catmasutra - true colors

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"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are"- Anais Nin.

Even when we're searching for options and answers, we look at only the colors that appeal to us. A lot of our likes and dislikes are determined by capitalistic forces, and yet in the midst of it all, we still pick out the little nuances that speak to us. The main difference is how much we really know our true colors as opposed to blindly following the Pied Piper. One of the tenets of branding is to layer lifestyle aspirations onto a commodity, so that it means a lot more to own branded products as a means of self validation. We're all part of this system and whether we admit it or not, we are what we consume, making segments of people extraordinarily rich while leaving millions in poverty.

It's a fact that millions of children die every year in poor countries because of measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever, etc. Why? Because "the market did not reward saving the lives of these children and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system."(Excerpts from Bill Gates' speech as published by Today, August 25, 2007). We know these things happen but we prefer not to see, because most of us are just ordinary people, not rich nor poor, just lots of commitments here and there. There is just no time to care too much. "The media covers what's new - and millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background. But even when we do see it and read about it, it's difficult to keep our eyes on the problem. It's hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don't know how to help. And so we look away". To Gates, the barrier to change is not too little caring but too much complexity. "To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact."

Haha if we follow the Piped Piper blindly, we are nothing more than non-entities in an increasingly programmable world, where inequity is norm and fair. It'll only become unfair when it happens to you, and by then, nobody is listening to you...

;)