MESSENGER………………………………………
SANDI……………………………………Religious fanatic
STONE……………………………………Rich business farmer
WILLIAM…………………………………Master of the law
VLADIMIR………………………………..Uniform officer
CARLOS………………………………….President
CAIN………………………………………Medical practitioner
COMMON MAN……………………………
This scene opens with Sandi outside the tall Iron Gate. It opens and he walks in after the Messenger.
Messenger: (Leads him to his room)
Sandi : (Follows the Messenger and enters the room shown him. The floor is bear with only a torn mat. There is a lot of heat and he feels thirsty. Goes to the tap at one corner of the room and turns it. It makes a noise but does not cough out water). What is wrong with the tap? It’s not flowing and I’m really thirsty.
Messenger: I noticed.
Sandi: So? Aren’t you going to get me some water instead of standing there doing nothing? Is this how you treat your guests here?
Messenger: Did I hear you say ‘guest’? As far as I know, you never received any invitation from anybody, did you?
Sandi: There I think you are right. I never received any invitation. In that case, I don’t know what I’m doing here. So, I will just walk out that gate just the same way I walked in.
Messenger: (smiles) you are free to go. No one is stopping you.
Sandi: (leaves messenger in the room and heads towards the gate. Gets to the gate. Tries to push it open but it doesn’t. Tries again with all his strength but it still does not open. Walks back to the room where he left the messenger). The gate wouldn’t open.
Messenger: I know that.
Sandi: (surprise) why don’t you go and open it?
Messenger: I didn’t lock it up. You entered after me and the gate closed up on its own, right?
Sandi: (In exasperation) so, who is supposed to open the damn gate?
Messenger: (very calmly) the gate can only open to let someone in. It cannot open to let anyone out. Once you get in here, you can never get out again.
Sandi: And what about you? I met you outside the gate before we walked in here together. Does it mean you have never been in here before?
Messenger: I have but I am different. I can walk in and out because I’m a Messenger. My job is to clarify your doubts in case you feel that your presence in here is unjustified. Are you still thirsty?
Sandi: What a question! The heat is suffocating and I badly need water.
Messenger: You did not send us anything to prepare clean potable water for you here while you were down there. What you sowed down there is what you will reap here.
Sandi: (looking so confused) what do you mean?
Messenger: What I mean is that the kind of life you live in the world below your feet determines where you go thereafter. Did you live a good life while you were down there?
Sandi: I lived a good life.
Messenger: What makes you say that?
Sandi: I prayed many times a day and went to the house of prayer on week days and weekends too. I also did entirely what my spiritual leader told me to do.
Messenger: Saying your prayers regularly and going to the house of prayer was good. But I’m interested in what your spiritual leader told you to do. What did he tell you to do from the moment he became your spiritual leader?
Sandi: My spiritual leader told me that if I wanted to go to that place where all human beings dream of after death, I must die fighting for my religion or for a good course. He also added that dieing for my religion will earn me the crown of a martyr in addition to eternal life. I was promised many virgins in the life beyond.
Messenger: Did you believe that every thing your spiritual leader asked you to do was right?
Sandi: (without hesitating). Yes I believed in everything he asked me to do. He told me and many others that our gaining eternal life depended on how we carried out his instructions to the latter.
Messenger: What did he ask you to do in order to be crowned a martyr and also gain eternal life?
Sandi (Very enthusiastic) First of all, he told us that we had to be the soldiers of our Creator by winning souls for our religion. He also added that anyone who refused to accept our religion was an infidel and instructed us in such a situation to give him or her a deadline to convert or face the consequences.
Messenger: That is interesting. But there is one word you used whose meaning I do not quite master. The word is ‘Infidel’. Can you find a synonym which can make me understand?
Sandi: (remains silent for a while searching through his brain to find an answer) Yes, I think I’ve got it. A synonym could be ‘Unfaithful’.
Messenger: That is wonderful. Now tell me, were those you call infidels unfaithful to you, your spiritual leader, Creator, or your religion?
Sandi: They were, to my religion and spiritual leader who was charged with leading everyone to the Creator.
Messenger: (Smiles) That was a very technical answer. But let me explain something to you. When you were down there and even right now there is still a saying that many roads lead to Rome, right?
Sandi: Right.
