This week’s “Poke Me”, invites your comments on Why India needs more five star culture, not less. The feature will be reproduced on the edit page of the Saturday edition of the newspaper with a pick of readers’ best comments. So be poked and fire in your comments to us right away. Comments reproduced in the paper will be the ones that support or oppose the views expressed here intelligently. Feel free to add reference links etc. in support of your comments.
Nidhi Nath Srinivas
Admit it, we all want to welcome the Gordon Gekkos, those high-rollers of the financial world, but don’t know how.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is meeting leaders of other BRIC nations in Durban this week on how to boost trade and investment. What won’t be discussed are ways to blow the average billionaire’s mind.
Investors who visit India see us from the prism of the five-star hotels in which they stay. They can’t survive in an austere, puritanical or aesthetically dry environment. It’s true if you start to find that kind of luxury as a normal thing, you don’t belong in the real world. But it is also their “sanity test’ for any economy. Bankers in their Berlutti shoes and Cartier watches want to stay in Four Seasons whether it is Delhi, Dubai, Mumbai or Shanghai. If we want their money, we have to pass the test.
The so-called “five-star culture” with its uber-expensive hotels, spas, restaurants, and travel destinations does for the economy what lipstick does for women – signify good health and vitality.
So what’s stopping us? Things good for the economy are often those that play hell with our moral fibre. Take the stock market. CNN Money’s Fear and Greed Index shows extreme greed is driving the game on Wall Street. That’s a deadly sin. The endless cycle of hope, greed, panic and despair that churns the market turns perfectly rational ordinary people into nervous wrecks or clones of Gordon Gekko. When you’ve had money and lost it, it can be much worse than never having had it at all.
Yet this greed makes the economy rich. The rising Sensex tells the world (and us) that all is well with India. Money itself isn’t made or lost; it is transferred from one perception of India to another.
Just as corruption, another form of greed, oils the widgets of a malfunctioning bureaucracy. Corruption destroys the fibre of honesty and trust that bind us to each other. Yet this creature of darkness performs a useful economic function.
Indeed, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s ex-Prime Minister who has faced dozens of criminal charges and probes since entering politics in 1994, provocatively declared, “Bribes are not a crime”. We have our many little Berlusconis, in public institutions, the government, and local administrations. In the words of Gordon Gekko, the main thing about money is that it makes you do things you don’t want to do.
If greed leaves us caught between individual morality and economic good, what about lust? The word ‘luxury” comes from Latin luxuria, which means lust or intense desire. And who doesn’t know the feeling. Lusting for the Lamborghini Superleggera because your neighbour drives the Jaguar XJ Ultimate can be as intense as the craving for money, power or fame. In Dante’s Inferno, unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self-control to their lustful passions in earthly life.
The question is how to resolve this dilemma between preserving moral values and economic gains. Some governments have found the answer. Singapore has hardly any night life. Yet Singapore’s two multi-billion-dollar casinos – Genting Singapore Plc and Las Vegas Sands Corp – are among the most lucrative in the world, with profit margins as high as 50%. Both are part of what Singapore calls integrated resorts, connected to shopping and entertainment centres that pad the gaming profits. But they are mainly for high-rollers from China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Local citizens must pay a levy to enter the casino, part of Singapore’s effort to curb problem gambling.
For most Western tourists, the UAE is instantly familiar with its modern malls filled with imported goods. But there is also a legal requirement to have a license to buy alcohol in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Ajman. Sharjah is completely dry. The alcohol license is proof that the bearer is a non-Muslim. A passport will not suffice. However, you can purchase alcohol duty-free at the airport to bring into the UAE.
It is time India joined this mind game. What we need now is not less of the five-star culture but more. By all means let our policies encourage Indians to abide by the age-old principle of simple living and high thinking. But in our metros, this isn’t the time to be squeamish. The economy may be looking bleak, but Delhi and Mumbai have to be resolute in their bid to herd luxury travellers their way. These cities need swanky water front plazas, world-class boutique hotels and high-end restaurants to lure wealthy foreign and domestic investors.
Creating a few glamorous hot spots while the rest of country languishes seems like political hara-kiri until we realize they are just another weapon in the global battle for investment. Our emperors and kings showcased India through their splendid capitals that were buzzing hubs of sophisticated art, culture and luxury. It was the eye-popping Mughal durbar that lured the British, the French and the Portugese.
Ultimately, we need to learn from the peacock, our national bird. Sure, the peacock’s tail appears wasteful because it makes the peacock more vulnerable to predators. But peahens choose the most gorgeous male because the tail’s extravagance is a walking billboard advertising health and status. How is that for nifty signaling?
Poke Me: Why India needs more five star culture, not less
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét