Today as a result of overfeeding us for their convenience they have created a severe problem in this country where they have the most number of festivities in the world. As was sung in an old Sinhala song we have got so used to ‘Muhudata datha niyawanawa’ for our needs, we should forget all that and do our own thing and grow and produce what we need here.It is not only during the season that we need food, it is a year round and lifetime requirement. But during the festival season it becomes a hot topic, is it because people are hungrier during that period? No it is because unscrupulous traders make people buy much more than required during these periods, creating bogus shortages.
Festivities anywhere in the world are a thing that makes people gather, wherever people gather ends up in consumption of food. When festivities are around the corner people who are most concerned about them are the traders. They start to horde and create shortages resulting in the consumer paying more for his needs.
This can create quite a headache for a government, even to the extent of it becoming unpopular overnight; they try various methods to overcome this situation, most times without success. Traders are a strong lot with a lot of political clout. The politicians know the traders plight under these conditions, and the importance of making use of these periods.
In a country such as Sri Lanka, with 20 million people, quite a lot can be made just increasing the price of the most important of food stuff (it may be just 10 items) sought during the Sinhala/Tamil new year period.
Some old timers say that when the British ruled us prices during festivities were cheap; it could have been so because the British didn’t want revolting on their hands and used their power to control especially prices of food. Then, since they owned most of the colonies they could move items cheaply from one colony to the other when the need arose.
Today as a result of overfeeding us for their convenience they have created a severe problem in this country where they have the most number of festivities in the world. As was sung in an old Sinhala song we have got so used to ‘Muhudata datha niyawanawa’ for our needs, we should forget all that and do our own thing and grow and produce what we need here.
And, if that does not work; let us get rid of all the holidays, and perhaps, with that the festivities that make the prices go higher and higher in this part of the world, may come down.
The holidays start with the New Year and then begins the 25- 35 days of (lawful) holidays, and other absences from work for various reasons all within the span of 365 days, let’s stop all that and may be the prices will come down.
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