i do not remember the exact year but it was after the world war ii when fish traders in britain increased fish prices without justification. it became difficult for most housewives to get food at a reasonable price despite the length of the island’s coasts and the rich seas and rivers with all kinds of fish.
the britons did not find a way to influence fish prices except that the housewives stopped buying fish and was left to rot. as a result the fish prices came down and returned to their previous moderate levels.
this incident remained in the memory of both parties – buyers and sellers – for a long time. this was the striking example of consumer power which can attain the impossible, if brains are put to use without being selfish.
the world media, including the local al-qabas daily, reported that many australian sheep die while being transported to the gulf states, including kuwait, due to exhaustion, heat and poor transportation on a long and arduous journey. australian legislators have called on their government to totally stop exporting live sheep to the region, or at least during the summer months.
in this regard, the australian mp susan ley submitted a bill to the parliament that would gradually stop the trade of live sheep exports to the middle east over the next five years.
if the law is passed, the export of live sheep to the region will be suspended immediately over the coming summer months, with total export halt in 2023. the parliamentarians moved after a disturbing video footage surfaced earlier this year, showing sheep dying in appalling conditions during journeys to the middle east.
the decision will inevitably affect the traders and breeders of sheep in australia and the countries of the region, including kuwait, and will drive these countries to look for other sources or import slaughtered sheep instead of live ones.
the impact of this decision will be negative for the local consumer, who is used to having the australian meat. the prices will rise more by the end of the month of fasting, and more with the approaching of eid al-adha festival, when hundreds of thousands of sheep will be slaughtered as sacrifices, and much of the meat ends up in trash bins, but this is another matter.
to confront the australian decision, which i understand very well, we must abandon our selfishness, be more healthy, and serve a great service to ourselves and our health by reducing our meat consumption immediately, whatever its source.
if only a hundred thousand people share this decision, this will reduce consumption and prices automatically, thus we will overcome the negative impact of the australian decision on sheep prices in the domestic market.
on the other hand, i do not know why the leading clerics in the region, after having become more open to the world, do not issue a great and useful fatwa to reduce meat consumption, reduce sacri- fices at upcoming religious events, and call for sharing in sacrificial events.
if we do this, we shall become good people, loving to the environment and contribute to reduction in meat consumption and negative impact on health, not to mention stopping this unjustified waste of slaughtered mutton, which will inevitably contribute to reducing meat prices in our countries and make us feel more responsible.
we, as citizens and residents, really need to get rid of our laziness, work our minds and do something useful by taking the initiative and stop depending on the ministry of commerce (the mamma government) to intervene and monitor the prices and punish and imprison the greedy traders. the consumer can do much.
the panic that will plague the live sheep market if australia stops sending them to our countries will be another sign of failure, and perhaps a lie of everything that has been said, rumored and propagated over several decades about the scandalous so-called food security, which was used as an excuse to distribute millions of meters of lands free of charge to lucky citizens to raise cattle, but the result is almost naught.