The real traitors here are the middle class

By Okech Kendo

Have you ever wondered why eaters from the ‘middle class’ always read restaurant menus from right? Or why the strata of the stranded sometimes fake preference to avoid embarrassments when they trespass into high-end restaurants ?

A colleague who claims membership of this apathy-driven class tells me how he was once embarrassed in a high-end restaurant. He was wondering why he could not treat himself to a decent lunch after 30 days of working for money.

Once in, he saw a nice corner table for three, and he stationed himself there as if he belonged. Three waiters were all over him with trained precision. One was helping him out of his coat on this hot Nairobi afternoon. Another was asking him what he would like to drink. Another presented the menu.

"Welcome Sir,’ uttered in chorus by the three was still echoing. Instead of making drink or meal order he was studying the menu.

Unlike other patrons, the waiters noted, he was reading the menu from right. Once he was through with the session, he started fiddling with his mobile phone, as the waiters waited impatiently.

The potential diner dialed a number, which did not seem to go through, and then he went through the motions of sending a short text message. The phone rung – it was his ring tone – and he pretended to receive it.

He uttered the word, ‘Network’ loudly for the waiters to hear. He stood up, took his coat, claiming he was there for a business meeting, but his date was probably calling to explain the delay.

He went out like searching for network and disappeared. He ended up with a bottle of Coke and hamburger at a fast food joint. Instead of spending Sh2, 800 on himself for lunch, he let go of Sh180. The fiddling with phone was his exit strategy.

I had never given this truism – of reading restaurant menus from right – the price side of the menu – a thought until I read T Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. "What would you like for dinner tonight, dear?" "I’ll have this (Sh310 dish). Let’s see what it is."

Syokimau exploiters

Middle class – citizens who are merely comfortable – unlike the rich, do not eat what they want to eat. They order what they can afford, and price often comes before the dish.

The archetypal citizen of the middle is most likely a university graduate who has been on the rat race to pay monthly bills for ten years. They once preferred estates like Nairobi West, and Buru Buru, but the hard times have pushed them to Kayole and Umoja Innercore estates.

They were hard to find in the streets, but now they have joined the riot fray as independent groups. They are also getting tired of faking comfort they cannot afford.

Of these professionals, only teachers have always been on the streets, with the rest of their ‘classmates’ wondering why they are teaching on the picket line.

Lecturers have joined the strike fray, with their ‘classmates’ wondering why scholars are on road show. Doctors are rioting, but other ‘middlers’ – a strata so divided yet have similar wants – are wondering why professionals of the scalpel are waving twigs.

The middle class is selfish and loves to bury its head in the sand, so deeply this endangered social strata becomes indifferent even to issues at the core of its own survival.

When their progressive ‘classmates’ had trouble with exploiters in Syokimau, they were wondering how could they invest millions of shillings on land with fake title deeds. They thought the victims would have been safer in rental flats in Nairobi West.

There was no solidarity.

The strata suffers in silence, believing the hard times, even if orchestrated by a political and economic power clique, shall simply go a way.

The class has joined the chorus of the ‘festive season’. They sing more about a festive season when they know for exploiters – the power and economic elite now hoarding sugar, energy, and manipulating the shilling to raise campaign funds – every day is festive.

Change won’t come soon unless the middle class becomes conscious of its civic responsibilities; setting the political agenda and shouting when there is need. And that need has never been more urgent than it is now.

Yet our middle class behaves as if these problems shall simply go away. The apathy is astounding especially when this crucial middle should show leadership in rebuilding a country crippled by the greed of the power clique.

Speak out for me

Now Martin Niemoller’s poetry of apathy in Nazi Germany makes good echo for the stranded strata:

"First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Niemˆller was a German pastor, who was anti-communist and initially supported Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the State over religion, he became a disillusioned reformist.

Merry Christmas in celebration of Mary’s Boy Child – Jesus Christ.

Writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

kendo@standardmedia.co.ke