In other news, I went to a ridiculously ostentatious wedding last Friday. There was a famous Lebanese signer there, Nawal al-Zoghbi, which was preceded, you won't believe it, by a transvestite, and also Lebanese and very famous, who imitates Arab singers. The image of a transvestite entertaining a posh Kuwaiti co-ed wedding party was unfathomable to me before and is very ironic for this conservative gulf state. The party I went to was mixed for men and women. There was another party the previous day just for women. Kuwaitis normally hold two wedding parties separated by gender, one for men and one for women. Just the cost of hiring Nawal al-Zoghbi for both parties was at a discount rate of 20,000 Kuwaiti Dinars = $70K. The total cost for both parties was estimated at around half a million dollars. Now that is ostentatatious consumption.
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