DO WE LIVE THAT MUCH LONGER?

First Edition: September 8, 2002 Second Edition: August 10, 2020

If you have a ‘time is money’ mentality, the only thing you are going to get in our region of the hemisphere is an ulcer; the result of expectations that are incompatible with the deeply embedded cultural norms related to TIME in the Middle East.

One businessman invites another to lunch, promising to meet at 1:00 p.m.; at 2:30 p.m. the guest has neither seen nor heard from his host, so he lunches solo and gets back to work. At 5:00 p.m., his host arrives and cheerfully announces that he has come to take him out to lunch. The guest protests that he has already had lunch; the host is puzzled, wondering what could have prompted such recklessness, after all, what did his guest have to do that was so urgent and important?

A computer company contracts to deliver and install a new computer system on Friday, so their customer will not have too much down-time. The customer would have preferred a week-end installation, but the computer wizards didn't work on weekends. As it turned out, they seemed to have problems with weekdays too as no one showed up or bothered to explain until the exasperated customer called. “Oh, we have a problem, if we solve it we’ll try to do the job before next Friday InshaAllah! (God Willing)”

 A prominent government minister in his 40ties promises to ensure that a vital piece of legislation will be pushed through ‘tomorrow’ because it is well overdue and all the requirements have been met and all the expert reports have been approved. Forty years later, our politician now in his 80ties is still promising that it will happen ‘tomorrow’ but as soon as those standing in his way allow him to do what is needed. The catch is that although he said ’tomorrow’ he did not specify in which century this would be realized. No problem, this octogenarian’s followers have infinite patience and blind loyalty from generation to generation!

These cases demonstrate two diametrically opposed mind-sets. One with underlying Western time values and the other Middle Eastern time values. The objective is not to judge, but see whether these differences could affect our financial prosperity and socio-economic development.

The ways in which people in various parts of the world deal with time communicate vastly different meanings. Moreover, these deeply ingrained ways of using time are often not on the conscious level, but can trigger highly charged emotional responses ranging from feelings of irreparable insult to total exasperation and even bewilderment.

Edward T.Hall in his landmark study on how culture communicates without words, The Silent Language*, makes some profound observations. He identifies two constructs related to North American perceptions of time:

“Valuation, expressed in the attitude that time itself is valuable and should not be wasted; and

“Tangibility, expressed in the attitude that time is a commodity. It can be bought, sold, saved, spent, wasted, lost, made up and measured.” It is these constructs which predominantly drive Western cultures to plan, develop systems to save time, make forecasts, set deadlines and financial targets. These are based on a linear view of time, extending from the past into the future. These concepts are learned and distinctive to each culture.

What about our culture in the Middle East? How does it view time and how do these views affect trade relations, productivity and profitability? What about their impact on initiative-taking and levels of TRUST. Do we need to make changes that earn credibility and serve business purposes?

I believe the most fundamental difference lies in our perception of ‘fate’. These deeply ingrained beliefs are verbalized in expressions of folk wisdom: il maktoub ma minno mahroub (we cannot escape our fate); el daher doulab, marra ilak w marra aleik, (time is like a wheel of fortune , once with you and once against you). Ma betlaah be ede shee (I am powerless to act). The implication of these sayings is that man has no real control over the events in his life. 

How would planning for the future or even the concept of FUTURE make sense in such a value system? In fact, proactivity could well be viewed as challenging higher powers or fate itself and risking reprisals. In other words, time controls us, we do not control it.

To sum up, the major difference between North American and Middle Eastern TIME values is that one is an ageric culture and the other is a non-ageric culture. Edward T. Hall defines these as follows:

In AGERIC cultures people believe they have to act to get ahead or change conditions.

In NON-AGERIC cultures people believe it makes no difference whether you do or don’t do; what will be will be.

Think of the implications: 

1. Time is not a commodity of value in the Middle East, since it is beyond man’s control. 
2. Money and success are based more on good fortune than on human intervention. 
3. Human initiative is futile because whether or not you take action nothing will change. 
4. Since time is not viewed as a linear continuum in the Middle East, the need to complete one task before starting another does not seem important. Hence, the presence, in certain offices, of several people at the same time, each seeking a different service from the same official.

I am not suggesting that one set of values is superior to the other, but that we need to understand the different “languages of time” connected to each culture in order to effect real change. 

We need to know the meaning of that language if we wish to have good relations, be perceived as efficient and reliable and competitive in a global market that has become far more sensitive to the impact of cultural differences in the success and failure of international business relations

Hall identifies four isolates that communicate the language of time in each culture:

1. Urgency, communicated by the time and hour of day at which communication takes place.

2. Monochronism, communicated by the number of things being done at the same time.

3. Activity, communicated by how being ‘busy’ is perceived.

4. Variety, communicated by intervals of time as having short or long duration. 

The way we handle these four isolates of time determines whether or not a businessperson will be insulted if we keep him/her waiting for 10 minutes, show up one hour late or reschedule an appointment more than once. 

Our treatment of time will also determine how other cultures will perceive our efficiency and reliability, our ability to take action when it matters, and their willingness to place enough TRUST in us to do business with us. 

The time it takes to transfer and process information, manufacture and deliver goods and services and conclude transactions will determine our competitiveness and level of prosperity.

We must understand and master the language of time as ‘spoken’ by different cultures, a language more eloquent than words and more fundamental in managing change than A,B,C.

REMEMBER, WE ARE NOT IMMORTAL, so IBM= Inshallah, Boukra and Maaleysh (If God wills, Tomorrow and Never mind), jokingly translated into Arabic, may not be our best formula for success.