#moneyishoney

Money is honey, my little sonny,
And a rich man’s joke is always funny.
Couplet by Thomas Edward Brown, the Manx poet.

Many times I have studied how some people act in the presence of another individual with power, money, or beauty. Askaris stationed at door of the bank will bow and nearly scrape when a “rich” man parks his Range Rover at the bank’s entrance. In a space that is clearly marked “No Parking”. And when he shifts his pot-belly out of the car and strides up to the bank door, the askari shoos away all the nyama-ndogos and ushers the big man in without even checking them.

When the President tied his jerrican on a new Raleigh bicycle and went to fetch water, it was drawn from a dirty pond by his handlers who then bound it onto the bicycle. The handlers went trotting after the bike and holding on to the jerrican so that it wouldn't fall. And yet they had fastened it tightly with ropes and were holding onto the bike. When he stopped they stopped, when he hurried along, they ran, when he smiled they laughed, and when he said something they didn't hear or understand, they pretended to be fumbling with something on their boots.

When Obama was planting a tree at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat, two grown men nearly fell over themselves as they strove to hold on to the plant and then stealthily steal a pose for a picture as the world’s most powerful man squatted on his haunches to water the plant.

In Uganda, there’s someone to hold the hoe, someone to tell the holder of the hoe to hand over the hoe, someone standing close by with a green watering can, someone to hold the can when the minister is done, and then 30 pairs of hands to do the clapping and smiling in a silly way when the seedling is finally in the soil.

What about those who nod at every opportunity. They can nod through the whole speech, and their necks hurt when they get home. Even when the speaker is not making sense, they nod vigorously just so they can be seen to agree. Then they laugh very loudly when he makes a joke and look around the room to see if everyone has seen them laughing.