Uncertainty Principle

This is not about Buddhism but Economics.
Buddha' s Economics of Singalovada Sutta I would brief you at the end.

This is dedicated to one whom I befriended in my late years of retirement.

He has a long name but I call him Mana Wadu (means carpenter - wood or metal does not matter).

I used to go for my daily loaf and some Wine but sit with them for a tea (Rs.25 a Cup) never alcohol since,  I hate Arrack which smells awful.

He sits with his friends at the Bank of Ceylon till 2.30 P.M. and looks at the (spinning wheel, I call it so) the video display and makes his assessment and bets.

I come at 2.45 P.M. and pull them for a cup of tea which I never sip (awful taste) but some sweets and yogurt drink (not for gastritis which I never had) as a base for my stomach since I DO NOT have RICE as a my lunch.

The bar which I go opens at half past four (only once I went to the Kandy Bar but it did not have my favourite Wines).

I always have a book in my hand and if I come early, I sit there and flips the papers of my book and ponders over the next topic for a blog piece, usually politically slanted.

So I asked my senior friend to teach me economics and he was a Graduate of Economics, couple of years senior to me of the same University.

We never met as undergraduates, since he had a day time job somewhere not as a teacher, probably in a bank or a private book keeping joint, somewhere. 

I did not bother to ask where (he had given up his teaching job) and he was trying to prolong his job.

He however, passed out of the University after me.

He finally ended up as Senior Accountant in Government Service and had lot of good contacts.

He had a very old cellphone and a typical government servant's handbag.

His footwear and cloths were archaic! 

He was a confirmed bachelor.

I gave him my Notebook for 20% cut rate (80% reduced) and told him to dress nice and present himself smart at any point of contact.

That is the way about Business Dealers.

The business dealers do not have brains but they talk and present as super smart, I told him. 

Otherwise one is treated as an old codger.

I go for my alcoholic chocolates daily and he always gets one free from me but I never offered alcoholic stuff to him.

Mind you by this time, I had insight that I was a mild but smart alcoholic and chocolate with spirits (liqueur) was my attempt at weaning myself off.

It takes time but insight to say to yourself, that YOU are an alcoholic.

All my life I was never been able to wean a guy from alcohol or cigarettes.

I stopped smoking at 33 (years) and I knew I have the mental skill to drop alcohol just like I stopped eating rice (different reasons).

We had a another guy who was an origami specialist and he too joins with his daughter. I thought it was nice for me to invest on a another skill i.e., origami but never progressed since it taxes on the finger skills trained for tiny surgical skills for infants.

We progress on a common but a lovely theme with some  chocolates.

This guy had an absence attack and he did not tell me but after probing I knew what had happened and told him to take some aspirin E.O.D, every other day and please do not worry. 

Please do not consult a doctor but me.

The bottom line is all the money of this guy had was plundered by his elder brother and his extended family and grandchildren.

He used to take some chocolate for the grandchildren and one of them scalped the Netbook that I gave him.

By the way he did not take aspirin (Because of my nice and simple ways, he did not believe me. I told him the lapse episode will come within a year, if YOU do not take aspirin). 

Sure enough he had a lapse and he was taken to hospital (I asked the origami friend to follow his progress) and he was made "a life time sick guy" by the private doctors he consulted.

The extended family wanted his Pension for Eternity and sort extra medical attention which killed him like the proverbial duck who laid golden eggs.

I never saw him again and this was long time before Coronavirus pandemic. 

I was told he passed away, 6 months after his demise. 

He may have succumbed to Coronavirus and one who was inadvertently exposed to it during putative and unnecessary investigations. 

I followed the Coronavirus Pandemic carefully and avoided exposure well before it was declared a pandemic and my original guess was that the Public Bars which were kept opened helped to spread the disease in early stages.

Besides, it helped me to wean myself off of all alcohols including Wine and liqueur chocolates.

I think he never sent any government officer on punishment or sacked due to inappropriate behaviour, in all his years of auditing. 

Either he made them to retire before full inquiry was over or made them to move to another branch without financial activities.

That is how the Government Service operates, never a guy is thrown out.

My early investigation in 1980s was if we punish government servants for alcoholic offenses, 90% of them would lose their jobs within 10 years of service. 

One form of bribe (including doctors and consultants) is to bribe them in or out of office with alcohol and some prominent political monks were caught red handed. 

I used to dish out all the "Duty Free Alcohol" to my friends in Private Sector, never Public Sector. 

I was offered alcohol in my internship and first job as D.M.O (Police officers to begin with) and never accepted any. 

I had a supply at the quarters always V.S.O.A and Mendis Special and Gin and Tonic (even after my retirement).

I could never play a good game of Billiards or Snooker without a top up. 

It took a long time and "Buddhist Insight" for me to understand my predicament. 

I think / guess my friend Mana Wadu also had a drink with his family mates.

It was to induce him to write off the piece of land he had near the Panideniya Railway Junction. 

A Prime Land. 

I politely requested this land but he refused.

By the way, he never answered my telephone calls (I believed confiscated by his elder brother).

I never got the chance to learn or master economics from this guy but with some probing I got the key concepts into coherent assembly which is given below.

1. Uncertainty
2. Speculation
3. Panic
4. Buying and Selling
5. Certain Collapse

Next Cycle starts after a Prolonged Recovery.

Printing money makes no difference to this cycle.

It is NOT based on logic but on simple speculation.

Simple term for this is Industrial Gossip.

Now Ceylon politics also thrives on Gossip but one cannot be a good a Finance Minister by gossip mongering.

When the economy collapses wise guys start buying BUT idiots start selling their last silver.

China is buying and we in Ceylon are selling at cut rate level.

It is all cutthroat transactions nothing but.

Communists have become ultra-capitalists and that is the paradox of communism.

Top Chinese have billions (building palaces in London) and the bottom has minions and the cellphone to browse the world in virtual reality.

It is an illusion of grandiosity.

Does not matter one is capitalistic or communist, the greed and selfishness rule the world.

Now a word about Neo-capitalists (Elon Musk) in space not the philanthropists  of Microsoft.

Unless human kind master the space and have a strategy to communicate with galactic civilizations with higher intelligence and simple economic values we are frogs in a deep well and the third extinction is well on its way to destroy the current ecosystem.

It has happened before and more than likely to repeat itself with vengeance.

Uncertainty Principle rules the World.