Saturday, July 19, 2008

Micro Economics.

Micro economy basically is how individuals allocate scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and services.

I'm not about to get all Nerdy on you so be cool. Be warned though, I'm gonna get a bit controversial on ya. Hold on to your hats folks.

First what's been happening to me? Nothing much really. Been taking one day at a time, another day another dollar/naira as the case may be, doing the 1-10 countdown whenever i see something that annoys the heck outta me. And trust me there's a lot out there to drive me nuts but i'm not even gonna go into that. My rant week is over. I'm my bubbly self all over again.

So sha, i went out on the town last night to have a drink with my Boy AY. He's got mad Cheddar and i'm good looking...(Oya Talk make i hear you) *hiss* Anyway So we pretty much have to beat the Ladies away with a Stick lol. Wetin i dey talk again sef? Ehen so i make my entrance and i see the same ol' Crowd hmm,Wannabees, Heavy-weighters, The Pros and the Cons...lol
I spot my Cousin with a girl i sabi from way back.
Hang on Didn't she do her trad Wedding last Christmas? Or two years ago? My Big Motor mouth Cuz hollers "Kunle"..
Oh well, I walk over smile, said hi, smack my Cuz on the head,
S'up Playboy?
I glance at the babe's left hand.
Ring's off.
Hi Onome
She says "Oh Kunle you've met my Cousin Remi"
Silence.
I'm looking like WTF? Oti o!
More Silence. ...Mouth Open
Wallahi, you coulda hit me with a Feather, and i'd be on the floor.
I'm thinking, I'm like Nah, This Heffer didn't just Introduce My own Cousin to me as her Cousin.
I thought i don heard everythang. This one takes the Carrot Cake.
The look on my Cousin's face, Priceless. Mastercard moment that.

You asked me what i did? Of course i called my Olori kodoro cousin and told him
"Eti e melo? (How many ears were you given at the Baby Factory?)
You've got one leg in the grave, and the other leg on a Banana peel Son.

So i sha walk back to my seat o, AY was chilling lazily having a drink. I swear the Dude is so laid back he's almost Horizontal. Haha... I sha gave him the Gist of the Onome Fiasco, I'm making a helluva lotta noise and i don't give a toss. A Shorty's looking at me from the Corner of her eyes
I turn to look at her fully.
Yeepa.
Omo, she looked like she got dressed in the dark. Mis-matched colours and all that.

I'm off tangent again shey? Ehen, So what set me on this course?

500 Naira note. How? I wanted to give the guy at the parking lot a tip. I thought i had a few 200 Naira notes in my Glove Compartment, Couldn't find any..(I wonder who steals loose change from my Car?) Anyway sha, I looked in my wallet 1k notes and 500 bucks.
No way i'm gonna give the Parking guy 500 bucks.
I searched the car thoroughly nothing at all, so i ended up giving the Old man the 500 be-be sha.

The moment the guy saw the money, i saw a big smile light up his face. Shebi you know that kind of smile that all your teeth will be outside like this? ehen, that one.
On my way home i kept pondering, thinking about different things, and how much 500 bucks meant to the Man on the Street in this very cold, hard unforgiving City.

I imagined that the Guy had a wife at home, (Hopefully 1 wife only) and maybe 3 kids (Usually more than 3 for that econo strata) but for arguments sake let's say 3.

He's at least 45-47 years old, and his take home pay as a parking attendant is probably about 10,000 a month(42 British Pounds monthly). That's about less than what you pay for Dinner for 2 at the joint he works.

So let's say he stays in a 1 room face me i slap you, and he pays 1200k monthly. I'm just pulling figures out of the air here but for arguments sake 1200k.
Transportation. He doesn't live on the Island like millions of other workers so another 2500k

He needs to feed, so thats say another 4500k

Utilities 1000k

Upkeep money he gives the Missus 2000k (At this point he's already in debt)

He probably has some extended family Dependants to sort out at least he's sha working.

