The Maravi Post

THE president of an African country, that will remain incognito, was on a state-visit-cum-holiday in the Far East. With the ever growing friendship between China and African countries (more so the presidents of African Countries); his final destination was the casino holiday resort of Macau.

Shortly after his arrival in Macau, the president received an urgent message back from home that the richest man in China has expressed the wish to invest in this African president’s country. Since this is a potentially big investor, and with the various troubles at home, the president decides to meet personally with the investor.

The next day, the president and his entourage go to meet the investor at an exclusive restaurant. Throughout the dinner, the president tries to bring up the subject of possible areas of investment but the billionaire only seems interested in a certain member of the president's entourage – a very beautiful government official, who thanks to nepotism, is a relation of the president.

After dinner, the billionaire asks the lady official to spend the rest of the evening seeing the sights in Macau with him. Not wishing to offend the prospective investor, the president orders the lady in question to go ahead, advising her that she must be diplomatic and under no circumstances is she to insult the man by rejecting him outright.

After going to a dance club for a few hours, the investor takes the lady aside. As he holds her hand and looks her straight into her eyes, he tells her that he loves her. Then, he gets on his knees and asks: “Will you marry me?”

Naturally, this comes as a shock to the lady – things are happening way too fast and she is taken aback. However, she remembers the president’s words and the forex and fuel problems his administration is facing and failing to resolve back home. “Don't reject the guy outright,” the president had said.

So, she tries to think of a way to dissuade the investor from wanting to marry her, without offending his ego. After a few minutes, the woman says, "I will only marry you under three conditions. First, I want my engagement ring to be a seventy-five carat diamond ring, with a matching two hundred carat diamond tiara."

The Chinese man pauses for a while then, with a nod, answers:  "No problem! I buy. I buy."

Realizing that her first condition was too easy the woman has other ideas.

"My second condition is that you buy me a one hundred-room mansion in New York and build me a chateau in the middle of the Gironde in France."

The man pauses for a while. He whips out his cellular phone, calls some brokers in New York, then he calls some real estate agents in France; and then turns to the woman he has fallen in love with, nods again and says, "Okay, okay. I build, I build."

Realizing that she has one last condition, the lady knows that she'd better make this a good one. She takes her time to think. She squints her eyes, looks at the man and says, rather coldly that "since I like to have sex, I want the man I marry to have a twelve-inch shaft!"

The man’s face is immediately downcast and is visibly disturbed. He cups his face in his hands and rests his elbows on the table, all the while; he's muttering something in Chinese. And the beginnings of a smile started forming on the lady’s lips.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the man shakes his head, looking real sad, says to the woman,

"OK. I cut. I cut."

And they got married.

Moralizing the story:

This story, despite all the talk of 75 carat diamond ring with a matching two hundred carat diamond tiara and custom-built or custom-cut everything; does not end with the traditional “…and they lived happily ever after.”

On the contrary, this story is the stuff that troubled marriages are made of.  The president in this story could be anyone from parents to friends exercising undue parental or peer pressure prodding us in a direction we shouldn’t go.

Because of short sightedness, greed and other factors, we often succumb and fall into the trap and end up living miserably ever after.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment