Almost 75% of our celebrated artists end up penniless,some of the reasons and possible solutions

  

Date Posted: 7/29/2013 3:20:42 PM

Posted By: kirstene  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 1264

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Just recently, a renowned actor was seen hawking CD’s (compact discs)of the same movies he stared in during his time just to make ends meet. Many people have had confused feelings about this matter, some feel it is completely unfair for an artist of his status to be hawking CD’s when he should be seated at home and reaping from his hard work, the revenues generated from the movies that he acted in. however others feel that this is completely okay, as one actor was quoted saying “Honestly, there is nothing shocking and if anything, I commend him for getting his hustle on, the hard way”.

This by all means is no way for an artist of his status to be living if you ask me, the society needs to wake up, we need to find out what is happening to our artists. Artists are some of the most respected people in the world, they entertain us, without them, life would be really gloomy, but most of them end up living in a very sorry state after they retire or immediately they quit their celebrity status this really need not be the situation and it should be looked into with the most seriousness it deserves and a lasting solution found else we will end up losing some of our great people if nothing is done.

Here are some of the reasons why some of our artists end up in the above mentioned state

Reasons

Extravagance
This actors earn allot of money, especially immediately after the movies hits the theaters, however most of them end up with the same case I have already mentioned above, why? you would ask yourself. The reason is extravagance. The lifestyles of some of this artist is really alarming, with so much money you would expect them to

buy houses, but many do not even think of this, instead they rent very expensive houses at the end they will retire with no houses of their own some end up being thrown out in the streets as no one will let you stay in their house without you paying them no matter what your status in the society is.

Furthermore, this artists spend allot of money arranging parties where they will throw allot of money without minding anything. They will always drink themselves to the point where they do not recognize themselves and the drinks are usually very expensive as they cannot drink cheap liquor, to them those are for the poor
Some spend their money on sex, in every town they visit, they will always have one or more lovers, to which they will always spend money on and give them more for upkeep. Some end up impregnating them and at the end of it all, they are taken to court and forced to pay a huge price for this mistakes

Not saving
Most artists never think of the future, their life is fast, living as if there is no tomorrow, they never think of saving money, they think their career is there to stay. Never does it occur to them that one day their fame will end. So they never save, and when their stars stop shining, they have nothing to hold on to. They are left with no penny on their name, after all the money; they will eventually die poor as no industry will hire them

Societal expectation
Society has pinned so many expectations on this artist and this is also a contributing factor to some of their problems. Many will go to the extreme just to satisfy the societal expectations, in the end, they end up harming themselves. When this life ends and they cannot live to these standards, some cannot take the reality, that’s why you will see some end up committing suicide while others drown themselves in drugs which will eventually lead to death as the reality is always too much for them to believe. It becomes hard for them to cope

Piracy
In Kenya and the whole world at large, piracy has affected largely the entertainment industry. Wrong people benefit from the sweat of others. In the market today you will find allot of shops selling this pirated CD’s at a very cheap price, after all what do they have to lose? They do not know the amount of efforts that was put for the movie to be produced neither do they know the price of investments put into the movie, theirs, as long as they get money

Most people now prefer to buy a CD for 50 shillings rather than buying a genuine CD in the supermarket for two or three thousand. In the theaters you will not find many people as most of them have already watched it thanks to piracy. So tell me, if the whole country buys pirated CD’s then how will the actors earn their living? Though I understand that those people who pirate movies also are looking for a way to put food on the table, but there are better ways to do this as this act of pirating CD’s does allot of harm than good

Solution

Society needs to learn that being on TV does not always necessarily translate to money, these are all human beings, acting is just a career and they are also prone to experience some of the problems that we normal people go through

This artist also need to learn the importance of saving and not only spending what they get, the life of fame does not last forever they need to think of their future.

The government ought to put up strict laws and deal very seriously with piracy, this is the only way that artists will be able to benefit from their hard work. We should also should buy genuine CDs in order to support our talents, go to the theaters and watch the movies; this will surely improve the status of our artists.

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