We were rushing from one side to the other trying to board minibuses going to home or other places. It is Saturday midday and the crowd rush is like you’ve never seen it before. The aids to the chauffeurs of minibuses, who in their own ways are kings and five star generals throw the verbal abuses at almost everybody irrespective of age and gender, pull and push potential passengers, set illegal exorbitant fares seeing the rush all around them and go away with all they do. The most telling action of the inhuman when it comes to chauffeurs and their aids they increase the fare by fifty, sixty or even hundred percent in the worst cases. And most of the times they go away with it.
The outstanding issue here is our urge to capitalize on the discomfort of others. Believe me when you see the elderly and the frail being abused mostly by urchins who are barely out of their teens and seem to lack proper upbringing. You feel sad knowing that you can probably do nothing about it. Things in many parts could be dangerously fluid in that when you try to assure your rights the responses could be so crude and cruel. in fact the common response to your, “I know my rights…” would be laughter. yes laughter which could send the deepest stabs all over your anatomy and you’d actually feel the pain.
Now these sudden and unjustified price increases have become so common the question remains, “Where are the keepers whose job should be making sure the public is protected from the selfish and greedy acts of any in the business community.
Prices, prices, prices! Could there be any more important agenda at a time when every cent and birr you part with matters. Price increases could mean going to bed hungry for entire families; Price increases could be being unable to cover even mediocre medical bills; Price increases could mean keeping the tatted and practically useless jacket on your shudders with no idea when you can ma financially manage to replace it. Until that happens you have to do with the merciless heat of a very cruel and the chill of an equally notorious winter; Price increases could mean turmoil in households as many times disagreements arise as to what should be the priorities. Though couples don’t dispute the price increases and the financial strains they bring about the stories could be different when it comes to priorities. Price increases mean families suddenly unable to send their kids to private schools. This means that they firstly have to search for government schools willing enough to take in their kids. This is not as easy as it sounds. With the student population swelling as it is there the question of overcrowding and government school could find it hard to take in more than they could accommodate. Then there is the psychological readiness of the kids themselves in making the transitions. It is not a question of quality of the education offered but about belongingness. Making new friends and getting acquainted with the new surroundings and atmosphere one isn’t familiar with could take time and perseverance. Price increases mean already charted out projects which were being readied for launch have to be scrapped.
So when we talk about price increases we’re not talking only about the costs of items and services but also about the minor and major earthquakes individually or within households and communities.
In the old days we used to talk about many truthful business people who seldom try to capitalize on the vulnerabilities of others. And we even had names to propose. “You should go Ato so and so’s shop. He never makes unnecessary and unjustified price increases and he never tries to cheat his customers. On one side many of such people being spiritually strong and uncompromising their actions aren’t led only based on earthly public anger but also on the heavenly response they might generate. They don’t want to anger God as that would mean the gates of heaven would slam in their faces and all they have been praying almost their entire lives would go down the drain. Believe me they would do anything to avoid such endings to their lives.
On the other hand there were those who led their lives on principles ‘carved in stone’ and they would do nothing which would jeopardize their principled lives. I’m not saying that these days there aren’t the spiritually strong and also those who lead their lives based on principles and principles only in the business community. Not at all! Such carpet bombing would be not only unfair but also unhelpful. The only thing is that such people aren’t very easy to find as they probably must have been during previous times when reputations mattered. I mean there were times when reputations really mattered and people did their best to prevent their names from being dragged in the dust.
Most of us believe that the quest for getting filthy rich as soon as possible has taken many of the tracks and everything is about boosting bank accounts as fast as possible. And the talk of the town is many manage to do so. Such scenarios lead us to conclude lives based on principles are becoming things of the past. But then though the numbers could be minimal there still could be business people who try to be fair and principled in treating customers and the larger public.
So, when price increases are neither fair nor justified economic considerations but about greed of the foulest kind, it is the public that suffers the brunt of the aftereffects. And unfortunately price increases have become not only common but many times drastic amounts you wonder if things would be improved anytime soon. The days when you choose the things you want to buy and allot the correct amount of funds seem to be on the way out if things continue at the present pace. By the time you hit the traditional marketplaces, the supermarkets and the neighborhood shops the prices of five of the seven at times you planned to purchase might have gone up. The only thing you can do in such other than keeping your cool to save your gastritis from going berserk is to eliminate the least important items. Remember, the seven items were supposed to be the most important items! Unfortunately this world of ours isn’t nice enough as to allow you to have your every wish. When greed drives price increases you can’t tell where things start going to lower gears and where the red light draws nearer.
Believe me, when greed drives price increases we need the red light! And pronto, too!
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 2 JUNE 2024