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Cavemen Economics
Shortage? What shortage?
Fuad, Masada’s brother, teaches Liberty about making
torches, and how to start a fire in desert conditions.
While they’re at it, Liberty asks Fuad about economy:
how come there’s never a shortage of fire supplies for
the Cave Tribe?
“In the Pyramid we always have shortages,” she says.
Fuad takes her outside and shows her the repository:
covered with dry wood there are large areas to the
south-east, about 15 minutes walk from the caves. Some
wood suitable for building, the rest for heating and
cooking. To save wood you could use cattle fat, after
simple processing done in one of the small caves. That
oil is also very useful for the torches.
“My father in law, Abu-Samira ["Father of Samira"]
is our expert on processing and storing the oil. It’s
thanks to him that we have oil supplies for the next
two years.”
Fuad shows Liberty the little “factory” of Abu-Samira:
it’s a clean and orderly cave; the process is all
chemical-free, and ducts cut into the rocks collect
the waste materials. Those waste materials, rather
than dumped, are then being recycled as supplies for
tanning, building and hygiene. No single grain is
dumped out of the cave and into the environment.
“I would have never imagined that there’s a
sophisticated factory inside,” says Liberty as they
exit Abu-Samira’s cave shop.
“Isn’t that how it ought to be?” asks Fuad with a big
smile.
To show her how shortage is caused by laziness rather
than real shortage, he takes her to chop some wood.
Little Lafifa insists on coming along and takes a
heavy axe in her hand.
“Gonna be heavy, sweetie,” says Liberty. According to
her Pyramid days education, and books she has read,
children are not supposed to work. Might cause brain
damaged, they said…
Fuad: “We let children work from day one. Even if my
baby Esmeralda took a non-dangerous tool and wanted to
help with something, I wouldn’t stop her.”
Liberty certainly understands, but at the same time
realizes that she still carries false “knowledge”
about work and productivity. “There might be other
such false knowledge pieces,” she contemplates, “and I
should find them all till I’m totally free of
suppressive ideas. And to think that IT WAS I WHO
AGREED to these ideas – not noticing what a stupid
trap I was walking into!”
The three walk over to the wood depository, chop a
large quantity of wood in two hours, and haul it back
to the caves in a simple cart that’s been waiting
there. This would be a week’s worth of heating
supplies for the entire tribe. When she sees how much
has been produced by one guy, an untrained teenager
and a little girl – in two hours of fun – Liberty gets
the simple truth of the matter: IN THE CULTURE
THAT RAISED HER THEY TEACH YOU LAZINESS – AND THEN
COMPLAIN ABOUT SHORTAGES…
This is Saturday Night. At the very same time, while
Liberty and Lafifa are preparing for a sweet night’s
sleep, the Pyramid people ore out by the traditional
bonfires. Joshua’s older sister, a real heavyweight
fatso, sits by the fire that her husband made for her,
devours delicious Shish-Kebab and complains about “how
hard it is to live these days.”
Joshua’s brother in law has been selected to
be her husband, by a Diag-Nose Cards expert who’s been
trained by you-know-who. He, on his part, natters
about the quality of entertainment: “I just went by
fifteen bonfires, they all got such boring music! So
boring I can fall asleep on the sand right now…”
“Take extra work and buy us a TV set from the Zone,
you worthless zero!” grumbles the fatso, thick sauce
dripping across her fat chin, “With your lousy salary…
om-nom-nom… we never have what we need… om-nom-nom…”
“What don’t you have, you fat cow??”
“A garden apartment with view to the Low Sea, you
stupid putz! All my friends have garden apartments…
om-nom-nom… and only I have to live in a fancy
penthouse… non-nom…”
“What’s wrong with a fancy penthouse?!”
“No elevator, you impotent!”
“You chose it, remember? I wanted to live near the
warehouse that we was thinking to buy from your crazy
brother.”
“Crazy yourself! You want me to live near Black Skins?
What do you think I am?”
“Could you for once, stupid cow, could you for once
say something warm?”
“Your ass catch on fire!!!”
Far to the south, inside a cave, side by side stood
Fuad and his Samira, hugging each other. They were
watching Liberty and Lafifa who were already sleeping.
Their faces as calm as the face of oil. Liberty’s arm
hugging Lafifa as they laid on their fur skin bed. In
the corner furthest from the torches, in a
feather-lined cradle slept their baby Esmeralda,
smiling in her dream.
“They are so happy together,” said Samira.
“Certainly. And I’m so proud to see how nicely you
raise our daughters, my gorgeous wife,” said Fuad
kissing her forehead, “Let’s go to sleep.”
“Actually sleep?”
“Not before I taste the fruits of your love, my sweet
Samira.”
“None like you my dear Fuad, I’m proud of you too.”
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