Mona Abaza reflects on the social and architectural consequences of the victory of consumerism If we try to imagine what the cities of the Middle East will look like in 20 or 50 years time, we might predict that the majority will consist of creeping slums and rampant poverty, coexisting cheek by jowl with international hotels and large spaces dedicated to consumption and leisure time for those who can afford it. Disneyfied satellite cities in the desert will provide suburban annexes for the well-to-do. Modern communication systems and technologies, at least in the formal sector of the economy, will be as efficient as those of any Western country. Nor will this world be totally sealed off from the world beside it. Large-scale population mobility will be inevitable, as domestic workers, drivers, security staff, technicians, salesmen and women, waiters and other employees spend their lives commuting between the two. At a certain point, those living in the high-class areas will begin to feel threatened, and their spaces will have to be walled off to protect them from the would-be violent poor. Of course, things may turn out differently. But it is all too easy to imagine the evolution of cities like Cairo in these terms. For walled off, protected areas, gated communities, condominiums, private beach resorts, leisure islands of peace, snow cities in the desert and amusement parks, monitored by private security forces and advanced technology to protect them against the "barbarians" outside, are no longer just futuristic fantasies. They exist already, and many of them have recently been subject to sociological investigation. GULF GALORE: Another popular prediction is that as long as the Gulf countries continue to produce oil, the huge shopping malls and other sanitised areas where people can indulge in the uninterrupted pursuit of leisure and consumption will continue to multiply. The more one reads about urban planning in the Middle East, the more one goes over the projects that are currently lined up for us, the more one realises that in the minds of our financial tycoons and multinational corporations, the concept of "development" means one thing and one thing only: the expansion of consumerism through the building of new shopping areas, annexed to international hotels and tourist resorts. What about the productive sector, you may ask? But no one in charge of these projects seems to be the least bit bothered by this question. So we can only suppose that the entire working population will eventually have to become one huge undifferentiated mass, catering to the service sector. Take Dubai, for instance, the "Shopping Capital of the Middle East". This tiny state already boasts some 25 gigantic shopping centres. Recently, it announced the creation of the largest shopping centre in the world, controlled by the Majid Al- Futtaym group, for an investment of $850 million. Built on a 2.4 million square feet plot, the mall itself will cover over 6.5 million square feet. It will include 350 shops, a huge hypermarket, and the world's biggest ski resort, with real snow. The Majid Al-Futtaym group has already seen its retail and shopping centre activities grow at an amazing rate in recent years. The group entered the sector when it opened the largest mall in Dubai, Deira City. Meanwhile, the government-owned real estate giant Emaar has recently announced it will be building its own Dubai mega-mall. Forecasts predict over 35 million visitors in the first year. And then there is also the Mall of Arabia, which is part of a $5 billion project launched by the government, which will incorporate a giant entertainment centre, parks and museums. If you click on the advertisements of these three malls, each of them will assure you that theirs is sure to be the biggest in the world. So whichever turns out to be right, Dubai certainly seems set to be a record breaker in this specific area of human achievement. Dubai has also announced the construction of the world's tallest tower, which will be taller than both the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur (452 metres) and the Chicago Sears tower (442 metres). Why, I wonder, should national pride be so closely associated with the kind of Babylonian hubris which thrives on setting record-breaking altitudes? True, skyscrapers and towers are the preeminent symbol of "modern" architecture, and thus provide a means by which Dubai can assert its aspiration to qualify as a "modern" state. More specifically, however, I believe that Dubai and several other Gulf countries are trying to emulate in detail the success of the Southeast Asian states which they have taken as their models. Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohammad has boasted that he erected the longest shopping mall in Asia and the two tallest towers in the world. These empires of consumption are modern temples, glorifying the "nationalist" leaders who built them, while also aggressively promoting a more universal philosophy, which could be summed up in the phrase, "shop until you drop". Consumerism in the Arab world is by no means limited to Dubai, however: the phenomenon has become completely pervasive in the recent past. Whether we try and make it sound different, by calling it "Islamic consumerism", or treat it as just one more manifestation of general consumption, it is now an omnipresent and very powerful force in everyday life. It is changing our habits of eating, drinking, and dress. It has already changed our notions of beauty and our self--perception. And it plays a decisive role in determining our value judgments, as to what is good and bad taste, and what is classy, or on the contrary, baladi and bi'a. GREATER CAIRO: How can we read the consumer culture of a Third World city like Cairo? A leisure and consumer city that is mushrooming even as the huge slums alongside it continue to grow in their ever-expanding nightmare? In 2003, I did a survey of the shopping malls in Cairo: at that time, there were already 24 of these empires of consumption. Nor is this an isolated phenomenon. Rather, it has developed side-by-side with the proliferation of ever larger hyper- and super-markets. The most striking thing about these malls is how new they are: most were erected during the last two decades. The oldest mall in Cairo is the Yamama Centre in Zamalek, which was built in 1989. The Yamama Centre, with its