In Memory Of Mike …

Keeping with my customary econospeak (my previous posts), it was my intent to blog today about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, I received some disturbing news yesterday which had been weighing on my mind through the night until this morning’s update realized my fears.

Mike – a gentleman in all respects – had been working with my family in Nigeria for almost two decades; a constant presence in our lives, he had been visibly happier since his marriage three years ago to a lovely young lady. Early yesterday morning, he was headed to work in a local moluwe (common mini buses which serve as taxis in Lagos), when the vehicle happened upon an oil tanker which had somehow crashed a few minutes earlier and was now in raging flames. Ignoring the calls of a policeman who was attempting to cordon off the area, the driver perhaps thinking the aforementioned was attempting to solicit a bribe – a usual course of action – launched into the path of the burning heap and rammed the bus into the way of the flames.

Mike’s wife who was with him passed away despite his heroic attempts to shield her from the fire. His efforts sustained him with horrible burns and through the kindness of some bystanders, he was rushed in another vehicle to the hospital. What family he had in his wife, he lost – what family he had left in us, were unable to do much save for stand by his side.

He passed away half an hour ago. My emotions are divided – part of me wishes he had survived and part of me takes solace in the fact that he passed without having to bear a forthcoming life of much pain and loneliness.

The graph above is related to the Malthusian theory which proposes that higher mortality rates should lead to a higher per capita in the pre/post-industrial world. We know that the shift from such early economists through the times of the Keynesian and then the neo-classical economists, eventually culminating into the world of Freidonomics, all rightly refute this theory. According to the endogenous growth theory which stems somewhat from the latter (post the Solow’s exogenous growth theory), it is largely technology, not a decimating population which is endogenous to growth. Is someone up there in the sky then playing a crude joke by taking away Mike? Will his passing or the daily death toll of thousands of the lumpen masses in the developing world through such senseless accidents contribute to economic growth? No!

Not wishing to fully immerse myself in grief, I looked towards my world of economics seeking a paraclete, yet, I found none. My only comfort is in perhaps viewing the events from a traditional Hindu perspective. A husband and wife who pass from this world together, will return once more in the next life (within a year of the Gregorian standard) to be connected as in the past life. I guess then his happiness will continue as they shall be together in the outside of our present realms.

Through this blog entry, I wish to recognize Mike beyond the scope of his little family in Nigeria. I wish to recognize him as an amazingly patient, hardworking, dedicated and wonderful man. To my readers here thousands of miles away, he was unknown. But as you read this, I invite you to meet him posthumously. He always felt it an honor to hold a key to my family’s house, yet, little did he know he had a much more important key, a key to our hearts. We will miss you Mike, we will really miss you.

May you rest in peace.