can i borrow...

i cannot blame this on the world cup but...

it happened every world cup for the last (i donno how many) world cups. and every time it comes around, i will have people trying to borrow money from me. and no, it is not becos i am rich but rather, people know i will help if i could. no questions asked. i am not sure if it is due to gambling but looking at how it always coincided with the world cup periods, i can't help but draw the connections. almost 2 decades ago in the mid-90s, it was a colleague who borrow 1.2k, and then again the world cup next, and then again, and again... each time, the amount varies, but all the time, consistently, the money went out and the person either disappeared or pleaded for longer time to return... and a few times, they never did. and this time round, it is happening again.

i received a message in the facebook messenger from an ex-colleague asking me to lend him, hear this, 30k! yes, 30,000 dollars! and in the very very long message, he elaborated a long list of sob stories about his mother etc. i suspected it was due to gambling but i didn't ask. he had borrowed some cash twice before. first time he paid up. but the second time, he didn't and i didn't pursue. so, this time round, i checked with another ex-colleague and his immediate response was - oh, must be gambling again. now, from this response, i could only guess it was not the first time he had gambled and that he had a certain negative reputation amongst people. 

but i must say - his request did put me in a somewhat difficult spot. i know i shouldn't lend him any cash and i don't intend to. i know i would be feeding his bad habits if i did so. then again, i didn't know how to respond to him. what if he pushes and asks for a smaller amount? i know i will not be able to manage this. and i have thus have chosen abstained from replying. and in not replying, i felt bad about it. haha, i am always giving myself such stress. and as i said at the start of this post - i cannot blame this on the world cup. i can only blame this on greed. the greed of each individual. it hurts the individual, and worst still, the people around him. and in this case, i am part of the collateral damage. darned!

this time round, i must once again convince myself that this is the right thing to do. and as always, doing the right things are always very difficult. but i have to do it!

heels dug in!