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| Image Courtesy:The True Source Of Greed | Sustainable |
Greed can be described as the seemingly uncontrollable strong desire for more irrespective of how insignificant the thing desired may appear to others. In other words, it is an overwhelming and obviously selfish desire to have more of something at the expense of others without recourse to
Greed may also result as a consequence of over ambition, of individuals in a geopolitical economy; hence he/she may never be content with the materials at their disposal and thus glare in desperation at the meager gifts of others.
In order to be more fluently specific, greed may be chiefly drawn by the words “will” and “goal” which means a lot in the common context of the English language. The spirit behind a will triggers the optimistic emotions of an individual to possess beyond satisfaction, a goal, a material or possession that may or may not be necessarily needed. Little do we know that the use of “will” hold in itself a strong spirit that bedevils the mind and cripples the psychology of any average human being regardless of who or what the person is made of. The common man crazed by this emotion craves in excess and concocts all means necessary to acquire such goals and if need be eliminate hindrances or personalities who pose a threat to his acquisitions.
In polygamous homes, greed may arise from long-term envy and or jealousy or better still, greed is the end result of jealousy and envy. And as such greed is a very deadly character that creates a chain of hatred and disunity amongst members of a polygamous home. Controlled/tamed greed has just one positive benefit only if geared towards the right motives, but nonetheless, greed has several negative factors and effects on both the nuclear, extended family and the community in general.
Greed in polygamous homes may be as a result of;
Property Distribution amongst the children of the family:
Here we consider the use of wills which entails details (written possessions and possessors) on who receives what, at an appointed time, designated by the owners of such wills.
From Biblical theology, we come to realize that greed is one of the seven deadly sins that can lead a man to destruction and destruction of his fellow man and society.
Rights to Inheritance
Right to inheritance can be described as the civil, legal, hierarchical rights to succeed to the father’s material and financial possessions or wealth, or company’s assets. Right to inheritance does not occur between families only, it also occurs amongst individuals of a firm or organizations, associations and even societies and in the nation at large where democracy and the rule of law had failed to take its willful existence. In polygamous homes where mutual understanding has not been built and members of such families not yet educated about the ups and downs behind inheritance, quarrels amongst siblings is bound to occur and eventually escalate into crisis that may or may not be able to control.
This problem can also lead to quarrels among wives and even drag the interests of outside relatives to the success of their brother or uncle or family friend.
Hierarchical positioning of Siblings
This can be described as the chain arrangement of the siblings in a household, as the first son from probably any of the wives ultimately becomes the heir apparent to his father’s wealth regardless of the marital positioning of the wives. In a situation where wife B gives birth to the first son and wife A had the second son, the second son out of this ravaging emotion highlighted may be forced to eliminate his older brother so that he claims the proper inheritance that is due to the first son. In other cases, fathers may just will their most priceless possessions to the second or the third son because of his propensity to maintain such possession and alas the elder ones probably from a different mother would flare up in anger not that they were not included in the sharing, perhaps they were even willed larger portions of the man’s land assets and others but the fact that the priceless possession willed to the third is a company or a club house gives the elder brothers or elder step-brothers the creep and discomfort. There greed sets in and malicious acts would eventually be committed and heavy consequent damages may be incurred both physically, emotionally, psychologically and otherwise.
Marital positioning of Wives in the family
Marital positioning of wives in a family simply refers to the hierarchical order of the women married into a family in consideration to the time and the succession of marriage.
In a polygamous home, some tradition strictly specify that the first wife gets most of the attention from the husband and as much favour that can be derived because of her position as the first wife (based on African cultures and traditions). However, the children of the first wife receive as much benefits as compared to the other children from the other wives. In the absence of the first wife, the next in line to such grants and favours is the second wife and her children. Women in their protective and catering make up are sometimes bound to their parental obligations and duties to their husband and most especially their children, in order to provide the necessities for their own regardless the similarities as human beings. A typical example can be drawn from the birds especially the mother hen who protects her chicks and pecks her beak on the chicks of other hen. As described in the Hierarchical Positioning of Siblings above, Wife A would do everything possible to maintain her position as the first wife if Wife B giving birth to the first male child would cause her position as the first.
