Image is everything

He speaks of Iran’s nouveau riche, the emergent sector of society that spent vulgar amounts of money for the sole purpose of displaying the fact that they possessed vulgar amounts of money to spend.

The sons and daughters of beggars and domestic workers, these exhibitionists sought desperately to escape the cumbrous legacy of once having been poor. Class consciousness, subconscious feelings of inadequacy and the terrible knowledge of their country’s low standing in the grand scheme of things motivated every venture undertaken.

The malaise was not restricted solely to individual members. It infected the entire business class, the school system, even the Pahlavi dynasty of the Shah itself. Obsessed with the desire to prove itself to and to be accepted by the perceivably superior West, excessive imitation occurred.

Rampant construction centred on symbolism without substance took place. Factories were established catering to myriad needs. Boasts about the number of jobs created by these new projects failed to disclose that most of these jobs existed at the menial or semi-skilled level; the fat cat management positions went to foreigners.

Hand in hand with this was gross traffic congestion, the result of a double pronged impetus. Cars were seen as a necessity, an evolutionary fact of all modern societies.

This was added to the fact that most of the construction took place in the same area and the need for employment brought people to the cities in droves.

The attendant overpopulation was perceived as a necessary nuisance, a sign that the pursuit of development and Westernisation was meeting with success.

The cost of housing was ludicrous; landlords made exorbitant profits and were left unchecked by proper authority. One Iranian described his people as "ignorant and West-mad."

Naipaul himself summarises, "National grandeur roots itself in a crass materialism: the sick West rushes in to fill the Iranian vacuum."

If any of this sounds familiar, that is because it should. The self-dissatisfaction and its obsequious, ostentatious results hit disturbingly close to home.

Afflicted with the same sense of inadequacy, Trinidad is rushing headlong into a modernity we are barely ready for. An Iranian economist Naipaul interviewed lamented that his people were running before they had learned how to walk. We have done one step better. We’re driving before we’ve learnt to creep.

Our own nouveau riche cannot be denied. Mercedes Benzes, Audis, BMWs and even the occasional Jaguars wend their way through the streets. A glimpse through the almost opaque windows reveals drivers of startling youngness.

These are not the typical purchasers of such luxury vehicles, businessmen who chose to reward themselves during their mid lives. These are university age students whose concept of sacrifice is out of synch with that of the proletariat.

A few years ago, one of the preferred customers of a company I worked for asked that his daughter be allowed to spend some weeks with the company, to get a feel for the world of commerce. She had expressed a desire to be a businesswoman and her father had purchased a building for her to start off her venture. An agreement was reached — of course — and the girl — one must say girl, she could not have been more than 20 — arrived the next day, dressed to the nines and impeccably, if a bit unnecessarily, made up.

Thirty minutes later her driver returned for her and we never saw her again. She was affronted by the fact that she had had to wait for the manager, who was to attend to her training, to finish a meeting to speak to her.

Construction, development and modernity, that unholy Trinity we pay homage to, continues to gorge vast amounts of our real estate, our environment, with little inquiry as to how prepared we are to treat with the aftereffects.

The construction of an $850M sporting complex has been announced. Some concern has been raised but if it is not built it will not be for that reason. A TT$850m sporting complex here, a TT$1b airport there.

A society that has gone West mad — the irony that we ourselves are located in the West does not escape.

The encouragement to buy is seductive. Buy one get half off, nothing down, no interest, on sale the bright colours and emotive punctuation scream.

This is not seduction of the consumer, this is rape. But rape is the wrong word since it connotes reluctance, an unwillingness, while the average consumer ambles happily towards his debt. In the race to obtain there is no time for introspection. For us, image is everything.

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