The uncle that I mentioned in this column two weeks ago left on the same day as my birthday. It was a bit of an odd feeling because that day is usually all about me. As he was leaving, that day was all about him, too.

We of course did a review of the few weeks that he spent here. He is a bit of a worrier by nature and a pragmatist to the bone, so the changes that he saw in our fair metropolis caused him alarm as opposed to amazement. Most people that have not been here for a while who then slide through the city see other things such as shiny glass and big streets, even streetlights and garbage people. But no, it was not that easy to fool my Uncle who saw a completely different side to the coin.

Throughout his stay here, there was not a day that he did not mention the fact that all these buildings and houses that were being constructed and the outrageous prices for land were going to eventually lead this country into social unrest.
He argued that the few that can afford to build these structures or own the nice cars have created a huge dent in the already enormous class gap. He particularly chastised the Diaspora that bring in foreign currency from menial or dishonest jobs in the West and then come here and make it a point to define themselves to others through what they drive and what sort of a house they live in. Even those that had money locally did the same thing. It was the cars and the buildings.

The majority of the people that were residing in this country were not the urbanites, nor would they be able to afford to be protected by many of the fancy walls that were coming up. Of course, you have to see where he is coming from.

He was arguing his case from a purely outside perspective, although he was applying his experience to it. When you look our daily reality in the depth, his version sounds like cookies and cream. As much construction as is going on in the city, the prices of industrial materials, particularly cement, are no joke these days. Despite that fact, there is still an amazing boom in the industry. I mean it is more than obvious that the locally produced cement just won’t cut it; the other materials that are imported are rising in price because of the increase in oil price in the global market.

Many of the large structures that are coming up are using bank loans to do so, putting up whatever property as collateral. When all is said and done, and all the buildings are up, there will not be enough businesses to be able to fill all of them and repay the loans. In a nation of over 70 million people, the people that can afford to rent the fancy glass windows is very limited.

Neither will they offer permanent jobs when compared to, say, a factory. They do not produce any tangible thing. The money could be better invested elsewhere allowing more people to grow together as opposed to one growing alone. But for now, they sure do make the city look good. Imagine what will happen when the real estate market collapses and there is no one there to buy the buildings so that the banks can get their money back. Granted, many of the people that can afford such sizable debt will probably have more than a single way to repay them.

That still does not deter the banks from putting themselves in risk because were the property market to falter, they would be left with a bunch of buildings on their hands and no one can afford to buy them. As far as I am concerned, this smells like trouble in the air.

I mean people are building western standard mansions in the middle of shanty areas. They are stepping over beggars to eat 100 Br a plate meals. Yeah, all is well and good now, but what about later on down the line?