It’s not a surprised that people, most of whom are low income earners living below the poverty line of $1.25 per day; continue to form very longqueues to buy bread from Kanilai Farm Bakery, owned by President Jammeh, at a reduced price of D3 per loaf.
There are some people whose special daily routine for this Ramadan is
just to buy bread from the Kanilai Farm.
When they wake up their only work is to go and join the excessive long
queue to buy the bread; sometimes spend hours waiting for their turn.
The original price of bread, as of now, is D5 but due to President Jammeh’s
reported
generosity and love for Gambian reduced the price of bread his bakery to D3
hence people storm there for D2 difference on each bread.
Even when it is only D1 difference people will still make long queues. Gambians are now use to cheap things - whether
it’s of good quality or not, is another thing.
However, this does not mean that Kanilai Farm’s bread is of low
quality. The point here is that due to
rising prices of basic goods, falling value of the Gambian Dalasi and stagnant
earning power of Gambian workers particularly those in the civil service, people
are always going for cheap things that can do similar work as the quality one
with high price. In a nutshell, average Gambians buy what they
can afford not necessarily what is of high quality.
Many Gambians are eating today just to satisfy their hunger not because a
particular food is rich is balance diet.
No wonder why child
malnutrition is on the rise, as some 11 per cent of children under the age of 5
are malnourished in rural areas of the country, presenting a 1 per cent
increase over the previous year, and highest recorded record since 2006.
How can you have more
than 50% of the population living in poverty, struggling to meet their
three squares meals a day not to be going for the cheapest price?
