Ms. Alisha Smith, one of the 10,000POL speaks on wealth

Ms. Alisha Smith, one of the 10,000POL speaks on wealth following a meeting that took place yesterday at the Rivonia News Cafe located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

She identified 4 types of wealth as shown below. Mr. Tinashe Mpasiri, a member of the 10,000 Points of Light (POL), was provoked to comment as follows: “Is it not ironic that there exists no shared understanding of what wealth is and is not?

Where is wisdom and understanding to be found on what this animal called WEALTH is before dealing with the vexing question of what it is not?

Imagine it is midnight and you were asked this simple but complex question what wealth is? What would be your best answer?

Is wealth the absence of poverty? How is it acquired? What is its relationship with human beings? How come some have established a relationship with it and others find it elusive?

As a member of the Banking on Africa’s Future (BOAF) corporate literacy initiative, I have come to learn that wealth is not the opposite of poverty.

In the affairs of living animals, concepts like wealth and poverty do not exist. The obvious question is why?

My guess is that animals were not gifted with the power of reason and free will to allow them to create a value-centric civilization.

Wealth is the residue that is left from the proceeds of problem solving. If I earn $1000 per month and then I am left with $200 every month after deducting expenses of $800, the $200 is what I can store in money form or objects of value that can be converted into money form through commerce.

However, absent the rule of law, wealth is dead. No one would work so hard to create value only to lose it to another who did not sweat to create it.

If you want to learn more, please do the right thing by choosing to become part of this exciting iniatiative to build a tent of 10,000 candles where each candle represents a human being. We all have a shining part in our personalities and building a circle or bank of these shining lights will go a long way to building the pointers of what is possible and can be done in our quest to build an Africa that rocks for all.”