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Don’t leave all your money to your children

“ The almighty dollar bequeathed to a child is an almighty curse. No man has the right to handicap his son with such a burden as great wealth” Andrew Carnegie.

There are many rich people who are very successful and amassed large amount of wealth during their lifetimes. I am glad that some of them like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the two world richest men, have decided to set foundations to help the poor and to donate to medical research funds and universities.

These rich and wise men know that they cannot bring their money along when they die. They also know that they should not leave all their money to their children. They have decided to leave just enough for their children to have a head start and donated the rest to the foundations and NGO/charities they support.

Andrew Carnegie is right. If you leave great wealth to your children you are actually cursing them. The next generation will take many things for granted and lose the fighting and survival instinct.

I am a father with two children. I told both my children that the best thing I can give them is to make sure they have a good education. Like the great philanthropists, we can leave something for them to give them a head start. The future is theirs and they have to earn it themselves.

They are many poor Asian children out there who have nothing. Some of them don’t even have parents or a roof over their head. Many of them don’t even know how to read A, B, C.

I think it is only fair for us who can afford a little more in life to give what we could to help these poor Asian children to have a head start. These poor children did not choose to be born into poverty. It is the right thing and the humane thing to do our part to give these poor children a fighting chance in life. At the very least they should be given an opportunity to have a basic education.

Poor Asian Child -Goducate

(I took a photo of this sweet little girl who lives in a poor kampong in Cambodia. She deserves a good education. Who is going to give her an opportunity to have a head start in life?)

I really don’t understand why some rich people insist on leaving large sums of inheritance to their children. Can anyone tell me why? Perhaps it is a cultural or a religious philosophy which I don’t understand. Perhaps they have never thought about the matter. Perhaps they have gone through difficult childhood because their own parents were not rich and they felt they should make a difference by making sure that their own children have an easier life and a better future.

I may be wrong in my view. Can anyone enlighten me on why some super rich people don’t give to charity but decide to leave everything to their children to squander away? Hey, they are in fact cursing their own children like what Andrew Carnegie said in the quote above.

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Why do people give to charity?

I was in Taiwan having a holiday with my family last month. While visiting a busy night market in Taipei, we saw a beggar with no arms bowing repeatedly to the people who passed by. He has a little bowl with a few coins placed in front of him. My daughter was moved to stop and dig into her wallet to give some money to this poor man who has no arms.

I could understand why my daughter stopped to drop a few dollars into the empty bowl. I think she felt sorry for the poor beggar.

I could understand how she felt because I also felt sorry for this man. Here is a busy market with so many people enjoying themselves. They enjoy the shopping and the good food. But what does this poor beggar have? He does not even have any arms? How does he earn a living? How does he take care of himself? I felt sad to see him like this.

That’s right, we feel sorry and we give something to do what we could to alleviate someone’s suffering or plight.

When the Sichuan earthquake struck China in 2008, hundred of millions of dollars poured into this province to help the poor survivals who had lost everything. Many people were moved to donate money just like the present Haiti earthquake which killed over 200,000 people.

We often give to situation like this because we can feel and see the sorrows and sufferings encountered by others.

Dramatic events such as a catastrophic earthquake or flood moved people to give and do their part because they feel sad. They just wanted to do the little they could to alleviate the pain they saw.

But why do people give to charities? People give to different charities for different reasons.

I decided to ask around and I came to the following conclusions:

  1. Guilt – People feel guilty about a situation or plight encountered by someone else and donate money in order to sooth their own conscience.
  2. Religious reason – I think some religions like Christianity and the Islamic faith actively teaches people to give alms and help the poor. Giving is taught as a virtue in these religions. I think there are also religions that teach people to give buy redemption to get to heaven when they die.
  3. Hope– People gives to Cancer or HIV research foundations to give hope to others. They hope that their money can contribute to the advancement of medical science and help people who are suffering from cancer or HIV.
  4. Association– Some people may come from poor background and they can associate with orphans or the needy children. They give to orphanage or the needy because they know what is like to be poor.
  5. Friends or Peer influence– You may have heard of social events or dinners where the rich people are invited. These people give to charity because of the influence of friends, peers or someone with strong social standing such as a movie star or a politician.
  6. Love– I doubt I can say that there are many people who give money because of love. Perhaps an auntie may give a love gift to her nephew who is in need because of love. I also heard that there are many Christians who give to their pastors or church members because of love for these people. I think they call this ‘agape’ love.

I don’t think everyone will agree with my conclusion for the reason listed above on why people give to charity. Can you share with us your view on this matter? It will definitely help us to understand our donors better.

Goducate-Helping Poor Asians

(Photograph of 3 orphans at the Cambodia orphanage. The two boys in front are twins (Jacob and John).

I really like the way the smile when I took this photograph.

There are many children and poor Asians out there who are in need. We are hoping to raise money to help them.

Volunteers like me volunteer to help Goducate because we have visited some of these places like the orphanage in Cambodia. We are moved to do our part. We hope we can make a little difference for these poor children who have lost their parents.

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Haiti Earthquake – urgent help needed now and AFTER the earthquake

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been hit by its worst earthquake since 1770. Its capital, Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, where almost a quarter of Haiti’s population lives has been devastated.

Thankfully, many countries and relief organizations have mobilized their resources to help this battered country. The speed of telecommunications and transportation has made relief work so much more efficient and effective. I am thankful and amazed at the speed, organizational abilities, resources and skills of these relief teams. They seem to improve with each natural catastrophe. The speed with they reacted this time seems better than after the Sichuan (China) earthquake in 2008, which seemed better than they did after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

While the quality of emergency relief work is improving rapidly, the quality of the follow-up work does not seem to have improved much. In fact, in most such cases the vast majority of resources are used in the immediate relief work. After that, the poor country is usually forgotten – until the next major catastrophe.

The majority of Haiti’s population is illiterate. I am sure that far more Haitians have died from effects of poverty than from all its earthquakes. I am thankful for all the dear people who are doing their best to help Haiti in this hour of great need. But I hope that more people will also remember to help Haitians to achieve a better life after the horrors of this earthquake are over.

I’ve personally seen the effects of natural catastrophes in Asia – typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes. But all these pale in comparison to the on-going effect of poverty and hopelessness on millions of poor Asians.

Emergency relief work is needful.

But the less glamorous, on-going work of helping a poor child to learn to read and write is just as important – if not more important!