At 9pm, shops, restaurants and cafes go dark across the city of Cairo, where a stringent curfew has been imposed to mitigate the energy shock triggered by the conflict in the Gulf. The measure may prove difficult to enforce among people accustomed to long, convivial evenings, but the outlook is far from reassuring. Reports from inland areas indicate that petrol stations are running dry, raising fears that the emergency will last longer than expected.
Parts of Africa and Asia appear to be ahead of Europe in confronting resource scarcity. Many decisive measures have already been adopted: a mandatory work-from-home day in Egypt, an additional weekly day off in Sri Lanka, a four-day workweek for public-sector workers in the Philippines, university campus closures in Bangladesh, fuel consumption controls in Myanmar and rolling blackouts in South Sudan.
