programming and habits and each breakthrough is painful and difficult. If it was all just about me, I'd quit trying to change my trajectory a long time ago and I do know that we have to delve into each individual to see what makes them tick - so that they can discover a bigger reason than themselves to want to change. A reason that they feel so much love towards that will make everything a purpose. 

Mediating point - The relationship between money and friends

It's always been accepted as a fact that you're either religious or scientific, idealist or materialistic. I have been experiencing great conflict since I started changing from someone who saw money as a burden and a cop-out from living a 'true' life to someone who embraces money in a new definition - one where I'm applying all that I have been given to generate value that I can exchange for money - which I can then go ahead and give it all away.

There seems to only be two groups of people. The first, a group that is motivated purely by the fear of lack of money and how it defines them and their value, a group that builds their wall of security with symbolisms of things money can buy. The second, a group that denies the legitimacy of everything that the first group defines their life as. In between, you have one which is either more to the first or the second, but not that much different to be able to be a distinct third group  by themselves. 

For most of my life, I have been more comfortable with the second group because the first group seem pre-occupied with very narrow and shallow definitions of Life and the Purpose of Existence. To have people who accept you as a friend because you have no money is almost as bad as to have people accept you as a friend because you have money. Where do I find people who accept me IN SPITE of not having money and people who will IN SPITE of me having money?

I guess that's why people who have money have moneyed friends and people who don't are surrounded by people who are constantly running into debt and borrowing money. There are the temporary situations where the moneyed attract poorer company for lack of some company - and there's almost always an eventual fall-out. People fall-out of friendships and relationships over money more than over anything else, don't you think?

It's really strange how people put so much weight in defining life based on a political opinion of money. If you're poor, you'll lose friends when you start to make money, because your friends either hate you for having it or hate you for not lending it to them. If you're rich, you'll lose friends when you lose money, because your friends either hate you for not being able to enjoy the benefits you've been paying them in exchange for their company or because you're borrowing money from them. 

Each time I change, I suffer casualties in terms of friendships. What hurts is that I was perfectly sincere in offering my friendship and accepting theirs, only to find out that I served as some kind of marker to validate their beliefs or self-esteem either way. I want to change for the better and then people start disliking me for it. And I feel so conflicted.

Should I hold back and not share with people I consider 'a friend'? How did I insult them without even saying anything personal to them? How did I insult them simply by asking a hypothetical or philosophical question?

Would it mean that as I start becoming ambitious - I would lose almost everything in my comfort zone? How silly of me. I already know the answer. The day when I made the decision that I no longer wanted to own a Fear of Success and its twin, a Fear of Failure, was the day I knew I had to breakthrough to go up. 

I think we can only be responsible for our own life and decisions - and generosity entails being sincere and honest in sharing and giving, even if someone hates you for the information. How many lives have been arrested from their speediest development because others held back wisdom, knowledge and information? What people do with what we share with them, and what they do to us is a reflection of them. Our generosity and sincerity is a reflection of ourselves. 

More Money, More Spiritual Life

This blog is a follow-up of 'No Money, No Spiritual Life'.

If money is nothing more than an avatar of life-energy value which facilitates convenient bartering, wouldn't I be able to do more for the world if I had more of this value, if by default I am a highly inspiring, loving, generous and creative person?

It was a knock behind my head when T.Harv Ecker commented about how creative people and activists make justifications for not going out there and making more money; they say other things like creativity, culture, the environment, is more important than just making money. He quotes an example, "What about saving the environment and the rainforests?" I laughed out loud when T.Harv replied, "Well, make tons of money and buy the entire damn rainforest!!!".

It wouldn't have made such a big significance if not for the fact that I know my dead idol, River Phoenix, rose, like his name foretells, from ashes into someone who could buy nature for his family and an entire rainforest to preserve before his untimely death - Exit, poof. (That's how all these candles in the wind seem to go.) But the life River Phoenix had led prior to his death, a life of complete freedom, frugality, creativity and purpose was not his excuse to NOT go ahead and make tons of money so he could do more good for the world.

How many times have we heard about community projects and fabulous ideas that couldn't take flight or couldn't impact enough of people's lives because of a lack of funding? How many productive hours by passionate and creative people, end up being spent going around raising funds when it could've been spent generating more valuable ideas and reaching out to more people hands-on. No money, no spiritual life.

