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Charging
and begging cultures
Posted By Dr. Sahib M Bleher
Money talks, and in money terms it is possible to look at
the divide between West and East as a difference of the
charging and the begging culture. It does not matter where you
go in the global village, people will always be after your
money. But the way they extract payment from you differs
greatly. In the West they will exploit your needs and charge
or tax you every step of the way. In the East they will
exploit your compassion and pester you until you part with
some cash.
The divide goes deep and shapes attitudes. In the East there
is a service culture, which is why people from the West will
go on holiday to Asia or Africa. People are trying to be
overtly helpful in order to be tipped. In the West, on the
other hand, people won't bother with being too helpful, since
you are going to pay anyway, and after-sales customer service,
unless separately paid for, has completely gone out of
fashion.
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Western advertising is all about creating demand. "Low
cost" carriers like Ryanair, for example, will try and
lure you to fly to exotic locations for under ten pounds. Once
you are hooked they will add airport taxes, fuel surcharge,
luggage surcharge, payment surcharge (indeed: you are charged
for making payment by credit or debit card which are the only
payment options on offer), and your cheap trip ends up costing
more like a hundred pounds. If you end up getting thirsty or
hungry enroute, you will have to fork out some extra money
again. If you complain about delays or bad service, on the
other hand, you just about get an acknowledgment letter.
Once you arrive, however, there is a total sea change:
suddenly everybody is offering their helpful services free of
charge in the hope that you will feel obliged to pay them
later. If you don't, they know how to make you feel bad about
it. How could you possibly take advantage of their generosity
without matching it with your own. Outside the mosques, at
congregational prayer times, vendors and beggars will gather,
not to pray but in the hope that those who did will part with
some spare change after having just begged God to grant their
prayers. In a way, this is also market forces at work: large
gatherings attract those who want to sell their wares or
appeal to your kindness.
Human nature on the whole does not differ too much wherever
you go. The ways it expresses itself, however, do. Many
tourists to so-called developing countries stay in the cocoon
of Western hotels and restaurants, fearing too close a contact
with the local populace who might "rob" them. This
same fear, too, keeps them willing victims of their own
governments and large corporations who extract ever larger tax
contributions and charges from them. When it comes down to
having a choice it is probably wiser to prefer the beggar over
the charger. Persistent as a beggar might be, it is much
easier to ignore him than to ignore, for example, the taxman,
and if inclined to be generous, the beggar is usually also
happy with taking a lot less of your hard earned money.
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