nine floors, linked by dramatic escalators, stretching over an area of 4,000 square meters, was not just a revolution in shopping habits for the upper classes: it is also a symbol of the Saudi's financial presence in Cairo. Yet how can we explain this proliferation of consumer paradises, when we know that most of the businesses they house are not as successful as one might think, with a typical life span of only 18 to 24 months? While more than 20 per cent of Egyptians can reportedly afford to shop in malls, many of the most fancy malls have recently been described as deserted "ghost towns", more or less abandoned by consumers. Recession and the flotation of the Egyptian pound have been indicators of Egypt's growing economic plight. What chance then does gentrified Cairo stand of completing its transformation into one huge shopping mall surrounded by ever-more rampant slums? The lovers of the city of a thousand minarets have long been aware of the last decade's dramatic urban transformations which have led to the aggressive reshaping of the cityscape. The forces driving them are obvious: land speculation has led to slum clearance, to make way for high-rise buildings and hotels, towers, multiplexes, restaurants, and other leisure spaces. A forcible gentrification has been taking place, while urban poverty is simply concealed, not addressed. In today's Cairo, this process can be seen most drastically in two areas: the historical quarter of Boulaq, and the more recently constructed satellite area of Nasr City. BOULAQ OLD AND NEW: Boulaq was once famous for its old houses, its vanishing historical hamams and mosques, its beautiful belle époque European architecture, and the oldest and most famous printing house in Cairo, now also vanished. The neighbourhood is also well-known for its second-hand clothes markets, its car repair shops, the stalls selling cloth and fabrics, the metal markets, and the trade in secondhand army goods. All these traditional activities, however, have been slowly disappearing, and in their place has come a new kind of public space, implying a new lifestyle and a new way of behaving before others. While old Boulaq is vanishing, the Nile Corniche is steadily being conquered by an agglomeration of towers and skyscrapers hosting international hotels and consumption empires. Near the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre have been erected, while the Hilton has now been joined by the tower of the Conrad Hotel. A little further along stand the gigantic, futuristic-looking Nile City towers -- a $200 million project, which will include a 552-room international hotel, owned by the Fairmont chain, which is seeking to repeat the success of its project in Dubai. The Nile City complex includes a 24 floor tower with 100,000 square metres of office space and 11,000 square metres of retail space, restaurants and cinemas. A huge shopping mall will open there by 200. Just beyond these new constructions you will find the Arcadia Mall, which opened a few years ago, and whose multi-purpose design combining stylish shopping with leisure activities, arranged around terraces bedecked with exotic plants, has won its architects much admiration and praise. As old Boulaq vanishes, so a new Boulaq has been born out of its ashes. SHOPPING CITY: For those interested in consumerism in Egypt, the example of Nasr City raises many questions. This neighbourhood has seen a dramatic proliferation of shopping malls, which for some reason generally seem to do better business there than in other parts of town. Most of these malls opened in the late 1990s, and Nasr City now has the largest number of any neighbourhood, with a total of eight malls (if we include the Horreya Mall in nearby Heliopolis). Many attribute the success of these commercial centres to the simplistic grid environment of this comparatively new satellite city on the edge of the desert. Nasr City could be described as a geometrical arrangement of cement matchboxes, which line the longest streets in Cairo. This city has no heart, or rather, no centre; but this obvious flaw does not seem to bother anyone. As a result, the streets are wider and the size of the average flat is larger than elsewhere, while real estate is definitely cheaper than in such sought-after areas as Mohandessin or Zamalek. Moreover, the designers did think to include green spaces and parks, such as the International Garden ( Al-Hadiqa Al- Dawliya ). Yet, for most Cairenes, Nasr City is best known today for its endless variety of shops, leisure spaces, restaurants, cafés and cinemas. Often people say that the mall culture has been imported into Cairo from the US, via the oil-producing countries, since the mall is originally an American invention. Yet the route that has been taken is not indifferent to the end result. In Egypt, therefore, we have malls which combine the original concept with "Saudi Arabisation", and with Egyptian customs too. In particular, Egyptian returnees from Saudi Arabia have adopted the habit of spending their leisure-time shopping in closed, air- conditioned spaces, a practice they first indulged in to escape the harsh heat of the Arabian Peninsula. Indeed, during the summer, the Cairo malls are themselves heavily frequented by Arabs from the oil-producing countries. Women in long black robes are frequently to be seen enjoying a coffee, or even smoking a water pipe. The First Mall in Giza, considered to be one of the most expensive shopping places in Cairo, caters mainly to Arab customers. In another, even more implausible attempt to emulate Saudi Arabian and Gulf affluence, a "Snow City" has been constructed in Madinat Nasr at Ard Al-Maared (The Fair Grounds). Arabs from the Gulf countries seem to be infatuated with creating snow games and ice skating rinks in the middle of the burning desert. Thus the visitors to Cairo Snow City are happy to rent heavy winter clothes in the middle of July, so they can spend their afternoons skating and playing in a fantastic landscape, weaving between a wintry Eiffel Tower, the White House, the Kremlin, the Pyramids, and Abu Simbel -- all of them recreated out of ice. ARCHITECTURAL TRANSFORMATION: The malls of Madinat Nasr are certainly the largest and most spacious in town. In fact, many of the downtown, Shubra and Boulaq malls hardly qualify as malls at all. Shemla, an established old-style grand magasin, for