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Eritrea
Tyrant Declares Bread & Pasta Luxury Items
Commentary
Berhane
M Tekeste
01
June 2008
It
is the literally crazy and comical news that Eritrea tyrant Afewerki
had declared ‘Pane & Pasta’ luxury items
that got me hitting the keyboards of my pc again today. ‘Pane & Pasta’(bread, pasta) are staple foods in Eritrea.
Hear
ye, hear yea! Got food shortages? Worry no more. Eritrea tyrant
Afewerki just announced an innovative and patented idea: Eliminate
demand for the food items in short supply simply by declaring them
‘Luxury Items’. It works; it’s been tested in
Eritrea!
Just
while Eritreans at home and abroad were still reeling in shock from
the embarrassingly devastating revelations and performance of the
tyrant on Al
Jazeera TV
on the eve of the nation’s Independence Day, they got hit with
yet another bad news right on Independence Day, 24 May 2008: Their
favorite and one of the most affordable staple food, bread &
pasta, is no more.
Tyrant
Afewerki didn’t stumble upon this insane and hilarious idea out
of nowhere. It was the result of his futile attempts to fend off
persistently awkward questions whether or not Eritrea is
self-sufficient in its food supply.
Afewerki
tried to get away with it by blatantly denying that food shortages
exist in Eritrea. To his absolute dismay, denial didn’t work.
He cannot provide the food items in short supply yet in high demand
because his regime is literally bankrupt. He can’t turn to the
outside world for help because he doesn’t want to be
“spoon-fed” and is paranoid about foreign aid: Fear of
being “crippled by foreign aid used as politics and linked with
an agenda of dependence”.
That is certainly the tyrant's personal problem. Otherwise, the tyrant does not have any kind of popular authority and legitimization whatsoever but the barrel of the gun to single handedly decide if, when, and whether the people of Eritrea should or should not seek and receive foreign aid at times of food shortage crises, regardless.
Finally,
out of desperation and with the false hope of getting this monkey
(food shortage) off his shoulders, the tyrant decided to eliminate
the food item in question altogether by simply dismissing it as
extravagance.
To
that end, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of our
Independence Day on 24 May 2008, tyrant Afewerki proclaimed that the
nation’s 118 years old staple food “Pane & Pasta”
is a naïve craving that needs to be done away with. The tyrant’s
crazy rationale: Eritrea is not wheat producing country.
Afewerki's move to deprive the people of Eritrea of their over century old staple food abruptly with just one stroke of his pen is true to his tyrannical modus operandi: The people want what they get. This because by the power of the barrel of the gun he has turned the sovereign state of Eritrea into his private Estate of Eritrea and demoted the sovereign people of Eritrea to his mere subjects. As such, what the people get is decided and determined by the tyrant and the tyrant only, and the people have only to want it, period.
The
local term for the Italian word ‘Pane’(bread) is ‘Bahny’
and the widely used local term for the Italian word ‘Pasta’
is ‘Basta’. Yet, tyrant Afewerki’s conscious,
emphatic, and repeated usage of the Italian term “Pane &
Pasta” was an attempt to inculcate into the brains of gullible
audience that the food staple in question is foreign to Eritrea any
way, hence justification for dismissal.
Now
back to the tyrant’s crazy rationale. Eritrea is not wheat
producing country, hence consumption of wheat products extravagant
until Eritrea turns into wheat producing country? By the same crazy
rationale, Eritrea is not coffee producing country, hence drinking
coffee extravagant until Eritrea turns into coffee producing country?
Eritrea is not oil producing country; hence Eritreans should not
drive cars until Eritrea turns into oil producing country? Eritrea is
not Sogrum (Taf in local language) producing country: hence Injera
(local flat bread type staple food) extravagant until Eritrea turns
into Sogrum producing country? Eritrea is not sugar producing country
either, hence sugar consumption extravagant until Eritrea turns into
sugar producing country?. What a perverted rationale?
Well,
stay tuned. Afewerki’s tyrannical insanity is unraveling
gradually but surely. We have not seen it all yet. With ‘Pane’
declared luxury item, no more long lines for bread, forget Bakeries.
With the ban of Pane & Pasta comes also laying off of Bakery employees until further notice, if at all.
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