Written by : Eric Thu
What if I told you that Finance alone does not empower communities, but rather it is something that you probably are not even aware of. Rather, it’s hidden in plain sight, within your Netflix and streaming apps. The question is “Are you observing what it is demonstrating to you?”
Growing up in an underrepresented community being the Burmese Community, I understood the feeling of not having proper representation. I felt isolated, embarrassed, humiliated, and ashamed being a Burmese as a child, possessing self-hatred towards my race ethnicity.
The question is “Why is that?”, it is a reasonable question to ask. Afterall, I did not endure poverty like my parents did growing up, I enjoyed world class education both public and private, and had the rare luxury of saying I lived in 4 countries my whole life. Most Burmese can’t even dream of living in Rangoon : Burma’s Capital, let alone dream about 4 different countries.
Well, how should I explain it? Living in different countries does not mean one never had unpleasant experiences. Sure, there were incredible memories made but not everything was pleasant. Everywhere I went, I noticed that the Burmese Community was severely underrepresented and as a byproduct of it comes intense scrutiny. I vividly remember in Primary 1 in Singapore “Grade 1 in the US Education system” , my teacher would always find an excuse to nitpick me. Now some of it was my fault, I was a little naughty, enjoyed chatting with friends, but it is one thing if the teacher does it fairly, but another thing when it is done deliberately to target a student. The teacher would find reasons to yell at me, scold me, humiliate me in front of the whole class, in fact I can count with my bare hands 12 years later how many times she was genuinely kind to me. Yeah that sounds crazy, in 365 days a year, I can still count over a decade later with my bare hands how many instances she was polite to me.
Unfortunately for my naive innocent mind, I would soon encounter more of those as the years go by. When I finally got the chance to leave Singapore in 2019, I felt free, like a bird fleeing a cage it was locked up in for a long time. However, the problems did not stop as it initially got worse as Bahrain had even less Burmese people than Singapore. It only got better during my final year of high school where everyone now seeing the true side of me, finally became nicer and our relationship as classmates ended on great note.
However, the thing I never was able to shake out of my brains was that even though I was in better financial condition than the majority of my countrymen, it still did not empower me as a Burmese individual, rather, I felt powerless and invinsible. In comparison to other asian communities I encountered, most of whom have a higher level of recognition and visibility.
Let’s put into the perspective the Korean Diaspora / Community, widely considered by many as the “crown jewel” of Asian pride, I’ve never seen the Korean Community be underrepresented at least in comparison to the Burmese Community, and most importantly never seen them be on the bottom of the social hierarchy anywhere I go. Whether that is Asia, the Middle East, or the USA. Due to the rise in popularity of K-pop, South Korea’s global prestige is elevated, earning in return a great level of respect, admiration, adoration. But most importantly, the Koreans gained more power as a community where now more opportunities flow to them.
This really struck me because I read a lot of history. 20-30 years ago, it wasn’t even popular to be a Korean back then. In fact, many of them, like most Asian communities back then tried to assimilate into western culture after their families fled their motherlands due to dire economic / political turmoil. They encountered the same problems that the burmese community present day encounters globally but now all of a sudden, everybody wants to be Korean. They want to consume Korean products, Korean food, visit Korea, learn Korean and more.
This was when I realised that money alone is not going to empower or change the situation. But rather, the empowerment has to come from a human perspective.
1. Finance only explains what to do, never “why”?
A Financial spreadsheet provides better alternatives to decisions to make for finance, however, it cannot tell the story behind it. Common sense isn’t the only factor put into account when making finance decisions. Many times, the history, culture, and emotional aspects are also put into consideration before making the decision. Without it, a finance decision will just fall on deaf ears. The numbers only provide common sense but never the story behind it.
2. Stories transform into information that is deemed trustworthy for the people
Trust in Financial Advice is not just built based on pure common sense or accuracy, but rather, built through the emotional connections felt by the people.
By sharing Financial Ideas through storytelling, not only do you shed light on the situations behind it, but most importantly create an environment where people could personally relate to it. Finance is not just about results, but also a reminder that there is more to life than just numbers.
3. Finance usually lacks community context
Everyone can easily provide you great financial information, but very few provide that information based on the context surrounding the communities. As a result, it risks further alienating an already underrepresented community further away as they may perceive it as simply being out of touch with reality.
When you provide stories behind it, it ends up translating well into day-day lives but most importantly, provides the community with realistic solutions which would best benefit the whole community as a whole. Now, there is higher motivation to implement it as people relate to the solution.
4. Communication is the bridge between finance and empowerment
The greatest financial decisions made are not the most accurate, polished, euphonious. It is the ones that are best communicated and explained. Great Financial advisors do not jump to conclusions, rather make an initiative to better understand before making a decision in the best interest of the community.
Storytelling not only should be making ideas simple, but also making sure you properly guide the people towards it.
5. Empowerment only happens if people recognise their representation
The most important part of all, empowerment only occurs if people can acknowledge that they are being properly represented and included. Providing financial information and decisions that is centered around a community’s personal experience would have a positive impact. People would be far more engaged, attentive, and curious due to being given the right to ownership over the decision making process.
This is officially when finance becomes accessible, allowing people to understand basic financial concepts they could apply in their day-to-day lives.
Final Thoughts :
Finance alone will never be enough to empower an underrepresented community. However, if properly paired with storytelling, communication, empathy, understanding. Finance can become an incredibly powerful tool that can be a force for good that changes a community’s fortune instead of another greedy tool used for exploitation.
At the end of the day, Finance is not just possessing knowledge about maths or money, but having a sense of belonging in the decision making process that ultimately makes or breaks the chance of empowerment for a community.
Emmanuel College The Hub 
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