THE LAULAU series.
Now we arrive at the part everybody sees. The spraying. The parties. The champagne. The celebrities. The convoys. The jewellery. The outrageous gifts.
The money thrown around with the abandon of someone who has discovered that there is apparently no bottom to the well.
And suddenly, my original question begins to answer itself: What do you do when you have too much money? You spend it.
What do you do when you have far too much? You spend it loudly.
What do you do when there is still more coming? You become laulau.
Spend. Spend. Spend. And spend some more. Because at a certain level, conspicuous consumption stops being about need.
Nobody needs 6 exotic cars. Nobody needs a watch worth the price of a house. Nobody needs to spray millions at a party. Nobody needs to announce every acquisition to the world. It becomes theatre. Wealth theatre.
And theatre requires an audience. Hence the parties. Hence the spraying.
Hence the musicians singing the praises of people whose businesses, to the ordinary observer, sometimes remain remarkably difficult to explain.
But there is another fascinating development. Philanthropy. Suddenly, the man/woman with the mysterious fortune becomes extraordinarily generous. He pays school fees. Settles hospital bills. Gives cars away. Sponsors events. Supports celebrities. Donates to communities. Becomes the benefactor.
The big boy. The people’s man. The modern-day Robin Hood. And society loves him for it. But here is the uncomfortable part: Money can buy admiration long before it buys legitimacy.
Sometimes, society itself becomes part of the transformation. Not financially. Socially. We see the money. We enjoy the money. We celebrate the giver. We take photographs with him. We praise his generosity. And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the original question disappears.
Where did the money come from? That is when things become much darker than the champagne and loud music suggest.
Because organised crime does not only seek money. It seeks something even more valuable: acceptance.
And once acceptance arrives, influence is not far behind.
TO BE CONTINUED…
