Conspicuous Consumption in Katara

For this active blog, I went on a short trip to the cultural village we all know as Katara. Perhaps the most intriguing question one could ask regarding Katara is the following: Why is Katara considered one of the most popular places to hang out in Doha? This is the question I was bent on answering during my visit.

I drove over to what is probably the most well-known karak shop in Doha, Karak and Chapatti, which is approximately at the center of Katara. It is approximately at the Karak shop where you can pay 15 QR to have value parking, which people use if they cannot find any available parks or perhaps as a public display of wealth. As I was waiting for my order of sweet Chapattis and Karak, which costs around QR 7, over double the typical market price. I looked around me at the groups of people in their cars, some of whom were waiting for their orders just as I was, and others who were enjoying their freshly made Chapattis. What caught my attention immediately was that a large proportion of the total cars around had special plate numbers, and everyone knows that plate numbers are a big thing right now in Doha. A 4-digit plate number could easily sell for QR 100,000(equivalent to USD 36,500). I parked my car and went deeper inside the cultural village. Some of the restaurants that are available include Sukkar Basha, a fancy Lebanese restaurant, Saffron, an exquisite Indian restaurant, and El Wzaar, my all-time favorite seafood restaurant. All restaurants mentioned previously, including the ones that weren’t, are known to be luxurious dine-ins that offer top-notch service and mouth-watering cuisine.



At one end of Katara are the Shawarma and Kenaafa serving restaurants. Although I have never tried the Shawarma they have to offer, I did buy some a couple of times. One shawarma sandwich costs QR 15, which is about triple the price it is offered for in typical shawarma restaurants. Personally, I am not against buying a relatively expensive sandwich, but I do not think that it would taste significantly better than any other shawarma in the market.

To conclude, my observations during my visit to the cultural village known as Katara signal that the majority of what is displayed in Katara, which ranges from people in fancy cars with fancy plate numbers, to luxurious restaurants and priced-up snacks, is conspicuous consumption at its extremes. According to Wikipedia, conspicuous consumption is known as the “spending of money for and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to display economic power.” I am not saying that this behavior is necessarily a bad thing, I am merely acknowledging its natural existence in us as human beings who place emphasis on powerful appearance, and who take delight in enjoying the luxurious commodities life has to offer.

Lagoona Mall: Move up?!

Every time I see the Lagoona Mall slogan “Move Up”, I know they are talking about social class; the photo itself has a photo of a regular girl who is transformed into a model. The Land Mark Mall started out by targeting the upper classes to shop by creating this European environment in the building. Soon, when Villagio came with its Italian Design, it stole these customers because of the variety of shops, and the more expensive shops in a section called “The VIP section”. Lagoona’s number one attraction “Sugar and Spice” is a great example of Conspicuous consumption, where people in the upper class can show their social status through sitting in a coffee shop.



In Doha, malls are not only a destination to shop, but to eat, hangout, or even watch a movie. Malls owners want customers to spend as much time as possible to dry their money out of their pockets on products, and services. In fact, the rent varies on how much time people spend in a section of the mall. For example, the coffee shop next to the cinema has probably high rent rate because the place there is always crowded. Paul, in Villagio, has a good location everyone sees it as they are going to the cinema, or Carrefoure.

Malls actually speak about your personality in Qatar. You are most probably going to see the same faces every time you go to a mall. “City Centre” aims at the variety, they want as many as possible from all social classes. So does “Villagio”, but they also want more of the upper classes, as you can see by their VIP Section.

For the past couple of years, West Bay (excluding City Centre) has become a very common attraction to the upper classes because they want to drink a cup of coffee that costs 200 riyals ($53), or because they want to have a dinner for two that costs 1000 riyals ($260). I’m not exaggerating the prices, but try and go to the Pearl and have a meal there. Even though the meals are not worth it, but the upper classes love them because it shows that they are from a high social status in the society, and their highbrow activities.



