Fair trade

The kind of people you mix with really do affect the way you are.

When I was still a young and unassuming kid in secondary kid, I once asked around my friends for computer games, having just recently acquired a computer from my aunt. I remember this boy telling me about a game, which he described in some details, generally telling me what a great game it is. So I asked him for it, and he say "Can, but you must trade me a game also. It's only fair, right?"

I remember thinking that's right, a one-for-one exchange is only right. And I would have thought that such is how the world operates, even between friends. However, because I have only just gotten my computer then, I have no games of my own, and as such, is unable to carry out any trade.

Then I went to another friend's house, probably to do some project work. Edmund, the friend, introduced me to another game, which I still remember as Sango 3, a war strategy game based on the 3 states warring period. Maybe he offered, or maybe I asked for it, he copied the game for me on some floppy discs to bring home. When I pointed out that I don't have any games to trade him in return, he just dismissed it saying he doesn't need any trade.

I guess I could have grown up either way, being a stickler for fair trade, or being generous with my stuff. Maybe it was due to the chronological order of how the events played out, or maybe it just sits better with me because I was on the receiving end of Edmund's generosity, I turned out to be the generous sort after all.

Of course, this is not putting down people who insist on fair trade. In fact, with my current world view (nihilistic), and with the apparent advent of many freeloaders in this world, insistence on fair trade seems pretty much the consistent thing for me to do. Perhaps my generosity nature is yet another symptom of my irrationality.