It seems fitting to write about greed with Christmas around the corner.
This year, I’ve seen some poor behaviour and this made me think about why people behave badly.
I was especially disgusted by the poor behaviour of music retailers. The guitar community is small and closely knit. I find it disturbing whenever I hear of unethical behaviour. Even big brands like Maestro Guitars have been accused of wrong doing. I feel great shame when such a high-profile, national brand gets accused of selling counterfeit guitars.
Ho Zen, the owner and founder of Maestro Guitars, has told me some pretty tall lies over the years, including his claim that they made guitars for Asturias (which I debunked when I visited the Asturias factory in Japan and confronted Head Luthier Wataru Tsuji and Rokkoman President Sho Kido) and that he could procure a 7/8 sized Alhambra Guitar, that didn’t exist, in 3 months. Of course he could not, and this affected my students who were preparing for exams.
I feel like Hozen will say anything in order to make money. I once gave him the benefit of the doubt, but it has become clear that his repeated lies are not the product of a fledgling brand trying to find its legs. Sadly, he is not the only guitar retailer like this.
It’s easy to blame a company for wrong doing. But individuals and youths are not exempted from bad behaviour either.
When I was working at MCYS, I was struck by a particular incident that happened as we were preparing to launch a new season of the President’s Challenge. We were launching that year’s initiative with a celebrity football match and our partners had generously donated various items for our goodie bags.
We had several juvenile delinquents packing the goodie bags for us as part of their rehabilitation program. It was an easy job. They worked in our air-conditioned meeting room, and my bosses Karen and Audrey treated them to pizza for lunch. I also walked out to buy them muffins.
It was much better than picking up trash at a beach somewhere.
Occasionally, my colleague Faizal and myself would conduct spot-checks to make sure that the bags were being packed properly. By the end of the day, every thing seemed to be in order and we released them.
In hindsight, we should have performed a strip search or cavity search.
When we were cleaning up, we discovered several empty packages that were supposed to contain 1GB thumb drives that Microsoft had generously gave to us. Eventually we found over 20 thumb drives missing. We had over 800 goodie bags (of different variants) to pack, so we were unable to catch the discrepancy during our spot checks.
We called the probation officer and the boys admitted to stealing them and managed to recover the thumb drives. So much for giving ex-offenders a second chance. Sadly, this incident occurred close to my birthday and this left me pensive and reflection during my celebratory dinner at Double-O.
“The greed of money is the root of all evil.”
These examples of dishonesty are powered by greed. We live in a society where we base our happiness on our material possessions. Have we forgotten what happiness is? Has replacing ‘happiness’ with ‘greed’ accelerated moral decay in society?
If you randomly ask someone, “What do you want?” the reply will probably pertain to a material possession. You will probably get the same reply if you ask “What will make you happy?”
Recently, the Workers’ Party suggested a happiness gauge for Singapore. The suggestion is interesting and novel. But considering how materialistic Singaporeans are, wouldn’t happiness be tied to GDP growth anyway?
Afterall,
More growth = More Money = More iPhones and Cars = More ‘Happiness’
Coming from an advertising background it feels strange for me to argue against materialism and consumerism. But my experiences in the guitar community and the social services sector has shown me the perils of such devices. The guitar community and the social services sector cannot afford acts of evil powered by wanton greed. Both sectors are vulnerable and need all the help it can get.
We need to carefully examine and redefine how we determine happiness. I’d hate to see what would happen to society if we continue down this path.