Religious, cultural and Ethical beliefs
This can be described as the sacred knowledge that is passed down from fathers to fathers and sons to sons. Here a belief that was once practiced from time immemorial is passed down like a legend and listeners are almost obliged to keep such practices in place and never misplace them regardless of the situation or circumstance they might find themselves in. Some Religion like Christianity believes that only the first wife is recognized as the one and only as long as they are duly wedded in a gathering of believers called a church. This religion in those days never welcomed the idea that children born outside wedlock were true children of the man regardless of how much value he places on such seeds of his. And most at times the man was made to severe his bonds with the outside woman and her children. Conflict upon conflict arose and the gathering of believer thought it wise to control such emotion of rejection which pushed these children to want a feel of belonging and as such made them commit treacherous crimes and murders. Christianity soon made provisions for that excluding the outside woman. Children born outside wedlock were to be taken good care of by the father and also the outside woman. If need be in conditions where the outside woman cannot raise the children, then the man is obliged to take the children under his roof and cater for them and so is the wedded wife obliged to do. Even with these provisional solutions, children outside wedlock are legally not entitled to the father’s most priceless possessions. But in a situation where fathers will their priceless possessions to a son born outside wedlock probably a company or a house club, the rightful first son born from wedlock definitely some years younger or older than the illegitimate son would not take it lightly even though he had been willed the entire properties his father possessed. He might have that urge to take back what he feels rightfully belongs to him. The case can be the reverse when the first of the man’s seed is an illegitimate, willed some portion of land but not satisfied because he felt mistreated could also not take things lightly and hence escalate their desires into clashes that would stampede the extorted with unbearable damages.
Islam on the other hand also encourages marriage of more than one wife as long as the man is able and capable of taking proper care of them but preferably nonetheless, marriage of one wife if two will be too much to handle. Greed amongst men also triggers their desires for more than one wives just to prove to their fellow men that they are much more capable, thereby endangering themselves and the women they marry and keep at home as properties. They do not consider the repercussions of marrying more wives and the enmity that might arise. Some even fail to put their houses to check to monitor dominance struggles amongst wives and siblings
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF GREED
Greed, regardless of its many unethical deviations possesses a unique quality of changing the situation of an individual, family, society, organization and even a nation’s economy into a more global, reliable and efficient one.
A cited instance is that of Nation A probably having an economic oil production of about 50% and Nation B having an economic oil production of about 20% but managed to provide for all the Nation’s requirements and hence ranked them high above other Nations for its usability. There is this political tendency for greed to arise as Nation A may be the first to have existed in the continent before any other nations even came to existence. In a negative scenario, Nation A would do everything possible to elevate itself above the ranking chain at the detriment of Nation B, thereby stranding Nation B in an Economic catastrophe.
But in the positive scenario, Nation A would do everything possible as far as learning how to surpass Nation B either from other Nations or Nation B in context. Nation A finally learns how and gears its strategy towards taking yet an innovative, manipulative process to resolve its economic problems and thus elevates itself back to the top of the ranking chain.
At this point we see that the initial cause of greed in both scenarios is the “Ranking chain”. The second scenario however highlights how an individual or community can tackle the usurping urge for extortion of other person(s) or community at the expense of the extorted.
Greed can be resolved through education and enlightenment to the advantage of the family.
Thus, a greedy individual is likely selfish and stingy with a high capacity to cheat and extort others. He or she is seemingly wicked, malicious, vindictive, resentful, indignant, spiteful, malevolent and covetous. Astonishingly, the actions of greedy individuals are seen not only to affect others around them, but themselves as well. In simple words, they can be said to acquire so much but with little to show for it. For instance:
By Mr. Ikpotokin S.O (B.Sc, M.Sc.[in view])
- Relationship (little or no consideration to the bond existing between individuals or society)
- Cost (little or no consideration to what price might be paid at the detriment of others)
- Consequent damage, Repercussions, End results, Positive considerations (little or no consideration to the actual damage they’d be inflicting on their fellow individual or the repercussions of uncontrolled greed)
- Their own Integrity (little or no consideration to how a public show of their greedy actions might lower or destroy their human integrity)
- Societal detest (little or no consideration to what the society thinks about their public exhibition of greed)
- Civil rights (little or no consideration to the rights of the extorted)
- Law of nature (little or no consideration to how one’s actions might defy the law of nature and exude consequential damages) and
- Legal law (little or no consideration to the law of the state or family which is supposed to guide and direct the family on how they should act each time they go out of line)
- Traditional rules and regulations as depicts cultural practices
- Moral values and virtues
- Religious and communal teachings
- Cited testimonies of personalities who had embarked on the same journey through greed express
- Parental and elderly advice/counseling against such actions
- Sentimental judgment or Proper examination of conscience (i.e. placing oneself in the position of the extorted)
- Logical remedies (i.e. avoiding situations where emotions gets the better of a person as coined “better safe than sorry”)
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| Courtesy: Kpoto Comics (drawn and painted by Ikpotokin S.O) |
In order to be more fluently specific, greed may be chiefly drawn by the words “will” and “goal” which means a lot in the common context of the English language. The spirit behind a will triggers the optimistic emotions of an individual to possess beyond satisfaction, a goal, a material or possession that may or may not be necessarily needed. Little do we know that the use of “will” hold in itself a strong spirit that bedevils the mind and cripples the psychology of any average human being regardless of who or what the person is made of. The common man crazed by this emotion craves in excess and concocts all means necessary to acquire such goals and if need be eliminate hindrances or personalities who pose a threat to his acquisitions.
In polygamous homes, greed may arise from long-term envy and or jealousy or better still, greed is the end result of jealousy and envy. And as such greed is a very deadly character that creates a chain of hatred and disunity amongst members of a polygamous home. Controlled/tamed greed has just one positive benefit only if geared towards the right motives, but nonetheless, greed has several negative factors and effects on both the nuclear, extended family and the community in general.
Greed in polygamous homes may be as a result of;
- Property distribution amongst the children of the family
- Rights to Inheritance
- Hierarchical positioning of Siblings
- Marital positioning of Wives in the family and,
- Religious, cultural and Ethical beliefs ,
- Greed amongst Siblings
- Greed amongst Wives
- Greed amongst Parents
Property Distribution amongst the children of the family:
Here we consider the use of wills which entails details (written possessions and possessors) on who receives what, at an appointed time, designated by the owners of such wills.
From Biblical theology, we come to realize that greed is one of the seven deadly sins that can lead a man to destruction and destruction of his fellow man and society.
Rights to Inheritance
Right to inheritance can be described as the civil, legal, hierarchical rights to succeed to the father’s material and financial possessions or wealth, or company’s assets. Right to inheritance does not occur between families only, it also occurs amongst individuals of a firm or organizations, associations and even societies and in the nation at large where democracy and the rule of law had failed to take its willful existence. In polygamous homes where mutual understanding has not been built and members of such families not yet educated about the ups and downs behind inheritance, quarrels amongst siblings is bound to occur and eventually escalate into crisis that may or may not be able to control.
This problem can also lead to quarrels among wives and even drag the interests of outside relatives to the success of their brother or uncle or family friend.
Hierarchical positioning of Siblings
This can be described as the chain arrangement of the siblings in a household, as the first son from probably any of the wives ultimately becomes the heir apparent to his father’s wealth regardless of the marital positioning of the wives. In a situation where wife B gives birth to the first son and wife A had the second son, the second son out of this ravaging emotion highlighted may be forced to eliminate his older brother so that he claims the proper inheritance that is due to the first son. In other cases, fathers may just will their most priceless possessions to the second or the third son because of his propensity to maintain such possession and alas the elder ones probably from a different mother would flare up in anger not that they were not included in the sharing, perhaps they were even willed larger portions of the man’s land assets and others but the fact that the priceless possession willed to the third is a company or a club house gives the elder brothers or elder step-brothers the creep and discomfort. There greed sets in and malicious acts would eventually be committed and heavy consequent damages may be incurred both physically, emotionally, psychologically and otherwise.
Marital positioning of Wives in the family
Marital positioning of wives in a family simply refers to the hierarchical order of the women married into a family in consideration to the time and the succession of marriage.
