I am going to learn about money

Feb 08, 2009 Features / Columnists, My Column

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It is written somewhere that the love of money is the root of all evil. That may very well be the case but I would rather be at the root of all evil than having to hate money. Perhaps it is because I do not have money that I have adopted this stance.

I have friends that have money that they cannot spend in three lifetimes and I have some who can’t seem to have any although at some time they actually worked and had a golden opportunity to save for their old age and for the hard times.

On Friday, I went to a forum at the Bank of Guyana and heard a new statement that made sense. The Governor of the Bank, Lawrence Williams said that if a man with money and no experience meets a man with experience and no money, then at the end of the meeting the man with experience would have the money and the man with the money would have the experience.

That explains so many things, including the reason why so many people who had breaks in life only have experience and no money while others have more than they could spend. It brings me to the case of the early traders.

There was a time when people traded from suitcases because Guyana was desperately short of many commodities. Someone had the bright idea that they could get a plane ticket and take some things that abounded in Guyana but were in short supplies in other Caribbean countries and return with articles needed by the people of this country.

This went well and people appeared to be doing well because they now had money until the man with the experience came along. This man with the experience was the businessman who really knew how to trade.

He took his experience to the traders and the rest is history. He now has the money, much more than he ever had and the trader only has the experience.

It was the same with the man who would go down in local history as the first foreign currency changer. Carl Boyce was the man. Anyone who had foreign currency, which was drastically short during the 1980s, went to Carl Boyce and got the best exchange rate. They went nowhere else.

Before long Carl Boyce seemed to be doing pretty well and he expanded his operations, building a beautiful home in Festival City and even opened a night club. All that is left these days is the experience and I am at a loss to understand how this happened. I have heard many stories but only Carl can explain to me what happened.

There are numerous such stories. I heard of Mike Tyson who made more money than even Roger Khan could have and he is said to be broke. One million United States dollars would be more than enough to see me through life but Tyson reportedly went through one hundred of these and he had barely lived his life.

It was the same with numerous basketball players and boxers. I suppose that it is a case of a man getting money and as his money increases so does his taste and his choices. His life changes and so does his lifestyle. He would want expensive things and as he pursues these things he has no thought of tomorrow.

And so it was that I went to the Bank of Guyana to learn about money. I love it and I would love to have it like just about everybody else. The robbers and the gunmen want it as badly as I do but for different reasons. I want it to live comfortably; they want it to live and to help with their entertainment. I suppose, like Mike Tyson, for them there is no tomorrow.

The Central Bank is going to help me make money and keep it. There will not be that much but whatever I make I should be able to eat and pay my bills. The bank has also promised to help me spot counterfeit notes, avoid bad cheques and above all, help me to detect confidence tricksters.

There are a lot of people who scheme to get money out of people. They come up with things like medical schools and visa rackets. At present the police are investigating a case of a man who reportedly promised people visas.

Some people come up with things that are supposed to make life easy such as a car that barely works. Other people sell homes to three people at the same time. The bank is going to teach me to avoid such pitfalls. It is going to use the slogan that if something looks too good to be true then it is too good to be true.

I am going to heed the lessons but I am still to learn how to avoid beggars. These days all too often I run into someone who wants a meal or a car fare or some money to pay a medical bill or fill a prescription.

It seems that one in four Guyanese has found himself or herself into these categories. Some women also use children, preferably a babe in arms, to tug at my heart strings.
Can the bank teach me to steel my heart? I hope so, but I doubt it.

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