Adil Najam
These photographs were taken at Daata Sahib (Daata Darbar), Lahore, on Sunday, May 4, by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti. The suggested photo description reads:
Pakistani[s] struggle to get a piece of bread during a food distribution outside the Data Durbar mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday, May 4, 2008. World rice and other grains prices have risen sharply this year because of growing demand, poor weather and rising cost of petroleum in some grain-producing countries. Some Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, recently suspended rice exports to guarantee their own supplies.
The current – and future – food crisis (in Pakistan and elsewhere) is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about in my professional life these days. And Daata Sahib is a place I have been visiting for longer than I can remember. Based on this, I can say that had the photographer gone to Data Sahab at just about any time he could have taken such photographs of people who come to get food being distributed as charity by the devotees. That fact notwithstanding, the pictures are poignant metaphors for a food crisis that is real and shows all signs of becoming ever more real for ever more people. And all over the world, including in Pakistan.
In the case of Pakistan, the food crisis comes hand in hand with an energy crisis and in an environment already rife with political uncertainty and extremist threats. Food and energy shortages could become worse this summer. Food shortages do not make a companion to long periods of energy outages (load-shedding). This is a dangerous mix and those currently engrossed in political shenanigans might soon find that their best laid political plans would come to naught if these basic needs remain unmet.
Passions flared by empty stomachs and load-shedding induced restlessness can be a terrible thing.
Are these pictures taken during a rush hour, when people dont make a line and wait for their turn. Free food, the thrill who doesnt want to have some.
No I think “atta” was smuggled or exported for foriegn exchange at high price and energy is being carelessly consumed combined with the world food demand and high oil prices affecting poor countries more.
I am planning to open a franchise branch of the famous international fast food restaurant LANGAR KING at Abdulllah shah Ghazi, karachi.
I believe it will be a successful business and will attract people from both sides of the pul(bridge) if the food crisis gets worse.
wish me luck.
The whole crisis stems from Musharraf’s policies to secure oil pipelines to America at the cost of human lives and starvation.
He is only interested in the huge oil bribes coming into his pocket and cares not for the pain and hunger of his own people. Safe oil pipelines to the West are starving Pakistan.
We must take him down and restore peace and sanity to be able to face this oil crisis, which in trurn generates the energy crisis and the food crisis and will soon become a health crisis.
With regards to the pictures posted. I feel these are irrelevant to post in order to highlight the food shortages. I agree with Roshan, these pictures were taken of devotees who would love to have bit of langar for cure (shifa), but traditionally the greed of extravagance overwhelms there too to have as much shifa as possible!
I suggest the snap takers should visit our utility stores to have nice sights of old women striving hard to get a single packet of flour (ATTA), I bet you will cry regardless how stone heart one could be! I pray perpetrators of such crisis may find no place to rush away from the anger of Allah and be buldozed over! A Chinese had once made corruption in road construction, he was buldozed over the same road upon discovery of corruption. In Pakistan those who discover are buldozed, still I love Pakistan as there is no place in the world that could accommodate people like us, it is only the Pakistan! Long live Paksitan
It is indeed a bad situation. And like you mention, the food crisis at least appears to be a much bigger phenomena than Pakistan.
Adil: How about another post on your take about what’s causing this ?
One hears all kinds of views these days: From the usual suspects (hoarding, greed) to the new one (fields converted to ethanol plantation due to rising oil prices) to the blame-it-on-the-west thesis (the goras have started eating more wheat).
I’m no expert and I don’t know what to believe. But I do have a keen interest in understanding how we seem to have gone from no shortage in one year to a huge imbalance in the next year.
Purely as a non-expert it makes no sense to me. The crop yield could not have gone down so drastically in one year (or did it ?), the population cannot shoot up so unexpectedly and suddenly in one year; people have not changed their dietary habits (unlikely, though of course I have seen no evidence either way).
So what happened ? Has anybody done some real analysis on this and cares to share the findings ? Adil Bhai ?