Messenger: In the same vein, many roads lead to our Creator. The road that leads to our Creator is called religion. But you are not supposed to concentrate on the road and forget your destination. You concentrated too much on the road which was your religion and forgot the destination which was our Creator. If you had taken up your head once in a while to look at your destination, perhaps you might have realized that the paths others took linked up with yours somewhere. However, if religions are the roads, it does not mean that all of the roads lead to our Creator. Take yours for example, did anybody who belonged to your religion visit the grave and returned to tell you that it led to our Creator?
Sandi: No.
Messenger: In that case, you had no right to impose your religion or way of life on others who did not want to accept it; let alone calling them odd names. Once you cross that bar which marks the boundary between this world and the one you’ve just come from, you account for your deeds alone. No one becomes your mouth-piece. That means that salvation is personal. If you forced someone to do something right and the act was not coming from the heart of that person, then it was useless. My master is interested in what comes from the heart. No one is supposed to force another to get into the Land of Eternal Happiness or Paradise if you want. No one earns a place there through the use of force. Everyone must merit his or her place there and that merit comes only through love, peace sacrifice and service to humanity as well as tolerance while you are in that world down there. All that must come only from the heart and motivated by the freewill of the individual. Tell me something; what did you do to the ‘infidels’ who at the end of your deadline still refused to accept your religion?
Sandi: We either chopped off their fingers or hands or legs or gave them another deadline. If they never complied, we then killed them. That was called cleaning up our creator’s kingdom in preparation for a pure faithful generation of servants.
Messenger: Something still bothers me about those people you had to force to accept your religion and those you had to kill because they refused your religion. Didn’t they have a religion of their own?
Sandi: They had.
Messenger: Then why did you think that yours was more important or the only true one that led to our creator and not theirs?
Sandi: My Spiritual leader said that the only true religion was the one he belonged to and acted as its spiritual leader. He had a dream and it was to get everybody on the surface of the earth belong to our religion either by peaceful means or through the use of force. Besides, there were those who did not have any religion and were pure pagans. What was wrong with bringing them into the light and giving them hope for salvation?
Messenger: There was nothing wrong with bringing people from darkness into light. There was something wrong in the way you went about it. As I said before, they had to move from darkness into light out of their freewill and not through the use of force because my master is interested only in what comes from the heart and done out of freewill. You had no right to impose your religion on others. (Pauses for a while) So, to get people join your religion, you instituted an atmosphere of fear by burning down houses of prayer which belonged to those you considered enemies or pagans. You used explosives in most of the destruction and many people were killed. Was all that really necessary? Must you use force in your desire to save somebody. Must you burn down the houses of prayer of those you considered pagans, infidels or enemies?
Sandi: My spiritual leader said that the only language some people understood better was the language of brutality. That was the only faster means to get people convert to my religion.
Messenger: I know there were men and women who were born in your religion and prayed the same way you did. But they still suffered the same fate you reserved for the so called ‘Infidels’ who did not accept your religion. Why was that? If at the end of the day, even those who belonged to your religion were not spared, who then was safe?
Sandi: We had to kill some of ours because they behaved badly. They housed or provided a hideout for the infidels we gave an ultimatum to. That was a crime our spiritual leader could not pardon because it was an act of betrayal. We had to carry out his wishes.
Messenger: What about the woman doctor and that primary school girl you personally cut their throats? What was their crime?
Sandi: That woman was too stubborn. She was ordered to stop practicing as a doctor and she refused. The job of a doctor was reserved only for men. By refusing to stop, she was indirectly telling us that she was equal to men. That was intolerable. Concerning the young girl, I had to kill her to serve as a lesson to others who disobey our orders. Girls are not supposed to go to school. They had already their task which was well spelt out by our spiritual leader. They are just to make babies, raise them, and take care of their husbands and their homes. Out of those, they were not supposed to aspire for anything else. Those women who go through school tend to argue with men and sometimes openly challenge men. What would have the world become, if there was conflict between women and men? It would have turned up side down. We saw the education of women and the girl child as a threat to world order and most importantly, a threat to our tradition and way of life. So, it was good to stop them when they were still very young.
Messenger: So, by killing them under the pretext of setting an example, do you really believe that you did the right thing?
Sandi: Of course since the Spiritual leader said so. After the executions, many women doctors like her either resigned or fled the country. Many young girls stopped going to school and order was restored. Nothing was under threat again. I think it was the right thing to do. Do you see things differently?
Messenger: Yes, I have a contrary view. When my master made man, He took a rib from the side of the man and it was very close to the heart which He used in making the woman. Taking a rib close to the heart had a lot of significance. It meant that the man had to love the woman. She was not supposed to become an object or slave who had only to be seen and not to be heard. The man has to love her and treat her with dignity. That woman you killed was just continuing my master’s healing mission. She did nothing wrong and was a threat to nobody except your pride. Besides, education of the girl child has never been a threat to any man and any society. You and your spiritual leader created an imaginary threat and were afraid of it.
