Do You Know Who I Am?

I read a story about a woman who was married to a very wealthy man. They were at a party with equally wealthy people and for some reason this woman was not served promptly when the waiters were going around with the drinks. She turned to the waiter, grabbed her drink and screamed : Do you know who I am married to? Later at the kitchen, the waiter told another server about what the woman said. "It is so sad, she's not even drunk yet and she already forgot who she's married to." The other server answered, "Yes, I pity the rich."

This story reminds me of the latest scandal in the Philippines with the Pangandaman's and the Dela Paz's in Antipolo. According to the old Dela Paz, the old Pangandaman shook his fist at him and asked, "Don't you know who I am?" (Hindi mo ba ako kilala?) When I read this part of the story, I need not read the rest of the account anymore. I've experienced enough of that arrogance in my own life in the Philippines.

Golf is not for everybody because it's not a cheap sport to play. So I assume that the Dela Paz's are not PoRC (people of reduced circumstances). Imagine what the Pangandaman's would have done if they were inconvenienced by someone lowly; like the caddy or the course gardener.
But you know, the notion that the rich are mean is just as wrong as the notion that the poor is meek. Bonhoeffer said it well: We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

So when Nasser Pangandaman asked, Don't you know who I am? maybe because he suffers from dementia? Or a bloated head induced by political power? Or is it just a simple case of arrogance? I don't know, all I can say is that I have been rich and I have been poor. Rich is definitely better.