Giving wrong labels happens so often.

"How can anybody expect us to take on such a despicable joy as a waiter at one of the restaurants?"

There was this guy who had no job although he was a graduate who thought such a job is despicable. I immediately found the guy most despicable as it was merely his excuse for not finding some kind of work to support himself before moving to other careers when opportunities appear. In my mind it was,"How can the mind of a graduate ever think that way?"

Yet, a parent of that graduate could be proud of his son's determination never to lower his dignity despite having to stretch out his hand to the parents for money for his daily expenses. What a dignified graduate!

A job is an honest way of securing some form of income to afford someone of the necessary everyday expenses. Some jobs require less skill and/or knowledge than others. As such, the employees are paid accordingly. Of course, as expected, a job without any skill required would derive less pay than a skill or knowledge-qualified job. And in a world where opportunities for work is less because of world financial crisis, especially those who can think ought to realise they have to take on whatever is available just to tide over till better times arrive. Certainly, those who have skills and knowledge do not wish to take on such simple jobs.

Yes, the job may be simple, lowly paid and uninteresting, ego-bursting, demoralising but it can never be despicable. No job is despicable! It is those people who prefer to parasite, beg, borrow or steal, rather than to take on some simple jobs, who are despicable.

What I mean here is that even having to depend upon others, begging, borrowing or forced to steal to survive is not despicable.

If, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are born with a disability which forces us to depend upon others, it is not despicable to do so. We arrive in this world with a purpose through the mysterious working of God, to offer others the opportunity to perform good deeds and earn better karma. Disabled people have a role to play, reminding others to be grateful to God for the abilities they possess and to make full use of their abilities responsibly.

Similarly, others are given the opportunity to become better individuals and be aware of their blessings as they encounter people who appear to be less fortunate. We learn to be more compassionate, to be grateful for whatever we have, to care for our fellow human beings.

It is unbelievable that so often people give wrong labels to so many things in our lives. What is despicable is not thought to be so. Those who ought to be helped are not helped. Help by governments are extended to those who are capable of handling thousands and millions of ringgit to make them even richer while only a mere pittance is given to the hard-core poor, hardly sufficient to make any significant change in their lives. Those who are greedy and corrupted are thought to be clever. Those who are violent are thought to be the victims. Those who start or instigated the attack become the victims when they lose. The villains become the heroes even when they kill many innocent people with a cause in their blodied hands. Those who are clever are thought to be stupid and this is most obvious as we go through history to find so many of our great inventors, thinkers and geniuses who were once labeled as stupid in their schools. We read about it happening throughout the world throughout the ages.

Some wrong labels are made purposely with discriminatory selected evidence to support a certain group in the interest of political parties, religions, race and culture.

As such, intelligence, knowledge, understanding and an open mind is the only way we can see the truth through the veil of half-truth and falsehoods that we read about each day.