Knocked For Six

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (page 12)
February 24th, 2011

I get knocked for six at the supermarket. If I want to get shocked these days, I just go grocery shopping. A common phenomenon at the cashier is me trying to hide my stunned expression, puzzled how a bag of necessities can cost so much.

Forget about foreign cheese and pasta ingredients, I’m talking about local fruit, local veggies, local meat. How did the humble banana become so expensive? And no, I’m not talking about the plastic looking imported bananas, I’m talking about the spotted pisang mas and rastali grown on Malaysian soil.

Globally, the price of food has increased. According to the World Bank food price index, there has been a 15% increase in the four months from October 2010. That’s a big jump. The demand for food globally has increased especially with the growth of economies such as China and India. It’s not only growing economies but human induced climate change that has led us to be in this situation. Droughts, flooding, heavy snowfall, cyclones have contributed to shortages in grain, maize and other agricultural goods.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick said last week that food prices globally are at dangerous levels. The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation has marked red the global food market as "critical". Even France has placed food security on high priority in the recent G20 meeting. I would think these were calculated warnings and one to heed. Yet, Malaysian economists boldly stated that we don’t have to be concerned because our economy is doing well and the price increase is "not too significant". Not too significant for whom?

The reality is, when food prices go up, it is not the people who earn a comfortable living that feel the pinch. After all if a bunch of bananas increased by one ringgit, what would that mean to the privileged compared to the majority? The ones who suffer are those that have to count their pennies, who don’t feel the trickle down effect of a stronger stock market or economy but who take on the bout of increasing inflation.

We might be told that food is cheap in Malaysia and we have the privilege of eating out often enough. However, in comparison to local salaries, the cost of living is extremely steep. One does not have to be an economist to know that food prices are not coming down anytime soon, and even if they do, it’s hard for suppliers to reduce their prices.

Food subsidies are helpful but in the long run not conducive either. I understand why there are high taxes on imported goods; the government needs the money to fund its projects. However when we see negligence, wastage and corruption eating away what we pay in taxes, it becomes unacceptable that the price of food keeps on spiralling upwards with little address. We can’t keep tightening our belts.

On the street I live on, there used to be a roundabout with beautiful casuarina trees. It then turned into a traffic light junction, causing a bigger jam. The trees were cut. Then big coloured plastic balls were placed on each corner to decorate the empty space. A few months later, they landscaped and removed the balls. They planted palm trees, removed them, planted flowers, removed them, and this has been going on every few months for the past few years. Who is benefiting from all this landscaping? It is no wonder why Malaysia is rated poorly at 4.4 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

Rising food prices have been one of the main triggers why people in the Middle East have taken to the streets. It is a serious problem globally and does warrant concern.

Natalie doesn’t know much about cricket but is flabbergasted at the rising cost of food and the RM500 price tag to watch cricket at home.

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