Good Morning: wait till the new bills come

Assuming that all our political frustrations and grievances come to an end, what will be the quality of our life in the near future? What would be the level of prices were President Pervez Musharraf to be out of the scene and impeached? What would be the price of energy and petroleum products when the judges are restored and to the satisfaction of the lawyers' community? What would life be like in July 2008?
Why July 2008? Not because the quality and sweetness of mangoes would improve. But because that is when the new prices will come into effect, and the phasing out of subsidies is to begin. While the usual comments and criticism of the budgets (federal and provincial) have surfaced in a rather traditional manner, the common man has fears for what will unfold in the days to come. The price rise impact will gain momentum in August, and then in Ramazan (September) it will enlarge its canvass.
A friend of mine, a senior Karachiite deeply worried about the way prices and tariffs are being revised upwards came up with a very disturbing dimension on this subject. He was very worried about not just the poor and the luckless (read deprived?) but he was worried about people who live off taking loans (of varying sizes) to keep the economics of their homes afloat.
What does this mean? I asked him. He said that it was his observation that there was an alarming tendency, reflective of the dwindling purchasing power of people, (in the lower middle class and middle class) to carry on with their conventional lifestyles. To keep their kitchen budgets intact, and save them from being eroded because of rising prices and the receding purchasing power of the rupee.
On another relentlessly humid June afternoon, we conversed about this theme. One of the points that he underlined was his observation that our bazaars, markets and shopping centres have a lot of ordinary men, women and children asking for financial assistance. These are not the usual, traditional, sometimes physically handicapped people (we describe as beggars and want them out of sight, so as to meet the demands of a non-existent, never flourishing tourism in this country.) The subject of beggars in this society is handled in a manner, very frequently, as if these people are illegal immigrants and have descended from God knows where.
That they are reflective and symbolic of various aspects and dimensions of the way in which Pakistani society distributes its wealth is never taken into account. What we seek to do with beggars, if we had our way, says this friend sarcastically, is to pack these beggars off to some place from where they came. The sad brutal truth that these beggars are the mirrors of what Pakistani society does not wish to see.
In our conversation, spread uneasily over an uncomfortable afternoon, made muggy by the load shedding that we live with, my friend said that each time, for instance when he goes into a grocery store to buy routine items like bread, butter, milk, eggs and his favourite sandwich spread or cheese, he has poorly clad, educated and persevering men or women, middle-aged and or older, seeking financial assistance. They have sob stories of loans they have taken and are unable to repay.
Loans for a wedding in the family, (son or daughter) or unpaid medical bills, or some construction work that they have had done for the roof in their house, or some traffic accident that a family member has suffered. There are numerous reasons - real, life like, and the sort that anybody could have. They indicate the fact that the people are unable to pay for what they need. And because awareness has grown about education and health segments of life, they are unhappy that these are becoming expensive as the state is steadily moving away from these responsibilities.
This friend of mine said that he was particularly upset and embarrassed (even irritated at times) when he is faced with a couple asking for something to eat just as he is coming out of a restaurant or a fast food place. Or he is confronted by sad eyed, under-nourished children who want some help as he is walking into a chemist's shop or stopping for a cup of tea. Now these poor, needy people, (and I don't call them beggars) are not just there at traffic signals, but they are there in all such places where the affluent or the middle class people are shopping.
At some places the middle class and the affluent converge, at others they don't. But these men, women and children, with spontaneous stories of misery and misfortune, ask for help, in ways that makes the heart melt. And if not that it can leave the heart unscathed, but it will make one wonder which way Pakistani society is going. Whether we are truly doing enough for the poor, and whether the large needy sections of society will continue to grow. And political rhetoric of the rise and shine kind will be heard till we turn deaf?
A television news report (Aaj TV) revisited an old unhappy theme on Tuesday, about those who sleep on the streets of Karachi. And that they had short, bitter, and tell tale comments on why they sleep on the pavements, and parks in the Sindh capital.
Apparently there are at least 30,000 people who sleep this way, said this report. One of the young men sleeping in a park said that he earned Rs 3000 a month - and he cannot find a room for less than that, and besides he has to help some family members too.
We will revisit this theme, more in the days ahead. The government's subsidies are going out and the financial burden will be passed down to the people. Wait till the new bills come. Where has all the trickle-down effect of the last eight years vanished? Ever wonder? When you do that, keep doing that! No laughing matter this, believe me.