Feeling Secure Now Being Secure Forever - Location -Big City or Big Dreams?

Location -Big City or Big Dreams

In developing countries, the lure of the big city is promoted by advertising that may tempt eager imaginations. Organizations behind such advertising are not necessarily interested in your security but, rather in their sales.  They gloss over problems of the real world with scenes of success depicting security.  Thus, security becomes associated with their advertised product and the big city.

Consider the following example.  Officials in one West African city put up billboards vividly illustrating that smoking is a reality no different from burning up hard earned money.   That was part of a campaign to warn its citizens against smoking.  Cigarette manufacturers and sellers countered by posting cleverly designed billboards that showed smokers in eye-appealing scenes  of happiness and success.  In addition , one cigarette company dressed  up some of its employees in fancy uniforms and flashy baseball caps to distribute cigarettes to young people on the street, encouraging each one to "try it."  Many of these young ones had come from villages and, naive to slick advertising schemes, fell for this invitation.  They became addicted smokers.  The young villagers had come to the big city to seek security in order to support their families or to get ahead financially.  Instead, they were burning much of the money they could have used for better purposes. 

Advertisements portraying a successful life in the big  city do not always originate with  merchants.   They may come from the mouths of people who have moved to the big city and who are embarrassed to appear to be failures, they brag about suppose wealth and achievements they have found in the city.  A closer examinati9on of their claimed status, however, reveals that their present life-style is not an improvement over their former village life; they are struggling financially like most other city dwellers.

It is especially in large cities that the newly arrived security seekers fall prey to the unscrupulous. Why?  By and large, they have not had time to develop close friendships and are not far away from family members.  So they have no advisers who might help them to avoid the pitfalls of materialistic urban living. 

Josue' did not fall into the trap of smoking.  Furthermore, he came to realize that the demands of the city life were far beyond his capacity to handle successfully.  In his case,m at best, the only thing that the city could really offer him was big unfulfilled dreams.  He recognized that he did not have genuine security in the city;  he just did not belong there.  Feelings of emptiness , inferiority  and failure took over, and he eventually swallowed his pride and returned to the village.

He had been fearful that he would be mocked.  Instead, his family and real friends welcomed him home with open arms.  Thanks to the warmth of his family, the familiar surroundings of the village , and the love of his friends in the Christian congregation, he soon felt much more secure than in the big city, where the dreams of many turn into nightmares.  To his surprise, working hard with his father in the fields actually brought him and his family a higher income than his net gain would have been in the city.

Next time: Feeling Secure Now Being Secure Forever - Money -What Is the Real Problem?

The Watchtower, 2002