News in today's papers that the UAE has a Dhs 20 billion credit card debt is just another indication of how deeply recession has sunken its talons into this country, as much as the rest of the world. What's more 8-10% of those debts, according to news sources could be distressed or delinquent, meaning recovery was going to be difficult, if not impossible....financial experts say that this was only bound to happen, given the slowing down of the economy, the job losses, the global downturn in property and real estate etc. Dubai, much more than the rest of the developing world perhaps, has always been lured by the credit card trap.....people living economically at much higher standards than they could afford to to keep up with the Jones' are more the rule than the exception.....shopping and retail therapy are the national pastime and living the hi-life is most definitely perceived as the thing to do. How important it is, you realise in times like these, to simply have been brought up to live within your means. I remember as a child growing up in Chennai, when my sister and I made demands of our parents for a new school bag mid-year or for that new walkie-talkie doll, my father, a hard-working sales professional, the epitome of frugal living, who puttered around on a maroon-coloured Java Motorcycle (a gift his father had given him when he graduated!) - actually sat us down and pulled out his wallet. He taught us then a lesson in economics - "Here is how much I earn, and this is how much we now need to run the house after school fees, household expenses, etc....now tell me how I can afford to get you that?" - which we have never forgotten! It was not even as though we were old enough to understand the financial situation - I would say, not really, being around 9 and 7 respectively......but we did get the gist of what he was trying to say, and believe me, we've never even tried to live beyond our means since that day.....fast forward 21st Century logic and ideas - where only the best will ever do. There's colleagues and friends who tout the best Prada handbag, those "wonderful" Milano Blaniks, that "fabulous" Channel bag which they absolutely "Must Have", and the Ballanciaga, which "goes so well with my clothes!" What is with us and this obsession for all things branded? Wouldn't a more ordinary handbag priced at less than Dhs. 100 do just as well? Why would one need about 10 handbags, when it is actually only possible to carry one at a time anyway......what are we really trying to prove by constantly surrounding ourselves with all things bling and designer? Are they a kind of panacea for unrequited family and work fulfilment, or some other way of assuaging the loneliness we feel all around us? One wonders....and definitely with every passing day on the planet, when you see more and more extravagance all around, you can't help stop, pause and ask yourself,"Where will it all end?"
Perhaps that end is coming sooner than we all think - already a walk around Dubai's many malls, at one time filled to distraction with heaving masses of humanity, all trying to fall over each other in a bid to pick up the best bargains - seem to have dwindled down to a mere trickle....where people used to crowd for taxis for as much as two hours, today it is the taxis that wait anxiously in long lines, wondering if they can fulfil their daily target of Dhs. 400 which they need to hand over to Dubai Taxi every evening......and despite the many SALE signs that try siren-like to entice people into stores and plazas, it's true they've all seen brighter, better days as well......
To get back to that debate though, is plastic really fantastic? Are we really a nation enslaved by those little cards that give us a false sense of our own economic freedom and powers? Like with all kinds of Power, it corrupts absolutely.....so beware those who have not yet gotten into the Credit Card noose - there is no extricating yourself from this one easily! What's probably worse in the UAE is the rate of interest for defaulting on timely payments can easily reach 100% - and very soon, people don't seem to have any choice but to abscond from their lives and the only reality they know!
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