Different Worlds

Today at work, a bunch of interns mentioned something about the 'Projects' in NYC.   I have absolutely no idea what the Projects are and I have been in New York for 2 years.  I'm so out of touch... Anyway, I learnt that Projects are affordable government housing aka HDB-like things in very dingy neighbourhoods, apparently rife with crime and drugs.  Projects are also dirt cheap, someone in the group stays in a 5-room Project apartment for $800!!!  Hello, I thought this is New York with its overpriced rent!!

The interns mentioned that I lived in a different world.  Probably so.  I seemed to exist in a couple of extremely distinct, non-overlapping worlds.  I flutter around the edges of these worlds, not really belonging to any of them, yet not being fully excluded from them.

It is like being at the edge of a bubble, and looking into a world that is not mine.  Hm..  so what exactly is my world?  

Forbes' Billionaires

Mexican drug lord makes Forbes' billionaire list
- CNN

What do software mogul Bill Gates and banking investor Warren Buffett have in common with wanted Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera?

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, pictured in 1993, ranks 701th on Forbes' yearly report on billionaires.

They are all featured in Forbes magazine's world's billionaires report as "self-made" billionaires.

Guzman Loera, whose nickname means Shorty, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001. He heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel, investigators say. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame the Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region.

He ranked 701th on Forbes' yearly report, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at the publication and described Forbes' calculations on Guzman Loera's fortune as mere "speculation."

"I will never accept that a criminal could be recognized as someone distinguished, even if it is by a magazine like Forbes," Medina Mora said to local media during a drug traffic summit Thursday in Vienna, Austria.

Forbes is "comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen," he said.

Did Medina Mora really say this: comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen

Can someone tell me how honest businessmen become Forbes' billionaires? Thank you. Goodwill, good karma or good luck?

I'm such a skeptic. Tragic.