In a polygamous home, some tradition strictly specify that the first wife gets most of the attention from the husband and as much favour that can be derived because of her position as the first wife (based on African cultures and traditions). However, the children of the first wife receive as much benefits as compared to the other children from the other wives. In the absence of the first wife, the next in line to such grants and favours is the second wife and her children. Women in their protective and catering make up are sometimes bound to their parental obligations and duties to their husband and most especially their children, in order to provide the necessities for their own regardless the similarities as human beings. A typical example can be drawn from the birds especially the mother hen who protects her chicks and pecks her beak on the chicks of other hen. As described in the Hierarchical Positioning of Siblings above, Wife A would do everything possible to maintain her position as the first wife if Wife B giving birth to the first male child would cause her position as the first.
Religious, cultural and Ethical beliefs
This can be described as the sacred knowledge that is passed down from fathers to fathers and sons to sons. Here a belief that was once practiced from time immemorial is passed down like a legend and listeners are almost obliged to keep such practices in place and never misplace them regardless of the situation or circumstance they might find themselves in. Some Religion like Christianity believes that only the first wife is recognized as the one and only as long as they are duly wedded in a gathering of believers called a church. This religion in those days never welcomed the idea that children born outside wedlock were true children of the man regardless of how much value he places on such seeds of his. And most at times the man was made to severe his bonds with the outside woman and her children. Conflict upon conflict arose and the gathering of believer thought it wise to control such emotion of rejection which pushed these children to want a feel of belonging and as such made them commit treacherous crimes and murders. Christianity soon made provisions for that excluding the outside woman. Children born outside wedlock were to be taken good care of by the father and also the outside woman. If need be in conditions where the outside woman cannot raise the children, then the man is obliged to take the children under his roof and cater for them and so is the wedded wife obliged to do. Even with these provisional solutions, children outside wedlock are legally not entitled to the father’s most priceless possessions. But in a situation where fathers will their priceless possessions to a son born outside wedlock probably a company or a house club, the rightful first son born from wedlock definitely some years younger or older than the illegitimate son would not take it lightly even though he had been willed the entire properties his father possessed. He might have that urge to take back what he feels rightfully belongs to him. The case can be the reverse when the first of the man’s seed is an illegitimate, willed some portion of land but not satisfied because he felt mistreated could also not take things lightly and hence escalate their desires into clashes that would stampede the extorted with unbearable damages.
Islam on the other hand also encourages marriage of more than one wife as long as the man is able and capable of taking proper care of them but preferably nonetheless, marriage of one wife if two will be too much to handle. Greed amongst men also triggers their desires for more than one wives just to prove to their fellow men that they are much more capable, thereby endangering themselves and the women they marry and keep at home as properties. They do not consider the repercussions of marrying more wives and the enmity that might arise. Some even fail to put their houses to check to monitor dominance struggles amongst wives and siblings
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF GREED
Greed, regardless of its many unethical deviations possesses a unique quality of changing the situation of an individual, family, society, organization and even a nation’s economy into a more global, reliable and efficient one.
A cited instance is that of Nation A probably having an economic oil production of about 50% and Nation B having an economic oil production of about 20% but managed to provide for all the Nation’s requirements and hence ranked them high above other Nations for its usability. There is this political tendency for greed to arise as Nation A may be the first to have existed in the continent before any other nations even came to existence. In a negative scenario, Nation A would do everything possible to elevate itself above the ranking chain at the detriment of Nation B, thereby stranding Nation B in an Economic catastrophe.
But in the positive scenario, Nation A would do everything possible as far as learning how to surpass Nation B either from other Nations or Nation B in context. Nation A finally learns how and gears its strategy towards taking yet an innovative, manipulative process to resolve its economic problems and thus elevates itself back to the top of the ranking chain.
At this point we see that the initial cause of greed in both scenarios is the “Ranking chain”. The second scenario however highlights how an individual or community can tackle the usurping urge for extortion of other person(s) or community at the expense of the extorted.
Greed can be resolved through education and enlightenment to the advantage of the family.