I'm sure i've skipped stuff like Clothes, Drugs cause he lives in a malaria infested place.

The only way to supplement his income and keep hope alive...the tips he gets.

Looking deeper, i tried to imagine what if this 47 year old Man has a daughter, and he decides he has to send her to school so she can have a future?

So, baby girl is in a higher institution because she's reasonably bright but unreasonably broke.

Dad is barely employed, Mother sells fresh fruits, no chance of getting a temp job as an assistant in school, even the people with Masters degree sef no get work.
Lecturers insists you have to buy handouts or you fail, it's black and white. No grey areas. Each handout is sold at a minimum of 2500k for each course(or even More sef depending on the hunger level of the lecturer).

She doesn't even bother going home for money because she knows the Situ at home.

What's a girl to do?

Yup! You guessed right.

There are other chicks in school with Civil Servant/ working class parents who are a bit higher up the socio-economic ladder but are seriously struggling to survive in a country where nothing works, no welfare system, a few people have all the money and the other few are trying to get there so they can lord it over their former neighbours like "i don arrive"
You know that " Hello, ah ahn...long time...So you're still driving that old Car" or the female version...looking you up and mentally calculating your net worth by what you've got on and who made your shoes blah blah.
It's a tough stupid ego-driven unforgiving place Naija. Crabs in a 3rd world bucket.

Whats a girl to do?
I noticed it about 7 years ago, but then it had not been institutionalized. It had the whole "Under G" cloak draped around it. How about you take a trip down any of the nation's Campuses? I hear it's worse in those hidden Polytechnics in the middle of nowhere. You know all those Osun state Poly, Federal school of something or the other. These same Governors and politicians that can't fix bad roads, drainages, The same muppets that hold on to teachers salaries, will send a convoy of cars to these schools to pick up these kids for all sorts of outrageous trysts that will make Caligula look like an Alter boy.

Every single school in the country has it's clique of Runs people. It's a whole different society on it's own. Something shifted in the last 5 years. The Runs-less girls are in the Minority for the first time since 1984 when runs officially started.

The runs girls that were looked down upon a few years ago are now the La Bellas. They run the joint, they are in the limelight, socially accepted from the ''Low-end 5k thanks for coming(TFC)" to the high flying Weekend at Burj al Arab Dubai-shop-till-you-drop, Infinity Driving chicks.

They've arrived and it looks like they are here to stay. Endorsed by peers, parents who look the other way, Clergy men who receive the offerings/Tithes on Sundays, Lecturers who give them a 2:1 so they get the Bank jobs when the graduate, Even down to the Unilag boys who can't get none because the goodies have been exported to the more affluent Oil and Gas/telecoms/Bank boys, Politicos/Married guys looking for an official girlfriend/Yahoo boys (Yahoodlums) who get some whilst they can still maintain the Golf4 and get none when there is Mugu dry season and they're back on Campus Shuttle/Riding shotgun in Homies whip.


Wo, I'm not trying to point fingers here or anything o! I'm just flashing a light on a present reality which almost everyone seem to turn a blind eye to. E be like some major mass self denial thing going on.

Parents know what their Kids get up to, but frankly are powerless to do anything about it.They are still busy trying to survive.
The one's who have the clout have shipped off their kids to schools abroad from the Ivy leagues to the Community university.

How about the new "Religious Universities"? Mehn, don't even get me started... i'm not even gonna go there....

Madam Lawmaker is busy trying to ban short skirts and Cleavage revealing tops. There's more serious stuff going on that that Duh..................
How about facing/tackling the main issues huh?
She'll spew out all that Rhetoric about short skirts messing up the moral fabric(excuse the pun) of the society. Shio! Fabric wey don tear since tay tay. Abeg ja si free joo.

