AFFLUENZA - THE NEW DISEASE GRIPING BANGLADESH

Anoher Eid is around the corner in Bangladesh. Every year
(or 354 days to be more precise), everyone eagerly
anticipates the beginning of another Ramadan culminating in
the much awaited Eid, day of happiness. But along with that
anticipation comes a sinister disease, called "affluenza", a
term coined originally in the American TV programme with
same name that appeared on PBS on September 15, 1997, later
resulting in a book by the same name. In short, affluenza
is the disease of unbridled consumerism, I view it as a
disease when the end becomes "to buy" and the means is "
creating need", rather than the end being "meeting need"
and the means being "buying". A buying frenzy has gripped
Bangladesh, not that the frenzy does not exist during the
rest of the year. Bangladesh has become an unabashedly
consumerist society, not much different in quality from
consumerist US, if not in quantity. In both the nations,
not having or valuing its rich cultural heritage and its
past, feeling a vacuum inside, that results from a lack of
connection to its past, most seek meaning in satisfying an
ever increasing thirst to acquire more goods. European
nations and India, both having a sense continuity with its
rich cultural heritage and past, that they prize and preserve,
succumbed much less to the urge for unbridled consumerism
and materialistic pursuits. In bangladesh, we see a
relentless rat race to just to keep up with others, an
insatiable urge to excel others, to show off, or just to
feel good and boost one's self- esteem through acquiring
more goods, or reacting to sudden wealth syndrome by
engaging in a buying spree, not knowing what to do with
newly acquired wealth.

Whether or not one believes in religion literally, the
underlying message of Ramadan, namely, the virtue of
temperance, moderation and continence and the vice of greed,
is a universally appreciated and a deeply rooted human
value that crossees the boundary of race, color, time and
relgion. The book of proverbs in Bible, says: "Give me
neither poverty, neither riches, but only enough". David
Shi, author of "The Simple Life" says that simplicity is an
ancient, even primordial ideal. The Greeks spoke of a
middle way, that midpoint between luxury and deprivation.
Even Aristotle warned against acquring more goods than they
can possibly use, about the law of diminshing utility of
money, as pointed out by philosopher Jerome Segal in his
book "Graceful simplicity". The Greek stoics and the
cynics were against materialism. The Roman philosopher
Senecca, said "A thatched roof once covered free men; under
marble and gold dwells slavery". Quran also reminds people
of the futility of pursuing material wealth. Ancient Hindu
scriptures also imbibed its readers with messages of
continence, the ills of material pursuit, as did Buddha.

British historian Arnold Toynbee Summarized after studying
the rise and fall of 22 different civilization: "The measure
of a civilization's growth is its ability to shift energy
and attention from the material side to the spiritual and
aesthetic and cultural and artistic side"

In US during the 19th century, already there were movements
against the new consumerism generated by industrial
development. There was the transcendentalist movement by
Ralph Walso Emerson, Henry David Thoreua and others, and
the movement of the Puritans and the Quakers, all of whom
advocated and glorified the value of simplicity and
frugality in life.

"Frugality, my dear, must be our refuge, said sixth
president of US, John Adams to his wife Abigail during the
American revolution.

Teddy Roosevelt also warned of unregulated capitalism
during the roaring 20's. Harry Truman once said on TV "Buy
only what you need and cannot do without" during the
economoic boom of the 50's

John Kenneh Galbraith in "The affluent society" says: "A
growing economy fulfills the need it itself created. There
vis no real imporvemnt in happiness".

Robert Kennedy said in his election speech in 1968: "We
will find neither purpose nor personal satisfaction in a
mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless
amassing of worldy goods...The national product includes
the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Alke
Superior"

Jimmy Carter challenged Amercian dream in his famous
"national malaise" speech of 1979 "Too many of us now tend
to worship self-indulgence and consumption", which was
partly responsible for his downfall a year later.

How relevant those messages above are to the Bangladesh
society today. !

Of course in US, the age of Affluenza had really begun with
vengeance after Ronald Reagan came to power with the fall of
Carter. Tragically the US consumerism also helped to bring
about the same in Bangladesh and many third world countries
like a contagious disease.