example, has been transformed into a mall by the simple process of partitioning the main hall and cramming shops into every inch of space thus created, so that there is practically no room left for rest and recreation. The same mechanism has also been employed in the old Omar Effendi grand magasin in Abdel-Aziz Street near Abdin Square. The architecture and the decoration of the façades of the new malls are often marked by their attempt to emulate buildings seen elsewhere. Some of these influences may well have come from the Far East. The architecture of the Wonderland Mall evokes a Hollywood vision of the Orient -- a kitschy style, which its managers and shop owners refer to as tiraz Al- Sindibad (Sindbad style). The mall was originally meant to be an Egyptianised Disneyland, a "moll tarfihi", or "malahi" (Lunapark). Meanwhile, other façades, such as that of the Geneina Mall, with its transparent glass elevators, remind me of malls I've seen in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Jakarta. Surprisingly, perhaps, many of the malls are located close together. Most of their managers maintain that they are not in direct competition with one another: their clientele is very varied, and both goods and prices differ from one place to another. Tiba Mall, for instance, is a "family mall", catering explicitly to large families, whereas Geneina Mall, with its huge skating rink, bowling alley, billiards centre and computer games, sets out to attract a younger generation. The Serag Mall is the largest mall in Egypt, covering over 14,000 square metres. Yet though similar in size to the Geneina Mall in Nasr City, which at 12,000 square metres is the next largest, is not conceived as a direct competitor. The Serag Mall is designed as three distinct complexes, joined together by passageways so that each complex has its own relatively small atrium. The Geneina Mall, on the other hand, puts its space to work by incorporating a huge ice-rink, as well as parking space for 800 cars. Both the Serag and the Geneina, like several other malls, also include residential units above the main shopping area. In most cases, malls rent their retail spaces out to individual shops. The rent can differ widely from one mall to another: a baladi mall cannot charge as much as its more upmarket brethren. Business success also counts a lot: thus the World Trade Centre mall is today virtually a ghost mall, and rents have fallen in the hope of attracting new entrepreneurs in. The First Mall, on the other hand, which is part of the Four Seasons complex in Giza, is now easily one of the poshest places in town, with top-end rental rates to match. With the economic recession, it is clear that people's purchasing power has been considerably reduced in recent years. However, people go to malls not only to buy things, but also to window shop, which they can do for free. These new spaces offer a wide range of attractive ways to spend one's time: you can stroll in the cool air in the hot summers, walk up and down the escalators, and wander aimlessly around with groups of friends. You can even eat a sandwich of fuul or chicken. The Talaat Harb mall, for instance, owes much of its late night success to the mix of food stalls in its atrium, ranging from fast food chains to foul and falafel from Al-Tabe'i. As a result, it is often crammed with people, even if most of the shops are still not able to sell them anything. A NEW SPACE FOR YOUTH: Given the shortage of public gardens in Cairo, the newly built malls also perform an important function by offering young people an opportunity to socialise and mix in groups. The government has recently sought to encourage the construction of public gardens, but to the general disappointment of Cairenes, these green spaces are all fenced off and out of bounds to the public, on the pretext that Egyptians don't know how to behave and will inevitably defile them with industrial quantities of litter. As a result, shopping malls now represent a privileged new space for the study of youth culture in Cairo. In a country where two thirds of the population is under 30, youth and youth culture are now dramatically visible. That malls are gendered spaces is a recurrent theme in consumer studies. But there is still much room for research on the way in which malls offer social mobility, as well as access to cash, for young lower-class saleswomen, by diffusing an image of the "modern", presentable and fashionable salesperson. One of the most intense moments in any Cairene mall is the first day of the Eid (the feast after breaking the fast). Everyone should take a midnight stroll through the downtown Talaat Harb Mall to see how many people gather there, and feel the vigour of the lively ambiance. Thursdays and feast days are marked by flocks of young men, mostly from poor quarters, who arrive in gangs to stroll around the Downtown area. On such occasions, Downtown is transformed into an overwhelmingly male environment. This neighbourhood may still be best known for its old- fashioned cinemas and coffee houses, but the Talaat Harb Mall which remains open until after midnight has become a pivotal meeting place for young people, who spend their evenings mounting the spirals that take them up the seven floors of the mall, then walking back down again. Usually the mall is so full that security has to regulate the passage of pedestrians and watch that no one is pushed or harassed. Yet, despite their efforts, on these crowded nights sexual harassment is routine. Any casual observer will notice that the last thing on the minds of most of the people there is actually buying goods. Arguably, it is these new public spaces which are now the major social outlets for a new generation of young Cairenes. They offer clean spaces where youth can socialise, or even just simply move unimpeded by motor traffic. These young men and women may still originate from the ' ashwaiyat (slums, unplanned, scattered areas), but once they arrive in these self- contained, exclusive spaces, they enter a world of simulated social promotion. Here, they feel as though they can participate in a better world, even if in most cases that participation goes no further than window shopping. Mona Abaza is associate professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo. Last week, Laila Saada was incorrectly identified as an Arab American. She is in fact an Egyptian.
