Consumption as a Lifestyle

While reading the article, Today's Consumption in Egypt by Mona Abaza, I could not help but notice again and again the parallels between the changes that have already happened in Egypt more than a decade ago and the rapid social changes happening in Pakistan today. Thanks, in part, to the neo-liberal economic reforms and opening up of our markets to multi-national corporations. This article focuses on only the consumption facet of these changes.

Consider this. In order to sell your products you need to have a certain demand for them in Pakistan. You create this demand by promulgating a certain lifestyle 'with a modern feel to it', you target certain segments of the population which have aspirations to become "modern" and can spend. You make their wants their needs and give them loans and credit cards for the immediate gratification of their desires. See these recent ads: ‘Pepsi’ here, ‘Capri’ here, ‘Jazz Share’ here, ‘Credit Card’ here. Good or bad, we can decide that later, but first, it is necessary to understand what is happening to Pakistani society.

I should also point out that my comparison (extrapolation) here is limited to mostly the middle classes in the urban areas in Pakistan. The rich always had these consumption trends. For the poor, these changes only increase their desires and frustration. See my notes at the bottom.

Image: Park Towers Mall in Karachi.

Excerpts from the article:

The New Consumption Trends

"During the last decade Cairo has witnessed a flowering of shopping malls, ATM and mobile phone use, resort-style recreation, and fast-food consuming, all of which represent a radical departure from previous Egyptian consumer habits. These new behaviours symbolize Egypt’s increasing integration into the world capitalist system, if not its growing participation in multiple dimensions of globalization.

"For those of us who grew up in Egypt during the era of Gamal Abdel Nasser in the sixties, we can still recall seeing in our households locally produced consumer durables from the Ideal national company. The stoves, refrigerators, metal cupboards, beds, and desks, while aesthetically unattractive, were functional.

"Sadat’s shift of alliance from the Soviet Union to the Western world in the early seventies was followed by the policy of the “open door,” or privatization at the expense of the “public sector” state monopolized large-scale industries. The shift from the Nasserite “state capitalist” era to full integration into the world capitalist system went hand in hand with encouraging consumerism and new lifestyles among Egyptians.

"Cairo alone boasts twenty-four shopping malls, all of which were constructed since 1989, Yamama Center being the first. They have even appeared in the most remote villages of the Egyptian Delta. Cairo´s supermarkets such as the French mega-store Carrefour, offer everything one can imagine, from household items, food, beverages to readymade home-delivered meals. ATM cards, almost unheard of some ten years ago, are becoming popular and ATM users are expected to reach around 10, 000 in the next ten years. The acquisition of mobile phones has risen significantly from 200,000 in 1999 to 4.9 million subscribers today, spurring increasing numbers of thefts and pickpockets of mobile phones. The newly created shopping malls, super hypermarkets, and mega-stores in Egypt are indicative of the dramatic transformation of consumption habits.

"Fancy restaurants and bars carrying ostentatious names like: La Bodega, Le Morocco, Le Peking, The Cellar, Justine, Villa Rosa, Cortigiani, Le Bistro Provencale, Sangria, Blues, and Casablanca are also multiplying. For the special occasion of Ramadan international five-star hotels like the Hilton, Marriott and Sheraton compete to offer the best iftars (the meal signifying the breaking of the fast) and traditional Ramadan evenings with oriental cuisine buffets, patchwork tents, shishas (water pipes) and entertainment that might even include whirling dervishes. The coffee shop culture has also become popular for middle class Egyptians. It would be erroneous to believe that this emerged only in the last decade. In fact, the sixties’ bourgeoisie had already adopted the café culture of the pre-Nasserite elite. Simonds of Zamalek, an Italian inspired coffee shop, had been the “in” place during the sixties competing with downtown cafés like Groppi, Lapas, the Indian Tea House, which were frequented mainly by Cairo’s elderly. These spaces were typical beau monde for parading and showing off. Today, the new coffee houses—and they are plenty—offer a mid-way solution for the younger generation of yuppies who can afford to pay for an over-priced drink, croissant, or a sandwich. Middle class Egyptians have in recent years been exposed to the culture of breakfasting on croissants, espresso and cappuccino’s, just as they have learned to eat Japanese, Italian, Thai, Indian, Iranian, and Lebanese food, thanks to the proliferation of restaurants that serve international cuisine.

"Leisure resorts, secondary residences, and walled and gated communities, such as Qattamiyya Heights and Beverley Hills, have multiplied in Egypt. Advertisements sell a simulated dream of grandiose villas located in new, mainly desert, communities outside the city. They are incorporated in larger condominium complexes that might include a swimming pool, a fitness centre, and, the ultimate, a golf course. In other words, everything that leads to a healthy, luxurious, and suburban life, the counter image to the rotting polluted old Cairo.

