Baksheesh and social tipping points

[Winged Isis]

Baksheesh and social tipping points
By Khaled Diab

Egypt’s ‘baksheesh’ culture helps poor people get by and maintains relative social peace, but it encourages subservience.

21 January 2011

One sure sign that I’ve arrived in Egypt is that my wallet and pockets suddenly get fatter as they pile on the Egyptian pounds to deal with the country’s largely cash-based economy. In addition, I always endeavour to carry plenty of lower denomination banknotes to facilitate the prodigious amount of tipping ahead.

With the relative uncommonness of tipping in northern Europe, I experience quite a culture shock for the first few days of any visit. In Belgium, tipping is only common at restaurants and occasionally at bars, though quite a few Belgians I know never tip.

In Egypt, leaving sweeteners at eateries is only the tip of the tipping iceberg. Alongside haggling, tipping is a pervasive feature of the Egyptian economy. Millions of Egyptians depend on these gratuities for their survival and exist in a kind of parallel ‘baksheesh economy‘, abandoned by government and employers alike. In fact, the cynic in me might quip that, with the grinding poverty, neglect, marginalisation and disempowerment that poor Egyptians endure, tips could be the only change, loose as it might be, that some are willing to believe in.

In a country with high unemployment and overflowing with surplus labour, well-off Egyptians tip everyone from deliverymen, unofficial parking supervisors and petrol pump attendants to the even less necessary toilet attendants who hand them a napkin to dry their hands and the bagger who packs their shopping at the checkout.

Expat Egyptians are often expected to go that extra mile, and dig deeper into their pockets and tip at a greater angle than locals. By the end of any visit to Egypt, I experience something akin to tipping fatigue.

My wife speaks fluent Arabic, is streetwise and can haggle better than a local, but the language of baksheesh is one she’s never warmed to nor cared to master. Despite years of experience and my awareness of the economic importance of tipping, I also dislike the practice which, I am well aware, I unwittingly connive in perpetuating.

When I pay baksheesh, I do so partly because it is a social norm but mostly out of a sense of guilt at the wide economic gulf generally separating me from the person I am tipping. And in a society where the LE 35 minimum monthly wage (less than £4) is irrelevant, where labour protection is a joke and where social safety nets are tattered and threadbare, baksheesh helps somewhat to redistribute wealth and, at its best, is an informal expression of social solidarity and cohesion.

But, as my wife rightly points out, baksheesh is neither the most efficient nor the fairest way of seeking greater socio-economic justice. For people like me who believe in equality and egalitarianism, part of the problem is that baksheesh reward subservience, punish dignity and encourage a master-servant sort of mentality between the well-off and the poor.

Though tips may take the edge off poverty and maintain social peace, looked at unflatteringly, they also serve to keep the poor in their place by constantly reminding them of how their economic survival is not down to their hard work but due to the patronage of their “betters”.

In anticipation of a tip, ingratiation and hypocrisy are often the order of the day, though I make a point of tipping less or not at all in such circumstances. Very proud workers might forgo tips which, for many menial service sector jobs, is tantamount to financial suicide, while others will swallow their pride at the altar of economic survival, which necessitates that the sensitive tipper must try his best to be subtle and considerate when tipping them.

Baksheesh also provide employers in the service sector with the opportunity to dump the responsibility for their workers on to the customers’ laps and, hence, act as a disincentive to work, except in circumstances where a tip is forthcoming.

The baksheesh culture makes it difficult to read the intentions of certain strangers and decide whether they’re doing you a favour out of the goodness of their heart or in anticipation of your papering their palm with banknotes. Misread the signals and you could end up unintentionally insulting a generous stranger or being insulted by a mean one. The same can also apply to poorer people you know personally.

Far more troubling is how the baksheesh culture has become endemic, over the past few decades, in the underpaid civil service and public sector, which, one could say, has effectively privatised the government and made it accessible only to those who can pay.

Though I too have been guilty of discreetly greasing some palms to expedite paperwork to which I’m entitled, the occasions on which I have done this have left me with a bitter aftertaste, a sense of self-loathing and a “never again” vow.

