UgandAshis 20. Credit crunch

Fort Portal, Uganda, June 9, 2009.

Credit crunch

Credit crunch is a daily event in Uganda. Here when you do not have money for school fees you visit a friend. When you cannot buy food your family will chip in. Extended families and friendship’s keep even the poorest of poor afloat. Uganda has been blessed by Mother Nature, its fertile soil, heavy rainfall and cheerful people can live off their lands. Digging as they call it here is the way to avoid credit crunch. As I see every day in my own garden, drop a seed and before you know it you have a tree or plant presenting you with the choicest and sweetest of fruits.
As I spend 3-4 days in Fort Portal every time the papaya tree has a fresh fruit my boys pretend it is their duty to eat the fruit. Stating the fruit is ripe and I was away they happily munch away. I aim for a papaya this weekend and have selected a juicy specimen to be consumed in fruit eaters delight.

The rural areas are a perfect place to shop for vegetables and fruits. Yearlong the prices are extremely low. Yet in the towns and cities the crunch can be felt. Sometimes the price of items reminds me of the bag of money you need to take in Europe or the USA to buy food. Here in a road side stall you can have a full meal for $ 1.5 dollars (no not a Mc Burger a proper meal with a nice variety of rice, beans, goat, papaya, cassava and sweet potato)

It is political season as the state of the nation was read out by the current president in power since 1986. A few months ago the government declared that the world wide credit crunch would have no effect on Uganda. It is true that we have no foreclosures of subprime mortgages here or banks requiring bags of gold to prop their carrion loving superfluous lifestyle. Yet NGO’s feel the crunch, donor money is rapidly drying up (could it have to do with the lack of seriousness in the government to address their consistent high scores in international corruption classification?) and as a consequence basic provision of ARV’s for people living with HIV/AIDS are under threat.

Yes to believe that endless economic growth is possible is a world view – one that was shattered in the Western world a while ago – yet here it can be stated that Uganda’s economical growth is record high and reaching for new heights. What is worse that in this country that is a true bread basket for the region and potentially for the world there is acute and chronic malnutrition. And that without a guerilla war in the country. Amartya Sen states that it is amazing to see famines happen in this time and age as they are so easy to anticipate.

Uganda may have severe famine issues very soon – yet the government boasts it will achieve record exports of agricultural product over the next years and massive oil field are about to be exploited.

My guard in the mean time sends his entire salary to his family in Arua, Northern Uganda. The price of their staple foods have doubled over the last week and are looking at another doubling. Amongst the reasons extensive droughts and lack of stored food reserves in the country. For president Museveni credit crunch does not exist for and for my guard it means that since he works for me he is broke as he needs to send all his money to support his family.

Namaskar,
Ashis