Sandi: It’s a pity you see things that way.
Messenger: What happened to Penn Khan?
Sandi: He was a very nice boy, I must say. His father was rich and we needed money to keep the spread of our ideology going. We resorted to kidnapping and the parents of any victim had to pay a ransom we asked for against the promise of seeing their loved one again. Penn Khan was really an unfortunate case because we lived in the same neighborhood and he knew me. If I released him after his parents paid the ransom, he would have revealed my identity and I did not want that to happen. I felt terrible killing a twelve year old boy but I did not have many options to choose from. I had to do it. If you were in my shoe, you would have done the same thing.
Messenger: Really, you think? What was the last thing you did before coming here?
Sandi: The infidels were becoming too many. It seemed that when we killed one, fifty others joined them. Some joined them out of sympathy. The worse thing was that they even converted people from my own religion. They even afforded themselves the luxury of building their own houses of prayer. The court even passed a law granting them the right of worship and protection. The culture and ways of life of the infidels in different countries where they were in the majority was not helping matters. Their women danced and walked in the streets naked. They even put on clothes which were meant for men which was intolerable. They put such attires on the internet and people of my religion especially youths copied them. The culture of the infidels was too invasive. My spiritual leader saw it as a threat to our religion. He advised us the soldiers of our creator to take action both at home and abroad. He made it clear to us that we were at war and any of us who died on the battle field would go straight to the house of our Creator because we were fighting a just course. The Creator would then crown us martyrs and give each of us many virgins. So, with those promises in mind, we went out for war. I strapped explosives round my waist and entered the house of prayer of the infidels and blew myself up. I’m sure none of the infidels went out of that house of prayer alive.
Messenger: (Seemingly curious) what did your religion preach?
Sandi: It preached love for the faith, its prophet, the creator and fellow brothers and sisters as well as tolerance.
Messenger: Don’t you think that your actions went against those fundamental principles which your religion stood for?
Sandi: Not at all. All those who belonged to our religion were loved and tolerated. Those who did not belong to it were enemies and infidels. If they were infidels, they were enemies of our creator and had to be eliminated. We had to do the elimination in the name of our creator who spoke to our spiritual leader in a dream and gave him the command.
Messenger: Can I say something? To me, religion proclaims first love for the Creator and then love for fellow human beings and tolerance for what they are. Isn’t that correct?
Sandi: That is a summary of what I have already told you but you have left out the fact that it has to be for people who practice the same religion.
Messenger: I have the impression that our conversation will have no end. Let’s leave that one aside for a while. What happened to Thomason Jose?
Sandi: He was an infidel and wanted to get married to a woman who belongs to my religion. That was an abomination. It was not proper for holy people to be mixing with pagans and infidels. My spiritual leader vehemently condemned it and we made it known to Jose. He was given options to choose from. Option A was that if he wanted to marry the woman from my religion, he had to first of all convert to my religion. Option B was that if he did not want to convert, he had to give up his love for the woman and marry another woman who was a pagan or infidel as himself. He preferred option B but was not prepared to give up the woman who belonged to my religion. There were consequences and he knew them. We had to kill him to teach him a lesson and to deter others who had the intention of following his example.
Messenger: Two grown up people fall in love and decide to get married. You and your spiritual leader take upon yourselves to decide whether they get married or not and you used religion as a separating tool. Who asked you to play such a role?
Sandi: I have the impression that you forget so soon. I’ve earlier told you that my master received instructions from our creator in a dream. He had to prepare people for our creator’s kingdom to come by doing away with pagans and infidels. If he had to allow holy people to hook up with pagans or infidels, how was he preparing people for such a kingdom then?
Messenger: My master made man and woman and asked them to go and people the world. He was by that creating the institution of marriage and blessed it. If two people decide to marry, they should be allowed to do so because they are marrying for the glorification of my master and not for the glorification of your spiritual leader and you. Don’t you think that religion was supposed to be a uniting instead of a divisive factor especially in the institution of marriage?
Sandi: (Remains silent staring at the messenger)
Messenger: Instead of using religion to unite people, you used it to bring separation among them calling some holy people and others pagans and infidels. As far as the institution of marriage is concerned, religion, social status, race, origin and financial conditions are not supposed to be an issue. My master blesses any marriage so long as there is love, honesty, sincerity, dedication and respect of the rule laid down by my master and not your spiritual leader.
