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Sunday, July 24, 2011

What does it profit a man?



What does it profit a man?
Money, money, money!


The complete question is: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?” I also add, “and if he loses his life.”

I watched a documentary recently about the career of a woman from Colombia named Griselda who ran a drug empire under the name of “The GodMother.” Her former lover and henchman told the story. It was a fascinating account of real life on the streets, and the action that takes place behind the scenes. The main problem is that such a lifestyle is infecting just about every corner of the world.

Allegedly, she ran her empire with brutal violence, supposedly being responsible for numerous murders and terrible injuries.

The possibly attractive part of the story is the quantity of money that changes hands and the lifestyle that that buys a person. The cash is usually held outside banks, sometimes filling a whole room in large bundles. Sellers of drugs on the street have been known to realise sales of $10,000 per day. Men dress themselves in gold chains and dazzling rings and surround themselves with equally dazzling women. All that makes slogging away at a day job with a salary seem like an uphill battle for seemingly silly men.

The reality is that life expectancy is very short indeed in the world of drug dealing. One member of the group might enter into such dealing that could lead to his entire family being killed should he fail.

Tales of torture are hard to bear as “the bizness” seems to bring out the very worst of behaviour. In my own country, which is world known as a paradise, our local lads are involved in an ongoing war to kill one another until the last man who survives will inherit the right to carry on “the bizness.” Even then, he will be challenged by the young wanna-be’s who will want his head.

Normally, when considering working for some company we take into account things like salary and benefits, but if our potential employer suggested that our term of employment with him might be very short because we most probably will be killed, and even tortured before that, we would walk away from the “opportunity”, but in these times of economic crisis people are standing in line to take the place of the previous person who has left his employment, because he’s dead.

Unfortunately, these soldiers are mostly young men who seem to be willing to just taste the good life; to live well, live hard, and die young. So, what is the point? There is no point. If there were some sense in it we would all be doing it. It is all simply madness. These young guys who say they are prepared to die horrible and painful deaths must have some misgivings when the time comes. Being this type of soldier is nothing like defending your country. In that, there is honour, but in pushing drugs there can be no honour at all.

However, let us be clear about this, the source of the problem is the drug user. The drug seller is simply a businessman bringing the product to the market. However, when things go wrong they go very wrong indeed.

This is a business you would be well advised to stay well away from for you gain nothing in the end. You also hurt far too many people to have any claim to dignity.

In Mexico, the present death toll from gang wars is over 40,000 people. Let me spell that out: that’s forty-thousand people. That makes the point most succinctly, I think.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael