Do these names ring any bells? Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Kaavya Viswanathan, Chen Jin, A.Q. Khan and Jayson Blair. Well, all of them wanted to be rich and famous in a hurry and sacrificed their souls in that process.
Ayaan Ali was until yesterday was a celebrity in Holland — a Somalia born Dutch MP. Today she is on the run as things started to unravel for her when it was revealed that she had lied about her past to get asylum in Netherlands. Kaavya became world famous as a 19 year old girl of Indian origin who not only got admission to Harvard, but also half a million dollars as advance for two books and more for the movie rights until allegations of plagiarism surfaced.
Chen Jin with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin was the technical prince of China when he said that he had created one of China's first digital signal processing computer chips. His research seemed to catch up with the West. Then it was announced that it was all fraud. The distinguished scientist had faked research conducted at Jiaotong University and simply stolen his chip designs from a foreign company, then passed them off as his own.
The list is endless. Athletes with dope assisted Olympic medals (sprinter Ben Johnson), cricket players fixing matches for money (Hansie Cronje), drug addicted soccer gods (Maradona), politicians caught with pants down (countless), ministers with fingers in the till (search Google), princes and princesses (Charles and Diana), business leaders (Ken Lay of Enron, Chung Mong Koo of Hyundai)
Dr. Khan, a Pakistani icon, was arrested for selling nuclear secrets around the world motivated by Islamic zeal and money. The New York Times reported that their reporter, Jayson Blair, had been guilty of lying, plagiarism and outright fiction for four years.
The list is endless. Athletes with dope assisted Olympic medals (sprinter Ben Johnson), cricket players fixing matches for money (Hansie Cronje), drug addicted soccer gods (Maradona), politicians caught with pants down (countless), ministers with fingers in the till (search Google), princes and princesses (Charles and Diana), business leaders (Ken Lay of Enron, Chung Mong Koo of Hyundai).
The new mantra is that life is short, the pleasures of which have to be enjoyed to the brim when you are young and strong. The media is waiting, tempting you with the riches of the world in all their glory when you are on the top of the mountain and condemn and laugh at you with equal relish when you are in the dumps. For the vultures in the media, Kaavya or Chen Jin at the highest or the lowest is just prime time meat to nibble away and pickle and preserve for another day.
But little do they realize that role models are around them all the time. They need not be celebrities or famous persons. A role model can be your own mother, father, a teacher, a historical figure, a saint or any one who played life's roles honestly, sincerely and selflessly and who will not surprise and cheat you and turn your world upside down by unveiling their dark deeds one day. It is better that we turn away from instant illusory heroes who may prove to be frauds or worse.
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