Some time back, while discussing about the new US President-elect, Barack Obama, a UAE national colleague explained that Barack is derived from the Arabic word barakat (barkat in Hindi/Urdu). In the absence of an exact equivalent word in English, he went on to explain its meaning to an Englishman — one man earns less and lives happily with his large family without any anxiety or depression. Another man earns more and lives with his small family in perpetual stress and depression. There is barakat’ in the first man’s earning.
We work ourselves into a depression when we let unimportant things overwhelm us. We lose, as it were, barakat’ from our earnings. Words like contentedness’ patience’ and tolerance are not only meant for poor people who don’t seem to have other alternatives. They are also precious for all mankind. Our essential needs are very few. However, our greed knows no limits. Mahatma Gandhi rightly said that there is plenty in the world to fulfil everyone’s needs, but not enough to fulfil even one person’s greed.
The present global financial crisis has amply demonstrated this. Greed of a few powerful entities has robbed the world of its peace. The famous historian Will Durant said, “Liberty is the child of Order and mother of Chaos.” An order will surely be created out of the current financial anarchy through implementation of stringent rules and regulations by different countries. This will give a temporary sense of liberation. However, greed would once again take the extreme form of liberty and lead the world to yet another chaos, perhaps with greater intensity. This has happened in the past and will happen in future, unless we learn to manage our greed. Let’s hope Barack Obama will live up to his name and bring barakat to society at large.
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