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I
loved his car moment where he was able to withstand five cars pulling his petrol
head in five different directions as he remained steadfast and unmoved behind
the wheels. His muscle car driving dexterity was heroic. The adrenaline in this
scene was momentous. That part was suspenseful as the stakes seemed higher and
I cringed in the settee wondering what was going to happen next. His escape was
lackluster if not a misfire.
I
was really waiting for a fight between the Rock and Jason. It would have put to
rest my burning thirst of what I considered to be an epic fight in recent times
in action movies. Well, there is a scene where Dom kills Deckard (Jason
Statham). On learning that Deckard did not make it, the heavily built agent Hobbs
gets disappointed and hits the wall hard causing a huge dent with his brawny
fist. A sign that he really wanted to have the fight.
Like
I have always intimated, I am still a novice in matters movies review. I would
like to be a better one sometime in future. Like, I used to narrate the stories
of ‘Staro’ (hero) and ‘Killer’ (villan) when I was an addict of Chinese movies
like Shaolin temple and the likes of what I had watched in class to my
camaraderie when was still in primary school. Yet these were movies which a child
my age was not required to view.
All
in all, The Fate of the Furious is a top-notch blockbuster that deserves a
flick. I gave it a 7 out of ten when I saw how it started and when it was
ending I reviewed my rating and gave it something above 8. As, it turns out, it
has a commendable rating of 7 in IMDb, 66% on
Rotten Tomatoes and 56% on Metacritic. Incidentally, I don’t understand why the
‘b’ in IMDb is small while the rest are capitalized. Critics though, have really
slammed it for lacking on script content, editing and post production. One
critic even said that it is stupefying because of the ‘failing in the material
that connects the action sequences’.
Away
from movies, I had initially thought of writing about my last pay from the bank
which I worked for. It was a pitiable $18. I could only withdraw $12 of that
amount given than I had some $8 in the account. I could not be able to withdraw
the rest of the cash because I was in what people called, ‘Bank ya wadosi.’ The
ATM I used that day could only dispense KSh. 1000 notes only. So the rest of
the cash has gone, gone like that to the dogs.
Don’t you just hate it when you think you will be paid but end up taking a tenth of what you should have got? Let me not even explain about that. I was expecting nothing or the full pay I had worked for the month that I was summarily dismissed having left alone for reasons that were more personal than work related.
Indeed,
I felt like a used contraceptive that had been thrown after serving its purpose
when I saw the pay I was to receive. How do you even wire such an amount to a
person? Hmmm. What to do next? Well, the reality is that we were being paid
like casual labourers, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Actually, you get paid
at the end of the day but the salary comes at the end of the month. The
commission is what is paid without much ado.
That
moment you stare at your ATM account balance and, bang! You freeze on your tracks.
Then you ask yourself what you are going to do with that money? At that point,
I remembered I had a loan. I used the pay to settle the loan I had procured
from the bank and still had a deficit. I paused for a moment then an idea
struck. Mshwari. Well, I am not an advocate of using credit to pay another, but
there are times when you need to ensure you are not CRB listed in order to
maintain a clean sheet because of the future.
I
paid my loan and thought I now had Mshwari to contend because it is more
reliable and less cumbersome when you want to get a soft loan. I bet my former
employer should work out a superior approach towards lending instant cash
instead of copy pasting an unworkable mechanism that puts the interest of the
lender first at the expense of the recipient. It operates like a fintech lending
app only that the fintech is risk seeking with its lending than banks.
Well,
I must say fintechs are much more adept at money lending than banks it seems.
They take more risk for the averse individuals they lend to. They know how to create
mini moments of seduction. Then they tie you without your knowledge. Like an unsuspecting
bunny, you follow the scraps of food they dribble out to lure you to take
another loan. Then you become addicted. While it started nicely. It ends badly.
You drown in. And when you cannot pay, you become carefree. The next time you
are borrowing, you realize you were CRB listed. There is a charge of KSh. 2000 to clear your name and the money you owe
may be a paltry KSh. 100 bob. I can’t refute that I have been tempted to forego
paying and don’t even try to deny it either.