In the meantime, there's still $20 million dollars lost DAILY to Oil Bunkering from the Niger Delta
No healthcare
No Power(Greedy fools selfish fools)
Bad Roads
Billions of Dollars embezzled yearly.
We're still importing petrol into the country. Isn't that retarded? Just because of a few greedy fools
Workers are not paid for months on end, so they can't take care of their Daughters,
Kids need to feed and pay school fees/buy handouts just to get half an Education.

What's a girl to do?

Oya Carry Gun shoot me. Na me be gofment?


13 comments:

musco said...

well-written!

1st time here & i'm really impressed wit ur diagnosis of lagos vis-a-vis island potholes to d large entity called nigeria.

why am surprised?-u re in telecoms & u re bn paid well!

Adekunle Shobowale said...

Thanks Musco for dropping by.

The problems are there. Glaring, staring all of us in the face.

As you know musco, Being well paid is quite relative. I'm not exactly on the Breadline, thank God for that.The problem i see here is too many people are in survival mode. Even the Middle class. There's too much selfishness. The Average Nigerians favorite pastime is Lording it over the less fortunate.
Bloated egos, bigger than party baloons.
What happened to looking out for the next person? to making someone smile? To helping a poor kid through school? Everyone is guilty of this. Heck even the church is guilty. I don't think Jesus will fly a private jet, and talk about the lunch he had at the four seasons on Saturday whilst some people in his Church don't know where their next meal is coming from. What happened to Compassion?

We talk about the Government being corrupt. Who is the Government.It's the stuff you do daily that make up who you are.
The Government is your uncle that hasn't paid taxes since 1975. Now he's a Governor. The Government is your Aunt who beats up the hired help mercilessly and curses out her parents. Now she's minister of Women's Affairs and spewing out shi*t about Women Empowerment.
The Government is my Cousin who is Top Man in Education with Falsified
Papers.
It's gotta be something in the Nigerian Water.
I get asked why i'm so passionate about Nigeria.It's simple. I love this country. It's a shithole now, but the potentials are enourmous.
We just need to get rid of the Agbadas strutting around with nothing but saw-dust for brains.

And yeah i know the comment is long
but my Blog no?

zara (my alter ego) said...

lol dude!!! he's so laid back, he's almost horizontal. lol

Tyger said...

you talk well...

although you too like digress...
but true you talk am well...

Anonymous said...

I love the way you write.You paint pictures with words.
The fusion of your ajebuta-ness and Pidgin English makes for a compelling personality. I'll love to meet you someday Although your name sounds familiar and you sound like you're hanging out kicking back and giving awon boys some gist.Big up bro.

Afrobabe said...

Wow, this is so passionate, so unlike you...the parents know, they are not proud of it but realise they have to turn their eyes and eat the rice their student daughter bought otherwise sleep hungry....again..

Poverty is bad, I have heard of a mother who used hot water to chase out a boy that ame to see her daughter shouting that her mates were dating governors and she brings home chewing gum boys..

Anonymous said...

Good write up!

Ade

Mineexclusively said...

Well written. I have so much to say, but I go take all the space for here, so I go keep quiet.

We are a bunch of talkers. Thats what I know about Nigerians. Being passionate about your country goes further than just talking and typing. Not trying to take a jab at you o.

The country will self destroy itself. I am almost sure. Even if all the agbayas in agbada all die today, the country will still be in a shitty situation.

Wo, make I dey comot. Got too much to say.

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

Not sure if I've been here before but I definitely enjoyed this post sha.
Hope all is well and that you will update soon.

Afrobabe said...

wow...been a long long while bro...

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.

Anonymous said...

The picture you just painted is not good at all...and sadly that's the reality...but I know there's a solution to this...no doubt about it...there's a programme going on in University of lagos now called "Kissed The Girls"...based on the book: http://www.amazon.com/Kissed-Girls-Made-Them-Cry/dp/0785269894...
I know change is coming...slowly but surely...

Anonymous said...

lol!!! i love you- i mean, this!!!! ;)