Torment and fear of rising prices

LET us begin with the subject of the all important Iftari item called deliciously as “fruit chaat”. I am not going to look for an English translation as there is no equivalent. The English would have nothing quite like it. Besides, there is no other occasion when it is temperamentally suited to those who eat it, almost without any restraint. What’s an Iftari without “fruit chaat”!!

Having said this, look at the prices of fruit in town, it appears as if fruit chaat is endangered this Ramazan for a vast majority of citizens. I spoke to a colleague of mine on the first day of Ramazan and he had fear on his face as he talked of fruit prices. A fear of prices is what most people are seized by all over the country it seems. It is baffling, indeed, to see the way in which one can predict that prices will rise, as against the naïvette of citizens who believe that in Ramazan prices of food items should at least decline, as an act of generosity and compassion on behalf of the God fearing business community. God fearing business community?

The price rise in the city, which has been highlighted and deplored for a week before Ramazan, has made families realize their inability to meet the challenge of having decent arrangements for Iftari and Sehri, which in turn has made them wonder if at all there would be any meaningful steps taken on time. “What has the local administration planned to do, besides newspaper announcements?” asked one citizen, who lamented the prices of bananas, and melon, and grapes. It seems that the common man is no more able to provide fruit to his family as a matter of routine, said one housewife, adding that it was seldom that she was able to buy mutton or beef for her children.

This rise in the prices of “eatables” register a sharp increase in Ramazan, or a few days before its advent, and this has been going on for decades now. There is nothing new, and experience shows that all efforts to control these prices, the toughness and severity of the official campaign notwithstanding, are almost futile. The local administrations try their best a couple of weeks before Ramazan to negotiate with traders, wholesalers and retailers on prices. But, the results are inadequate, if at all they are mentionable.

I am distracted here by a strange contradiction that is a recurring one every year in this pious month. In one English language daily, there is a detailed news story of how prices of eatables have registered a sharp increase with the advent of Ramazan. Fruits, vegetables, pulses, meat and dairy products are so expensive that lower, lower middle, and middle class families either do without them completely, or consume them in small measure.

Just next to this story an advertisement of a hotel was published, which says, “Bask in the glory of Ramazan and choose from our traditional Iftar dishes. And while you eat there are also fabulous prizes through the daily lucky draw.” This kind of contrast is one of those that reflect the way in which the upper class mostly remain unaffected by the rising prices phenomenon. Is this price rise natural, or is it the consequence of the exploitation and manipulation of the wholesalers and retailers? What is the reality of the price lists, the complaint centres, and the sudden spot checks that are carried out by a battery of officials, escorted by media men?

It is imperative to keep in mind here that the welfare association of the vegetable and fruit merchants has “strongly opposed the practice of publicly announcing the official rates of fruits and vegetables and slated the government control on prices particularly during Ramazan.” According to the wholesalers, there is no price list during the year, and as such these lists actually create conflict and friction between the buyer and the seller in Ramazan.

There is a general scepticism and cynicism about these price lists in society is something that is nothing to argue about. In fact one has often heard the lament that it is impossible to get the desired decent quality of anything at the official price. The list is absurd, say most citizens.     What is now to be seen is that the governor has promulgated a price control ordinance, and it is said that profiteers and hoarders are to face legal action. It is called as the Sindh Essential Commodities Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding Ordinance 2005. The ordinance makes an informative reading, and it also provides the list of essential commodities that include 21 items. These are fresh milk, powdered milk, beef, mutton, chicken meat, milk for infants, white sugar, tea, edible oils, including ghee, aerated water, fruit juices, and squashes, vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, pulses of all sorts, wheat flour, rice red chillies, spices of all sorts, (packed and unpacked) an bakery items including Nimco.

The list reflects the menu that is often followed at Sehri and Iftari. There are details of the legal action from imprisonment to fines for violating the ordinance. Even pushcart vendors can be fined.

The public perception is that this fine, whenever it has been imposed on the pushcart vendor or the shopkeeper etc, it has been ultimately paid by the consumer. The prices have been raised further still. How different will the experience be this Ramazan? It remains to be seen, keeping in mind the gravity of the situation, the difference that this ordinance will make.

