He counted himself lucky. It was the second fuel queue he was joining that early Sunday morning. He had rushed out of the house shortly after his Subhi, painfully foregoing his usual Sunday morning jist-and-play session with his children. Not even time for breakfast. He and the other early risers had been turned back at the first filling station after almost an hour - no excuses, no explanations, nothing. The hopeful queue merely dematerialised as mysteriously as it had formed.
Silently praying that the second station would dispense long enough to serve him, he joined the queue and then reached for a book he had taken along to while away the tedium.
AT TAWBAH - TURNING TO ALLAAH IN REPENTANCE by Abu Naasir Abdur-Rauf.
Every cloud has its silver lining, he thought with some measure of guilt. But for the fuel scarcity, how else would he have found time to read a book he had bought almost two months before!
Over an hour later, he slowly inched towards the pump and then discovered why the queue had not been moving as fast as he expected. There were a huge number of jerry cans of assorted sizes, colours and designs, their owners aggressiveness almost matching the degree of disrepair of their respective cans. Apparently, nobody cared about the law banning the sale of fuel in cans, as the owners insisted on a preferential right to be served before the cars and even the daredevil motorcycles who also jostled around the pump. They were apparently retailers of the product a new line of sporadic entrepreneurs who had taken a break from their usual occupations, thuggery, bus conducting, may be even trading _ thrown up by the sporadic fuel crises. No doubt they considered themselves lucky to leech on the scarcity of an abundant blessing!
As for the pump attendants, they were only too happy to oblige the hustlers - it was not for nothing though, each Can attracted a premium, depending on the size and the owners' level of aggression. Even motorists were forced to pay the premium as the attendants demanded extra charges which they had unilaterally fixed for the motorists. It obviously didn't matter that most people had abandoned costy beds and disappointed families to spend hours of listless waiting on the queues, or that they were indeed victims of the circumstance.
The attendants collected their 'dues', forcing the stubborn ones who refused to pay to spend more time at the pump, or otherwise shortchanging them in the many other ways that only petrol station attendants know how. It was harvest season for them and they took every advantage. No doubt they would clearly make more money this morning than they would in a whole month of hard work. No doubt they also considered themselves lucky!
As he inched towards the pump, he again wondered, like everyone else what the cause of the problem was, this time. The last time, it was tanker drivers going on strike to protest a state government's seizure of the fuel tankers that the drivers carelessly parked on weak bridges. The tanker drivers obviously considered themselves above the traffic and other laws made for mere mortals. They would immediately go on strike at the slightest provocation, on the flimsiest excuse (they memorably called a strike because a cow broke a truck's side mirror!), throwing the populace into days of pain and misery. To be able to get your way against both government and people all the time; surely the tanker drivers must consider themselves lucky!
But he still wondered why this crises. After all, as everybody knows, his country remained one of the highest producers of crude oil. But as everybody also knows, the country lacked capacity to refine what it produced, and therefore had to export practically everything, which it then buys back at huge premium. As everybody knows; those with the political contacts to quality as importers and exporters literally made a killing from this mindless national incompetence.
The oligarchs in control alone know how much it costs to import refined fuel - they and their minions in government. The public is therefore regularly regaled with tales of how much it cost government to subsidise petroleum products for local consumption, while the importers mount a persistent campaign to force government to increase the pump price for their benefit.
As everybody knows; they occasionally hold back supplies, causing artificial scarcity and all round anguish to make their point. Surely, they could be more imaginative and disclose the cost elements which made up the price. But as everybody knows, they and their minions in government apparently didn't think they owed the citizens any explanation. To be able to exploit a broken system without even the compunction of an explanation, surely, they considered themselves lucky!
Finally, it was his turn and he felt some relief when the old men at the pumps cheerfully hailed him and urged him to 'find something for them. It was on this basis that he rationalised the 'gift' he reluctantly gave them after they had filled his tank. He and his "twin" brother would at least make it to work for the week, and the children will at least be able to go to school and madrasah for the week. All the other worries of everyday living could wait.
The government would make hollow promises of a resolution that they had no idea how to bring about, the politicians would continue to "rebrand" rotten fruits that they wished to pass off as fresh they obviously also considered themselves lucky!
As he drove off from the increasingly chaotic scene, words from The Book rang in his mind: Allaah will never change a grace He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their own selves. He wondered if the national rot, the apparent drift to nowhere, the official deception and individual debauchery, etc, etc, were punishments for a collective failure to repent from crude, refined and other forms of corruption sucking at the very marrow of society, and what the possibility was of light at the end of this national tunnel. Punishment from collective deviation; Grace from collective repentance.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited