When politicians are angry with another country because things are not going the way they want them to, they like to defame that country as a banana republic.
Of course, the anger is sometimes directed at their own country.
When incited Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in January 2021, former President George W. Bush said: "This is how election results are contested in a banana republic." In Germany, the term is popular with corona deniers, opponents of vaccination and lateral thinkers who like to fly German flags at demonstrations toss with an imprinted half-peeled banana.
At Amazon, such a anger flag made of one hundred percent tear-resistant polyester costs a mere 11.43 euros.
But beware!
Denigrating the Federal Republic of Germany could still be expensive.
Sensitive police officers could confiscate the flag, and if you're unlucky, there's even the threat of an investigation.
In any case, the banana rhetoric has to be used for (alleged) grievances of all kinds.
So it's only a matter of time before she shows up again at some Monday demo.
But where is the so-called banana republic actually located?
They probably place many somewhere in Africa, imagining a pitiful country riddled with corruption and nepotism, where hops and malt are lost.
But not true.
The small, tropical countries of Central America such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama or Honduras originally operated under the term banana republic.
There, the American United Fruit Company, founded in 1899, grabbed more and more land, created networks, bribed politicians, allied with paramilitaries and, above all, gained control of the transport of bananas.
If anyone was corrupt here, it was the United Fruit Company, now called Chiquita Brands International.
Anyone who would like to delve deeper into the subject matter of this banana monopoly should read Mario Vargas Llosa's novel "Hard Years" because it is set in Guatemala and is based on real events.
Right at the start, the advertising executive of the exploitative fruit empire, Edward L. Bernays, tells the assembled board of directors not to delude themselves.
Any attempt to transform the country into a modern democracy would be of great disadvantage to the company.
But what follows from this brief history of the concept?
The banana republics should no longer be offended.
For all those whose blood is already boiling in the veins in view of the expensive winter, a suggestion: cucumber state.