Today in Qatar, the highbrow (upper social class) activities are mainly in West Bay, including Katara, the Pearl, Lagoona Mall, or at any hotel in West Bay. Sheeshas (Hookahs) are considered lowbrow culture in Qatar, but the managers were smart enough to open up a couple of expensive restaurants that offer Sheeshas to the elite, and the upper classes who want to enjoy a smoke in West Bay. Look at Sukar Pasha, a very expensive Sheesha lounge in Karara. Wouldn't you consider this as a conspicuous leisure activity?



Now, I can easily judge you about your social class, from the place you smoke in.

Motorbiking in Qatar

I chose to study the motor biking subculture in depth for this assignment. The reason that they are defined as a subculture is that they share the same values and interests. My interest in this subculture had grown since I had more time to look into this subculture and focus on other elements such as interviewing the motorbike riders. The places that I interviewed the motorbike riders were limited because most of them gathered in the same place. I interviewed a couple in Katara, and one by West Bay. Took photographs of the motorbikes and the motorbike riders themselves. I interviewed four motorbike riders. However, I had to have my brother with me the whole time because as a female in this society, people can look at me negatively. This addresses the gender issue in Doha, how a woman is perceived in this society. A woman cannot simply approach motorbike riders alone, they might think she is making advances at them, which they consider as “flirting” and that is considered to be unacceptable for a woman to do. It was a great experience for me because I got to see the two point of views of the people towards motorbiking. The younger generation and the older generation had completely opposite thoughts on motorbikes. Mostly the older generation saw it as being deviant and the younger generation thought it was kind of “cool.”

motorbikeslast from Sara Al-Darwish on Vimeo.

The (Blind?) Glorification Behind Modernization

My parents and I have always had an interesting relationship to say the least. Don’t get me wrong, I love and cherish them greatly. However, when it comes to seeing eye-to-eye on certain matters, a clashing does occur. I have never wondered or gave the topic a second thought until Phil Cohen’s ‘Subcultural Conflict and Working-class Community’ was assigned as a reading for class last week.

In order to explore some tensions behind parent and youth cultures I decided to visit my mother’s old house. Forty years ago, my mother lived, with her family, in Musheireb - as did many of the locals in Qatar. It was where a strong community once lived. Regardless of the poor state the inhabitants of the area had a strong bond. I’ve noticed that many of my father’s friends, including my dad, are able to speak Persian and Indian. This is because most children that lived in that close community played outside and bonded on a day-to-day level.

While exploring the area of Musheireb with my mother I can sense the personal attachment she has for the area, even though she hasn’t lived there for twenty-five years.
Around twenty-five years ago the locals began to move out of the area. “Gradual depopulation” was evident at the time. The government bought some of the houses to concentrate on “building new estates.” An example of this would be the expansion and reconstruction of Souq Wagif.

Modernization has its advantages of course; redevelopment brought more opportunities and bettered the “material conditions” of many. However, a clash between parent culture and youth culture is somewhat present. Traditions of the past seem to no longer or rarely exist. When my parents speak of their childhood there is less emphasis on material consumption and more on how strong their community was. The different lifestyles that their children have and the one they had years ago differ to a great extent. It is only natural that parents worry about the BBM lifestyle and the vast changes that seem to swirl around them. The ideology of spectacular consumption and the traditional ideology of production seem to clash. There is a great emphasis on consuming products, especially with some of the youth culture. Also, there seems to be less interest in producing as opposed to consuming. Some of the youth culture in Qatar seem to have “weaken links” in relations to “historical and parent culture.” However, some events taking place in Qatar seem to try to reconnect youth to traditions of the past. For example, on Tuesday November 13th, I attended a Dhow event that took place in Katara. It showcased the traditions of the past and had mini stalls that show how pearl diving was and fishing was conducted. The event could be trying to reconnect and educate youth about past times and also give the parent culture a trip down memory lane.

It leaves me to wonder how things will be in twenty-five years. The thought is almost haunting.