Check
this out, I requested for a loan of KSh. 1000 the first time and repaid it
within a record time from my banks app. On requesting for another loan, I could
not qualify immediately after repaying. In Mshwari you qualify immediately
after paying your dues. The amount I could qualify for had also been watered
down tremendously. I also had to incur costs like sending the money to my Mpesa
account, and then another cost of withdrawing from Mpesa. While you may think
the monthly interest is low, what you end up with is way less than what you receive
if you request a similar amount from Mshwari.
Usitukane
wakunga na uzazi ungalipo. I may need that facility in future. But in the
meantime, I will stick to what I know best, Mshwari for soft loans.
Fast
forward and the loan that I was thinking was out of the picture is still
haunting my financial standings which makes me feel like retching altogether.
How do you explain another rollover fee which I am told is because of reversal
of the loan I had paid and had not been received, annoying isn’t it? Ati because the due date had passed and I had
not paid my dues I was supposed to pay more. To make matters worse it’s not my fault
for lack of paying. It’s theirs for lack of collecting. Bet this is a one off
event.
For
a guy like me with unreliable income stream, it came as a surprise when the
loan I had paid was reversed to my Mpesa account. I had an urgent need for
money and ended up using the reversed shekels to pay for an event that I am to attend.
Then
I received a call telling me to pay the full amount plus the rollover fee and
the mistake was not mine. That the excess will be reimbursed into my account
once I had paid the full amount. Well, Ksh. 171 may not look like a paltry
figure when you are slapped with but when it is as a result of someone else’s
negligence, you feel like lamming the hell out of that person’s senses.
Here
is why, there is another charge of Ksh. 50 to process the loan to ensure it
gets paid. In total, I am to pay a cool Ksh. 220 kwa makosa si yangu. It’s my
money they are robbing me in broad daylight, right? And that’s just sad for a
pleb.
What
can KSh. 220 do? It can buy me chips, a piece of chicken and soda in a bargain fast
food restaurant in town. I could have saved the money. I could have bought four
underpants or pairs of socks. Now, I have learnt my lesson the hard way and lost
money. I have henceforth vowed that I will not be using the platform anytime
soon. Mshwari pod pek jowegi.
If
it were not for that sales or debt collection guy with a heavy Sap accent, I
would have gone on rampage on social media ranting how I won’t pay anything more
than what I was intended to pay. Why? I remembered how I used to feel when
clients never took offence with some bank policies and decided that I will pay
just to keep the bugger in his job. He deserves to be in that job. Maybe he is
the sole breadwinner who is also taking care of an extended family.
But
I still feel hurt and betrayed and annoyed. I wanted to tell the bugger that I am
broke and jobless. That I thought they should have known better. Well, I am
here writing about how good the bugger probably from collections or CLM was to
me. In short, the guy alinituliza moyo.
He
never knew that I was owed by the people he was working for. I wanted to tell
him, ‘Hebu ambia hao watu kwanza wanilipe kwa ile kazi nilifanya’. You see, no
one recognizes the efforts of a salesperson who goes hawking without coming
back with a sale. That’s behind me now.
I
must admit that I used to feel guilty as to why I was not doing things right by
submitting ‘an application’ of prospective and current customers. Well, it was
frustrating reporting to work and not being able to deliver because of many
reasons that were beyond my control. Now I feel free.
Legally,
I owe them. Morally, they owe me. Probably I will be CRB listed because of my
account accruing ledger fees. Again, it had some Insurance standing orders that
I am not able to pay. I intend to pay the loan I owe as soon as I get the
peanuts that I receive from working online because my efforts have not been
able to burgeon like I had intended them to. But they will with time.
That
said, the freedom that I am currently experiencing is worthier than the stress that I used to go through in my quest to be seen as a proletariat in a sales job. I don’t need the money they owe me that much because
it is not that substantial to change my standings in society financially. I just
love the fact that it’s not as suffocating as I used to be. I am more than
happy with the petty that I get.
Hasta
La Vista Baby
[Picture
Source: My Own]