The identity and survival of Penang (or anywhere else with a similar scenario, for that matter) as a heritage, cultural, creative centre depends upon the money-making abilities of the business-minded people. I grew up with enough bad press about the evils of corporations and entrepreneurs who rape, plunder and destroy earth for their mansions and luxury cars. Enough to know that 'corporations, and their never-ceasing bottom-line chant' are not people I will invest my life energy towards.

But then I see Anita Roddick. And then I see T.Harv Ecker. And then I start seeing thousands and thousands of others like them who are holding this world together, forming a barricade against the onslaught of mindless and senseless capitalism. These are people who have used a neutral system to their advantage. It's not the system, it's the people behind them. While the creative, spiritual, righteous, intellectual, professional, ethical ones are sitting in the pasture like lambs holding a tea-party to console each other about the dangers outside these white picket fences, the hungry capitalists lurk just outside, ready to unleash a series of actions that will make this world inhospitable at best, uninhabitable in the end.

So I suppose, if our ultimate aim is to have great spiritual life, then we must push back. With the energy of love, ethics and purpose, we must push the barrier back so that in the end our type of existence becomes the Circle, and not we, the encircled. Capitalism can work our way. Anita Roddick has showed us how. We can choose to live more, or live less, with more or with less money, that's for sure. But in the end, we gotta admit that we can DO more with money than we can do without money. When we live, we live our own life, and we rest in our own grave. When we do, we impact the lives of others, for better or for worse. I say let the good people Do instead of being done to.

No Money, No Spiritual Life

The following is my regurgitation of some of the principles that have washed over me like an avalance in the Alps. The ideas are taken from Mindfulness and Money : The Buddhism Path to Abundance by Kulanda Houlder.

If we were to spend the majority of our days tilling land and other things to 'make a living', it doesn't leave us much energy and time to actually live. I think I read something like this in a recent Reader's Digest : (quoting from memory)  "We work for the money we need to buy the clothes we need to go towork, to pay for the car we need to get to work, to feed a family we hardly spend time with because we have to be away at work and to pay for a house we hardly live in because we're working."

With a Beach Boy's tune in my head, I'm humming, "Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to work ?"

My perfect existence would be to live like the Amish - till the land for what we need and focus single-mindedly on The One Above. No, not really - only the part where they don't have to stress out because they're torn in so many different ways by the clutter of 'civilisation' - which is the state we're in  because we all are after (or behind) making money. 

However, there's one pin to burst that bubble. While the rest of Capitalism is taking over the world, even my little Amish community wouldn't be safe from its evil reach.

Well then, it brings me to my poing about the beauty of this grand collective illussion we all subscribe to, called "Money". The beauty of this grand illussion is that it frees us from actually having to do everything ourselves. Having to do everything ourselves or go hungry isn't the most ideal way to live even if the Amish seem to have struck that balance - doing everything yet remaining grounded in their spirituality.

I give up my Amish life fantasy because I don't know how I'm going to live without electricity - or any other new form of energy that works the same way. Modern technology isn't an unnecessary evil. I think the current trend of purchasing modern technology to help with minimizing labour so we can pursue more leisurely things (or have time to learn more things) is a temporary trade-off while we work towards a place in human history where we can be completely free of manual labour and labour unsuited for us. A place in human history where our productive hours are used to specialize in what we do best with our creative minds. A place where we will ultimately be intellectually, emotionally and spiritually fulfilled. It is only when all our physiological and sense of safety needs have been met that we will automatically move up the Maslow's hierarchy, arriving at Self-Actualization. 

Technology creates new Time in our lives and new opportunities to learn other skills we could be humanly good at. This creates jobs and jobs creates functions in societies where people can discover ways of generating their value in tandem with existing technology. More time, less labour and more specialization will eventually lead to more freedom. When we discover and focus on what we do best and specialize in that and trade that value with others, we can have more of everything, including time. And this grand collective illussion we have, a system called "Money" makes all that possible.

I've spent all my life thinking money is a burden and leading an entrepreneurial life is copping out from living a highly spiritual, highly creative life that I desire. I falsely believed that the pursuit of material wealth and money degrades the purpose of our existence. I falsely believed a wholesale philosophy that you can have either money or happiness, but not both. But thanks to Kulananda and his book, I know that money simply makes you more of what you are - if you are a greedy and insensitive person, the pursuit of money simply makes you more of that kind of person. I think power works the same way too. Give a person power and you can see what they're really made of. I'd like to have both now, please, in huge quantities. It would be interesting to see how much good or damage I'd release into my world with the twin properties combined.

