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For the love of money
Published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 26 - 11 - 2013

The worship of the “Almighty Dollar” is the great evil of our times, but the lure of money is as old as history. Money and how it manipulates mankind has always been a point of perplexity. It is baffling how the influence of great religions has been overwhelmed by the pursuit of money on our planet. That is the way it is and we are at the mercy of the invincible might of money.
Egypt has been subjected to an endless flow of funds that regularly destroy life, property and our peace of mind.
Money is the greatest motivator, with evil as its primary tool. Do human beings fund evil? Indeed they do. In her book, Funding Evil, Rachel Ehrenfeld claims that international networks, various charities, banks, drug traffickers, money launderers, bribed officials all finance terrorist activity worldwide.
Is there a mad lawlessness in the wild, wild “West” that is funding its own destruction? Why is one of the richest men in the world spending billions of dollars to impose a radical agenda? Why do the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others wield power to shape world politics? Because they can; because they have the money.
When Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Mendell Creighton in 1887 “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, he should have added “money” too. Power and money are tied at the hip, one supports the other, and the result is pure and utter evil.
A recent research by Harvard University and the University of Utah found that “good people would do bad deeds for money”. Lead researcher, Kristin Smith-Crowe said: “Just the mere exposure to money corrupts people”.
How insidious! How perfidious!
We lie, we cheat, we destroy we even kill for money. Is man that fragile? The Bible says: “For it is the love of money that is the root of all evil”, while others have retorted, it is the lack of it that is evil. “Poverty is the greatest of evils” claims George Bernard Shaw and indeed the poor fall victims to “crimes and misdemeanours”, but so do others, including the wealthy. Businessmen and politicians are major culprits.
Psychologist Paul Pitt believes that, “unethical behaviour is driven by greed”, which makes people less empathic; in other words, heartless. Money does make our heads spin and most of us do crazy things once we have money. All lottery winners of millions of dollars are driven to poverty in a few short years, so are many rock stars and filmmakers.
Can we do without money? We all need it, we work hard for it. It sustains us, feeds us, educates us and affords us infinite pleasure. Money's best use is to help those who need it and it has accomplished wonderful deeds for the needy, but why does evil always prevail?
Bartering was the method of exchange many centuries ago. Cattle, grains, cowrie shells, beads, precious metals, etc, were used, but it had limited capacity as you had to find the object needed from one who needed the object you had. Aristotle contemplated on how money emerged; when inhabitants of one country became dependent on the product of another country. “Moneta” made of the mint of Rome was worshipped in the temple during the fourth century.
Would there be terrorists without money? American Intelligence lists 13 countries responsible for funding terrorism, among them North Korea, Viet Nam, Turkey and Iran, but fails to mention the USA. Who created Al-Qaeda to oppose Soviet forces in Afghanistan? Millions of their dollars have supported terrorists to destroy Russia and now their focus is the oil-rich Arab countries. Who is financing extremist Muslim rebels in Syria?
Why Egypt? Why dissect and fragment the greatest country in the area, once your ally, by using the arm of the Monstrous Brotherhood?
There is money corruption in almost every field. Wars are waged for money and make more money. The noble field of sports has been infected with bribery, pretension and deception. Great icons in the world of sports have sacrificed their integrity for “the big win”, which invariably spells money.
What motivates spies? There are several reasons like politics, revenge, blackmail but in most cases it is summed up by the acronym MICE, which stands for MONEY!
The almighty dollar has ushered in a wave of global terrorism in the 21st century while America pretends to fight it. How despicable is using fanatic religious extremists to do their dirty work? Nothing remains hidden for long, and accountability is drawing near.
The most hypocritical are those who use religion to justify their savagery and bestiality, not to mention their endless appetite for money. In this the MB are following in the footsteps of other secret organisations such as the Freemasons, the Zionists, and even the Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition of the Dark Ages.
“What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” None is concerned with the soul in this day and age. Certainly not those who kill mercilessly and regularly and by feigning religion have contaminated the souls of the poor instead of saving them.
Money has even turned the worthiest minds to commit the basest deeds.
This land of our fathers has contributed more to humanity in beauty, knowledge and grandeur than any other. May God save her from the evil that money generates.

“To a shower of gold, most things are penetrable”.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)


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