BY TEKLEBIRHAN GEBREMICHAEL
Almaz and Bekele grew about four kilometers apart in Addis Ababa, Almaz at Aratkilo and Bekele at Merkato, the latter once the largest open –air market in Africa but now on the verge of becoming a jungle of high –rise buildings with little left of its open –airiness . They both completed their high school in their respective localities, Bekele with very great distinction and Almaz firmly lodged in the middle section of the grade tally.
They met at Haileselassie University (now Addis Ababa University) not physically but campus –wise. The physical meeting soon followed as they both chose to join the Department of Economics. Dr. Stanley, a British citizen of Polish origin, welcomed them with his customary smiles and empathy.
“Welcome to the Department of Economics at H.I.M. Haileselassie University,” Dr. Stanley said.
“Thank you, nice to meet you Sir,” Almaz replied gracefully with great aplomb and fluency.
Dr. Stanley, who spoke perfect English but with an accent, was surprised at Almaz’s near- perfect British accent.
“Where did you two go to high school?” Dr. Stanley asked.
“Me, Menelik II High School at Aratkilo,” Almaz said, and Bekele followed with, “I went to Lulmekonen School at Merkato.”
“Oh! That’s pretty good. In case you need some pocket money to kick off your university studies, I am ready to lend you (not give you) up to 50 birr each,” Dr. Stanley made a generous offer to the freshman entrants. He added, “You probably know that H.I.M. Haileselassie grants every university student a monthly stipend of 50 birr during his/her stay in the university.”
“Yes Sir, we are aware of that”, Almaz said indicating at the same time by body language her acceptance of the loan offer, which at current prices is equivalent to about 2000 birr. Bekele followed suit but he was visibly uncomfortable and clumsy. He shyly looked at Almaz and said rather nervously, “Isn’t it so very kind of Dr. Stanley.”
“Absolutely!” Almaz said turning her head to Dr. Stanley who was beaming with excitement as he took out the cash from his desk drawer and handed it over to the promising couple who he did not know met at his office for the first time.
“Thank you so much, Dr. Stanley. Have a nice day,” Almaz bid the professor goodbye on her own as well as on Bekele’s behalf and they left his office. As they walked out on to the main campus, Almaz said to Bekele: “You don’t seem to be the terribly gregarious and you are obviously rather shy. Why?”
“It is none of your business young lady. You don’t know me well enough to play the shrink game with me,” Bekele retorted.
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Forgive me,” Almaz apologized empathetically
Inwardly envious of her civil and polite response, Bekele was unable to manage his own embarrassment at having overreacted to a legitimate, if personal, observation about his individual behavior. So, he simply walked away without saying anything, which however provided confirmation for Almaz that Bekele was somehow an emotionally immature person.
That they met at Hailesellassie University could hardly be considered a coincidence as that was the only university they could go to as residents of Addis Ababa. That they both chose economics did have an element of coincidence, but meeting at the Department of Economics to see Dr. Stanley on the same day was nothing it not a coincidence. On the other hand, being placed in the economics class was definitely a coincidence par excellence.
During their first lecture on introduction to economics by Professor Eshetu Chole, Almaz proved to be an emotionally intelligent student raising legitimate questions about why domestic service was not included in GDP estimations and articulating these questions in an emotionally intelligent way. Her verbal and empathetic intelligence was very much on display. On the other hand, Bekele’s grasp of Y = C+I+G+(X-M ) the moment Prof. Eshetu wrote it on the black board was incredible and was already mulling over the various functions that could be derived from the simple aggregate expenditure equation.
“Prof. Eshetu, it is a case of blatant gender discrimination that the enormous amount of housework or domestic service done or rendered, of course mostly by the women folks, is completely excluded from national income accounting and the male dominated national economy has always turned a blind eye to this egregious sexist injustice,” Almaz said to the eminent Professor, who replied by saying:
“It is not a matter of sex discrimination. It is just far too difficult to estimate as it is not transacted on the market.”
“But why should it be so difficult. It could be done by applying sampling techniques,” Bekele managed to comment with difficulty.
