With the crazy high prices, and with the first week of the holy month of Ramadan, the Syrians’ tables this year are almost empty of Ramadan dishes full of diversity, to be replaced, like the previous years, tables to “fill the hunger”.
Syrians receive Ramadan, amidst the stifling living crises in Damascus and the disappearance of joy in the city, which is experiencing a suffocating crisis of electricity, petrol, cooking gas and price chaos.
The prices of foodstuffs in the Damascus markets recorded an incredible increase, as the price of rice and canned goods increased by 33%, and oils and sugar by 18%, and this coincided with the improvement in the exchange of the Syrian pound.
In the first week of the blessed month of Ramadan, the commercial and local markets witnessed a recession and a slowdown in commercial activity, which had previously been booming due to the increase in demand for foodstuffs, which economists attributed to the low purchasing power due to the harsh living conditions that negatively affected the activity of the markets.
Empty tables!
Maysa.J, the mother of five, bemoans the preparations for Ramadan reception days in the past, as she describes to “hashtag”, from the crowded markets with buyers for breakfast and suhour meals, and families gather at the breakfast table, which was filled with “delicious grilled and fried kibbeh, harraa besbao, harisa, kabsa with meat and maqloobah with chicken decorated with walnuts and almonds, mahashi, and delicious appetizers from Fattoush and various salads”, which she replaced with a dish that “fill in the hunger” of soup, rice with onions, Mujaddara, or burgul, she adds.
She points out that the rituals of Ramadan have changed and lost their old joy, which was a source of happiness and devoid of the good tables that were spread everywhere in Damascus, but it retreated like the rest of the Syrian cities, especially with the decline in exchange rates, and its reflection on prices in the markets.
“Watching for free!”
Maysa continues: “Most of the time my children and I take a simple tour in the market, in order to see the types and varieties of sweets, meats and fruits, in the field of sale … and thank God the watching is still free until now!”
The deteriorating economic situation has affected the living conditions of the Syrians, who receive Ramadan with almost empty stomachs due to the weak purchasing power of the citizens, who are the largest segment of them below the poverty line, according to a report by the United Nations.
World Food Program spokeswoman Jessica Lawson has warned that more Syrians are slipping deeper into hunger, poverty and food insecurity than ever before; and she also told “Agence France-Presse” that the high prices of food and detergents in Syria amounted to 14 times, compared to their prices before the country’s crisis.
She indicated that the price of the food basket approved by the World Food Program had risen by 107%, which is the highest ever recorded.
Syrians’ tables in Ramadan “Just fill the hunger” and “The eye eats from the pictures!”
