BOY, look, if wunna doan read the Bible, wunna better start reading it now, hear?
When the Good Book says dat there’s a time fuh evahthing under the sun, it ain’t joking nor mekking nuh kinda sport, hear? It is true, true, true.
Look, I know I talk ’bout this sort o’ thing before but the truth is, I cahn get way from it. I gine have tuh go back and deal wid it a li’l more because it looks tuh me like the time to have has passed and the time not tuh have is here.
I hear somebody tell me dat the World Bank food price index increase by 15 per cent between October 2010 and January this year. Duh say dat ovah the last six months dat duh had a sharp increase in the global prices of wheat, corn, sugar and edible oils. So you would understand dat evahthing gine up. You would understand dat duh gine be more poverty all ovah the world, including right here pon this li’l rock.
Wha’ I cahn understand this at all. We living in some real serious times in trute, tho’. You think um is easy day in and day out listening, watching and reading the bad news ’bout the cost o’ living?
My good Lord, man, wha’ next duh gine carry up?
It look like not too long from now we gine be like the monkeys, eating all the blossoms, young fruit and evah single thing ya plant as duh cahn find nutten tuh eat.
The other day I look in the papers and see dat the people at the electric company was saying dat the electricity gine go up by ten per cent. I make a check pon my telephone bill a couple weeks back and realize dat a ten dollar like it gone on pon my bill.
Gine up higher
Nuh matter how I try each month tuh understand my water bill I can’t, as evah month it come in, it like it gine up higher and higher and all I doing is looking ’round the house all the time, listening and trying tuh hear if I got any kinda leakage or burst pipes in the walls or wherevah else ya could think ’bout.
Doan talk ’bout the gas at all, especially the one ya does put in ya car. Evahtime ya go into the gas station and ask the attendant tuh fill up the tank, when duh done, it does come tuh more money than the time before, which is less than a month. And look, it ain’t tekking ya nuhwhere at all, ya know. From the time you drive outta the gas station, mek two swing rounds and then go home, in two-two’s the needle does drop and the gas does be gone, just so. It doan last nuh longer than a snow cone in a desert.
Another thing is this, whenevah ya go in the supermarket wid a couple o’ dollars in ya pocket and think dat ya gine be able tuh pick up the things dat ya really need. Half the time ya does have tuh pick dem up, check the prices ovah and ovah and there and then make up ya mind dat ya have tuh do be-out um ’cause it too expensive and the piece o’ change ya got in ya pocket cahn make it. So if ya want tuh buy a package o’ chicken, pork and lamb, when ya see the cost o’ the chicken, ya does have tuh cancel the card o’ lamb and pork, then walk ovah tuh the shelf wid the can stuff and pick up a tin or two o’ the cheapest tuna or mackerel.
Doan miss and put ya hands pon dat thing ya does call salmon at all, hear? ’Cause leh muh tell ya, dat even more expensive than the very piece o’ pork or lamb ya just had tuh fling back.
Cahn see why
I really doan know wha’ going on ’bout here, but duh got we good wid these prices and we just sitting down and tekking it just so. I still cahn see why evahthing got tuh be gine up so all the time. I think it is just a lot o’ greed pon some people part.
I was reading some o’ the replies from a NATION reader ’bout these items dat duh say gine be going up and the body was saying dat it really is ridiculous and asking wha’ next we gine do, if we only working tuh pay bills.
Well, I cahn say dat I disagree wid dat body ’cause evahtime I go tuh pay my monthly bills, I does come away wid less and less money than the month in front, which means dat I does have less and less money fuh the few necessities dat I need tuh sustain and keep me fuh the month.
But when ya say A ya does have tuh say B: the fast food places still brekking down wid people evah day – doan mind dat a couple pieces o’ chicken cost almost the same as a whole one. I cahn tell ya why, but I suppose tuh some people it might be cheaper tuh buy fast food than tuh go into the supermarket and shop fuh the same expensive food dat duh still got tuh prepare and cook.
Boy, we better take stock because in Revelation 6 it says dat a time gine come when both a quart o’ wheat and three quarts o’ barley gine sell fuh a day’s wages. Boy, if we doan mind we gine get caught wid we pants down.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
