"Money makes the world go round", that's what Rihanna said in her song pour it up and with what we are witnessing in this world every day, that is definitely true. Money is the root of all evil and most (if not all) crimes and atrocities carried out by people every day are done in the name of making money.
Human trafficking, robbery, kidnapping, cyber crime, prostitution, banditry, and a lot of others are all done because of money. Many people are ready to do the unthinkable if it means they will get rich, and this includes killing other people. In my country, these social vices and crimes I mentioned are very rampant and the two most common ones are prostitution and cyber crime which we refer to as yahoo in Nigeria.
Even as most people are desperately running after money and doing everything possible to get it, there are a couple of things that I can't do even if I'm offered a million dollars. From what I have read in other people's articles, there are a couple of similar things that most people said they won't do for a million dollars but one thing seems to stand out
Let's face it; this is definitely the worse thing anybody can do in order to make money but yet we see people killing others every day just for the sake of making money. It can be in the form of assassination contracts or the very common one in my country; money ritual killings. There was a particular year this was so rampant and I kept wondering if the people involved in it have no conscience.
They are under the illusion that they can make millions of money from killing someone and offering them to some gods as a form of sacrifice. Some even go as far as using their family members; their father, siblings, and even mother are not spared if it comes down to that, how do they even have the temerity to do that?! I can't even kill a chicken without feeling pity for it, but yet another human can kill their mother without batting an eye, some even kill babies!
You can also call it digital or cyber fraud but the modus operandi is the same; deceiving someone on the internet and making them part away with a large sum of money. This crime is very rampant in my country to the extent that someone said that you can't throw a stone up in a crowded place without it falling on a fraudster.
This issue is so serious that in my cycle of friends from my high school days, I'm the only one not into it, and believe me when I say it wasn't easy to stay away from it. The pressure to become a fraudster will become so high when you see your peers driving luxurious cars and building houses. You will see 15 years old boys using the latest iPhones and driving expensive cars. This is exactly what pushes a lot of them into this crime; peer pressure.
But despite all that, I have managed to keep myself from also being one of them and I have even gone as far as cutting off my friends that are into it. Internet fraud is basically stealing; you're deceiving someone and taking all their money from them. Some of the victims of this crime are widows and pensioners who end up losing all their savings to these fraudsters. I wonder how they sleep at night knowing that they are making an old woman somewhere in Europe cry bitterly every night while they squander her hard-earned money on frivolities.
Internet fraud goes against my principles and it's something I will never do even when I'm offered a million dollars. Before I cut ties with my friends, I know how much they have made from this crime and it's enough to entice anybody into it, but I have been able to keep my cool and kept making money the legal way, even if it's not as much as what I will get as a fraudster.
I actually thought hard about the things I won't do for a million dollars (except the one about killing someone else, which will always be a big NO) and if there's one thing about humans is that we tend to adapt based on the situation we find ourselves. A person might say they won't do a certain thing for money but when the circumstance change, they find themselves doing the same thing.
For example; someone said they won't sell their academic certificates for a million dollars but what if a life-and-death situation occurs that requires you to sell those certificates in order to get the money to avert a dangerous situation, won't you do so? You might even sell it for half a million! All I'm saying is that it's very easy to say these things when we aren't faced with very difficult situations but when push comes to shove, the majority of people will do the things they said they won't do for a million dollars or less than that amount.
It's not enough to say that we didn't have a choice, we always have a choice but most people will always go for the easy way out, even if it's something they say they will never do. Think about it, how many times have you found yourself doing something you said you wouldn't? (It doesn't have to be something bad). Sometimes people don't do things not because they don't want to, but because they are afraid of getting caught. We should just pray that we don't find ourselves in one of those circumstances or situations that will push us into doing something we have sworn never to do, life can be very ruthless and unforgiving in such scenarios
Thanks for reading
Connect with me on:
Twitter: @kushyzeena
Readcash: @kushyzee