Thus, a greedy individual is likely selfish and stingy with a high capacity to cheat and extort others. He or she is seemingly wicked, malicious, vindictive, resentful, indignant, spiteful, malevolent and covetous. Astonishingly, the actions of greedy individuals are seen not only to affect others around them, but themselves as well. In simple words, they can be said to acquire so much but with little to show for it. For instance:
- Mr. O is a political and business tycoon, a proficient bourgeoisie who defines his own mode of living. He has several plots of lands, several companies extorted and politically acquired, casino clubs around the country and pools in about sixteen internationally recognized countries worldwide, a complete wealthy material/personality, but his fashion statement defines otherwise as he is sometimes poorly dressed in an old fashioned agbada lace with a chronic scruffy laced shoe to match. Quite alright he is an elderly person of 50-55years, spent most of his life in the village with elder folks and experienced first hand all levels of hardship, destitution, penury, indigence, but he has been persistently advised to take proper care of himself as stated clearly by a friend of his, Mr. A, “health is wealth”. As a capitalist which of course he is, finds utmost difficulty in changing this poor habit of his and to make matters shoddier, amasses his money and assets overseas with the hope they’d rise in the stock markets and make him the wealthiest man in the whole world. This kind of thinking is geared towards what? Can’t a man decide what to do with his money? Yes of course a man is allowed to do whatever he/she deems fit with whatever properties he/she has, but there are rules of human nature that regulates such freedom. A man can as well sponsor corruption with his money and assets so long as the freedom stands still and remains unchanged but nonetheless, whenever the law calls out his deeds and pronounces them a criminal offence, he thus has no defense. In same vein, there are certain things that would be expected from him as a wealthy man and that majorly includes his dress pattern, taking to note the adage “A man is addressed by the way he dresses”. A wealthy man should at least be one of the mot healthiest personalities in a community regardless of what plagues hovers around such community.
- Another instance is the case of Prof. Al, a well versed literate in sixteen prominent career courses, ten PhD degree, and twelve MSc. degrees in several areas of specialization both in the arts, sciences and social sciences respectively. Prof. Al who at present is one of the highest paid senior lecturer in three highly recognized Universities in the United Kingdom, Five Universities in the United States, Seven in Africa, three in Asia and Two in Europe and currently enrolled three more PhD programs in three different continents. Tell me, can such a man find time to take proper care of himself or even his own family? Greed cannot be highlighted in just material things alone, but also the excessive crave for knowledge beyond the usual standard capacity. This virtually is impossible remembering the adage that quotes “A Jack of Trade and Master of None”. Imagine such a man to be a polygamous man married to three wives, and luckily having six children in all (Who knows if the children are his in the first place- A woman’s crave for companionship)
- The women are not left out of these general instances. They can also partake in the instances above, but in polygamous homes, where the husband of the house is a well-to-do man, always on the road, busy and always occupied with one thing and the other, the women generally exhibit the propensity for greed. Yes, true the man is always busy, but he finds time to visit his wives at least once in every two months, provides for them the basic amenities; houses, clothing, well funded bank accounts for each wife, leaves some fresh currency in the house just in case there are provisions that are needed for the house. On Christmas or festive periods, the husband flatters them with gifts. These women are in heaven already, but they all have an empty side, they feel empty and denied their husband, a man who should be there at all times and even more critical times to take charge, to make them feel like a woman, to make them feel loved. But one of the wives starts having affections for another man outside who probably fills the void the husband had unconsciously left behind. Buys her gifts, smooth talk her with exquisite text messages every now and then (flirting). How is she at fault? How is the man at fault too? This woman is not satisfied with what she has hence if caught in the act of flirting or adultery fulfills yet another adage “One do not value what he/she possesses until they lose them forever”.
- In total, a greedy person is like a man who carries the great Iroko tree on his head while squatting to gather wood barks from the dying Mahogany or perhaps like a woman who carries the King’s calabash to the river and looks back continuously at the servant’s fine calabash not minding the tree branch up ahead. Personification: a gallant dog who gets the fattest bone for the service he renders his master and goes about behind his master’s back taking the little bones from the other dogs in the neighborhood met Udo(stone)
By Mr. Ikpotokin S.O (B.Sc, M.Sc.[in view])
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| Courtesy: Kpoto Comics (Drawn and painted by Ikpotokin S.O
©2013) |
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| Courtesy: Kpoto Comics (Drawn and painted by Ikpotokin S.O ©2013 |
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| Courtesy: Kpoto Comics (Drawn and painted by Ikpotokin S.O ©2013 |