What we are seeing in this month of the spirit of
temperance, is just the contrary, a spirit of extravagance.
It seems the main message of Ramadan has been conveniently
reinterpreted. It is a mockery of the spirit of Ramadan to
engage in such a buying spree. Fasting in a puritanically,
paying strict attention to the exact time in minutes when
to start and when to end it, but engaging in extravagant
feasts and shopping at the same time, is completely in
contradiction. Those flashy lights in brand new shopping
malls crowded with frenzied shoppers makes a mockery of the
spirit of this month. Rather it would have seemed to make
more sense to have put a brake in this frenzy that goes on
the rest of the year anyway, during this month. The "Buy
nothing day", started in Vancouver, Canada in 1992 by Kalle
Lasn can be a good symbolic thing to emulate. Many
countries are observing it. We can observe it, maybe as a "
Buy nothing" week, or month even, considering the excesses
that have been committed already. Or may be we can also
have "uncommercials" like Kalle Lasn puts up on TV, which
aims to undo the damage that the TV ads do to promote
consumerism. "Over-consumption is the mother of all of our
environmental problems", Kalle Lasn says.

Of course Eid is a happy occasion for kids and the needy.
But there can be less gaudy way to bring happiness to kids
and the less fortunate.

Consumerism is a socially sanctioned addiction. Drinking is
looked down with horrendous disgust. But addiction of
buying is not. No one is a winner in a rat race. Its a race
like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, who keeps on
running just to stay in the same place. The consumers are
all running faster and faster, just to stay ahead or to
keep up with the Joneses (or the Khanses). No body is
gaining, but all are getting more exhausted, due to the
frantic race. Who is there to tell, slow down, all of you.
This is madness1. Everybody is eager to join this race, you
are a fuddy duddy if you don't join the race, or try to
slow it down. Programs like who wants to be a millionnaire,
or Kaun Banega Karorpati is not helping to cure this
Affluenza. We are now becoming a "gotta have it" culture,
the culture of keeping up with the Joneses. Buying to
compete, or buying for buying's sake. Impulse shopping is
the order of the day, where buying provides a fleeting
getaway from reality.

In USA, companies and banks make profit by driving people
into debt. The same is bound to happen, if not already in
Bangladesh, thanks to the burgeoning plastic culture and
buying on debt practice.

The need to buy more has driven Bangladesh to become the
most corrupt nation on earth. It is sad that principle and
honesty, which was once a golden virtue, respected, admired
and inculcated, is now a now an extinct vestige of the past,
not treasured, but ridiculed at. Many blame the corruption
on poverty. But Bangladesh had less per capita income before,
had more starvation before, when it was not the world's most
corrupt nation. Rather is more due to the unbridled
consumerism, which compels them to resort to corruption to
increase their purchasing power through ill-gotten money, to
comptete with others, that contributed to this unenviable
rank in corruption.

Frugality was a virtue once, now an idea scoffed at. The
urge to splurge continues to surge relentlessly.
Consumption now seems to have been synonimized with
progress.


There was a time, a typical wife would appreciate an
honest husband, settling for less purchasing power, thus
less material happinsess, but now even a typical wife is
more likely to prefer a husband who can bring more
purchasing power, by whatever means, shady or honest,
values don't matter. Even the kids now look down on
fathers who lacks in purchasing power because he refuses
to succumb to the rat race or to take the shady path of
acquiring money. This attitude shift in the family is
also a factor in driving more and more people to the path
of corruption, thus making the nation corrupt as a result.
This unbridled consumerism is not only destroying the sense
of humanity in all, but is also wreaking havoc on the
environment. The more consumers buy, the more the
production, the more damage to environment. All the new
luxury industrial products, are inevitablly accompanied by
hazardous waste products that is causing serious damage to
ecological balance and environment.

And it is not just religious books and ancient philosophers,
even Marx was distressed by the rise of consumerism and
overconsumption. What Marx had in mind is that the time
saved in cutting production time through Industrial
development should provide humans with more time to
improve their mind and devote it to social bonding. As
marx said:

"Wealth is liberty---Liberty to seek recreation, liberty
to enjoy life,liberty to imporve the mind: it is disposable
time and nothing more" (Marx, Capital III, p-954)


What instead happened is that greedy industrialists create
new needs in the mind of the consumers to keep the production
time same, produce more and make more money out of the
consumers. Consumers unwittingly become the accomplice in
this greed driven ploy of the industrialists. The greedy
industrialists and merchants are exploiting all manners of
psychological tactics to instill swollen expectations
among the consumers to keep up with the latest products.

