In Lebanon: A redefinition of what is middle class is due.

Fa - artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Middle class, a term frequently used but seldom understood here in Lebanon. I bet no Lebanese has a solid understanding of social stratification and its difficult nuances. Has anyone heard of Max Weber? I think not. And even those who have heard of Karl Marx probably did so through some reference by Ziad Rahbani. If I say this is it because, without any doubt, what is "middle class" in Lebanon is surely eroding.

The current economic crisis has brought many to change their spending habits, their ability to show off which is primordial to the Lebanese m'as-tu-vu system (everything is based on keeping up with the Joneses), the penchant for bragging (or as a friend put it, "I knew that restaurant was dead when my aunt stopped doing her children's birthdays in it"), the hype system (which makes a shop like Zara become high end or an eatery like Paul which is basically something you find in the French metro a proper exclusive restaurant), and the lowest-common-denominator comparisons (Marmaris in Turkey becomes a coveted destination). 

But now all this is gone. The new system is still being built. Surely political powers still hold sway on the populace, but even that is shifting and morphing. Even Zara itself has climbed the echelons to bypass the middle class at this stage. The proliferation of cash economy and pay on delivery as well as second-hand buying are but signifiers of how symbols of what constitutes middle class is changing.

One of the easiest signals to detect as house helps - many were left to their own devices at embassy doors, others quit outright because they were no longer being properly paid (due to the absence of Dollars in the Lebanese market), and economists who say that foreign workers are siphoning Dollars from the economy to their home countries seem unaware that - class restrictions withstanding - local women (even if unemployed and in dire need of money) would not accept to work in houses to replace helps coming from Ethiopia or other nations.

I recently told the story of how at a fancy store, many people would come in ask about the maamoul prices that tripled since last year (maamoul being the traditional Easter cookie) and leave without buying. Without having solid statistics, I can however tell you the cases of many supposedly middle class houses who bypassed maamoul buying this year under different guises - their mother has diabetes, "aslan ma 7ada 3am yeje" (to begin with no one is visiting), am on a diet - but truth be told, it all goes back to: The prices are exorbitant and better spent elsewhere.

A doctor I know, fresh from visiting her husband who works in an Arab country, told me she brought an extra bag filled with powdered milk and other such items for her kids considering how expensive - if at all found - they have become in the Lebanese market. 

Tailors and cobblers are making excellent business, suddenly everyone is waking up to having things that need repairing, because it is much cheaper than buying new items since the throwaway culture had taken hold of Lebanon. And again, what was something that took no time (changing a zipper replacing buttons) is now taking days at repair shops.

I am not saying all this with a negative mindset, on the contrary, a change had to happen and sadly it came about due to the wrong reasons. Still, a redefinition of what is middle class is due in Lebanon.

What Nescafe Gold says about Lebanon

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly as part of the "History of Lebanon" project

Nescafe Gold is missing from Lebanese market.

Nothing alarming, just another product to add to the list.

Panadol is missing from Lebanese market.

Nothing alarming, just another product to add to the list.

As per Executive Magazine:

"Since the start of 2020, the poverty rate has increased in Lebanon to an extent where the middle class is practically dissolving, and the lower class has been pushed further into poverty. According to Khalid Abu-Ismail, a Senior Economist at UN-ESCWA, and Vladimir Hlasny, an economic affairs officer at the UN-ESCWA, the moderate poverty head count in Lebanon is projected to have nearly doubled, and extreme poverty, to have tripled. According to the authors, to close the extreme poverty gap, would only require the richest 10% of the Lebanese to levy around 1% of their total assets toward a solidary fund."

The social solidarity thingy is of no interest, we all know it will not happen. A friend of mine who recently started working with an NGO was amazed, "Tarek, no one talks to anyone in these organizations, I though other organizations would share data with me, or would give me pointers. They seem me as a competition and a threat!" - and that is NGOs.

But to go back to Nescafe Gold, one of my very few indulgences I kept. Well, no more. I am, by hook or by crook, one of the remnants of the Middle Class in Lebanon. Growing up, as a family, we always hovered in that category, sometimes falling to its bottom, sometimes rising up higher (anyone who wishes to dumb this down, C- to C+). As time passed, and with all three children having thriving careers, we certainly went to B in terms of socio-economic classification.

Getting my money stuck at the bank was not part of the plan.

On the outside, the façade did not crack. I still dress nice (well, within my style!), but now avoid indulging in new items hanging to a core closet of items after giving away many in successive collects (to poor people, to people hit by the explosion in Beirut and so on). Like everyone else, I spent most of this year indoors. Which helped using the clothes less and keeping them intact. 

I live in a two-storey detached house, but certainly did not anticipate to do the major chantier which imposed itself this summer (sewage, heater, tree which was causing structural problems to be cut down, etc....). But again, am still holding strong. Whereas unsurprisingly work dwindled enormously this year, I resorted to the other best option: Cut down on spending.

Apart from Nescafe Gold that is.

Scratch that.

Zarri3et Albi - the snobbish green thumb

Before you say I do not know what am talking about: I am an agriculture engineer. I know what I am talking about. And - I know top down snobbish behavior when I see it. Heck, to the eyes of some am guilty of it - instead of using one of those useless masks, I wear an Hermes bandana! Which brings us back to the new Nadine Labaki initiative: Zarri3et Albi (زريعة_قلبي). Look, when I was active in engineering, my specialty was economics and development. You cannot lecture people from afar - you need to go, mingle, talk to them (in my case I was picked up by the Land Rover of a militia for interviewing women one on one - mind you, the women did not mind, on the contrary they were extroverted and communicative, but the militia did!). You cannot just do a song, a video and pretend you already got the message across. Yeah, yeah, cool initiative and it so happens that Dior is dropping its collection with straw hats and cute overalls influenced by Monsieur Christian's sister who was obsessed with horticulture - what a stylish coincidence! Long story short: This is a real-life Kapernahum (pun intended).

Is it so wrong for the Lebanese to live within their means?

Before anyone jumps the gun and says I am insensitive to other people's plight, I am not. Actually one of the resolutions I did lately was to be less generous and altruistic. Here's my gripe: I see nothing wrong with the Lebanese living within their means. I know families who'd go out to restaurants weekly now content with house meals, children realizing food done at home is just as good as take away meals they used to order absent-mindedly, a family within my circle is trying to sell one of its two cars, and the list continues.... There is a reason why classification is called socio-economic: it is not your money, it is your social position too. I am/was an engineer/economist/consultant/university lecturer/multimedia artist etc... I grew up within the spectrum of middle class - at times on the upper margin, at others down below. But we always made do with what we have. Maybe it was the war where you were forced to get creative with little, maybe it was my parents' ethics of "want not, waste not" (all while providing us with things we desired within their means), maybe it is my own strict ethos of saving money (all while indulging myself - yet I think I own the least amount of "things" when compared to people my age).
All this is to say, as Lebanon faces the perfect storm of several elements (the least of which is the Coronavirus), financial expert Dan Azzi was on TV telling people to use their cars less. The rationale being that the less fuel we import the better we are economically as a country. I have been living without a car since 2000, and have never been late to any appointment. I rely on the ever efficient mix of public transport and (lately since am outside the highway) private taxis and I save money in the process.
Perhaps the time has come for the Lebanese to face facts and admit they were living in an inflated bubble. The bubble has burst. Now is the time to "make do and mend".
We need to adapt to a new economic order, the faster we do it the better it is.