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RUMORS of possible contamination of sea products due to the sinking
of a passenger boat off the coast of Romblon province, have caused
people to shun the town wet markets. Matters worsened when the local
radio tried to belittle the rumor that a local fisherman who caught
a big fish recovered from its belly a human finger with a ring in
it. It was an unlikely tale, but it drove people away from buying
fish.
Rather than improve the state of the local
economy where our people are battling the results of the global
economic slowdown, causing the rise in prices of food and oil
products, the rumors magnified instead the difficulties of the low
income wage earners and self-employed, like the market vendors and
neighborhood handymen who repair nipa roofs and do quick carpentry
jobs, gather coconuts and dry copra for the neighbors.
However, early this week, eight of the world’s
wealthiest nations, the so-called Group of 8 which used to be only
seven, met in Japan in a place called Rusutsu, a site reportedly
chosen by the host country because its environment was easily made
agreeable to the summiteers. The group includes such nations as the
US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia. They
account for 2/3 of the world’s GDP.
On the other hand, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, to
parallel the G-8 summit, is a self-styled group of eight developing
Islamic nations reportedly to discuss their concerns for survival in
the face of evolving problems that tend to worsen the economic
circumstances of developing small nations majority of which are
surviving below the poverty line. Many of these nations’ people
are agonizing daily over where to get their next meal.
In Cebu, the pressure on the government to raise
the wages of daily earners and the salaries of civil servants has
become tremendous enough, to the point that Mayor Osmeña of Cebu
City took it upon himself to order an increase in jeepney fare to
P7.50. The President has called regional wage boards to study
possible wage increases “to help workers cope with the rising
prices of rice and oil.”
Wage boards approve different increases per
region depending on the cost of living in their respective
jurisdiction. Problem, though, is that the wage raises may not be
enough.
to keep the proverbial “body and soul”
mutually together. In Cebu, the National Food Authority has
reportedly increased the rice allocation per government unit in the
province to 30 sacks per week from the original quota of just 20
bags.
The problem of distribution is posing another
problem, however, since unscrupulous persons could take advantage of
the situation, and make money over the suffering of the poor
consumers, a situation that has happened before in similar
circumstances.
Meanwhile, the Group of Developing Countries
(D-8), composed of Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh,
Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey “has urged advanced nations to step up
financial aid to help them deal with higher food and energy prices .
. . ”
The D-8 also expressed the need for “the
United States and other major industrialized nations to deal
decisively with the current economic and financial crises.” They
want the financial markets carefully monitored. “Long term
solutions must be found for stabilizing the price of oil that fell
by $4 a barrel on Monday, but remain at more than $140 a barrel.
Malaysia raised gasoline price by 41 percent, and diesel by 63
percent.
In essence, what we earlier experienced weeks
ago as a threat to mass survival due to perceived shortages in the
supply of rice and corn, has eventually been traced to the bigger
problem of global economic slowdown. It has become a case of the
poor or developing nations struggling to continue in existence
against the might of the globe’s industrialized, advanced
nations—a case of the “haves” against the “have not”
nations.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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