Along time ago, on one lovely Friday
evening my friends and I sat by a Veranda of some bar in Bukoto. At that
sitting place, we could see all incoming traffic to the bar (this was not
particularly, what influenced our choice of the bar, just in case you thought
it was, it was not, Believe Me!) As the night went by, one rare model of a
vehicle owned by a celebrity drove by and parked just below us. We could see it
clearly from the balcony. The discussion about this monster of a car began and
we all did not seem to have concrete facts about it. This created a mystery in
my mind and in other people’s minds, as we will discover later.
At about Midnight, we decided to
depart. We then all walked down stairs. The way to the exit was by this monster
of a ride. As we approached it, one of us wondered whether this car’s body was made
of aluminium or plastic. The car was just in front of us, huge, looking nice
and very well polished. This was the
opportunity to confirm whether this monster ride was made of Aluminium or
Plastic.
At this point, curiosity got the
better of one of us and he touched to feel the body of the car. I speculate
that the urge to slap the car entered him, I speculate. It could have been the
ghost of slapping or the spirit of slapping, I do not know; no body knows,
Believe Me! He slapped the damn Monster!
Well, the car had a customised plate and by that fact, we all knew who owned the car. We knew who this celebrity was and frankly, what he was capable of, going by the stories in the tabloids, particularly about how he deals with disagreements with others. At the time, his resolution mechanisms were to beat or be beaten by those he disagreed with! He also had a gang of young energetic folks that clearly could beat!
Now, after my friend had slapped the
car, a group of young folks surrounded us. This Celeb appeared before us and
asked why we had slapped his car. Clearly not all of us had slapped the car,
and in my mind, we are about to be beaten. I did not trust in our ability to
beat this gang. In-fact, I could feel my body under some sort of adjustment as
if getting ready to withstand as much pain as humanly possible. More so, knowing
that Alcohol is a painkiller, I was at this point very ready!
I have witnessed bar fights and most of the times it is because one side over estimates its power and goes on an offensive that gets them hurt. Fortunately, my friend who slapped the car immediately apologised and asked for forgiveness. That was wise. We all joined him, in a chorus, as if rehearsed to apologise completely and also. The celeb gave us a speech, as if to provoke us to annoy him again and he gets to beat us. We stuck to apologising. After a while, about 3-5 Minutes (This seemed like the length of January), he and his gang entered their monster slapped ride and went about their business.
I said my goodbyes and left for home.
Restraint and humility saved us or them…hehehehehe. We missed the opportunity
to know how much pain our bodies could withstand or the strength within us to
fight off a gang!
Now, the death of this heavily talented musician, Radio, has made many wonder whether the bouncer who beat him could have restrained himself or whether Radio outdid himself in starting a war he could not win and forgot that he was weak. Either or both could have saved his life. This brings me to a headline carried by Red Pepper, “The End of Good life: Mowzey Radio”. This headline is speculative but plausible because this dude was the face of Good Life. He was an invaluable asset to Good Life and in fact, one could argue that he and his comrade Weasel TV were the heart of Good Life. They could have been the Good Life itself, I do not know!
After the death of Radio, some,
mostly fellow musicians have spoken to the need for protection to celebrities
but fell short of proposing who should provide this Protection. Government?
HELL NO? I have wondered why good life, an institution of its repute in the
industry, can allow its most prized asset wander about unattended to. This death
is therefore a combination of avoidable factors; Lack of humility and restraint
on the part of the bouncer and the deceased and more so failure by Good Life
Management to take care of its most prised asset.
“Don't compromise yourself. You're
all you've got.” Janis Joplin.
In conclusion, therefore, I want to
let you all know that I do need a drink!
