The Fanatical Ways of Money Making

Since the global credit crunch I have seen, heard and come across a lot of techniques that ordinary people have tried to get money. Talk of the bad, dirty, even the good strategies; they all materialized. On my way from Uganda to Kigali I stopped by Kabale to pick a few drinks. For the few minutes I spent around the town I was overwhelmed by the sudden attack of vendors and shop keepers trying to get money. It was 1:00pm Ugandan time, a big gathering of taxi men on the road side were shouting out loud. Their screams drew my attention and I wanted to know where the strange sound of a whip was coming from. I was bewildered to see a man bending on a vehicle harnessing whips for money! Cash on the spot! My eyes welled with tears as I laughed; in a long time, I had never laughed this hard. The victim kept saying; “Two kibokos, wanu sauzandi” meaning he would be whipped twice for two thousand shillings only. When converted to Rwandan francs, that’s about Rwf250. Where in this country will anyone volunteer to be whipped for such an amount; probably in Nyamirambo! What was more amusing was that the fellow moved with his bamboo whips (For your information, Bamboo s one of the toughest plants that exist). This didn’t deter the happy look on the man’s face since he was making money. His fellow taxi men cheered him on; he must have been the happiest creature alive at the moment. Surely he earned himself a profession. In the developed world that is hit hard by the credit crunch, people are even betting lots of dollars over hen fights, more like the hen wins the fight, the owner wins the bet. And gravely there are lots of people cheering the fight. Some of the ghettos in the United States perform dog fighting bets. These hens even go for training to get ready for the fights!! Ever wondered on whether the hens going for the fight are trained on how to fight first or is the fight based on good luck. With such fanatical ways of making money what can we expect in the near future; probably something more over-enthusiastic and crazier. Besides it’s a new century, new creativity all bringing us to new modes of making money like the above. rutarindwabob@yahoo.co.uk