"If You Don't Work Hard, You'll Be Like Him..."

I remembered when I was around 5, with me and SafrizOnline was sitting in the back seat of the car while my parents were driving, we stopped at a traffic light and I saw a man who was begging on the street for change. As I was gazing through the window, my dad realised this and mentioned to me and my brother:

"I work hard to make sure that all of you will never have a life like that. But if you don't study hard or work hard, you'll end up like that man."

[Its a beggar's life?]

Just a few days back, I was having this conversation with the rest of TeamTehTarik over my usual teh tarik session and after so many years, this story came out again. Then again I suddenly have this sinking feeling, was it right for my parents to use that man as an example of failure? Was it not right for us to pretty much mock the man's unfortunate predicament?

Fact of the matter is when he mentioned that, I have to admit that fear did struck in my head and heart. Today I would have to admit that I would work long and hard just to make sure that I would continue to live an affordable life, if not a luxurious one with the person that I end up with, on the simple basis that I would never end up being in a life with not enough money or live in hardship.

But the question beckons, is it right for us to actually use people with either without a job or even use a person that gets by his/her daily life with a mediocre job as a reminder that we can have a better life in the future if you work hard enough now? 

Unfortunately I would have to admit that with that kind of reminder in mind, I lived by the fact that I would struggle and work as hard as I can to ensure that I would never ever be in that kind of situation or even any one of my family member as well. Thankfully today, I am now working in a stable occupation that provides more than sufficiently for my own lifestyle and some for my savings in the future.

On that note I also need to highlight one more thing. Don't take away the effort that are made by those who work hard to survive in whatever job that they are working in. I've said it once to a person that I once knew,  who felt that she would never ever be able to see herself selling something in a pasar malam or by the side of the street. My answer to that is simple, come at least the person selling at the side of the street has something to earn rather than just giving up and hoping for free handouts from other people.

I've lived all my life in different countries around the world and one thing that I will always be proud to tell people is that come at least in Malaysia, people actually work and earn a living here whereas in developed countries like in the UK, you have Chavs who literally do nothing at all except for drinking, stealing, creating havoc and make more babies to get extra benefit and expect the country to give them money through benefits and government handouts.

and they call us underdeveloped...

[U noe wot I mean?]

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