When King Leopold II gained control of the congo from England. He dubbed it "Congo Free state" but ironically it wasn't free at all. King Leopold allied himself with Henry Stanley to force the inhabitance to work for them and harvest the minerals. A form of subjugation? I say any situation where forced to worked for nothing that benifits you or puts you in life threataning superventions should not be allowed. The people were forced to pluck vauables for others just to make them wealthy. Not only that, they were forced to accumulate a set amount of they would have their arms decapitated. This even happened amoung children.
Exploitation of people, resources and animals have happened all over the world and all the time. Even animals go through exploitations simply for what we view in our eyes as beauty, like ivory in elephant tusks. It's mortifing to lose someone close over vanity or weath, isn't it?
What impression does this leave on you about humanity's lust for fortune?
In all honesty it doesn’t shock me or send me into fits of outrage. At most I feel a tiny pit of disgust in the base of my stomach but I know it won’t last because soon I’ll be talking to friends and walking around with a smile on my face as if the world isn’t twisted and disgusting. I don’t mean to come of as uncaring or rude but in some ways as you grow older you become desensitized to the problems of human nature. What’s even sadder is we are forces to guilt trip ourselves into caring about the rights of all living things with 30 second commercials of blank faced children/animals with sad eyes staring right at your soul, and songs like “What a wonderful world” playing in the background just to make us conceder giving up a dollar a day to feed these people. Yet still how many of us even donate? I think I watched it felt bad then went to my kitchen to eat a cookie. Sorry if I seem of topic but basically what I’m getting at is people all in all are greedy and sadly I accept that. Even those who don’t and complain rarely do anything to fix it.
ReplyDeleteIt is really unfortunate to see how wild an individual’s action or words could turn into just for the possibility of receiving an excess of wealth.
ReplyDeleteThe prophet Muhammad said "If a son of Adam were to own a valley full of gold, he would desire to have two."
Nobody could ever be thankful for the amount of wealth that they have, people will always want more. That is why it is always essential to count your blessings, and consider the unfortunate.
King Leopold’s act of claiming Congo of being a Free State was a clear example of a man who’s hungry for more wealth, not only was he greedy but he lied. People like King Leopold could care less about the exploitation of people. They don’t care about the amount of people’s lives that are being destroyed because of their act. The key players in the transatlantic trade could have cared less as well… as long as they are benefitting the plan sounds good to them.
Humanity’s lust for fortune is ridiculous, people were trying way too hard to get rich (in a negative manner) as if they will be able to take the fortune they make with them when they pass away.
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ReplyDelete@Kaitlyn I understand where you are coming from with your points however I don't agree that it’s the correct way to think. The reason why I say that is because as humans we all need to have our basic needs in life met such as love, clothes, safety, food etc. If those things are not given to an individual and no one’s doing anything about it then there will be a time if not us our children will be affected by it.
ReplyDeleteA good example would be about the story of a boat that had 2 floors. The top floor had the wealthy people while the bottom floor had the poor people. The top floor never looked down to help the poor people. A time came where it got so bad that everyone in the bottom had nothing to drink and the top floor still didn't care about them. The bottom floor then thought of a way to survive which was by making a whole in the boat to get some water which will eventually cause the boat to sink. Where then EVERYONE will be affected.
This story teaches us that we need to look at our surroundings or we will be affected. In other words allowing ourselves to be desensitized and to just go in the kitchen and forget about what’s going around in the world is not something we should be doing.
humanity thrieves on the lust and greed for fortune and beauty, the bigger and shinier, the better. from a young age children are taught that the more money and beauty the better their lives will be. the two (beauty and fortune) have somehow become intertwined causing a chain reaction where either you have money and use it to "become beautiful/have beautiful things" or vice versa you have "beauty" and you use it to buy things.
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ReplyDelete@INDIA
ReplyDeleteI understand that we all were brought up differently, and in a sense it's quite interesting to see how a brother or sister was taught to live. Is she to focus on religion, less on beauty. Is he to focus on money, less then donate?
What I'm saying is we all were brought up differently, so for you to say kids are taught that the more money and beauty the better their lives will be better I think NAY all we need is each other, yet people care to realize that simple equation.... with some love and honesty, with some laughter and joy we can end this, the money and the beauty is nothing but a subtle meaning of power to the people that are a mirrored IMAGE of you, or should I say LESS fortunate.. we shall all get through this, though.