If you have a sharp stick, I better get 1 too.

Imagine u stay in a hostile neighbourhood.

You consider yourself to be fairly "affluent", with a home that is the envy of others.
You make an honest living, working hard and sharing your wealth with all your relatives and you enjoy a great harmonious environment, definitely an envy of others in the neighbourhood.

Your neighbours however, not only make their money in an dishonest way, exploiting others to enrich themselves, but they indulge in seedy, immoral corrupting ways of lifestyle.

You are worried about these thugs, and the influence they bear on your kids.
Worst, you are worried that these thugs will do something bad, *gash* to your kids.

If it was you, would you be worried about your home? all those that you built up?
Would you worry for your kids?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And these neighbours have some very large and sharp sticks. One of them had even once USED the sharp stick on another poor victim before. The poor victim was injured tremendously and had to give up his home.

If it was you, would you be worried that the sharp stick would be used on you?
would you want to get a sharp stick to protect yourself too?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So you went to the grocery store to purchase some sharp sticks.
You bought a few normal poles (those for hanging clothes) and decided to sharpen it.

"Noooo", your neighours screamed!
"You are so unneighbourly!" they protested.
"This is an act of provocation! You shld not own a sharp stick because our kids are scared of you", they bellowed.

Since you are a good neighbour, you decided to talk to them at the local community centre. You told them about your fears and asked them to keep their sharp sticks. You asked them to promise not to rob your house, not to harm your kids.

They disagreed to promise not to rob your house.

If it was you, would you keep the sharp sticks?
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But being a good neighbour, you decide to keep those damn sharp sticks in return for future co-operation.
On 19th Sept, you decided to sign an agreement of goodwill with your neighbours.

Fine, you keep those sharp sticks. You would just be more careful around their big sticks.

4days later, your neighbours created problems at your work place, they made it harder for you to earn a living. They convinced the bank that handles the paycheck from your company NOT to deliver any paychecks and to freeze all the money in your current account.
You have money, but you can't write a godamn check to buy foods and pay for the utility bills.

All because of these neighbours whom you appeased and gave in countless of time.

If it was you, HOW WOULD YOU REACT?
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In those perspective, no one would trust those neighbours anymore.
Especially if you have seen a victim died from a sharp stick attack.

Especially when almost everyone around you has a sharp stick and you have none.

And no matter how much u tried, they just take your appeasement as a sign of weakness.
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North Korea has just joined the world's most exclusive club. =(
its not too hard to understand them. just substitute "sharp stick" for "nuclear weapons".

The world's most exclusive club, 1 more uninvited members.

Thank you India, for barging into the club in 1998, uninvited and showing everyone that ANYONE can do it too. Just intrude in, endure a few years of lectures and then everyone will treat you with respect after a while.
All those wrongs forgiven, all those respect back in vogue.

Thank you, America.