Paradoxically, protagonists of the leftist ideology today
totally misunderstands the original concern of Marx about
the loss of spiritual (i.e nonmaterial values), values of
human through overproduction and consumption, and now they
interpret social justice as empowering the workers with
more purchase power, so they can be at par with the
affluents. Does that solve the problem of unbridled
consumerism? Rather it exacerbates it. The solution is not
inducting more members in the race of consumerism, even if
they may be the left out ones, but to put a brake in the
trend of overconsmuption itself, to slow down the race. If
the fast racers slow down, those left behind will
automatically be closer to them. Otherwise the affluenza
epidemic will not be gone. Once the underpriviledged gets
access to more purchasing power, they will be as voracious
a consumer as the affluent ones are now. As Marx himself
said:


"Increasing the purchasing power of workers would be
nothing more than a better renuneration of slaves and
would not restore, either to the worker or to the work,
their human siginificance and worth" (From p-107,
"Marx's Concept of Man" - Erich Fromm).


Instead, the virtue of working more, so that more goods can
be acquired is being instilled, leaving no time for leisure
and social bonding. This is not dignity of labor, rather
indignity. In a planned obsolescence, as it is called,
products are made to last shorter or continually upgraded,
so consumers will be propmted to buy more frequently. We
are also pawns in the hand of the advertizers, through TV
and other more improved advertizing media, being inspired
to buy more. Childen are also being targeted.

Parents are so busy acquring more money to satisfy the
thirst for buying more goods, that less time is spent with
kids for close personal relationship. Kids spend their time
clicking on remotes or electronic games and other new
fangled gadgets. Kids are more eager to get more gadgets
than to listen to stories that may increase their knowledge
or moral character. The parents are feeding into this
mindset of children by pandering to their new tastes and
shaping them as well. This is not a healthy trend.

In US, there is a growing alarm among sensible folks at
the unabashed rise of consumerism. In US, there is CCCS
(Consumer Credit Counselling Services) to help affluenza
victims. What will it be in Bangladesh?

In US, there is the idea of Voluntary simplicty movement,
based on the book by the same name by Duane Elgin. Based on
that idea, Cecile Andrews has launched the Seeds of
Simplicity, a national organization, holding workshops and
seminars to instill among public the virtue of simplicity.
There are many local workshops and discussion groups
emphasizing the need to cure affluenza, to bring back the
ideas of 19th century America when there was more respect
for thrift than for spendthrift, when consumption meant
laying waste, pilllging and consumer had a negative
connotation. The old transcedentalists are reappearing in
new garbs. Inspite of the rank consumerism that dominnates
American society, there are also inspiring stories that
should be inspiring to Bangladeshis as well. Here are a few
inspiring stories:


1. Dick and Jeannie Roy: Dick Roy was a corporate Attorney,
with an offcie on the 32nd Floor. His wife was s trong
environmentalist and a believer in frugality. She
inspired him to leave his corporate job and together
they devoted to saving the environemnt and educating
simplicity on life, establishing the Northwest Earth
Institute, which holds workshop and discussion groups on
conservation and environemnetal awareness.


2. Joe Dominguez was a stock broker in Wall Street, his
wife, an actress. Together they left their respective
career and turned to simple living, wrote the best seller
"Your money or your life".


3. Responsible Wealth Club: An organization of
millionnaires, who are commiitted to reinvest all their
further profits to the cause of the underpriviliedged, are
opposed to tax breaks for the rich. Members include such
celebrities as Singer Cher and actress Chritstine Lahti


Isn't it time that simliar groups and workshops appear in
Bangladesh as well, for concerned citizens to raise an awareness
against this disease? Isn't it time the state leaders in Bangladesh
to declare what Carter and Robert Kennedy so boldly told the US
public? Of course for that they have to set the example themselves
first! Affluenza was shown in many other countries. It created
awarness in countries like SriLanka, Thailand, Israel, even Burma
where activists in rural Northern region wanted to translate the
TV program in their local dialect Kachin! Isn't it time some TV
channles in Bangladesh showed this program, whatever small that
it can achieve to create this awareness? The TV channels in Bangladesh
shows so many shows of the west, and infect the viewers with the
virus with Affluenzza through its commercials and western mimicry
of consumerism. Isn't it time they also showed programs like
Affluenza, as a pennance?

- Aparthib