Are You Money-Faced?

I wonder how many of you folks in contact with many Western Europeans have the same observation as myself : that they like to accuse us Asians of talking only about money whereas THEY are so above and beyond all that.

I agree that money is an important topic of conversation among Asian e.g. Chinese people - mainly because whether you like it or not, unless you live in a swamp or a desert, it does feature big in your life and dictates what you can and cannot do.

And seeing that politics in many Chinese societies even up to today is a bit taboo seeing the risks you may run for being too frank, I suspect that money (besides food, and food is dependent on your treasury) is a much safer topic to stick to. And for Overseas Chinese communities, the reason why many of them are overseas is usually economic, and when they are political refugees, they would have undergone so much hardship and uncertainty that the only thing certain in life would be to make sure that one has enough money to keep one dry on a rainy day.

So what brings me to this post is that I've decided to voice out, now that I have a blog, some of what I've been thinking about on the subject in my decade living overseas.

It has often irked me when I ask one of my Hubby's friends, for example, how much for and whereabout the guy had bought a particular CD, and he would smirk and tell me in the face that money is not everything in life and that the price shouldn't matter. What should matter is the coup de coeur (hit of the heart) etc.

He said that because most of them (Hubby included) have this idea that Asians are money-faced, talk about money all the time and let money dicate their lives. What superficial idiots, if you ask me. Because that friend in question, for example, may not talk about money openly, but if you ask his ex-wife, she'll tell you that he's generous only with himself, doesn't manage his money and hence his priorities correctly, and is very often broke even though he makes a more than decent living. I may have nearly failed Economics at A Level, but I did catch that part about resources being limited and us having to prioritise etc. If I were him, I would certainly not let myself have too many coup-de-coeurs, ask myself if I really need another CD and if I do, then check and compare prices and get one at the lowest price possible so that I may have enough funds left to indulge the rest of my family. I do not know about you, but indulging my family often does give me more heart and pleasure than I when I indulge only myself.

And he isn't the only person I know who's like that. Mock you when you mention money, but you never see much of his money when it's time to use it. The more-or-less only people I know who have treated me in restaurants are Asian/Chinese - people who talk about money and who are not afraid to come out with it in the real especially in good company. You know, put the foot where the mouth is. And very often these Asians may not even be well-off.

And why shouldn't Angmos be interested in money? Money doesn't fall out of the sky, you have to earn it, look for it. All those gold and diamond mines, oil rigs etc are Caucasian-owned. Did they care whether some of the money return to the local population, whether their explorations hurt the environment? Most of the MNCs are Caucasian-owned. Their main aim is to create profit - the more the merrier - and to achieve this aim, it's perpetual streamlining of costs (why guys like Hubby are essential), hiring labour at the lowest possible cost, outsourcing, off-shoring, relocating etc. Money is not important? Why whimper (threatening to move operations out of the country etc) when the Chinese Government for once recently tried to protect some of its workers by coming out with a new law offering some minimum protection for their workers labouring for foreign-owned companies?

On the recent 125-euro pizza episode, Hubby claimed that I was over-reacting to something as unimportant as that. That if his friends and colleagues knew about this, they would think me mad. That I should stop getting so affected by money. Stop being so Asian.

That certainly made my blood boil. If Monsieur is some Philanthropist, fair enough. But let's put it this way : the only money he gave to the less fortunate was when the State taxed him half of his income whether he wanted it or not. The rest of the time, money flies out of the window malheureusement not through generosity, but through negligence.

I may jump when I get ripped-off, but I like to think that I am acting partly out of principle. I am the one who reads up on charities and makes at least the gesture of giving. In my younger years, I served as a volunteer to the Elderly in my free time for years. If I try to limit occasions where I may be cheated of my money, it is because I have respect for the paper and for the labour that goes towards earning it. And I spend alot, too much. But those things I spend on are rarely wasted. I can give them away. And I enjoy giving them away. Finally, I maintain that if I have money to spare, then it should go to the needy. Not accidentally to speeding fines, greedy restaurants etc - simply because I am too important to care.

And money is not an intelligent topic. It's vulgar. But communicate it differently in the form of business, wines, food...all linked to money whether you like it or not - and it's OK. Sometimes I find the Europeans so good at deluding themselves. And as artificial as they often accuse us of being.

And they are not racist? Not narrow-minded? Why couldn't they understand why Chinese people often talk about money and accept it then? And not use it against them especially when it is out of context and uncalled for?

Another thing, what other intelligent topic can you discuss with many Europeans? You mention where you come from and they would attack you about its Human Rights record. Yet, I have rarely seen people so tuned to their own personal pleasures than those with whom I've come into contact with. Do you think they really care about how others elsewhere live? What these people suffer?

Then they should stop doing drugs ("Stop telling others what they shouldn't do," they would exclaim. "You're feeding the Talibans, the Colombian warlords and indirectly killing lots of innocent people," I would retort);

Stop visiting prostitutes (and contributing to the unprecedented increase in human trafficking in this century);

Stop smoking (and killing me indirectly);

Stop mismanaging money so that it could be put to better use.