It is obviously clear that fear and concerns about Kuwait’s financial and economic deterioration have not yet reached many Kuwaitis – probably the majority of Kuwaitis! We have become dominated by the spirit of consumption. We are living over-luxurious lives and have become eager for more, demanding more than we ever give and take more than we ever need.

Our houses are more like small palaces lined with marble and alabaster. We step on the most luxurious and expensive carpets, we sleep in kings’ beds, we sit on couches covered with silk and some are decorated with gold. Each house has a long convoy of vehicles on its doorsteps. We even allocate certain ones for various tasks, like having one for the chalet, one for the farm, one for the madam, one for the master of the house and the rest for the beloved children including boys and girls. We even allocate one for the diver, which he uses to visit the co-op to bring back and load the house’s fridges and freezers with many of the goods sold there before we throw away much of these for expiring before we can even use them.

Many households are competing in the number of housemaids and domestic helpers, which reminds me of one I know that has nine men and women, while family members are only six! We wear the most luxurious attires and the most expensive perfumes. We burn thousands of dinars worth of incense and bakhoor than soon vanish into thin air and never last.

Because of such alarming extravagant life patterns, we started to look down on others and evaluate people according to how much they own, as if barely living and having enough to lead moderate lives is a disgrace. Those less off are looking up to wealthy people and millionaires and trying to imitate them in their houses, vehicles, nutrition and beverages, so that they can be viewed as equals, because they know that the society’s impression about people is limited to appearances, where they live, how their houses look, what type of vehicles they use and so on.

I have not been exaggerating in this article and most of what I said is true and from real life firsthand experiences. These dreadful facts have existed for decades, not years, and more than one generation grew up to such wasteful values. I am not writing to change facts, but rather to describe them so that future generations, who will curse us and accuse us of robbing them, can read about it. – Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Anbaa

By Saleh Al-Shayeji