What makes the Ramazan price hike disturbing this year is not just the fact of fuel prices having reached a new high just a few days before Ramazan, but that President Musharraf has taken notice of the countrywide complaints of a sudden rise in prices of essential commodities with the onset of Ramazan. He has directed the federal and the provincial governments “to enforce a check on the price hike so that the common man should get these commodities at reasonable rates.” He has also appealed to the traders to shun hoarding and profiteering in accordance with the spirit of the holy month.

Citizens are optimistic and enthusiastic too. They are now going to watch the next few days, and wait for the prices to fall. They are hoping that the fruit chaat they have for Iftari will cost less.

More of the same medicine

SO the ruling PML-backed candidates have won the nazims’ polls in the city district’s eight out of nine towns. Only the Wagah Town nazimship has gone to the opposition-backed PPP’s candidate, who won the election by a margin of 11 votes. In Data Ganj Bakhsh Town, comprising mainly the localities in the heart of the city, the ruling party’s nazim won only by a thin margin of two votes; the town was considered to be the PML-N’s stronghold.

As expected, the combined opposition cried foul, saying the way the elections were manipulated and favourable results obtained by the government, it was now clear that the country was moving towards a one-party rule. The PM was reportedly not convinced, and he equated the ruling party’s success with the failure of what he called the opposition’s negative role in politics. For better or for worse, the PML-backed Mian Amer Mahmood has also won a second term in office as the city district nazim.

What this means for Lahore is that there will be continuity in the CDGL’s policies adopted and implemented over the last four years. These include promises of better roads, improved sanitation and the removal of encroachments from congested streets —- promises that hopefully will be fulfilled. But if the new rehashed, truncated plan of the Ring Road is an example to go by, then there is little cause for optimism. The same has been the fate of a rail-based transit system for the city which, it seems, has now been shelved altogether after due consideration — or lack thereof.

The outgoing city government must, however, be credited for the timely construction of a number of underpasses along the canal road. This has eased traffic congestion and helped maintain a steady flow of traffic on what has become a major artery for many who in recent years have moved miles out to the south to live in a relatively less polluted environment. There was a plan to widen the canal road, but this would mean pulling down thousands of trees along the long stretch of the canal. Now with the underpasses being operational, there should be no need to resort to any such ill-advised measure.

The bad news is that continuation in the city government’s policies also means more commercialization of residential neighbourhoods. Here is how it goes on: the LDA collects huge amounts in fees and gives a free hand to parties interested in pulling down a house or a spacious bungalow, replacing it with a multi-storeyed, often ungainly, commercial plaza. Such buildings have neither adequate parking space, nor are they built in accordance with fire and emergency safety standards.

New plazas currently raising their ugly heads in Gulberg and Garden Town areas, for instance, also result in encroachment while they are being built. They tend to block parts of a road or a service lane with building material that does not seem to move out of the way for months. Apparently, the CDGL either does not have a policy on under-construction buildings and the hazards they cause or it simply chooses to look the other way.

In either case it is the motorists and commuters who bear the brunt of the negligence on the part of the city government in controlling building material from occupying the roads. Then, when the new plaza becomes operational, it is the nearby residents who have to live with the consequences of the unbridled commercialization policy. Like they say, there is big money to be made in all such enterprises that skirt their way around and law. Well, then, somebody is really reeking it in.

THE powerful earthquake that jolted the city yesterday morning luckily did not cause any fatalities. The injuries sustained by a number of people in Shah Alam Market and a couple of other places in the city as a result of roofs caving in are manageable tragedies when compared with the many deaths reported from Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, the Frontier and the Northern Areas.

It is sheer luck that the city escaped a major tragedy. Buildings here, as elsewhere in the country, without a possible exception of a few of them in Quetta, are not built to quake-proof standards. Neither is there a national tremor rescue and relief strategy in place which could be activated in the event of such a powerful earthquake. Lahorites should thank their stars because nature has been merciful to them this once.

Not the robbers, who struck for over ten times a day on average in various parts of the city this past week. Ramazan does not seem to deter such criminals. A colleague was held at gunpoint while going home late at night and deprived of cash and a mobile phone. This kind of incidents, the police tell us, are more frequent during the holy month, as people go shopping carrying cash or purchased valuables.

The police being who they are, it is advisable not to go out with big amounts of cash in your pockets or purses, especially after dark, and also to be vigilant during the day. There was a time when neighbours of a given street got together and hired a common watchman who walked up and down the street blowing his whistle at night. Back then robberies, too, used to be a rare occurrence, and thieves hardly ever carried firearms. Not anymore. So what to do?

