Inflation? Eat kamote

By Ben Contreras

IS inflation really hurting us? Are prices of basic commodities really soaring to levels that deserve headlines like “Consumers groan as food prices surge”? Well, if the consumers are groaning, I don’t hear it from the poor or the middle class but only from newspapers and individuals out to create an atmosphere of failure by the current administration.

The fact is, all these hullabaloo are old hats. We’ve heard of them during previous administrations which were more political than actual or factual.

Those who didn’t like the sitting president before threw almost everything, including the kitchen sink. When the stocks fell, they blamed the president. When it recovered, they were silent. When the peso weakened, they blamed the president. When the peso recovered, they said nothing.

A hostile media is always any leader’s nightmare. They will have less, if not nothing at all, good words to tell the public. They don’t pick up the good but only the bad.

Prices surge and consumers groan (kuno). Really, but I don’t see it in the lifestyle of the rich, the middle class and the poor. The rich can well afford any price increase of any commodity. The corrupt politicians have no worry of that since government funds are easy for their picking like apples. More often than not, they get away with their sins but maintain the nerve like pots calling the kettles black. The middle class can go about their lives normally for as long as their jobs are secured. While prices go up and down, it’s “tuloy ang ligaya sa ilang boteng beer at sumsuman.” The poor, how do you measure their hardship?

I still have to see the real poor complaining that this and that is no longer affordable. The real poor are those who have been poor all their life that whatever happens outside their world has no bearing at all to them. Why, because whether cheap or not, they can’t afford it just the same. But they won’t go hungry if they till their land or whatever piece of land available to them.

And there are poor people who leave their farms to join the others in the city, migrating from the rural to the urban. They face the uncertainties hoping to find their dreams. Many failed. Jobless, homeless, money less, they join the rest to create a new world called informal settlements. Then, the repercussions, the sad repercussions we hate to visualize and talk about.

Why not talk about how to beat rising prices of commodities instead? With a population at 106 million at last count, rising prices is inevitable. Imagine when our population was 50 million. An increase of three percent per annum means an additional of P1.5 million mouths to feed. Granting the same rate applies today, after one year, we will have 3.18 million more mouths to feed. You think you can stop prices from going up?

Way back in 1969, as a branch manager of Ajinomoto in Butuan, my monthly salary was P280, and I already was the envy of my friends. How much was the peso vis a vis the dollar? Six to one, if I am not mistaken. Gasoline was 23 centavos a liter, a plate of rice in the carenderia was 20 centavos, food like meat at 25 centavos, vegetables at 10 to 20 centavos. Soft drinks was 10 centavos.

When I was sent back to Cagayan de Oro, my salary was more than a thousand. But with the increase in my salary, prices of commodities also rose. That’s the reality.

Please, stop politicizing prices of commodities to criticize a sitting leader. Instead, let us help each other survive the inevitable. Let’s go back to the basics: plant, plant and plant.

Mahal ang bugas. But there are alternatives like corn rice, bananas, kamote, etc. Mahal ang karne. Raise pigs or chickens. Mahal ang utan. Then plant vegetables in your backyard. Mahal ang gasoline. Learn to walk, especially short distances. Menos ang kita. Spend less or only that which are necessary.

Oh, these are difficult things to do. Look at them. They have no job, no money for food and they are the poor? Look at them busy with their cellphones, gossiping with neighbors, playing cars, watching TVs, tongit-tongits lang, puede na. Ang mas kuyaw, drug pa.

Next time, let’s talk about rice.