DALLIANCE DIARY: What does money do to some people?

A close relative of mine often tells me that, slightly more than 50 years ago, all Kenyans were peasants who worked the land, kept livestock, fished in the big water bodies or hunted for a living. When I look around, it sounds like fiction, but you only need to go back to the history books to believe it. Yet the kind of money people have seems extremly old. But it is not; it is just spring chicken that has been fed on genetically modified food.

I don’t hate the rich. In fact, I would love to join them, but without having to wait 50 years or swindling someone. Money is great, but it  also makes  people behave strangely. 

I am probably the wrong person to give any advice on money. For instance,  to give the best advice on being fat or voluptuous, you need to have walked that road, but since I am not talking about the nitty-gritty of better saving methods, here goes.

Money can make people feel like demi-gods. Or is it the people around the moneyed who treat them like demi-gods? Whichever the case, the rich person should have the power to say no to being elevated to demi-god status.

CASE IN POINT

Case in point: somebody from a rich family right here in the country. They live only 100 metres from the children’s prestigious private school. In the morning, the children are dropped off to school using two vehicles! The escort vehicle has gun-wielding bodyguards and no, I am not kidding.

I have often wondered  why anyone would find it necessary to be so cruel to their children and this is what I have concluded:

1.  One, cruel is relative. I might consider it cruel to let children live a life where they are protected from the realities of life, are made to think they are special and that walking 100 metres is as dangerous as dodging bullets, and they might breathe the same air as “those people”, but what do I know? I think it is cruel, but  they probably think they are giving their children the best money can buy.

2.  They have dangerous enemies,  or perhaps, they have watched too many mafia movies? We all have enemies, some imaginary, some real, some general (like carjackers and pickpockets), but how horrible it must be to live a life dictated by enemies. I mean, what else but the fear of death could make anyone drop their children off at school a mere 100 metres away in the company of five bodyguards? Am I being ridiculous finding this ridiculous?

3.     Believing in your own hype is very dangerous. So, they did a Google search and found out that their family is among the top 10 richest families in Kenya. Good stuff right there. Now they imagine that every Tom, Dick and Harry would stop their hustle just to try and get that fortune. However, the reality is that most people do not even read the financial pages of newspapers, so items like who the richest person is escapes them for life. If they happen to read it at the butchery as they wait for their meat to be wrapped, all they will wonder is whether that family eats meat daily then forget about it.  

4.     There are serious self-esteem issues involved. Seriously, how else to do you explain a professional attention-seeker who keeps asking service providers loudly, “Do you know who I am?” (Are you not tempted to ask back, “No, do you know who you are?” just to irritate them?). Anyone  who wants to be affirmed by other people in order to have a good day undoubtedly has self-esteem issue. There has to be an issue when even the simple act of going to the toilet cannot be conducted without drama, like having two burly men standing on each side of the toilet entrance to keep away other people who might harm the special person answering a call of nature.

Such people, who believe in their own hype too much, are actually dangerous to be around. We should all call on the government to protect us from them because they are the people who will draw a gun on you if you do not “recognise” them.

Have a well-behaved, rich day.