What's for dinner ?

As the rainy season continues (although last week we had hardly any rain at all here), the number of children in the hospital continues to cause great concern. As of this morning, 72 out of a total of 170 patients were children, more than half of them suffering from Dengue fever (see previous posts). The children's ward has 37 beds so you can imagine the difficulties that this is causing. Unfortunately, almost every day also brings more news of childhood deaths in the hospital, and last week two of these also suffered from "gizi buruk" or malnutrition.

Unfortunately, it looks like things are going to get worse instead of better. Recent reports in the Pos Kupang (newspaper for this region) have highlighted price increases in the last few weeks for basic foodstuffs such as corn (increased from RP5.000 for 7 ears to RP5.000 for 5 ears), sugar (increased from RP10.000/kg to RP12.000/kg) and rice and there have been warnings from the Vice-President that the some parts of the country are likely to face food shortages in the coming months. It almost goes without saying that the province in which I live (NTT) will be one of the worst affected. Rice is the staple food for about 230 million people here, many of whom live in an almost cashless environment so increases such as those that have been seen recently cause major difficulties in poor areas. For this reason, the government intervenes in pricing and supply arrangements to make sure that supplies are available at affordable prices to the poorest sections of the community. One of these programmes is called Beras Miskin (given the Indonesian penchant for contractions, more commonly know as RASKIN). However, the programme has lots of problems, as can be seen in this interesting 2005 paper from the World Bank, ranging from poor administration to corruption, which means that much of the help does not reach those in greatest need. The latest available WHO data reports that 20% of under 5s in Indonesia are underweight for their age.

So, the next time you are dithering about what to have for dinner and thinking "Oh, I had that last night", spare a thought for those who struggle on a daily basis to buy just rice for their family and who are worried that they may not even be able to afford that soon.....