Sandi: You seem to be against all what my spiritual leader preached and stood for.
Messenger: I’m not the one who is against it but my master. Now tell me, do you think our creator was pleased with your actions?
Sandi: (with a smile) Of course and he is supposed to reward me by crowning me a martyr and surrounding me with many virgins for my pleasure. So, when are you taking me to Him? I’m itchy to get out of this place. It does not resemble one bit the one my spiritual leader talked about. He painted a picture of a golden city with our creator sitting on a throne with many servants around Him. I don’t think the place is as hot as this one. Please take me there.
Messenger: Have you forgotten so soon? Remember I told you that once you get in here, you never get out again. Well, I’m sorry to inform you that there will be neither a crown nor virgins for you.
Sandi: (smile dries up. looks very worried) .Why do you say that? You are not the Creator, are you?
Messenger: I’m not the creator. I am His messenger. He sent me here to point out your mistakes if you feel that you have no reason to be in here. If He preferred that you come here, it is because He did not approve of your actions down there. He wanted Everyman to do just ten things to make Him happy. His fifth command was that no man was allowed to take a life. By killing so many people and taking your own life, you went against that fifth command which made my master very unhappy. That is not all, by taking your own life; you deprived your son of a father and your wife of a husband. That child and wife were beautiful flowers in my master’s garden and your job was to take care of them to grow. Instead of being a father and husband or the gardener, you abandoned it and were doing what you were not assigned to do. By breaking up marriages in the name of religion, you destroyed the foundation on which my master’s holy family was to be built.
Sandi: Please wait, wait, wait! Are you trying to make me understand that I sacrificed myself for nothing?
Messenger: If you had died in the course of trying to save someone from armed robbers, a wild animal, a ruthless government system, a collapsing building, an oncoming vehicle, that would have been a worthy and noble sacrifice. Your kind of sacrifice was motivated by pride, revenge and the glorification you would get from men. You do not turn houses of prayer into blood baths and you call it a sacrifice. My master was not anywhere in that picture.
Sandi: What are you telling me? Does it mean that my spiritual leader lied to me and many others?
Messenger: I’m afraid he did not only lie to you but he equally misled you.
Sandi: (Unable to stand on his feet) Iif my spiritual leader lied, he should be the one to be punished and not me, right? I was only following instructions.
Messenger: Well, that is the reason why my master endowed each and Everyman with a brain. If you were mentally impaired, that would have been a different story. You had the choice either to use your head and spare the lives of your victims or not to use your head and follow blindly the instructions of your spiritual leader. You decided to follow his instructions to the latter. You called some of your comrades who took their own lives in a huge explosion alongside the lives of thousands of innocent people as martyrs. You sent congratulatory messages to encourage your other comrades who tried to kill thousands but were unfortunate to have been stopped. You called them heroes and used your tongue to motivate the young and gullible minds to join your ranks. That praise for carnage was very disheartening to my master. Converting people through the use of force was wrong. Using explosives to destroy the prayer houses was wrong. In many parts of the world even right now, some of your comrades are still burning houses of prayer belonging to their brothers whom they consider as enemies. They kill thousands in the process. Let me tell you that all those still indulging in such horrible acts would atone for their actions when they leave that world. Landing here is the outcome of your actions while you were down there.
Sandi: So what is this place?
Messenger: It is called the Land Of Eternal Discomfort. If you will excuse me, there is someone who would be knocking on that gate soon.
Sandi: (Stops the messenger as he tries to leave) Please wait, I would want to give that spiritual leader the beatings of his life. You would direct him into this place when he comes, right?
Messenger: I am not the one to direct him here. Where he goes from there depends on him. If towards the end of his days down there he regrets his actions and begs sincerely for forgiveness, our Creator can forgive and take him in. Our creator is very merciful when you ask for forgiveness from the bottom of your heart. But you must do that down there and not here. If you had made good use of the brain our creator endowed you with, maybe you wouldn’t have been here.
Sandi: (surprise) what!!! Our creator would take him in if he regrets his actions and begs for forgiveness sincerely? After all what he has done? I can’t believe it.
Messenger: Oh yes… that is what it is. To you and your brothers down there, once someone has been brandished a criminal, he ceases to be human. He becomes a subhuman or worse still, reduced to an animal stripped of every dignity. He is discriminated upon in all aspects. My master looks at things from a different angle. When He gives sunshine, its rays touch everybody. When He gives rain, it falls on the roof of each and everyone without exception, whether good or bad. That is to tell you that my master’s ways are not the ways of man. He does not want any of his sheep to be lost.
