While waiting for a transaction at the bank today, I picked up the bank's copy of the Asian Wall Street Journal to read all about the 50 billion dollar swindle by Bernard Madoff.

I couldn't help but gasp at what I was reading.  There are other articles on the internet ( click: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28226910 ) about the fiasco which gives us an idea of what kind of tragedy this has brought especially to the charities and other foundations who also sunk money into Madoff's operation.  To some degree, a lack of sympathy may be felt towards the well-heeled, greedy folk who fed on the exclusivity and so-called privilege they were entitled to because they threw in as much as 95% of their portfolio to Madoff.  But heartstrings are easily tugged when one realizes that the hard earned money of charities and foundations across the globe went down in Madoff's whirlpool, accentuated by the gurgling sound of a toilet flush.

Allow me to quote what was written in the AWSJ if this will not shock you. 

....The alleged fraud has "swept up some of the most prominent and wealthy Americans, along with the many people who thought they were embarking on a comfortable retirement and have now been left destitute".

What further amazed me was the way Madoff had built an exclusive network among the most elite country clubs and propagating the idea that entrance into his fund was predominantly "by invitation".  An investor was quoted as saying, "If you were eating lunch at the club or golfing, everyone was always talking about how Madoff was making them all this money"...."Everyone just wanted to sign up", he added.

Once investors were at the threshold of pouring in their money, the amazing Madoff would pull back by telling his agents, "They don't have to invest that much.  They can start with smaller amounts first and see the initial returns".

As an advertising person, I could only say, "Bernard Madoff, you should have been on Madison Avenue and not in Wall Street!".  This guy simply knew how to use the very principles of "snob appeal" in marketing.

As if it weren't enough to hear so much about America in recession, more people got a double whammy over the weekend when they realized the scale of Madoff's lie.  It was bad enough to project a grim 2009, and it was even worse to find out that the hard earned money which would have provided a semblance of refuge in these troubling times wasn't actually there anymore.

As I put down the paper I was reading, only one thing was ringing in my mind.  Nothing else but the words of Jesus Christ could be "truer than true":

Matthew 6:19-21 :

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.