Capitalist Consumerism: New Opium for the Masses?

"Excess and deficiency are equally at fault" - Confucious

3 days ago am chilln with a cousin of mine in a sugarcane plantation his father owns. . .so he whips out a brand new iPhone and proceeds to IM one of his many Adhiambo Siandas. He goes like:
"Omera look at the speed of this thing! 3G teknology is da bomb!"

I hasten to add that 3G ain't available for Orange subscribers in this part of Kenya however cool his device is.

"Then why are the messages coming so fast?"

"Dunno, she could be the Usain Bolt of typing"

He refused to give in and we had a huge argument about his phone being as good as my mkebe . But he still insists that since he has owned more phones than me this year alone I must be the ignorant one. Besides, the TV doesn't lie. .when they say 3G, its 3G!

This sad scenario is replayed everyday in modern Kenya in a trend that is comonly known as consumerism. This is where you save your ka small allowance to buy the Gucci bandana you saw in the Soulja Boi video, or when your wife dumps the toaster (which was in perfect condition) for the new bluetooth remote controlled one etc etc. In short, this baby of capitalism isolates the consumer to a certain pre-set lifestyle modelled by synthetic ideals of exclusivity, status, coolness and the like. Thus, a Londoner could be wearing the exact same type of shoes as say, a young girl in Londiani. . . Karl Marx aptly called this concept "Commodity Fetishism". What really started this madness?

Struggling to save face after losing long expensive wars, European countries in the 20th Century resorted to imperialism ie. Colonising new territory. Here, the discovery of vast resources and labour (in the form of topless slaves, with their quivering members peeping from their loincloths, hence the term fetishsm by Marx) rejuvinated industrial development. These gains trickled down to the individual and the new modus operandi of status was wealth acquistion.



Inversely, Western civilization also awed them "savages" and education cemented their resolve to get rid of their "primitivity" and be able to pull of a more refined lifestyle. The main beneficiaries of this were the same political leaders struggling to secure our independence. This is evident with the speed at which they acquired huge tracts of land and property once they got into government, forming the first indigenous elite class.

With equal speed, a middle class also sprung up in the 70s and 80s. They were young, educated, energetic and would stop at nothing to get to be part of the more priviledged of society. They went to the same discos, bought the same bling and bellbottoms as their richer pals, who had begun to be influenced by growing communication and foreign education.

Today, the situation is more pronounced than ever, especially given that globalisation has become a fact of life. Our middle class and no doubt the lower class is so rampantly physically the psychological aspirations to join the burgeois prôpes. . .

The psychological rationale of this the same thing that motivated inter-racial sexual conquests in the apartheid era. . . By looking and behaving like the "others" (read obnoxiously rich motherchods who we see everyday on MTV and Reality TV who rake billions per month) we will get to acceptance of some sort. . .a Dr Livingstone, I presume kind of moment.

Clearly, theres nothing wrong with staying on point with the trends, and having ambitions... But as we buy them Gucci bandanas, buy CDs we listen to once, or unnecessary gadgets, take out mortgages, squeeze life savings to buy that car and the owners of production (multinationals like Nokia and Toyota) rake silos of cash out of our unsatiable desire, do we ever to stop to think of what we have transformed into? Do we ever ponder that this could amount to self-rape, indirect exploitation? Is unfettered exercise of capitalism and its nasty lil sister consumerism advisable for kenya and indeed Africa? Who is the ultimate winner after Wahi Kuwahis, after the Kwachuas?Do you ever ask yourself what happened to bread at 5bob, Johnny Walker at 300bob? Is the ultimate satisfaction getting hold of the CREAM dollar bills?

Eat and drink but exceed not and become extravagant - Quran 7.31

In summary, due to advancement in communication, easy flow of information and other trappings of globalization, Africa and the 3rd World is now caught in a nervous race to catch up with the progress made by the West so that they too can also look, feel, sound and even smell "hip, modern and/or cool". Its quite a shock to most African economies, the fact that, in a few decades, we are on the brink of achieving a societal disposition that took Western countries hundreds of years to achieve.

However, when it comes to differentiating Westernization and Modernization the line becomes a bit blurry. We are stuck on activities that have ceased to become good or healthy practice in the West. Why? The main reason is that, even though information is much easier to access, the owners of production are keen to replicate their ancient commercial feats here. They buy as much airtime from our main communication portals as their budgets can allow. Buy this junk, get more junk free. Your Facebook sidebar and your prime time TV ads are full of them. They determine what is good and bad, and the consumer has virtually no control of this. With time, a keen individual will notice these pre-set trends in:

The public attitude towards food & food supplements
We have embraced fast/junk foods, a daily diet to many of the 9-to-5 hustle, quite oblivious of the fact that these foods are being frowned upon in the West for their negative impact on health. Thus, the preference of sugar-coated cereal to say, whole grain porridge and our version of KFC, kuku porno and fries to follow a few hours later. The results of this is quite evident as research shows that more and more people in Africa are die from diseases relating to fast foods. The term Know Your Status in Africa has been used in reference to HIV/AIDS, but if we extend it to wanting to know our diabetes/coronary tract/obesity etc status, one would be surprised at the number of positive results. Ermm, Francis Muthaura is currently unavailable for comment, but we hope to track him soon.

