Banda Aceh flickers back to life as aid competes with market economy
Nine days ago Kamaruddin lost his wife, his only child and three other family members. Yesterday, facing a more immediate struggle tosupport the family he has left, he was back at work at Banda Aceh's Keutapang market selling instant noodles.
There had not been time to grieve, he said. He had little choice. “I need the money,” he said. “I need to meet the daily needs.”
There are thousands of dead bodies still to bury, and it remains a struggle to get food and medical supplies to survivors in areas hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis that battered Indonesia's Aceh province last week.
But even as they deal with the psychological shadow of the disaster, the exigencies of life are forcing the people of Aceh to get back to work. As a result, the economy in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, is slowly coming back to life.
Indonesia's biggest bank, Bank Mandiri, yesterday reopened its branch in Aceh, and the city's stores have slowly been doing the same. Roadside stalls selling everything from the clove cigarettes that are an Indonesian staple to chilli peppers and fresh fruit have sprung up again.
That is largely because the supply chain from neighbouring North Sumatra, cut by the disaster, is working again.
This has helped alleviate fuel shortages, and the roads are busy again with shipments of other goods, bringing down the prices that rose sharply after the disaster. The 1.5-litre bottle of drinking water that cost as much as Rp8,000 (85 cents) in Banda Aceh a few days ago now goes for Rp5,000, though it remains above the Rp3,000 it fetched before the crisis.
At the Lamboro market, Iskandar Darwis said he had been able to earn as much as Rp220,000 by selling stacks of 300 eggs off his motorcycle sidecar as recently as Sunday. “The supply was very limited,” he said. But prices were already coming down by at least 10 per cent yesterday, he said, as more eggs arrived from North Sumatra.
Some prices are coming down for other reasons. Mr Kamaruddin complained that the instant noodles he was selling were competing against mountains of free noodles that had come into Banda Aceh as a result of the relief effort.
He bought a case of noodles yesterday, hoping to sell them by the packet and help feed his family. He was not having much luck. “There are so many free noodles,” he said.
This does not appear to be the result of international aid hitting the market. Much of that is going to refugee camps and survivors in remote areas. In Banda Aceh, independent groups such as Indonesian political parties have set up offices all over the city and have been distributing food, often haphazardly, raising concerns about who is getting what.
There are more sombre forces in the market as well.
At the Lamboro market yesterday, fishmonger Aiyub Putih was struggling to sell the fish he had driven six hours south to buy from aquaculture farms in East Aceh a few days before.
People, he said, “are scared to eat fish. They think there are still many dead bodies in the sea”.
Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat
印尼班达亚齐的街市重现生机
9天前，卡玛鲁丁(Kamaruddin)痛失了他的妻子、独子和另外三位家人。但为了支撑余下的家庭这个更为紧迫的任务，昨天他又回到班达亚齐(Banda Aceh)的Keutapang市场贩卖方便面。
没有时间去伤心，他说道。他别无选择。“我需要钱，”他说。“我需要维持生计”。
上周发生的地震和海啸重创印尼亚齐省(Aceh)。成千上万的尸体还没有掩埋，而劫后余生的人们要获得食品和医疗用品也非易事。
但尽管灾难带来的心理阴影仍笼罩在人们心头，生活的紧迫正迫使亚齐人恢复工作。因此，亚齐省首府班达亚齐的经济正在慢慢恢复生机。
印尼最大的银行Bank Mandir在亚齐省的分行昨天重新开业。这个城市的商店也陆续开张。路边的小摊也再次如雨后春笋般冒出来，贩卖印尼土产丁香叶香烟、辣椒和水果。
这主要归功于，连接邻近的北苏门答腊(North Sumatra)的供应链，在被海啸破坏后又恢复了。
这使燃料短缺的问题得到缓解，装载着其他货物的车辆在公路上源源不断，也使灾后一度飞涨的物价开始下降。
几天前，一瓶1.5升的饮用水在班达亚齐的售价高达8000印尼盾(约85美分)，现在的售价为5000印尼盾，尽管仍高于灾难发生前3000印尼盾的售价。
在Lamboro街市里，伊思卡达?达维斯(Iskandar Darwis)说，上周日他卖掉了装在摩托车跨斗里的300个鸡蛋，挣了22万盾。“供应非常有限，”他说。但他介绍说，随着从北苏门答腊运来更多鸡蛋，昨天鸡蛋的价格至少已跌了10%。
一些货品的价格则因为其他原因下跌。卡玛鲁丁先生抱怨道，他卖的方便面正与堆积如山的免费面条竞争，这些免费面条是作为救灾物质运到班达亚齐的。
他昨天批发了一箱面条，希望能分销出去，以此养家。不过他的运气不好。“免费面条太多了”，他说道。
这看起来并不像是国际援助对当地市场造成冲击。大部分援助物资被送往难民营和偏远地区的幸存者。各独立团体，如印尼各政治党派，在班达亚齐到处建立办事处，并且在分发食品，但往往搞得杂乱无章，令人对其救灾努力的实效感到担心。
市场上也有更多阴影。
昨天，在Lamboro市场上，鱼贩艾维伯?普提(Aiyub Putih)正费力叫卖着他几天前向南驱车六个小时，从东阿齐水产农场买来的鱼。
他说道，人们“现在害怕吃鱼。他们觉得海里仍然有许多尸体。”
