Fake Soup – Invitation to Poverty?

“Fake Soup”

Fake soup (in Romanian Supă Falsă)refers to chicken soup made without meat during the communist regime because we were left on the side of poverty and starvation with food rationing, not because the country didn’t have or didn’t produce enough food, but because it wasn’t in stores, and when a basic food was brought, milk, flour, sugar, meat, people waited in line for hours, and everything was limited, on a ration basis. Food rationing was calculated on the lower side, so that the majority of the population received a minimum of food, enough to not die of hunger.

Fake soup, fake news, fake truth, fake reality, fake world, fake ideology.

I spent my childhood during the communist regime. I still remember very well the food rations, the endless queues, the lack, the little, the setting aside, and the improvisation.

I have to be honest and say that I, as a child, never felt that I was missing anything. I was eating little anyway and I didn’t want what I didn’t know existed or didn’t see. I felt safe in my grandparents’ house where I grew up, but at the same time I always felt the poverty, the insecurity, the fear, and I understood the turmoil and the burden of the times. People had to think about tomorrow and put food aside, saving from the little they had.

A large part of the world has not gone through the communist restrictions, the great poverty, the fear, the censorship, that’s why many don’t understand and don’t know what this means. I think that for this reason there is no concern in the mass of people, or better said, in civilized countries. But now, this is more and more obvious. Everything is planned, and everything is imposed. It is very difficult to accept this change. It’s very hard not to feel like we’re being thrown back into communism, but this time, much worse.

We often eat fake soup. Even after the communist regime fell, we still eat this meal. It wasn’t bad. It was really tasty, and if you didn’t know it didn’t have meat, you wouldn’t even know it. After a while, you get used to it and it seems normal. We always used to joke about it, that we were eating chicken soup without chicken. I don’t know why it was funny, maybe it is easier to get through a dark time, laughing.

We did this with many recipes because when we had one ingredient, we didn’t have the other, so we had to improvise. You get used to less, you get used to the lack, of not having, you get used to the bad, until one day, you get to call it good.

Somehow, if you lived during the communist restrictions, you can’t help but look at what’s happening in the world right now, with concern, seeing the similarities, with fear, that you will be locked again, in a fake imposed regime.

We know well, in what direction the world is going.

All Rights Reserved 2023 DACIANA LIPAI © www.thephotopoetrybook.com – Fake Soup