Early child development is also taken a step back when many career or upper middle class moms abandon breastfeeding too early to take care of business or get that tender signed. Much kudos to Safaricom for trying to sort this out by providing space for their staff to breastfeed at work.

Over-commercialization
Do you realise how virtually every single thing/activity under the sun has been commercialized? From the second you wake up, somebody somewhere has decided through strategic marketing which alarm clock should wake you up, what weave that chips funga lying next to you should be wearing, the type of condoms that you encounter on the floor and what mobile network you should be on when texting your friend that there's a complete stranger in your bed. Those are just a mere two minutes of your life. Should I continue? OK, here's some more from the top of my head:

Sex has become a commodity and a marketing tool at once. Many of us now have jobs courtesy of contracting a Sexually Transmitted Degree. One can easily exchange it for progress up the social status. Sex is guaranteed to buy or sell anything, a new found revelation founded on Western culture. For the youth, its part of a "hip hype" activity, and just like dressing up, there has to be some swagger put to it. A recent survey (read it in last Thursday's Nation at pg14) shockingly revealed that many university students shunned the free government-supplied condoms due to their uninnovative packaging yet they proceeded to have unprotected sex. I don't need to add more, do I?


Education & Health are closely intertwined because they involve giving of public service as the main basis of being a player in this sector. Yet look at the number of sub-standard schools, universities and health facilities springing up in the country. Education is geared towards passing exams and not imparting knowledge and life skills. Doctors nowdays think the important thing is not the Socrates oath, but how many people can pay me consultancy fees today coz i wanna upgrade to the 2009 Range. Traditional Herbalists are not left behind as they play on our false perceptions about education and make posters of themselves in graduation gowns. Which university offers a course in traditional medicine? Show me.

Fanaticism is yet another victim to commercialization. Passtimes such as sport have been completely commandeered and the principles of capitalism transfused into its core pillars. That is why the level of satisfaction would vary when watching a Gor Mahia match then watching Manchester United players at a traning session. Quality. . .



Quality?

Yes, quality. Quality is another grey zone as we realise that somebody somewhere has already pre-determined for us what quality is supposed to be. And quality many a time is coincidentally anything whose market value exceeds the a different item of its type. That is why nobody has qualms about paying top dollar for exotic Indonesian coffee whose flavour is derived from the digestive system of a certain species of civet rats!! Yes, regurgitated coffee beans (Oh, dear, I really hope you took your dinner). And with the tag line of quality also comes exclusivity. Consumerism conceptually represents a bold (economic mostly, and sociological) move to "join the club" as it were. A more layman term would be "kutoa ushamba" in short. We all want to be modern, hip, cool, with it and with acceptable swag despite the economic repercussions.

Thus the broad result of this is a H.U.G.E clamour for upward mobility across the strata of all natural phenomena. Plants and animals want rights that are accorded at least to the basest of human beings. The poor want to be at least middle class. The middle class are tip toeing, looking beyond the walls of the B-list society. The rich want to be super mega rich. The super mega rich well, they want to be demi-gods. The latent energy towards upward mobility can both be a blessing and a curse. There is no way to escape or be immune to this phenomenon since consumerism has deeply entrenched itself to the economics of the entire world. How we deal with it is the catch.

Governments should thus come up with economic policies that tend to positively utilise this Latent Energy of Upward Mobility (LEUM, Copyright 2009, WP) to boost development rather than being an impediment to it. Kenya has failed to do this, for example, in its current (and all other previous) Budget. It has tackled consumerism from the wrong end thus the slashing of tax on cosmetics and mobile handsets will rerult in more made up people with phones yet they cant afford airtime. Safaricom meanwhile will be sending them spam texts about 'Lipua Milioni' or 'Kwachua Hard body', making them even more anxious. Rural electrification is also transforming the bunduz to centres of consumerism. . .

Indeed, ignoring to cater to LEUM is disastrous in the long run. People divert their desire to what I'd call negative responses to LEUM. Last year, kidnappings in Kenya was only seen in movies. Now, they are almost a weekly affair in Nairobi. I've also been made to understand that the porn industry here is budding what with the reduced tax on filming equipment. More and more jobless smart alecs come up with massive currency forgery extortion and pyramid schemes to "get there". White collar crime is also plummeting.

As I have always said, these are signs of an economy keen to be rejuvenated or else the aggregate feeling would rise from desperation to bitterness, paving way for Ultra negative responses to LEUM manifested by serial killings, terrorism and general anarchy among society's elements.

What should be done is not to fight consumerism but use it to spur growth by creating opportunities for those down to legitimately move up while curbing unfair practice among the upper classes so that they can do something more productive than Madoff -like waiting for Jesus or something lol!

"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen and I'll tell you where to get good food that fattens up the soul." - Isaiah 55:3