Apart from a scaling up of the country's political tension, uncertainty, and an impatient mood for confrontation there are other reasons to be worried about as the New Year begins. The year 2008 has not begun well in so many ways. And if there are any doubts on this score, it is appropriate time to ask the common man. And let us not believe that the common man does not comprehend the causes of his lifestyle becoming tough, miserable.
It is biting cold in the country, rain and snow have come in plenty, and even a place like Karachi is currently in wet chilly weather, rendering the challenges and the seasonal bite more stinging, more painful.
Ask the common man or the harassed housewife who now stand in long frustrating, humiliating queues for getting atta for their homes, and that at unaffordable prices. That simple nan is now Rs 5 each, and this alone should reflect the awful way it is going for the people of this country.
Atta in the open market is available, though not easily always, at about Rs 29 per kg and in the Utility Stores, again not easily to say the least, at much lower prices. And while there are fears that the shortage can turn uglier, the caretaker Prime Minister has been told that the shortage will take a month to end. Let me repeat the reported cause of the flour crisis is smuggling/export and large scale hoarding of wheat and flour.
Also, for cold comfort there is the point that wheat is "the cheapest in the world" in this country. Why is this point being emphasised is something that makes the common man very suspicious. What lies ahead? More price rises again. The common man's food budget - seventeen items - has gone up to about 82 percent of his income, reveals an official household survey.
One is reminded here of the sugar crisis that the country experienced some time last year, and the stories that were in circulation as to how the most powerful, political people were also responsible for it. Who owns some of the sugar mills in the country is something that was being talked about - both as a matter of concern and political gossip too.
It needs to be kept in mind that food inflation has been the troubling factor for the common man, and how various items have sky-rocketed is something that the media focuses upon regularly. Now it is atta, and what is baffling is that the wheat crisis is regarded as artificial.
The common man is aware of all this, talks about it angrily, feels frustrated, suffocated, and helpless. Images of people queuing for atta come from all parts of the country - and it appears that each city has a major crisis on its hands.
There is legitimate fear that given the desperation, to which the public is being cornered into, the present scenario of queue jumping and scuffles could create grim law and order situations. Atta is basic to meals in our lifestyle. It is a daily requirement and its unavailability and unaffordability can cause chaos in a person's life here.
Then look at the energy scenario, which becomes depressing and hopeless even in winter. There was a time when it was only in summer that the supply and demand context was unmanageable. Now in winter, good old bureaucracy gives a variety of reasons why electricity cannot be provided to all, when it is needed.
Once again, for the last fortnight or so, we have heard the officialdom provide assorted reasons for the shortage of electricity. And how tired the common man is of these explanations is something that will not be hard to imagine.
A worrying aspect of this is that there are no signs of an early end to the power shortage. So often do we speak of it and refer to it for numerous reasons that the very expression power crisis seems to have become a cliché. As one disgusted, weary common man says "There is nothing in our lives that has not become a crisis. I do not know what we are supposed to do".
He had just finished talking of the political crisis that we have in the country, and referred to the fact that skeptical lobbies are arguing that the elections next month could aggravate the power tussle between the parties and groups vying for Islamabad.
Routine stories of how the power crisis is affecting commercial, industrial and domestic sectors of society across the country are appearing in the media. The hours of daily loadshedding have risen over the years, and this steady increase is disturbing. Amazing - but the causes, though known - never seem to get redressed, and the solutions so desperately needed appear elusive.
Even this time, Islamabad and Lahore datelined reports indicate that the power shortage is not going to be over until the end of the month. That much more of darkness on this count, as far as January goes. I have this feeling or rather this fear that January really does nothing to bring cheer into people's lives. There is that much of mismanagement, poor governance...insecurity...call it what you will.
INSECURITY That is another thought on our weary minds. Just before the year ended came the murder of that legendary artist Ismail Gulgee, his wife Zarro, and their maid (I am sad that her name is never mentioned as I am sure she had one). There is the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed that took place on 27th December, for which now Scotland Yard is here, while there is the demand for an investigation by the United Nations.
That is the way 2007 ended and one indicator of our lifestyle is the way 2008 began. On Sunday, 6th January took place a robbery of at least Rs 150 million which is described as the biggest in the city's history and the men who made this crime possible are stated to be two of the security guards posted at the money exchange company in Saima Trade Towers on I I Chundrigar Road.
The common man in this instance has noted with gnawing concern that it is yet another instance of security guards being instrumental in crime. The subject of security guards being a source of assorted crime is one that surfaces somewhat regularly.
Rising security concerns, and the canvass of security guards enlarging in our lives - from the work place to the home. And I can understand the silent apprehension that citizens have about the very guards they employ - or they are supposed to be protected by.
Indeed there is manifest anxiety and uncertainty on multiple counts, but I opt to sign off with this bit that so reveals so much about our lives at this point in time. On Monday in Karachi a family wanted a conventional funeral bus that various welfare organisations hire out every day. There was a death in the family.
The family faced a huge problem in getting a bus as each organisation declined. I don't know what happened and I don't know how they managed space for the grave. Graveyards are also under pressure. Only that we do not focus on them as much. Or as such.
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