The scoundrels were out in force to make quick bucks out of the people’s misery. One thing that made this holiday season more painful is that the rogues in the business community doubled and tripled the prices of chicken and sheep forcing many to return home empty-handed. Horrendous!
We are seeing the many hidden faces of human beings breaking out of the thin skins. On one side many landlords have slashed the rent of their understanding that they will find it hard to pay rents at a time when business is at an all-time low, with minimal or no activity.
On the other side there are these greedy, never-satisfied cheats who seem to have lost every bit of humanity in them. Asking eight hundred and a thousand Birr for a chicken which looks like it had its last meal on April fool’s day!
It is a great decision to ban raw meat, and raw kitfo dishes in butcheries and restaurants. However, sad to say that the word on the streets is there was a completely ‘underground world’ behind closed doors. There are many of us who don’t think that this is about us too. The precautions are about us as they are about others. Many drinking spots have backdoors though which they take drinkers. I mean that is not only irresponsible; it is the most stupid thing any responsible person could do.
The talk is that the businessmen planned to raise prices and that is exactly what they did” they didn’t raise only the prices; they also probably raised the blood pressure of normally healthy people. Believe me, if there are people smiling these days it is them. Why wouldn’t they! They have practically robbed hundreds and even thousands of people.
Of course, who will have the last laugh is a completely different issue. We are not in situation where the have-nots suffer sleepless nights and the haves go all the way to Dubai or Bangkok to enjoy the sunshine with their loot.
Why would any sensible person spend seven thousand Birr on a sorry sheep with meat probably no softer than the rubber used in making car tire. Ha! Lucky there isn’t some national association of sheep merchants. The guys at The Hague would have found some case to keep them busy, very busy. We are in a sink-or-swim situation. It is said over and again that we’re in the same boat.
We were having this discussion with the driver of this minibus taxi; He was fuming about the five-thousand Birr fine for breaking the rules stipulated the emergency guidelines.
“Do they think we’re rich?” Well, it wasn’t about being rich or not, was it! It was about the rule of law. Simple, as simple comes. Look the rule of law has been a crucial issue I this country over the past couple of years. Many of us have developed this idea that we can mess things up and no one was to come after us. The cabbie was probably on that same train full of us who act as if there was nothing as ‘rule of law’ or ‘rule of anything.’
At first a couple of passengers tried to convince him that measures were being taken to protect all of us including him and his family. He was having none of that. It was impossible to pump any sense in him. He even said not only the traffic police but everyone was after cabbies! Hmm; as strange as it was, how he came to that conclusion, only God knows. Incidentally you are quite a number of these days who think the world is out to get us! For what? Well, that is one question you were not supposed to ask. The conversation becomes so tense things could snap any time. They did.
Someone suggested that any driver breaking the emergency rules should have his license revoked for a year. That’s when things got ugly; I mean, real ugly! The driver goes into a tirade calling the gentleman names… names vicious enough to make some revolutionary out of the meekest of mortals. Taking things a few more steps in the wrong direction the assistant joined: his abusive language was even more callous. In fact you could sense he was gearing up for physical confrontation.
But the guy who made the original suggestion was the humblest guy walking the face of the earth just listened not offering a single word be it in the form of counterattack or defense. We finally reached the place where all of us were supposed to disembark.
Just ten or so meters away there were a couple of traffic cops. The man signals them and they come. He didn’t say a word when one of the traffic cops looked at the driver and exclaimed; “It is that guy!” The story was that the driver has evaded them and he was a wanted guy! Aha; well, he called it upon himself!
The Ethiopian Herald April 24/2020
