THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
By: Lubnah Abdulhalim
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| Photo Courtesy: krishgroup.org |
The festive
season always comes with a lot of merry and joy all over the world. It’s time
for holiday and the beach coasts are full to the brim that when looked at from
above, the people just seem like the safari ants all over the place. The
traffic jams can be even more annoying especially when you have to take twice
the time to get to your destination. The bus stations and airports are crowded
and everyone is rushing in and out of towns and countries. This is the best
season for hotel owners. The prices have doubled and the profit is just
awesome! Customers are flooding into the hotel rooms daily and the night clubs
couldn’t get busier.
Parents have
always prepared for this season for as early as they can. Some start saving
money as from June, with great plans for December. People don’t even mind to
cut out the meat budget for the next six months, just to save for the holidays.
Some go to the extent of doing extra jobs to earn extra money. Well, to what
extent people can go with the preparations, is just unimaginable.
The children
too are not left behind in all this merry. They could save their break time
money throughout the year, and when December finally comes, it is time to break
the piggy bank! Everyone has a plan ready. The girl wants to buy that new
beautiful dress design that she saw at the boutique earlier on and the small
boy wants the Benten toy car. The parents have budgeted for the chicken and
more goodies to be eaten during Christmas and the travelling expenses to
homeland.
During all this
joy, everyone has forgotten that January is fast approaching and it is finally
here! It is during this first week that parents remember that their children
have to go back to school. Just after spending the last coins during New Year’s
Eve, they start scratching their heads; there is no enough money to buy them
books for the new class let alone pay the school fees. The house rent has to be
paid and the landlord wants his debts paid instantly. It is now that everyone
is crying in agony and full of stress. After joyfully singing merry songs
throughout December, it is now that everyone is singing the gloomy, sad and
touching songs. But out of the crowd, you won’t miss at least one or two smart
ones who celebrated the festive season with a limit. They set aside the money
for the fees, bought their children’s needs for school and house rent and
thereafter is when they made plans on the holiday. They are probably smiling
right now, reading this and feeling good about themselves for being
responsible.
Well, every
year, it is this same old story with Kenyans and I wonder when we will ever
learn from the moral lessons being taught. Being organized is always very
important and having a limit to everything we want is even more important. As
they say, ‘do what you need and not necessarily what you want!’
