HEALTH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WEALTH
Good day, Mr. Chairman, Panel of Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am standing before you to oppose the motion which states that wealth is more important than health. I would rather say that health is more important than wealth. Being healthy refers to a state of physical and psychological well-being of an individual, devoid of sickness, while being wealthy refers to opulence, affluence or a state of being rich. It is better to be healthy than to be rich with one ailment or the other, because of the following reasons.
First and foremost, there is a wise saying which states that "Health is wealth." There is no adage that is truer than this. Health is indeed wealth because anybody that is healthy has everything. He has the freedom and the agility to go about his business to earn a living. His hope of getting money, which is what wealth is all about, is sustained by his health. On the other hand, an unhealthy person is tied down to his sick bed. He would not be able to go about his business as he is being restrained by the sickness in his body. A visit to our various hospitals will confirm to you that if your have health you have everything.
In addition to this, while wealth can be acquired, health cannot be acquired just as you acquire money. Good health is maintained and sustained by good and simple hygienic living. It is also a gift from God, which to some extent nobody can claim he has worked for. Health is not about what you can say in terms of being smart or the ability to cut corners in order to get it as you could do to get wealth.
Furthermore, health is a major prerequisite to making money. It is an important factor necessary to make wealth. If a person desires to make wealth and he has no health, he is incapacitated. However, a healthy man has the ability to make wealth because his healthy body can supply the energy he needs to put into his business for wealth creation. It always gets to a point in the life of an unhealthy rich man when he would wish that all his money should go so that he could be healthy. This shows how important good health is in the life of a person.
Mr. Chairman and my audience, is it not because you are healthy that you are here? Can somebody that is sick or ill be in our midst? Obviously no, because such person will either be in an hospital or his sick bed in his house. Whereas health is wealth, wealth is not health. I believe that with my few points, I have been able to convince you that health is more important than wealth: