It is Tunisia's first Ramadan
under an Islamist government, which promised to rein in food prices when
it came to power seven months ago but has yet to do so, and poor
Tunisians are struggling to cope.
“This year everything is
expensive; the prices have hit all-time highs,” complains the housewife,
as she eyes the well-stocked shelves, whose contents remain largely out
of her price range.
“People can only look and go on
their way,” says Aisha, adding that for iftar, the evening meal when
Muslim's break their fast, she is forced to feed her family a plate of
kadhab, any sort of vegetarian poor-man's dish without protein.
Amid the cries of market traders
and the pungent smell of fish, disadvantaged Tunisians wander round the
stalls searching for affordable food.
“One kilo of lemons today, at four
dinars (two euros/$2.46), is eight times more expensive than before
Ramadan! It's a disgrace,” says Souha, blaming the speculators who
profit from the hunger that follows the day-long fast.
“Briks without lemon during Ramadan, there's no point!” she adds, referring to a Tunisian dessert widely-eaten during Ramadan.
Selima, a textile worker, says:
“With my budget of 160 dinars (90 euros) I could get by for the month,
but this year I've spent it all in the first week.”
At the end of April, Prime
Minister Hamadi Jabali pledged to bring down the cost of consumer goods
before Ramadan, but it was a promise that rang hollow as prices
continued to climb.
What is supposed to be a period of
abstinence for Muslims, the holy month often paradoxically leads to a
frenzy of consumer demand and price hikes.
In a bid to curb price
speculation, the authorities deployed monitors, but they have met with
hostility from some traders. Even so, more than a thousand offenses were
recorded in the first five days of Ramadan.
“The government must do what is
necessary to contain high prices and increase salaries, otherwise it
will be punished in the next elections,” says Mohammed, a civil servant.
“What
is more important than allowing people to eat during Ramadan?” he asks,
recalling that last year's revolution, which ousted dictator Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, was sparked by frustration at the poverty and
precarious livelihoods of so many Tunisians.
“People sacrificed their lives. We
have a government and elected MPs, but the prices have not fallen one
iota,” says his wife Nabila, who works in a bank.
The coalition government, formed
after the first post-uprising poll in October, has raised the minimum
monthly salary to around 150 euros, and talks over public and private
sector pay increases are in their early stages.
But for now, the cost of living is
frequently satirised in the media, with newspapers devoting entire
sections to the problem of high food prices and sometimes offering cheap
recipes to help people make ends meet.
“You have to secure a bank loan to
make chakchouka” these days, quipped one radio commentator recently,
referring to a highly popular, spicy dish made of tomatoes, onions, eggs
and peppers.
Tunisia went into recession last
year, and despite recovering in 2012, the economy remains fragile.
Unemployment, which spurred many of the revolutionaries into action,
hovers at around 19 percent.
The Ben
Ali regime repeatedly claimed that less than four percent of the
country's population lived in poverty, but after the revolution it
emerged that this was a gross underestimate, the real figure estimated
at almost a quarter. - AFP