Usually, however, I obstinately refuse to pay which brings along its own set of frustrations in the form of stonewalling, bureaucratic origami and long and winding paper trails. A few years ago, my wife and I gave up, in anger and frustration, on registering our marriage in Egypt because it was transforming our holiday into a helly-day, and I’ve yet to pluck up the courage to try to register our son’s birth.

As a form of social solidarity, baksheesh will at best paper over the cracks but can never tip the balance on poverty. On the down side, tips provide poor incentives to work, create subservience and even promote petty corruption. And as inequalities widen, baksheesh will not be able to stave off the inevitable reckoning between the haves and have-nothings.


http://chronikler.com/middle-east/egypt/baksheesh/

[LovelyLadyLux]

Regardless of where I might be in the world if somebody provides me with a service I'll tip. Provide me with a superior service that is genuine I'll tip more. I do resent being absolutely compelled to 'tip' and then be maligned for not tipping enough.

I'm sorry but having to Tip to get into the bathroom and then tip to get into a stall and tip to get a slice of toilet paper in Cairo or Luxor airpor or any public restroom (if you can actually FIND one) is ridiculous. What service are you providing me just cause I want to use the restroom?

I also would not mind tipping if if if ANY Egyptian tipped me back. I have never yet, although I have provided equal and similar services to services Egyptians have provided me, gotten a tip from one single Egyptian. I have multiple smiles and ingratiation but never to rarely have I felt that the 'service' being provided was being given to me without the expectation of baksheesh.

I totally understand that poverty is awful, grinding and being dirt poor with no expectation of ever escaping it wouldn't be a great way to live but the level at which many Egyptians expect 'tips' = begging and nothing more. AND become argumentative when the tip does not equal what they perceive as my being able to afford amounts to is - well - it is nothing more than a hassle I'd just as well prefer to avoid. The baksheesh culture has made me feel nothing more than a 'target' to locals who come to expect money to be dropped into their palms for almost drawing breath in their presence. I don't think the culture of baksheesh is really advancing the country at all......it starts at the lowest levels BUT where does it stop as the culture of baksheesh move higher and higher in the social strata. At upper levels baksheesh might not be 'money' but at the upper levels there is definitely a culture of influence and favouritism. To me that is same same.

[Horus]

That is probably the one thing that irritates me the most about Egypt and that is Baksheesh. I tip very generously when on holiday, but I do it based upon the service I receive and not because it is expected. It is extremely annoying to be almost forced into giving a tip for what is after all a normal service, toilets being a good example, if they were scrupulously clean then there may be a reason to do so, but in most cases it is just to receive a single sheet of loo paper in a stinking building. Add to that the fact that you cannot expect even the smallest courtesy such as asking for directions without the expectations of reward from the person you may be asking. I can understand that the real meaning of Baksheesh which is the redistribution of wealth to those poorer than yourself (if you are a believer in Islam) is OK, but exactly how this translates into a continual expectation of reward is lost upon me. I am afraid it is just another example of people feeling that they are just perceived as a source of income rather than as a guest in their country, OK I accept that basically we are a source of income, but it is so blatant in Egypt with the double pricing that is so common and the many scams that the tourist is targeted with especially from Caleche, felucca and taxi drivers, the whole experience leaves the average visitor with a sense of just being ripped off and therefore many do not return again.

[LovelyLadyLux]

If 'tipping' or 'baksheesh' was truly a 'way of life' and an ingrained part of Egyptian culture then it would flow that "I" would also be tipped or given baksheesh however this is definitely NOT a social norm so deeply ingrained in Egyptian life that it extends to everybody. It is definitely ONLY an expectation by Egyptians that tourists are marks and therefore targeted for all they can get. Sad to say but the entire baksheesh culture in Egypt has often made me feel nothing other than a target. I'm sure some Egyptian have been genuine but unfortunately it is always in my mind that I'm only seen as a 'cash cow' to be exploited to the fullest and never once even though I have opened doors, moved over in a taxi seat, lifted a package etc been offered a 'tip' for doing this yet roles reversed I would be fully expected to PAY.

I truly think that Egyptians really need to look at their tourist industry and 'get real' and/or get in line with the rest of the tourist world if they want this industry to remain, grow and prosper.