The Economics of Life- as seen through the eyes of a college student
Nov 15th, 2012 by Shahista Kassam
Al-karim Lalani
“Uchumi” means economics in Kiswahili, (which is Swahili for non-Kiswahili speakers). Al-karim Lalani named his blog “The Uchumist” which is a hybrid word that stands for “The Economist”. Al-karim Lalani is a student at the University of Stanford, born in Kisumu, Kenya and raised in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania.
Al-karim calls his blogs, “my diary as an East African Economist” in which he publishes what he “believes are interesting thoughts and occurrences all through the paradigm of economics”. I enjoy following his blogs because we come from a very similar background as Al-karim is my cousin. This helps me relate myself to his writing. I also admire his creative and unique idea of connecting life with economics in his blogs. This makes me think of how everything in life actually rotates around concepts of economics.
“In Search of meaning: The Finite Game of Life” is one of my favorite blog posts in which Al-karim arises the question:
If life is really a finite game, then is the objective of the game to have the most “successful” life?
In this post Al-karim connects concepts of economics, human behavior and religious views to support his arguments of how one can perceive success in this game of life. He concludes by quoting: “the optimum solution then becomes to produce as much of this ‘positive energy’ or whatever else will remain after us whether that be knowledge, art, experience for others. Such a life sounds more noble than the former”.
Picture Reference:
“Africa’s Global Intellectual Capital |.” Africas Global Intellectual Capital RSS. N.p., 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://agic.co/>.