Young and Restless!

"Youngsters now have a number of affordable ways to spend time. They could go to the numerous internet cafes, bowling alleys, cinemas, or air-conditioned fast food chains, which are available both, in shopping malls, or as independent spaces. Discotheques and night clubs cater largely to the richer strata. Travel to the Far East has become an exotic tourist destination for the Egyptian rich who discover Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore; international music is widely available, and Arabic music video-clips are becoming increasingly hybridized. Popular satellite channels transmit programs with a “mixing” of, for instance, Indian and Thai dances and landscapes, Egyptian and Gulf young singers, and European and North American tastes and music.

Fulfillment or Frustration?

"Does intruding consumer culture, together with its simulative aspect for the poor, serve as an accommodative element with the galloping inflation and growing poverty? Would window shopping and aimless flanerie be sufficient replacements for consuming? Does window shopping, in other words, fulfill dreams or increase frustration? Or, as many have asked, can new consumer possibilities lead to forms of democratization? For example, do mobile phones carry a democratizing effect since, after all, “everybody” can own one? Today porters, maids, cooks, lower grade employees, and taxi drivers carry mobiles. Admittedly, mobile phones have facilitated communication and made life easier for the lower classes who might not even have home phone lines in their shanty housing areas. Mobiles are no longer a luxury item.

After the Egyptian pound was floated in 2003 and led to a nearly 40% inflation, many ask for how long more can the government hold power? One could argue that these sanitized and modern spaces, like shopping ma ls, serve merely as “clean air conditioned” spaces for escaping the crowded streets of Cairo, flirting, time spending, and possibly, shop lifting according to the recurring complaints of the managers of these malls. But today more than ever, the distinction between the haves and have-nots is flagrantly displayed; the boasting of wealth through consumerism can only sharpen class differences.

Observers acknowledge that the main opposition and forthcoming actors in the political arena will be the Islamists. Would these rising social actors adopt an accommodative attitude towards consumer culture or reject it as a form of West-toxication? The example of the young, new-age style preacher Amr Khaled reflects rather that for young middle class Egyptians most likely, a happy marriage between religion and consumer culture is in the making."

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The article makes it clear, but I want to emphasize again: I do not mean to imply in any way that in Pakistan we just do blind imitation of the West. Rather, we do what I like to call a "creative adoption" of things from the West, from India, and elsewhere (See this for an illustration). We observe things, we engage with them with our creative imagination, and then re-interpret them while giving it a local flavor in the adoption process. Our professionals educated in marketing psychology, business management, arts and media, economics, journalism, etc. consume and reproduce these trends in media and other avenues. "Can iftaar dinner be complete without Pepsi?" you hear that in ads during Ramazan. And love Pepsi as you sing "Dil Dil Pakistan"! Or, "Let's re-discover our cultural heritage" and "It's a form of art" which some channels use to wrap vulgarity and sell the viewers to products. The 'commercialization of culture' has many other problems too.

In addition to macro economic changes and the expansion of middle classes in Pakistan in the recent years, there are other internal and external factors that are crucial for any understanding what is happening to the society in Pakistan. For example, the education structure (schools, college, universities, professional institutes) has lengthen the duration of schooling for young people, and along with other social and economic factors, has expanded what we call the adolescence age between childhood and adulthood. You did not have this gap that much in agriculture based communities of our past, where a child would directly enter into adulthood, once he/she is able to work in the field/house, has attained puberty, and therefore, the logical next step was to get married, which was also a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. That is not happening anymore, in the newly expanded middle classes. The new age group of adolescence is a reality today, but there is a vacuum of productive roles and activities for this age group (in our community especially), and this vacuum is being filled by the new lifestyle and consumption habits promulgated by media and other social outlets, as described above. Change is not bad in itself; it is good or bad depending on who is leading the change and in what direction. More on this some other time, inshallah.

Another quick thought. A trend is often observed in the newly expanded middle and upper classes in Pakistan: to show off their class status through spending and consumption, of a certain lifestyle, in housing, and on social occasions. Those that live in Pakistan know about the 'dekha dekhi' trend. Yet they are also familiar with the trend of aspiring to appear unique. (These tendencies are of course not limited to Pakistan. Materialism exists everywhere.). The struggle for uniqueness in weddings is an example - from the selection of invitation cards to the selection and decoration of the wedding hall, to the kind of food and how it is served, to what kind of make-up and dress the bride (and bridegroom) wears, and what kind of car does she comes in and leaves!

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