Why i want to sell Penang.

Because I love the food. And I want all my friends back.

I love almost everything about it, nevermind that it lacks the pace and energy of KL or NY and it lacks avenues to meet, mingle, socialise neither is it a hub for the arts, performance and music scene. (We do have that annual jazz festival thing though.)

I want to be able to not move to another country to live. I want to live in Penang. Everything is 15 minutes away! I have the beach, the hills, the parks, the heritage streets and buildings, the hotels, the wide variety of fabulous food, the cultural mix, the endless rows of stalls,etc. Did I mention the food? Penang is a great place to call home. I don't ever want to have to leave this all behind only to learn how to appreciate it. I don't want to be faced with the dilemma that what I have to offer is not marketable in Penang and made beneficial to Penangites while other people in other markets are willing to let me make a living being what I am capable of. 

I know I would suffer so much being separated from my beloved Penang food. I would plunge into depression living in another place where I know nothing of and where I cannot drive off on a fancy to get my favourite whatever I feel like eating. 

Yes, we often hear the phrase, "We can't have it all." But maybe it's time to ask, "Why not"? Culturally, historically, geographically, infrastructure for roads, buildings, good schools, business, low crime rate, creative and enterprising people, parks, hills, beaches, funicular train, esplanades, the sea, palm-lined beaches with golden sands, world-class hotels, research centres, universities, world-class medical care and most importantly, temples, mosques, churches, clan associations, kungfu and taichi, wushu and lion dance, apartments and bungalows, the birthplace of the fabulous nasi kandar, tons and tons of fabulous restaurants and value for money hawker fare...........we can't have it all, yes,  but we're almost there. We're a lot better off than Hiroshima post D-Day. The only thing separating us from that bullet-train nation is the Way We Think. You can't grow a limb, but you sure can change the way you think. And just because something is not easy doesn't make it valid to cop-out. One person, one thing, one corner at a time. 

I know the Umno-led government has put in place policies that has caused this mass exodus of creative and intellectual minds out of not only Penang, but Malaysia. But why is it that the good ones have to always be pushovers? Why are we letting dictators with a lesser conscience decide whether or not we can have a glorious living and retirement in Penang?

Before we sell Penang to the world (and when I mean sell, i don't mean sell-out) we have to sell our own people the idea that Penang is something to be proud of.

I want the good guys like you and me, to win for once. I want us hardworking, enterprising people to get the hands up this time. I want a Penang I can retire in, I can come back to. I want a Penang that utilises all the resources laid upon it; for tourism, for heritage, for a model cosmopolitan melting pot, the backdrop for creativity in literature, arts, performance and music. Wasn't P.Ramlee from Penang?

I want Penang to be the place every one wants to come to because it's the best bang for the buck within a thousand mile radius. Instead of experiencing either or, they can have it all;  hills, forests, beaches, orchards, culturally rich streets, hotels, heritage, local food, international food, history, education, environment, etc. Like a buffet, Penang is the best value for money you're going to get. 

I want Penang to be the IT (no, not I.T. but it) place. The it girl on the Peninsula Malaysian block. The it Girl for South East Asia! I want all my friends back. And I want Penang to be the one island where the good guys come together and push back - and we win. Since we're already half way there by getting a new government, we might as well go, as Ning Baizura puts it for THR 99.3 (in the Klang Valley) "Alllllll the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy".

More than KL (which can survive on foreign investments flooding it as much as rainwater does), Penang is the canary in the cave for a 'Malaysia Boleh'. Because if anyone can, it IS Penang. 

Where does money come from?

It always seemed ludicrous to me that quite a lot of people daydream about stumbling upon a bagful of money or winning the lottery. Still many others dream of a huge inheritance from a relative they didn't know exist. We think the physical existence of money is the solution to everything. All of us are preoccupied with having more money, but  very few think about how money is made. 

Well of course it doesn't grow on trees. And if it were as simple as being printed off a machine with ink and paper, then counterfeiting money and circulating banana money around should not be a problem. 

Imagine in your mind - money. It's just a piece of paper, not that much different in physical nature from another piece you scribble numbers down on. A piece of RM50 is worth RM50 only because both you and I agree the value of it is exchangeable for RM50 worth of another value. The cost of minting coins, I think, will eventually outgrow the cost of printing a RM100 note as technology progresses. MONEY, after all, does not have value by itself. It's value is determined by a collective agreement on the value this coin or this piece of paper, represents. Money is essentially a denominator that is easy to carry around, is not easily perishable and is agreed to be valuable by a majority of people. The exchange of money is an exchange of value. 

