Get rich quick schemes bane of youth

Last Saturday, Nairobi was grey and grimy as usual. It is the day, too, that I received an interesting call. The caller, a young man about 22 years, requested to hold court with me. His voice quivered with urgency.

He came to my office buoyant and radiant. My guest, let’s call him Mike, has a diploma in engineering and has a friend, almost his age, who is “doing very well”. According to Mike, the lad rolls in SUVs and lives in upmarket apartments.

In a nutshell, Mike’s friend is living a popstar’s life. “There are many young guys like him,” Mike purred. Now Mike’s friend has philanthropic instincts. He wants to help Mike to join the club and live a flashy lifestyle.

CURRENCY PAPER

So, Mike needed some Sh250,000 seed money. That is all he needed to become a millionaire at 22. Mike’s friend would use the cash to purchase “genuine currency paper” and print about Sh1 million. The cycle will continue till Mike chooses when it’s enough.

To cut the long story short, after pitying Mike for the desperation and naivety, I advised him to go sweat at his father’s quarry and make an honest living. But then, I was stunned. There is a scary problem with the youth — they strongly cherish shortcuts to riches. They covet a life of luxury that’s clearly beyond what they can afford. And worse, there seems to be intense pressure to fit into a particular frame. 

Most of the young people are desperately looking for meaning in life from materials and fame. They want to paint an image of excessive indulgence — for admiration and respect from their peers. They want to excite their girlfriends. This vanity, though, unveils a deep-buried struggle with esteem and a paralysis of values. It exposes a fragile value system and attitudinal orientations that are largely at odds with established and acceptable norms.

IDIOCY

The youth want to match what they see in movies and social media. Every day, their friends post carefully choreographed pictures of binge, luxury, and fun. They want to join the bandwagon.

Unfortunately, amid this desperation and restlessness, the get-rich-quick cloud the imagination from respectable creative and productive undertakings. Consequently Kenya is losing a generation and energy to idiocy.

Clearly, it has vanished from the youth’s psyche the time-honoured ideals of patience, resilience, hard work and working smart as the surest way of succeeding. No one want’s to sweat. Instead, the instant reality of fast food, instant pictures, instant Google results have etched into our psyche to demand instant riches. When the riches don’t come through hook or crook, they become bitter and desperate.

MILK AND HONEY

Of course this is not new. In 2016, the East African Institute carried a survey that found out that 50 per cent of the youth were comfortable in amassing wealth illegally as long as they are not caught.

Some, would, if given a chance, leave Kenya for the US — where, mistakenly, they believe is the land of milk and honey.

Yet, the instantaneous riches and gratification so beloved of the youth are, more often than not, ruinous. This explains why the rate of stress and depression is ticking upward.

We can easily cry hoarse for lack of opportunities, but that is a scapegoat. Every generation has had its challenges, but it is in the challenges that lie great opportunities. Young people like Mike should learn to spot those opportunities and pursue them.

MISERABLE

Even in the US where our folks venerate, young people sweat through life.

The youth need some media literacy and critical thinking. They need to distinguish virtual life from reality. When they sober up they will learn that there are no short-cuts to riches, otherwise they will be eternally miserable.

Mr Wamanji is a Communication and Public Relations adviser [email protected] @manjis