Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread ? The Politics of Flour in Hashemite Jordan
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Très intéressant article sur les projets de réduction des subventions sur la farine en Jordanie et leur utilisation politique au détriment des réfugiés (syriens en l’occurence)
In an attempt to enhance regime legitimacy and popularity, key officials have been deploying a worryingly exclusionary nationalism. Just over a month ago, Prime Minister Ensour stressed that the bread subsidy will continue, but only for Jordanians, all in a bid to curb what he describes as “the wastage of bread” in the country. Under the cabinet’s initial plan, the subsidy would only apply to bread, rather than flour, and all Jordanian citizens with valid identity cards would be given a smart card with cash compensation for the difference between subsidized and market prices. This plan would not halt the allotment of government support to those social classes that need it least, as there is no income-level qualification similar to the fuel subsidy re-imbursement. It seeks instead to tug at the purse strings of the Kingdom’s citizens, off-put and resentful at the rising property and food prices to which the influx of refugees has undoubtedly contributed. Through such statements, the government hopes to legitimize a political project with unequal economic outcomes. By aggrandizing nationalist values, it hopes to replace the deeper meanings the citizenry assigns to the availability of subsidized bread with attachments to stability, peace and a tolerant (but exclusionary) vision of Jordanian identity. What attempts to counteract the steep price increases of products the government once subsidized may mean for the ballooning number of refugees in the country is an open question.
Like many of his fellow citizens, Ahmad knows well the immediate impact of alterations in government food subsidies. Implicit and explicit in many similar critiques voiced throughout the kingdom are not just a disquieting fear of a declining quality of life and the specter of hunger. Such threads contain a more expansive indictment that goes beyond targeting the economic measures themselves. The price and provision of bread should be discussed openly and constantly Ahmad tells me, “al-‘Aysh is a pillar of our everyday existence, its significance goes far beyond standard political calculations and cannot be decided by those ignorant of our daily struggles.” Ahmad continues, “We have no say in the system except when we protest. Our votes, our approval, our voice is worth nothing except when they seem dangerous.” Ahmad, various bakery owners and the many concerned Jordanian citizens I have interviewed view the government’s rhetoric of improving welfare and extending civil liberties as failing on their own terms. They foresee neither bread nor freedom, only hunger and autocracy.