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Τρίτη 13 Οκτωβρίου 2015
Broker turned monk offers home truths to needy.
Brother
Nikanor, a Nasdaq broker turned monk, advises former colleagues to put a jar
with soil on their desks to remind them where we are all heading and what
matters in life.
As western banks fold into each other like crumpled tickets and
commentators portray the current crisis as the last gasp of modern capitalism,
Hristo Mishkov, 32, shares the pain -- and offers home truths.
His story partly resembles that of Brother Ty, the monk-tycoon
protagonist of the 1998 satire "God is my Broker" by U.S. writers
Christopher Buckley and John Tierney -- he failed on Wall Street and became a
monk.
But 10 years later, the similarities are superficial: the Bulgarian had
a successful broking career, does not write self-help manuals and aims to get
happy, not rich.
His interest in financial markets began under communism in the 1980s
when he and other children created their own play stock exchange in their
apartment block's basement in Sofia.
Five years ago, after failing to find happiness in the life he lived,
the Christian Orthodox who hadn't practiced as a child quit the New York-based
market for a dilapidated Bulgarian monastery that once served as a communist
labor camp.
Retaining one luxury -- a mobile phone, which connects him with both
potential donors and former trading colleagues -- he has brought the rigor of
his broking experience to his faith.
He has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of levs (dollars) to
rebuild the monastery -- a hard task in a country where charity is not part of
the mentality and building shopping malls and golf courses is a priority.
"Many people... in the world do not realize that they have not
earned the food they eat, that they take without giving," Mishkov said.
"But if someone consumes more than they have earned, it means someone else
is starving.
"It is
right to see people who consume more than they deserve shattered by a financial
crisis from time to time, to suffer so that they can become more reasonable."
Being a trader has seldom been more traumatic: placing bets on political
decisions about billion-dollar bank bailouts which, if they fail, could mean
much more than a bad day for yourself or colleagues, but also jeopardize
livelihoods.
Some have found solace in religion, others in humor, but a few fall.
Surveys show traders reporting more stress and every news report of a trader
suicide is accompanied by suggestions the pressure may have been too much.
HAPPINESS
"We always search for happiness in the outside world, in material
things, which makes us constantly unsatisfied, angry with ourselves and the
world," said Mishkov, who exudes a sense of tranquility, intelligence, and
humor.
Greed and the marketization of our lives have reached the point where people
have been turned into a commodity -- even their health can be traded like a
stock, he said.
"We have so quickly lost our human appearance, we have become
beasts ... There's no-one to count on and say 'hey neighbor come help me.' He
will come but demand a payment."
His monastery, tucked among hills 50 km (31 miles) west of Sofia, was
founded in the 12th century. The communist regime which banned religion turned
it into a labor camp, then a children's pioneer camp and a livestock farm.
Now Mishkov works hard every day milking buffalo cows and building stone
walls. He says he is not against rich people but can only respect those who
contribute to the good of society -- pointing to Microsoft founder Bill Gates
as an example.
As a younger man working for more than two years for Karoll, one of
Bulgaria's leading brokerages, Mishkov was good at his job, former colleagues
say.
"He was a
religious person and that annoyed me sometimes," said Alexander Nikolov,
head of international capital markets at Karoll. "There were occasions
when he would not show up at work because of some religious holiday."
His colleagues were stunned when he decided to become a monk, but
Mishkov felt the time had come to look after people's souls.
"Everybody can be a good broker but this does not bring much
benefit for the world," he said. Religion can help people cope in today's
stressful times and find answers, Mishkov added.
Churches in New York's financial district reported last month increased
attendance at lunchtime meetings, with many more people in business attire than
usual, when some of the world's biggest investment banks collapsed.
Steven Bell, chief economist of London hedge fund GLC, said keeping a
sense of reality is what traders needed.
"It is very important to just remind yourself that there is a real
world out there. In any job but particularly in financial markets, you need to
try and keep your feet on the ground," Bell told Reuters by phone.
Mishkov says the crash should also help correct a dangerous global trend
of an excessive outflow of labor to the service sectors, by people attracted by
high pay and an easy life.
"Milk is not produced by computers, bread doesn't come from a good
company PR. It is necessary to plow, sow and harvest before that," says
the monk.
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