Queue for subsidised bread taken by and copyrighted to Les Parents

There was a little cafe in the wee village I grew up in that offered a ‘clean plate surpise’ for children who finished all the food on their plate. It was a good tactic and the ‘surprise’ ice cream seemed to work with everyone (apart from Lil’ Bro - but that’s a very boring story about the world’s slowest eating child).

Then there was the “There are starving children in the world who would love your food” when those greens were lying around on dinner plates.

Now, chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you have not been to my little village in the Central Highlands, but you are very likely to have heard about the starving children somewhere far away in the world when you were a child.

Recently I was lucky enough to have dinner at a swanky hotel restaurant. It happened to be buffet night so the choice was endless (well, for Cairo anyway): Australian beef, New Zealand lamb, sushi and sashimi carefully prepared by the Japanese chef with produce flown in from afar, mountains of desserts with Swiss chocolate. You get the picture.

It was as I reached for my plate and realised I had to decide what I would eat that it suddenly occurred to me how obscene this was. The world is currently facing a crisis of food. Multiple causes of course, but the end result is rising prices on the international market.

No doubt wherever you are in the world, you’ve noticed that your pint of milk costs more, that a loaf of bread is more expensive than a year ago and that fuel prices are rising. More than likely you’ve absorbed these costs, albeit begrudgingly.

Egyptian’s too have faced price rises over the past year, but the effect is incomparable to what we have felt. According to a World Bank study in 2005, one fifth of the Egyptian population live in poverty with a further 13% just above it. Baring in mind that prices were significantly cheaper back in 2005 and wages (for those that have a job) are not much different, it is probably safe to say that a good part of that 13% have now dipped below too. Add to that the size of the population: the UN’s 2007 estimate is 77 million. All in all, that is about a third of a lot of people.

The problem in Egypt is compounded by essential governmental subsidies on wheat and fuel (amongst other things). So, while the Egyptian people have been experiencing rises, they have not yet felt the full brunt of the international market’s gains. The government, however, has seen subsidy payments eat further into its budget and logically, cannot sustain the situation for ever. In a country where much of the population is dependent on the government, difficult times for all may be ahead.

While I have a curiosity in things such as this and am lucky enough to have had an education combined with experience that provides me with a modicum of understanding about daily life for the ‘average’ Egyptian (ok, who exactly is ‘average’ is an issue in itself) most expats do not. For somebody arriving in Egypt to Maadi or Qatameya, living in a comfortable apartment/villa with a team of staff, getting used to a new country, it is absolutely understandable that life struggling to buy bread that costs about US$0.01 is extremely hard to imagine, even though it’s on our doorstep. It is also not that easy to see as our normal hang out places are quite removed from the subsidised bread queues.

I am not apportioning blame: this is a local problem caused by a global phenomenon. It cannot hurt, however, if those of us who live cheek-to-jowl at least in global terms, offer a little more patience, and perhaps at the very least slightly larger tips, to those who are in our lives and are struggling to eat half decently, while we gorge at the smorgasbord life has given us.