SID On-line Dialogue
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Development. Copyright © 2001 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200112) 44:4; 98–116; 020168.
SID On-line Dialogue
Creating Spaces for Poverty Free Futures I VA N A M I L O J E V I C
ABSTRACT Ivana Milojevic reflects on poverty today using a causal layered approach. She asks that we address destitution among ourselves, listen to those among us who are not allowed to speak and travel with them to poverty-free futures. KEYWORDS causal layered analysis; food insecurity; inflation; knowledge; poverty
Confronting inflation, poverty and food insecurity in Yugoslavia
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In 1991 I was standing with my mother at a food store in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. We needed to buy yogurt required by a recipe to finish a dish. It didn’t cross our minds that between my mother, who worked as a senior manager, and myself, employed as an associate lecturer at the university, we would not have enough money to make such a purchase. At that time it was only the cash economy that worked, as personal checks and credit cards were no longer accepted. The prices of all goods regularly skyrocketed overnight as inflation reached the highest ever recorded in history. People were going straight from their workplaces – where everyone received money as banks collapsed – directly to the markets. Delaying your visit to the market by a few hours would cost half of your salary. Our family friend, a gynecologist and director of a maternity hospital, was too busy to go for a couple of days. Eventually, for his half-monthly income, he managed to buy a bar of soap. The interesting thing is that most people did not feel as horrible, depressed or anxious as you would expect. In a situation where we could not afford one yogurt between us, my mother and I could not help but laugh. Running to the market became some sort of national sport. Women ‘competed’ to find out exactly how many litres of juice could be made from one orange (I still have a recipe which makes four to five litres). But at that time we could laugh because we felt that our poverty was temporary. We still had other assets apart from income that we could use. We could still envision a better future. And for some
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Milojevic: Creating Spaces for Poverty Free Futures reason, we stopped comparing ourselves with ‘the West’, as we did in the previous years of relative affluence (a comparison which would give us the sense of inadequacy, apprehension and inferiority). We looked around us and concluded that most people were in the same boat and that, compared to many others, we were still quite fortunate. Times are changing My first thought in coming to Australia when I emigrated some years later was that Yugoslavia would collapse under sanctions. At that time petrol in Yugoslavia could be found only sporadically, but people in Novi Sad could walk to most places, drive bicycles or easily organize car pooling. Other strategies included waiting in queues
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