When any holiday comes I’m what you can call the fellow who likes to stick to all the conventional rituals that have been in place all through. Some of you might wonder when you hear that pole feel the holiday spirit when they hear the sounds the sheep and kitchen make. Well, you can laugh at your own peril (Peril!), but I’m one of those guys. It is not because people are craving for the meat as many have been fasting for about a month. No, it’s not that. It is about the feeling of uniqueness, the feeling of life after all is worth living despite the doomsday ‘prophesies’ and all the pessimism. Believe me, side by side with the realities on the ground which could sometime drag you up to the final frontier of hopelessness of passim with absolutely no evidence is stopping us in our tracks in many instances.
I’ve previously confessed as being a guy who could be the worst shopper since the guy who tried to sell off the entire Jan Meda for less than one thousand birr. By the way I don’t have the details as for how they nabbed this guy. Maybe no one told him about ‘the back door’ but the sell would have been given the green light. Any ways being the worst shopper there are a couple of friends who accompany me whenever I go out to buy something, even a pair of socks! I think you got the picture.
On the eve of the Ethiopian Christmas I went out shopping with a friend who can bargain until you get all the aches modern medicine knows. He rests his eye on a fierce-looking sheep. Now the merchants were familiar as it has been years since I’ve been buying from them. Their greetings were boisterous as they always were.
“So, how is the sheep market?” my friend asks. They didn’t’ respond promptly like they always did. All wasn’t well on the ‘sheep front,’ so we concluded. Yes, they took their time probably to mellow the blow that was to come.
“It’s expensive;” it is expensive could mean that you’re in danger of passing a meat-less holiday. And what is any holiday in our country without the meat? I mean the veggies are good for all the right things and for a thousand and one things but not for the holiday dish; especially when breaking a fast is involved. Treat a guest who comes to your house on a holiday with veggies and you can see the smile vanishing just like that. “Would you believe it! Those (expletives!) serve me veggies.”
“What do you mean serve! Maybe they were pranking you!”
“Yes they were! Those (remaining expletives!) indeed pranked me! That’s what I’m trying to tell you fools! Could there be any prank more shocking than being served veggies on a holiday!”
Anyway my friend picks out a sheep which, from where I was, looked like it has its entire belly on its back! (You could take that as my idea of taking ‘revenge!’ I could have started some share company with the hard earned money I spent on it! No numbers!)
Did I say I’m taking revenge at the sheep whose belly on the back I didn’t like? It was the best collection from among the flock. Well if the merchants say it’s the gold medal winner and my friend agrees so be it.
“How much is the price?” here too the merchants took their time to respond. And when one finally told us the price the world stopped moving! (Just kidding!)
“Thirteen,” he said. I’ll tell you what his thirteen was all about. He meant thirteen thousand birr! You should give me the ‘honorable mention prize’ for having lived through it.
“What?” It was my friend as I’ve finished all my ‘what’s’ silently. “What do you mean thirteen thousand?” Was my friend combative!
Then the merchants took their time explaining to us that the market was all a mess and that they indeed have given us the lowest price as we were regular customers. They said they don’t know the shots behind the scenes, because what is obvious is that sudden and blood chilling price increases don’t drop out of the blue. There must be some ill-intentioned creatures that must be calling the shots for reasons which largely are pure evil. In a country where merchants and business people who don’t feel they’ve made any profit unless they hit the three hundred and four hundred percent mark there must be powerful forces calling the shots behind the scenes! A friend that evening calls and tells me he was asked fifteen thousand birr for sheep which had far more fur than meat.
Anyway when it comes to sudden, unexplained and unwarranted price increases who are the ones calling the shots behind the scenes!
Wish you all a Happy Christmas!
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 8 JANUARY 2023