Hunger could be a result of scarcity of food due to lack of adequate production following a season of drought. If this type of shortage persists, it could worsen into famine, involving death of human beings and livestock.
Hunger could also be caused by the lack of access to market due to the lack of infrastructure or purchasing power. The world has seen similar catastrophes many times. But it is apolitical to have great concern about hiding the facts.
Knowingly or unknowingly, when governments hide hunger till the toll reaches boundless scales, they risk their very existence. That was what had happened in our country some 42 years ago this year. As if the death of over 200,000 people were not enough The Hidden Hunger film by the BBC’s Jonathan Dimbleby has left a deep scar of inhumanity that chases us wherever we go since that time. Of course, the film’s worldwide impact gained us a huge amount of life saving emergency aids.
The Haileselassie University lecturers and students had campaigned after visiting the hard hit areas and revealing the hidden facts. Books by Professor Mesfin Woldemariam and Dessalegne Rahmato were written and used as references in some of the best Universities in Great Britain. I personally owe them a lot to be able to use their works when I prepared my senior essays at Leeds University.
Celebrities, like Bob Geldof (Sir) and others, had joined hands to sing We Are the World, a song that echoed throughout the world and influenced people to dig deeper into their wallets. Little children were also included in the fundraising campaign by forfeiting their allowances given to them for chocolates. The famous Tilahun Gessese had sung the melancholic outcry of starving children, Way Way Silu, which bleeds our hearts whenever we hear it.
The renowned journalist Berhanu Zerihun had written at least two books roughly translated to Avalanche the Eve of The Revolution and Avalanche Post Revolution. He wrote beautiful stories based on the lives of the victims of the famine.
With the advantage of hindsight, we can confidently say that although Hidden Hunger was the last straw on the camel’s back before the monarchy fell, the dogs had started to bark much earlier, while the camel kept on walking forward. Teachers as well as their associations had called strikes protesting against the “Sector Review” new curriculum. Taxi drivers had called strikes rejecting a fuel price increase of around 10 cents per litre.
Students had demonstrated their opposition by throwing rocks on the city transport Anbessa buses. All these were symptoms and clues of the melting point of governability. The reputable, highly respected and most experienced diplomat, Prime Minister Aklilu Habtewold, and his cabinet resigned from office in a political move that had never been heard of in the modern history of Ethiopia. That decision was simply a game changer.
The parody of merry making and fancy slicing of imported wedding cakes and erecting a graveyard tomb for Lulu, the Emperor’s pet dog, were among the extravagant actions juxtaposed with those other realities on the ground. While some scholars were scratching their brains to point at the causes of the famine, making their research focus on a wide range of subjects like soil degradation and the land holding system, Nobel Prize Laureate, Amartya Sen came up with the logic of the inaccessibility of market due to the lack of transporting infrastructure.
Indeed, there were districts suffering from shortage of food, while farmers in the neighbouring districts were belting winners of those able to shoot bullets through piled heaps of crops lying idle. This time around, however, the food shortage seems to emanate not so much from the lack of infrastructure as such but rather from the inability to acquire food, due to the weak purchasing power of people who find food too costly for the money in their hands.
Imagine the price of a litre of edible oil selling for over 70 Br or a kilo of pounded lentils costing over 50 Br per kilo. How can a low income family survive if cost of living soars up at these rates?
Unfortunately, the drought in the Afar State, which has started killing livestock, seems to be signalling another catastrophe. In contrast, those now in power (reminiscent of the Dergue regime that had tried to copy the Chinese Mao style in political members wearing short sleeved light blue khaki coats and their supporters wearing golf caps, even at assembly halls) can be seen taking fancy awards and rewards and indulging in celebrations of one kind or another.
Ironically, while crisis is looming, some of our FM radio stations such entertainment programmes that are appetizers for alternative recipes that are tantalising and prompt ones to taste at any time, fasting or non-fasting days.
Is our virtue of humanity evaporating out from our values?
I wonder and feel at a loss because it shows our sorry state.
It is said that a special task force headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, has been established to see to the looming crisis and make sure that appropriate measures are taken in good time. Yet, the effort seems to overlook the crisis in urban areas, fuelled by inflation. As this could also endanger the lives of millions, it calls for no lesser action. It should be noted that unfair prices of edibles are nothing but inhuman, and measures, including withdrawal of the cheap money floating in the market, are required.
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