Wealth of nations ... and their helplessness
two days ago, i wrote an article about the shiites of kuwait, which included the following text: have the wise shiite sect members ever wondered: why do we often find these manifestations, with all their rituals, in the poorest and least educated societies?
the sentence angered some people, including relatives and friends who respect them, and it also caught the attention of tweeters, each of whom had his own reasons and arguments regarding the inaccuracy of what i mentioned!
to all those who objected to my respect, but they did not pay attention to the word “usually,” which negates generalization, meaning that these religious rituals may exist in any society, regardless of its wealth, poverty, or degree of education.
education and wealth are relative matters that do not mean much “most of the time.” possessing wealth or a lot of money, as a result of a valid inheritance, a suspicious deal, an immoral job, or even an honest and serious commercial or industrial job, does not automatically lead the owner of the wealth to become a logical, understanding, cultured, or learned person. rather, he remains as he is, whether he is educated, ignorant, intelligent, or stupid.
in countries like india, thailand, and others, we find dozens of physicists, mathematicians, and economists listening to or seeking the blessings of someone who is less knowledgeable and intelligent than them.
but his main advantage, in their view, is that his touch is blessed, his intercession is strong, and his company is mercy, even if his intermediary is a cow. they are happy with what they believe, and this is their human right.
we also fi nd in kuwait a religious man who is the most famous and richest, followed by millions, and his appearance in any public place causes great confusion and chaos, despite the fact that he said in one of his sermons, on the tongue of one of the great muftis, that he used to distance himself from the people, and sit under a column, and the “jinn” would come to him and ask him questions, and he would answer their questions!
despite his followers hearing what he said, the degree of their “understanding” did not repel them from him or from his previous and subsequent strange narrations and fatwas!
we say again that the poorest and least educated do not necessarily mean the least money or the least knowledge.
kuwait, and other sister countries, are full of wealth of all kinds, and have a great ability to create money, and can borrow on the best terms from global markets.
despite all this, they are classified by all rating agencies, banks and international bodies as third world countries, and their terrible “monetary” wealth did not intercede for them to be removed from that low classification, as wealth does not make an individual a rational, cultured or even educated person.
if we look at countries such as denmark, singapore or finland, which do not have the monetary wealth that kuwait has, and do not have any natural resources, we fi nd that they are, despite this, classified as the best countries in the world, economically, educationally and in terms of stability.
their people also occupy the top positions in happiness scales, and their per capita income is twice that of a kuwaiti citizen, as it is $55,000 per person in finland, $70,000 for a dane, $84 for a singaporean, and $41,000 for a kuwaiti only. the source of these figures is the “world bank”!
