VOA标准英语2008年-High Prices Affect Restaurant Owners, Rice Sell

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
22 May 2008

Higher prices are affecting every corner of Africa, from capitals to remote areas.  It is also not only consumers who are being affected¹ but sellers as well.  VOA's Nico Colombant studies the case of a restaurant owner and a rice seller in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance, with additional reporting by Ebrima Sillah.

Restaurant owner Ida Jahateh is frying some fish at her restaurant in the Casamance capital Ziguinchor.

As she moves around her kitchen to pound some spices, she explains the hardships she is experiencing.

She says a bag of rice can cost her up to $35 now, when earlier this year it was more like $25.

A kilo of meat has gone up from $4 to $6.  She now sells a rice plate for $1.20 rather than less than a dollar, because she started realizing she was running her business at a loss.

She says many of her customers now buy just two plates for up to five people.  She says she is very sad that she has been forced to lay off some of her restaurant employees.

She said she had no choice.  She says it is not just food prices going up.

She says schooling² for her children has become very expensive.  She says a schoolbook which used to cost $5 now costs over $20.

She says a pen now costs more than a dollar.

She says she is angry, but she feels there is nothing she can do to make things better.

Because mango season has started, people here have started eating mangoes instead of rice for meals.

The United Nations said today that rice - a staple³ for more than half the earth's population - will remain in short supply on global markets, and poor countries that rely on food imports could see food bills up 40 percent this year after a similar price hike in 2007.

Bulk rice seller Khadim Gueye says rice sales are down a lot.

Speaking at his warehouse⁴, as trucks are making a delivery, he explains that restaurant owners or merchants who used to buy ten bags at a time now just buy five at a time.

He says his business is not as profitable⁵ as it used to be.

He says customers blame rice sellers for higher prices, but he says a seller needs to raise the price a little from what he buys it for, or else, he says, there would be no point in doing business.

He says there are fewer and fewer rice sellers in Casamance because business is so bad, which means less and less rice is coming in.  Gueye says he fears a really bad few months ahead, where less food will be available, because sellers cannot make a profit anymore and buyers do not have money. 

Senegal's government has been trying to initiate⁶ programs to promote more local production of basic items like rice.  But sellers and customers in Casamance say decisions made by the central government rarely affect them, and that all that can save them is world prices going back down, or finding their own ways to produce staple goods locally.

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

3 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

4 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

5 profitable   

adj.有益的，能带来利益的，有利可图的

参考例句：

• That business became profitable last year.那项生意去年变得很赚钱。
• The convention business is very profitable for the hotel industry.承办会议业务能给旅馆业带来很高的利润。

6 initiate   

vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入

参考例句：

• A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
• They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。