Salve, let’s go back to Philo 101. Money is nothing more than a figment of the human mind, created to lubricate the wheels of modern commerce. It’s what you do it which matters in the real world - feed your family daily, educate yourself, share with others, feel good and secure since you don’t have to rely on others for daily sustenance…

Ka Crispin may be materially poor but is extremely influential to many as a politician and an ideologue. Even P 1 billion can’t buy such! No need to pity him, exactly, except possibly for the financial implications of his demise to his dependents.

sometimes people tend to romantized , philosophized and even spiritualized the word poor. who says its a choice? is there anything noble being poor? have you ever experienced being literally poor? were you able to feel how they feel? they are the most exploited people- unlesss you do something to them to alleviate their suffering just like what Jesus and mother theresa of calcutta did - then you who have the right to say that indeed blessed are the poor.

crispin beltran died as a poor man. unfortunately,his past actions & outdated ideology made million other Pinoys to live & die poor. Its just natural for him to die poor, because they hate to work & just always complain & blame the government.

its so easy to be idealist & its always poetic to be a rebel, but we all need to work to give our families a decent living.

as a young kid before, i have seen many factories closed resulting to unemployment because of their so called “ideology” that was even junked by the country from where they import it

“To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.”

Excerpt from “an interview with god”

http://acgadvisors.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-with-god.html

I think the ultimate aim of achieving financial independence (becoming rich) - its being able to free up our “time” from being spent on the mundane tasks of working for our next meal to doing something that gives us real satisfaction

because being “poor” takes away the “time” you’d rather spend patiently waiting for hours.. for your baby to take his first step..

being “poor” forces you to leave the warm comfort of your bed to endure a two-hour commute at five AM on a stormy monday morning to a dreadful place called work..

being “poor” puts you in a situation where you have to explain to your 9-year old kid why he cannot join this year’s summer camp..

Ka Bel made his choices.. mine is to ensure that i won’t have to go through these again..

thanks..

hachiko, I don’t think it’s pity, it’s more like he deserved to have much more than that. I was shocked to learn that he was living that humbly. But it was his choice, a good choice.

@the husband: i must have typed “pity” at spurt of the moment. he definitely has a legacy that no amount of money can buy, material poverty being almost irrelevant. He’s bukambibig sa aming lahat dun sa UP, and few are even up there in the mountains for Ka Crispin’s cause, such following cannot be quantified in peso terms.

this comes down to needs and wants…… some people kill for power…. others lust for cash….. still others craved for intelligence and wisdom….

and to live during these times….. to not have cash, brings a lot of inconvenience …. better to have than not to have…… better to accumulate legally than illegally….. moral courage in the absence of wants….. such a subtle state of grace, everybody should aspire

I may disagree with his leftist leanings but you gotta admire a man who lived and died with his principles intact.
As for dying poor, it was his choice. He had the resources within his reach and chose to live frugally instead.

I think the right word here is balance. As they say too much of anything is poison. Being poor has its own disadvantage. How can you help others when you cannot give the basic things to your own family and carry the problems of the whole country.

On the other hand, in pursuit of power and wealth at the expense of other people, like other politicians who send tax payers money for there personal use is also not good.

But I think in the end its between you and your conscience on how do you evaluate your action.

i just finished reading the news…… he have 11 children? and they all went to college? how do you support 11 children going to school by being poor? how much will you have to spend for supporting 11 children? how much should be your take home pay then? hhmmmm….. kaya ba ng poor yan? how do you define and where is the cut-off value to be classified “poor”?

Salve, you have so eloquently put into words my exact sentiments and musings on ka bel’s life and passing. May I say that this post is one of your best written posts I’ve read to date.This is a blog on a very material topic -money. But this post gave us something else, a glimpse into one’s soul.

One of Crispin Beltran’s sons, an equally unassuming but brilliant man, attended a prestigious graduate school. If he can ill afford the tuition fee, with his kind of intellect, he can get a scholarship anytime, anywhere. I sat next to the guy, and he could easily have taken over any of the classes. All of us have different graces, however, poor does not mean stupid…

ideologists made simple for the “simple-minded”:

capitalism - the vicious cycle of insatiable greed

consumerism - the illusion of capitalism that “anything and everything can be bought” by material things

materialism - in the economic sense, living a life of vice/excess

“free” market economy - subjecting humanity to the artificial and manipulable “laws” of supply and demand

communism (the real deal) - the state when man “acknowledges” man not just in economics but in life as a whole

being “poor” - being “the last, the least, the lost” in life

hey, there’s nothing wrong in entrepreneurship, as long as humanity comes first before profit.

how did ka beltran lived? he lived the life that socrates, gandhi, buddha, confucius, marx and jesus christ called “human life”. ^_^

For me being financially poor means not having enough to take care of your lifestyle.

Some people may earn P50,000 per month but they keep paying for a lifestyle that costs P100,000 per month to maintain. This gets them into debt, and doesn’t allow them to have savings or an emergency fund.

For me, that makes them poor.

Of course, when you look at most of the urban and rural poor, they really aren’t making enough to support regular nutritious meals and medical care to begin with. These are normally the people we think about when we think “poor”. There are many reasons why these people are poor, but these have a lot to do with things being outside their control and it would take tremendous will power, luck, and street smarts to get out of that situation.

But with the poor people I mentioned earlier - the ones who are making good money but choose to live way beyond their means - they’re the ones that are truly pathetic because they choose to live that way.

“how did ka beltran lived? he lived the life that socrates, gandhi, buddha, confucius, marx and jesus christ called “human life”. ^_^”

I agree with Leon

@hachiko. I hated Philo 101! Hahaha. Back to Ka Bel, I actually admired him and did not pity him at all. I admired him although I did not agree with his beliefs, which I think was the universal reaction to his death.

@zeitgeist-freud, are you talking to me? i’ve been there. not homeless-type poor, but i know what it is like. and i know that, yes, it can be a choice. just like the businessman who has the opportunity to grow really big but chooses to grow only at a certain rate so that he can stay grounded and he can balance his life. yes, it can be a choice. just as it can also be a choice to aim for financial success and yet be simple in one’s lifestyle.

@ferdskhan, i get what you are saying. i was once invited to be one of them. i didn’t like it. i turned away. but i also admire any man who will live simply if it means fighting for his ideology so long as he doesn’t use the ideology to be lazy. sorry for the others who interpreted that to mean they can be idle, live on the hard work of simple farmers in the area, and call that fighting for their ideals. My maids would tell me why they cannot raise more than two pigs. the men with guns tax them by taking the pigs.

@jeff, thanks for the link. i agree with everything that you said. being poor may also mean you have to do what you have to do, even if you don’t like it. at least, having some savings means you can quit your job when you know it doesn’t fit what you want to do in life and not being scared that you won’t have income for months!

@chris, nicely put. “lust for cash” you’re giving me a good idea for a future post!

@griffin and ria, nicely said!

@emma, thank you very much for the compliment. much appreciated!

@DB, that’s a nice piece of information. thanks for sharing

@leon, there are many ideologies in this world that unfortunately lose their beauty when implemented.

I still believed I will take the opportunity if it comes to me… remember one of the sayings or principle of Lucio Tan ” When that chance comes, Masama o Mabuti ,Grab that chance…. This may not apply to anyone but without money we are just a piece of garbage.