Sunday, August 12, 2012

The V-Rod is still a ways away.

You will not believe the number of Exile v-twins on the streets of Sydney. It's like California out here. The thump-thump of those big vee-twins thrumming their way down Shepherd Street is music to all petrol-heads' ears. And when they are accompanied by the angry buzz of Japanese and Italian crotch-rockets, it is positively seductive like nothing else.

These Aussies have money to burn. Every way one turns the proof is in the choice of wheels some of these people choose to drive. Encountering an M3, a Porsche Turbo S, a 3-window '32 Ford hotrod, a Holden Maloo and an Aston Martin V12 Vantage - and all in one day - is the height of petrol-head heaven. As is encountering the King of Harley - the V-Rod...12 of them in full flight!

Kenyans have a habit of hiding their lights under bushels. Kenyan members of the fat wallet society hide their Jags, Astons and Porsches for fear of arousing the envy of the financially less well-endowed... or attracting the unwanted attention of Citi Hoppa, Kenya Bus or Forward Traveller drivers. It does not help that our version of city roads is a litany of potholes, mountainous speed bumps and corrupt traffic cops. Sydney, in contrast, is spectacularly orderly; this makes it easier for the petrol-head to strut his stuff without fear of damage to his precious metal.

We have a long way to go before Kenyans can spend their hard-earned case on the luxuries of life that are so commonplace in foreign land. Many of our captains of industry are adept at wringing the blood out of their hapless workers while at the same time evading taxes with the alacrity of Usain Bolt gold-medaling his way to Olympic glory. Our political leaders are more interested in hamstringing each other than in ensuring that the economy is firing on all cylinders. Our teachers spend more time plotting on how to get more out of The Treasury than in preparing their charges for the harsh world out there. Even the men of the cloth (and women too) are more concerned with lining their grimy pockets than in saving souls for Christ. If you think that that last point is too cynical, I point you to the shenanigans of one Bishop Dr Margaret Wanjiru and the NHC house allocations or any of our dozens of "apostles" and "evangelists" and their myriad sex scandals.

None of us is prepared to play by the rules or to walk the legal straight and narrow. We take our cues from the men and women at the top. Our hypocritical complaints about impunity and the like are but mere fig-leaves for our avarice. Our hypocrisy is every day affirmed when we refuse to hold our elected representatives to account for their acts of commission and omission or to demand a fair wage from our employers or to put in an honest day's work for the money we are paid for our labour. We cannot demand probity from our elected representatives when we are determined to lie, cheat and steal our way to riches and glory. For this reason, I am going to be denied the pleasure of witnessing a 12-bike V-Rod motorcade down Kenyatta Avenue!

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