Community policing, they said, was the answer to curb the rampant crime. It was reportedly started on an experimental basis in parts of the city a few months ago; but then it was heard of no more. The city police should seriously reconsider the option and get it going this Ramazan, so that those who wish to get some sleep before waking up for sehri can do so without fear.

THERE was encouraging news from the CDGL’s price inspection teams which went around checking the prices of everyday commodities on Thursday. Some 28 shopkeepers were reportedly booked for overcharging from various parts of the city. This should become a permanent feature so that citizens are not fleeced by profiteers. Random checks are good, but they alone are not the solution to the problem. The CDGL should consider setting up a hotline on which people could report overcharging in their respective neighbourhoods. —OBSERVER

Wonders of the world

THERE will soon be no need to travel far to see the Seven Wonders of the World and some of the planet’s most spectacular landmarks. They are all coming to Dubai.

The Egyptian Pyramids? The Taj Mahal? The Eiffel Tower? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The Lighthouse of Alexandria? You name it, Dubai will have it.

I should say here, however, that the sheikhs are not buying the originals and shipping them over. Rather, they are building replicas. But of course they will not be any old replicas – these will be bigger than the real thing.

The Falcon City of Wonders was just one of a host of new developments announced in recent weeks.

The Grand Pyramid of Giza will contain residential flats, offices and retail outlets, the Babylonian Gardens will include luxury apartments, restaurants and coffee shops and so on.

And I almost forgot about the Great Wall of China, which will surround the Pharaoh Theme Park, although building a wall bigger than the original might be too much of a challenge even for a city where they like to think that nothing is impossible.

The Wonders are being built in DubaiLand, a huge area on the edge of the city that will include numerous entertainment and sports complexes as well as residential areas and (inevitably) the biggest shopping mall in the world.

Another part that has recently been announced is Aqua Dunya, which, it is claimed, will be the largest theme park resort in the Middle East. Despite the fact that it is being built in the middle of the desert, the centrepiece will be a cruise ship anchored at an oasis. The vessel will include a 330-room hotel.

And every night as the ship prepares to embark on an imaginary voyage its engines, smokestacks and foghorn will all come to life as fireworks light up the sky.

In the meantime, we are all faced with the realities of life. Rents continue to be sky-high, although there were suggestions at a real-estate conference this week that prices may have peaked and could start a ‘correction’ (I think that is industry-speak for coming down, at least I hope it means that) around the end of the year, as lots of properties now being built become available.

Judging by the amount of building going on, supply should start to cater for the demand, but there are so many people arriving in Dubai, enticed by the image of the ‘all-happening’ emirate, that it remains to be seen.

And then, of course, there is the traffic problem – now most definitely the number one conversational topic. Since the summer lull it appears to be worse than ever.

At one social gathering last week people were arriving a couple of hours late, staggering in with war stories about being stuck in long queues, each trying to outdo the other with the agonies they had suffered getting there. Journeys that should have lasted 10 minutes ended up taking 90.

Many of the problems are caused by the very road works – new flyovers and underpasses – that are designed to ease such situations but for the time being end up being the problem.

And now of course it is Ramazan, a month that usually sees a rise in the number of traffic accidents (which are already among the highest in the world).

The director of Dubai’s traffic department has appealed to motorists to drive safely and be more cautious on the roads during Ramazan.

Traditionally most accidents occur as people try to rush home in time for ‘iftar’, but I saw my first accident three minutes from home as I was driving to the office in the morning on the first day of Ramazan. Two kilometres down the road was another and then a third. And all this in a journey that normally takes 20 minutes (it only took three times as long).

Ramazan is, of course, marked in different ways throughout the world. Here in Dubai there is something of an accommodation between tradition and the emirate’s relentless pursuit of its role as an international centre of trade, finance and tourism.

While religious observance is uncompromised, there is a general acceptance that the city cannot virtually close down for the month, as once happened, if foreign visitors are not to be deterred from making a visit.

By law, working hours are restricted to six hours a day, for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Shops open for a few hours in the morning and then after sunset and well into the night.

Food outlets close until “iftar’’ and it is not acceptable for non-Muslims also to eat or drink in public during the day – although hotels usually have some corner tucked away where life continues as normal. Bars are also closed during the day and when they open at 7pm none of the usual entertainment is allowed.

In short, the non-Muslim visitor suffers little and the hotels continue to operate at near total capacity. Pragmatic Dubai.