Don’t be fooled by the gloss, this season is a dross!

by Valentine Marc Nkwame

Arusha’s most expensive times are here again, which means that, all the local: Uncle scoorages, Uncle Ebeneezers and other types of self-made misers, should now be hitch hiking their way out of town.

Yes! And while at that, they must also never dare come back until maybe, sometimes in mid January, next year - God Willing ... Or Something.

Normally, when November comes, the local shopping lights of Arusha turn red, signalling that, from this time until January, money spending is strictly reserved to those with bank balances equivalent to that one of the new Governor of California.

Now, this is the last week of October, soon it will be November, then all hell is bound to break loose, as far as shopping activities are concerned.

First, the Christmas, Eid and New Year "Sale" signs will be going up, along with the annual, multi coloured balloons, plastic mistletoes and Jim Reeves songs.

Just don’t be naive enough to be fooled by the gloss, the entire set up is usually nothing but a well arranged dross!

"Sale" here actually means that, the usual prices have just gone up a hundred times. Traders here love to hike up commodity prices knowing that, when the end of year holiday season settles, the number of gullible shoppers always multiply .... A hundred times!

Advanced technology, the Internet and increased travel have done very little to change people’s minds about waiting until Christmas, in order to do their shopping.

In fact, they have done even less, to teach local business fellows, that hiking up prices just because people here are still old fashioned enough to buy shoes for the new year, is actually an acute case of rip off .... Which happens to be a modern term for robbery.

Never mind, but if you had a few cents which you had intended to spend this season, just hold onto them until January, when everybody else including the shopkeepers, are broke .... Thus ready for bargain.

Mind you, if months were days, then January would definitely have been Monday, the first day of the week, long, cumbersome, dry and very blue.

November on the other hand, would have been Saturday, semi week-end, with plenty of wedding ceremonies, except that, this time it is confirmation ceremonies.

A Confirmation ceremony is when some teenagers get bundled into local churches forced to denounce the devil with all his deeds.

Then a feast of Sacrament is later shoved down their throats to mark the occasion. This usually consists of, "bread and wine" ... Now, imagine denouncing the devil, by guzzling down his drink!!

Anyway, it all happens in November, then goes onto December and these events usually claim thousands of feasts, new clothes - badly tuned brass bands and over-aged, human imports from the rural areas... Which explains why things become expensive around here at these times.

However, as it is normally the case, people never seem to notice these difficult times, because as we’ve just seen, these seasons are usually cleverly being wrapped up in make believe fanfares.

The glossy camouflage as I’ve said earlier, include; old tunes by the likes of Jim Reeves, Boney M, Skeeter Davis and other medieval crooners who were clever enough to capitalize on the alleged, "Season Spirit".

Then there are the multi-coloured balloons, some done by Pepsi, others by Coke, while the rest are just ... Eh ... multi-coloured balloons.

Then follows the ... Eh ... Multi coloured shopping bags, of course, they are all disposable, having been made from recycled paper ...But quite expensive money wise.

But the glossy cluster doesn’t end there. These are the times for mistletoes, however, unlike in the old days, live symbolical trees have since been replaced with plastic miniature ones.

Multi coloured "Christmas lights" in form of stringed electric bulbs, cream up the whole glossy affair and pantomime. All this pampering is simply to act as anaesthetic to numb our minds from the painful reality of useless expenditures.

This is the worst time to go shopping. Keep your cent tightly tied or better still, hibernate from town until next January .... Don’t worry! Nobody here knows what the words; Scrooge and Ebenezer means!

nkwame@eudoramail.com

Last modified: October 23, 2003.
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