A long time ago, in a far away land, a Great Leader told his people, who were as poor as church mice: "We will eat grass rather than give in!" The land was called Albania and it was the early Sixties. Enver Hoxha had broken off the alliance with the USSR and Nikita Khrushchev had stopped sending aid, including grain. Albania then turned towards... China. Ever since, "eating grass" has been a proverbial expression for a stubborn kind of pride, and also for the willingness of an authoritarian regime to sacrifice people's wellbeing in the name of "principles" – be it isolationism, Marxism or nationalism.
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