And value is determined by the skill level, demand and supply of an economy. 

Money is a collective grand illussion that we all agreed to. We all agreed that this piece of paper or that is worth this or that amount. And we collectively agreed to it. It is not the money itself that will make you rich. It is your ability to generate valuable economic functions that determines the value of the economy you are in. That is the reason why printing your own money doesn't work. If you do not output value, the economy doesn't have a value. All the money you print and put into the economy, minus any value you contribute to society, simply makes counterfeit notes banana money.

The Banks and their various mechanisms determine the value of an economy and print the exchange medium (coins and notes) accordingly.

Now, how do we create value? Think back on the age of barter trading. Yes, it is as simple as that. You create a product of value that you can exchange with others for. The free or semi-controlled market forces  determines how much value you can exchange for it. I have 10 banana trees in my backyard and I don't feel like going bananas eating them everyday. I want some of that coconut that neighbour across the road has. I exchange a bunch of bananas (50 fingers?) for 5 coconuts. 

But we can't spend our entire lives harvesting and surviving. We have to specialise in what we do. An economy is nothing more complicated than the creation of ideas. I have 1 packet of koay teow, some tau eu, taugeh, spring onions, shrimp, etc. It can sit there and I  cook it for my family today. Or I could specialise in it and put an idea into it - those coals aren't going to fire themselves up, those oil and chili and tau eu aren't going to stir themselves. 

Do not underestimate the creativity of the human mind. Each of us are rewarded based on the product and service we bring into the market. Our rewards commensurate with 3 things : How skilled we are in producing the product/service, how much of our product and service we can market to people and how well we manage and duplicate the production of our product/sales. It all boils down to Coming up with an Idea and together with Possessing a Skill, Marketing them and Manage it.

Essentially, the more skills and ideas you have, the more value you can put into the economy. And the higher your individual skill level is, the more value you generate for other people. I also have to quote T.Harv Ecker when he says, "If you want to make ten times more money, help ten times more people with the value that you can create."

Of course we can argue that a lot of people who possess neither skills nor ideas nor management of these in desirable quantities get the cream of the economic crop. Well, the only reason they're there at the top of the economic food chain is because they possess information.

But do not despair. This is the age of Information Explosion. Knowledge is no longer the Exclusive of a few. When enough people focus on their abilities and start producing real value and real advantages, market forces would drive cronies out of business. In a perfect economy, the more knowledgeable and savvy  people become about their place in society and the economy, the lesser power the feudal lords of modern day have over us.

Money does solve a lot of problems. When you can generate more value per capita for yourself and your local economy, people who are taking free rides will start feeling the pressure amongst highly critical and highly productive people. With money in your hands, you can choose who you're going to give your business to. And you can choose to not give your business to people who are trying to take a free ride. 

The highest value you can exchange for, therefore, is the value of knowledge, the value of knowing how to think and evaluate, the value of knowing which information is relevant to you in this deluge of information we surrounded by. 

There are many problems in society to be solved - but it all starts with the minority who's ready to take a stand. 

The Biggest Sale in Penang

Penang is a great product that is short-selling itself. As a raised in Penang 30-something, I'm old enough to remember the days when we were not a place known merely for rat-infested streets and kiamsiap business people. 

I came back from a conversation with other 30-somethings. Penang needs a re-education about Herself. And I'm on a crusade to be as comprehensive a collection as possible on what Penang is all about. Even cattle gets branded better than Penang. We need the branding. 

Penang has a long heritage and history and a colourful culture - but whoever else is going to care about Penang if Penangites don't do it themselves? How can we sell Penang to the world when we can't even sell Penang to our own Penang people?

Thus, I'm going to start a personal crusade to launch the BIGGEST SALE IN PENANG. We're going to sell Penang to our own Penang people. We're going to collect all the value and information about Penang and package it in a way to make Penangites realize, that if they don't start taking pride in their own state, their own economy, we will fade to be a relic of the past and we will be shameless if we dared live in the glory of 'the old days'. Once the glory is gone, it's just gone. The last thing I would like to sound like is a person who lives in the reflected glory of days gone by. 

We must be aware, that there is a point of no return. There is no culture without people. And Penang is exporting Creativity like a neighbouring country is exporting maids and nurses. 

The Biggest Sale in Penang is going to happen. We are going to reclaim back Penang.