CAIRO - During the days of the recent revolution, many Egyptians co-operated in securing their houses, streets and neighbourhoods against the attacks of thugs and criminals, who had been released from prisons to terrify the public. The aim was to force people to abandon the revolution so that Mubarak's regime could remain in power. Fortunately, some Egyptians were solid enough to confront this challenge by forming vigilance committees in every neighbourhood to secure it against any intruders. In the meantime, other less civic-minded citizens were working on securing their needs of different foodstuffs in anticipation of a food shortage as a result of the revolution. Such practices by some selfish persons, together with the long hours of curfew and the release of thugs on the highways caused temporary shortage of commodities, including vegetables and fruit in the markets due to the producers' inability to reach the selling outlets for their products. That crisis ended peacefully, thanks to the intensive presence of the Army on highways during the days of the revolution, so that order was quickly restored to the market and factories managed to distribute their products. Meanwhile, contradictory official statements about the economic scene and the constant drop in Egypt's foreign currency reserve negatively reflected on the market especially in imported commodities, of which there was an apparent shortage accompanied by price rises. “Continuous fluctuation of prices drive consumers mad so that they argue with shopkeepers over these rises, which they see as unjustified,” said Alaa Moustafa, who is a shopkeeper. Quoted by Al-Wafd opposition Arabic newspaper, Moustafa stated that such basic commodities as rice, sugar and cooking oil, in particular, had continued to register a price rise at the market. This is raising the concern of consumers and shopkeepers alike, with the approach of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, when demand usually rises for these and other food items. Some citizens insist that such market instability is one of the many tricks continued to be pulled by the remnants of toppled regime so as to destabilise society and to coerce citizens into giving up their calls for punishing the former president and his men. 'We do know that Egypt is not that poor so as to fear imminent hunger. It is the counter-revolution that is designed to destabilise society and cause these price rises of different commodities,” said Sawsan Abdu, an employee in the Giza educational administration. Meanwhile, Mona Ibrahim, a homemaker, expressed deep fear of the future and the expected food shortage that might bring hunger to poor and also middle-class people. “Families whose breadwinners are temporary workers are the one that should greatly worry. They don't have stable monthly earnings and their income is greatly influenced by the state of the economy, whether it is stable and flourishing or not” “The money that used to be sufficient to buy some vegetables, rice and oil for cooking a meal does not suffice to buy a single commodity today,” declares Nermin Zaki, an employee at the governmental Investment Authority. Nevertheless, she minimises some attempts to make Egyptians feel scared, noting that “the people after the revolution are totally different from how we used to be before”. “We no longer fear anything and we are ready for all possibilities. If there are some greedy merchants or producers who intend to starve the people by storing commodities to rise prices and make the citizens suffer, they should know that they will similarly suffer,” declared Zaki. Mohamed el-Naggar, a professor of economics at Benha University, attributed the market instability to the counter-revolution and the insecurity that causes economic inflation because of the weak security on roads. El-Naggar also referred to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound by 15 to 20 per cent against the dollar since 2003, proving the negative market impact on the prices of the strategic commodities. In the meantime, the 'Citizens against price rise', a non-governmental movement, has called upon the citizens not to be affected by rumours of starvation and not to store large quantities of goods before Ramadan, which would result in even more price rises. Moustafa Abdel-Aal, a banker, has assured the public of the good state of banking in Egypt and that the noticeable rise in bank deposits and profits can accommodate a rise in demand on foreign funds for the imported commodities.
