Hello! I am a 12-year-old studying in grade seven. These days, one of the most common sentences we hear is that, “Everything is expensive!”

Yes, no doubt about that and I also agree. I am sharing an experience and how it just blew me. Today, I went to the market and what I saw really saddened me. I saw many people of all ages, including four-year-olds to frail people over 70 years, begging for food and money. On the other hand, there were people spending so much of their money on stuff that I doubt was necessary.

For instance, I see people buying not just one, but a number of pairs of shoes and sandals, a number of bags and cartload of grocery — spending carelessly on random things without questioning themselves if they really need it or not.

On humanitarian grounds, it is obligatory for us to empathise with the poor and help them whenever we can. And we can always find some extra money for helping others if we carefully look at all the unnecessary purchases we make and cut down on our spending.

Everything has gotten expensive. For instance, the price of petrol has skyrocketed. Many people are unable to afford private transport, thus they rely on public transport, which is in such pathetic a condition that no sane person would ever want to travel in them. But unfortunately, their helplessness makes them do it.

Adding onto that, paper is made out of trees and money is made out of paper. So imagine how many trees are being cut down as we are using so much cash every day.

I don’t know much about politics, but if I was the prime minister of Pakistan, I would spend and invest wisely, cutting down all unnecessary expenses. Unnecessary travel and foreign trips of government officials cost us so much money. I would only travel in case of emergency and instead use technology to remain connected with the world. When the world can work from home for so long and still do business, why can’t our government do the same to reduce the cost of fuel for the long fleet of cars that accompany each minister?

All official functions and parties need to be stopped to save money so that the country does not have to borrow it at high interest from others. When the people are asked to lead simpler lives to handle the economic crisis, the government also needs to do its part.

And lastly, I would like to say that education is very important. But how will people afford good education for the children when they also have to pay the electricity bill, grocery bill, water supply bill, medicine and healthcare bill, which are all so high?

So I say we stand up, once and for all, to make a change, just like the saying “One stick can be broken easily, but a bundle of sticks are hard to break.”

Don’t be silent and watch things go to ruins. We should stand up against these rising prices and anything wrong that we see around us. We cannot live like this anymore, since people are dying from hunger as they cannot afford food. We should not let our country and planet be destroyed.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 30th, 2022