Towards Consciousness

By Vignesh Dhandapani

Part 1 – the PROBLEM!

Welcome to the world of ‘Paper Money’, You heard it right- ‘Paper money’.  I would call the concept of ‘Paper money’ as the seed of Greed. Before this concept was made public there were literally no question of rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer, Economic break down, Recession, Bankruptcy were the terms which we never heard of in earlier ages.  Now the world is set to go to the next step and that’s ‘Digital money’ – Money exchange online, in digits only and no physical currency of any sort. Now let us compare the current chaos spawned in the name of economic stability with the Vedic Age where barter system and real of Gold and Silver coins were in circulation.

There are limits to economic growth and the current world economy has crossed those limits. In last 6 decades, world economy has been globalized and contrary to what people believe, it’s not the best thing to have happened to our finances. The economic system built on a need for constant growth obviously can’t last long in a finite world.  Small is beautiful…and sustainable. The world has always hoped against hope…until the reality stares in its face. The history is trying to repeat itself in the recent times.  Headlines are blaring – Financial markets in a free-fall, Chaos on Wall St, International markets in a tail spin, European bailout, America shutdown, More banks to fail, Investors to shy away amidst growing fears…what not!  We can easily equate the current world economy to a house of cards and you never know when is it going to crumble – completely.

America – Undisputed Financial World leader.

America’s unquenchable materialistic appetite is the machinery that fuels the global economy. Japan’s economy would collapse if it were not for the billions of dollars per year gained in trading with America. When America goes into recession, the world follows. When America’s economy is booming, the world’s economy also booms.  America devours most resources, yet, is never satisfied (like most of us). Running out of money, she tells the waiter to supply on credit. He gladly complies making a tidy profit from the interest.  He cannot serve her quick enough. The more she eats, the hungrier she becomes.  As the time passes, less goes to paying for food and more to pay for the huge debt she is accumulating. Finally, all of her resources are used up in paying for the interest she owes. America falls crashing to the ground in economic ruin, so suddenly, it sends shock waves throughout the world. She is incapable of paying for her massive imports. Merchant ships sit off the shore, heavily laden with cargo, weeping and wailing in horror.

Americans have become desensitized to just how much money that is. To put a trillion dollars in context, if we spend a million dollar every day since Jesus was born, we still wouldn’t have spent a trillion.  America’s current debt is approximately $17 trillion!!  Of course everyone is tossing the words million, billion and trillion. Have we become numb to the numbers? Number itself can be pronounced as ‘number’ or ‘numb-er’. And in the case, the latter is a better pronunciation.

Satyam Saga:

Headlines: London, September 22, 2008: Satyam Computer services Ltd., a leading global consulting and IT services provider has won the coveted Gloden Peacock Global Award for the Excellence in Corporate Governance for 2008.

India, January 7, 2009: Rs 7000 Crore Fraud in Satyam, Chairman Detained.

On January 7, 2009, India Inc. woke up to a shocker of a life time – $ 1.6 billion Satyam computers fraud. Chairman Ramalinga Raju and his family cooked up books and siphoned off money in what is being termed as India’s biggest corporate fraud till date. By the end of the day, the fourth largest IT company lost a staggering Rs 10,000 crore in market capitalization as investors reacted sharply and dumped shares, leaving an uncertain future for the company and its 53,000 employees. The entire stock market crashed. It was unprecedented. Satyam’s balance sheet as on Sep 3, 2008, carried an inflated(non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore as against Rs 5,361 reflected in the books. Satyam fraud clouds the corporate governance of India Inc.

Money Laundering:

Money lau­ndering happens in almost every country in the world, and a single scheme typically involves transferring money through several countries in order to obscure its origins. Money laundering, at its simplest, is the act of making money that comes from Source A look like it comes from Source B. In practice, criminals are trying to disguise the origins of money obtained through illegal activities so it looks like it was obtained from legal sources. Otherwise, they can’t use the money because it would connect them to the criminal activity, and law-enforcement officials would seize it.

What’s the solution to this mind-boggling jugglery of the hyper-active human mind!?

(coming up:  simple solutions…based on higher thinking)