Almaz did not quite understand what Bekele was talking about and just as she was trying to comprehend the full meaning of his comment, another classmate by the name of Gobeze naughtily asked the Professor:
“Can’t sexual services rendered in wedlock be priced at red light district rates?
Another cheeky guy commented:
“Red light district rates vary from district to district.”
“The average rate could be taken if you know how to figure out averages, but how did you come to know?” Yet another naughty student said.
“Now, stop all that crap!” Professor Eshetu said obviously enraged.
The emotionally intelligent Almaz
took “all this crap” in her stride and said:
“Love and sex in marriage is essentially a mutual exchange of orgasms and it is quite difficult to put a price tag on it,” Almaz said despite the Professor’s emphatic disapproval of resuming the discussion on the issue.
“I will be forced to cancel today’s class if you don’t stop talking crap,” the Professor’s warning this time around was more ominous.
Almaz, realizing the immense interest the sex issue had aroused in the class found herself in her element and continued:
“Professor, maybe it is a good idea to make economics a bit sexy to be able to grasp some of its rather drab and complicated principles and concepts,” Almaz said in her lovely voice accompanied by seductive body language.
Professor Eshetu was unconsciously swayed by Almaz’s mesmerizing voice and the rather congenial jibe she created in the classroom. So, he relented somewhat and asked Bekele by whose mathematical inclinations he was quite impressed, to give his views on the matter. Bekele’s heart pounded as if it was going to jump out of its pericardial sac, but brilliant as he was (remember, he graduated from high school with very great distinction), he thought it a shame not to rise equal to the challenge.So, he said with noticeable speaking difficulty:
“Well, sex in marriage is a mutual exchange of services in the shape of pleasurable orgasms. Hence, it is more like a barter than a pecuniary transaction. But that does not mean services have not been produced and exchanged. Of course, there is bound to be a question mark on the production aspect of the services. There is no doubt energy is expended by both partners engaged in the sexual act, over 100 calories by the male partner and about 70 calories by the female partner. We should, however, remember that the sex organs, i.e. what economists would describe as the means of production, are wonderful gifts of nature like land. So, the basic question we should ask from an economic point of view is whether human labour has been expended and whether this expenditure of labour has produced mutually exchanged services. There is not an iota of doubt that indeed is the case. So, should it be included in the GDP or not? I leave that to the class with the following basic facts : one, human labour has been expended; two, with that labour a composite service called orgasm is produced and exchanged in a barter transaction and three, GDP is aggregate production (output).
Almaz was the first to be up on her feet and scream at the top of her lovely voice,“Wow! Wow! what a beautiful mind!” Then the whole class stood up and the room reverberated with successive rounds of applause. Professor Eshetu was astonished at Bekele’s nearly air- tight line of theoretically logical economic reasoning. The Professor could not help but join in the uproarious applause. However, he did voice his reservations about Bekele’s whole theoretical analysis being practically realized by including sex in marriage as a service value added in GDP. Bekele visibly seemed to have opted to refrain from attempting a response as he was completely overwhelmed by the deafening applause that engulfed him.
In the ensuing silence, Almaz seemed likely to play the role of the usual suspect with her emotionally intelligent techniques. She raised her hand and began to speak as anticipated. Her voice was positively somnolent, banishing any traces of insidious inhibition from intruding on one’s mental faculties. She said:
“What we have just experienced iswitness to the fact that any subject becomes interesting and sweet when laced with a bit of romance and sex. I would like to thank my classmates, especially Bekele and the ones who asked naughty follow-up questions, for trying to make the “dismal science”a bit more sexy and cheery. As for the main issue of our discussion, there is very little doubt that value is created in marital sex and the exchange is in barter form as Bekele explained, but how can you put a price on the so –called composite service? At this point, Professor Eshetu called the class to order and said:“Let’s call it a day. See you tomorrow”, and then as he was walking towards the door, he met Almaz and commented: “By the way, you and Bekele would make a mental intelligenceand emotional intelligence dynamic duo as President andV/President of Ethiopia.”
The Ethiopian Herald 9 February 2021
