Summer of 1985, and the Ethiopian sun bakes my head as I wait for our driver to pick me up from school.
Waiting for mummy to come back from her shopping, I’m hungry and practice my break- dance moves in the living room.
The TV’s on but it’s in Amharic- so I don’t bother to watch.
Mummy’s home!
The cook hefts a sack of rice from her car
and heads for the kitchen.
Dinner’s going to be ready soon-
Yay!
Mummy says the store was selling real cheap bags of rice-
so, why not?
Daddy comes home
We sit for dinner and Mummy boasts of her bargain rice.
Daddy stops eating.
He gets up and walks into the kitchen.
Perplexed- Mummy and I.
Daddy comes back, disappointment clouding his features.
He says the sack has ‘FOOD AID’ stamped on it. Did Mummy not see?
Mummy, aghast, hurriedly removes our plates and tells Cook to make something else “ASAP!”
The news never showed it here on the TV
but our friends in the US sent us video tapes of
the horror, the starvation, the ribs you could count from the comfort of your sofa.
Pasta dinner is sombre as images of bloated bellies on stick thin legs caress the insides of our skulls.
©Vivian Zems
Poets United- Mid-Week Motif- Televised
Ethiopia Famine –
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983–1985_famine_in_Ethiopia
August 14, 2019 at 10:01 pm
Those images weigh on our hearts and consciences. Thanks for this powerful poem, Vivian.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 9:21 am
Thanks Sherry!
LikeLike
August 14, 2019 at 10:19 pm
Oh my gosh, what an experience! I can’t help being glad that you and your family were not in the famine – but how sad and horrifying that food sent to help was diverted like this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 14, 2019 at 10:26 pm
Thanks Rosemary, it was a terrible time. The government made it worse by trying to hide the truth from us expatriates and people in the city. It was a communist country back then- so news could be controlled easily. Life went on as normal in the city.
LikeLike
August 14, 2019 at 10:59 pm
So very sad. I remember the horrifying pictures myself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 9:21 am
Indeed it was
LikeLike
August 14, 2019 at 11:28 pm
Wow! The invisible ways government subverts emergency supplies into making money! Your protagonist (you?) not only witnessed it, but shows us an honest family unwilling to compromise. Bravo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 9:20 am
Thank you Susan😊
LikeLike
August 15, 2019 at 2:54 am
Thank you Vivian for such a wonderful piece of writing that really opened our eyes to life elsewhere and of corrupt governments. Wherever we are we should always be on he alert for scams and cheats like this that a cost the lives of innocent and needy people who have lost hope for a better future.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 9:19 am
Thank you 🙏🏾
LikeLike
August 15, 2019 at 3:14 am
Sometimes governments adopt purposeful silence on certain matters. Vicious. Love how the family reacted to this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 9:20 am
Thanks Sumana 😊
LikeLike
August 15, 2019 at 3:00 pm
You really gave this anecdote teeth, Viv! I like the way you paint a cosy family scene and then pause it to emphasise the horror of the famine in the final line to impress it in the reader’s head.
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 15, 2019 at 10:49 pm
Thanks Kim!
LikeLiked by 1 person