Sandi: (Heart broken and full of regrets) why was our Creator so dormant? I did all those things which I’ve now realized were terrible in his name and he just sat there watching. Why didn’t he do something to stop me?
Messenger: It is not true that he just sat there watching. He did indeed try to stop you.
Sandi: How?
Messenger: Through your son who kept running after you and crying not to go out each time you had to go and carry out your spiritual leader’s orders…. Through your wife who cried most nights complaining of your neglect…. Through your friends and relatives who tried in vain to advice and to talk you out of what you were doing…. And even through your late mother who came to you in your dreams pleading with you to be her once good son again by doing what was right. That is how my master tried to stop you.
Sandi: Can I have some water?
Messenger: You saw already that the tap isn’t flowing and I don’t know when it will. You just have to be patient.
Exit messenger
Sandi: (jumps out of the hot room. Watches messenger as he walks towards the gate. Sees messenger go through the gate without opening it. Falls to the ground).
Curtain
This scene opens with the Messenger leading the new comer in.
Stone: Where are you taking me to?
Messenger: I’m taking you to your room.
Stone: (Looks at the surroundings. Sees the dusty floors, broken windows and doors and collapsing walls) oooh no! This place is not good for me. Even a prisoner would not like this place. What’s worse, the place is unnecessarily hot. I’m going back. (Starts walking back towards the gate. Messenger does not try to stop him. Gets to the gate and tries to push it open. It doesn’t open. Takes a few meters backward with the intention of using his body as a weapon to knock open the gate. First and second attempts fail. Gives up and walks back to where he left the messenger who is now in the company of Sandi).
Stone: The gate didn’t open.
Messenger: I noticed.
Stone: And you didn’t come to help me open it?
Sandi: That gate only opens to let people in. Once in here, you can never get out again. That’s what I was told when I got here.
Stone: (Looks at the Messenger)
Messenger: What he has said is right. Now can we go and see your room?
(With no other word, all three head to the room next to the one given to Sandi. Inside, there is a broken couch with the materials on it torn and old. There is an air conditioner which does not work and is covered by rust. The floor is dusty and untidy).
Stone: (Not happy with what he is seeing). Before I came here, I lived in a big mansion which was all covered with tiles. There were many servants to clean it. No grain of dust could be seen. If I saw any trace, the servant who was supposed to be in charge was immediately fired. The chairs in my sitting room were first class. (With disgust) look at what you have here….a single couch which is old and torn. (To the Messenger) Why did you direct me in here when you knew quite well that your furniture was not up to date?
Messenger: When you were born, you were born with nothing and in the course of your life, you amassed a lot but when you died, you took along nothing. You entered here with nothing and you should be contented that you even have a torn, old couch. You’ve done nothing to earn it. I think you should really count yourself lucky.
Stone: Did I hear you mention the word lucky? I don’t think somebody should be talking about luck in this hole which is not good even for a rat. I had lived through life and have a taste of nice things. I know what is nice and what’s not. This place is not nice. It sucks totally and completely.
Messenger: Well, the choice was yours. You were told when you were growing up that there were two places you go to when you die. The good place was called Land of Eternal Happiness and the other one was called Land of Eternal Discomfort. You were seriously warned about the latter but where you go after you leave that place below your feet depends only on you.
Stone: I’m just from telling you that I was living like a king down there and knew the taste of good things. I wouldn’t have possibly chosen this place. It sucks. No man in his right senses would choose a place like this. If at all I chose this place, I must have certainly been drunk.
Messenger: That is not true. You were not drunk at all. You were in your right frame of mind when you decided to come here. All those who have come here keep claiming they never chose this place. Instead, they accuse me of directing them here. It’s true that no man in his right senses would choose a place like this one but each and everyone is the driver of his or her own life.
Stone: (To messenger) What are you doing here? Did you decide as well to come here?
Messenger: I am a messenger. I was sent here to take care of some people who might be contesting their presence in this place.
Stone: He who sent you did the right thing. I am one of those who can’t remember the day, time or year I decided to come to this filthy place. If you can refresh my memory, I would be really grateful.
Messenger: Well, let me begin with a phrase somebody you knew very well made. He said “All Men Are Born Equal.” By implication it means that all human beings must be treated fairly without prejudice of any sort and with dignity.”
Stone: I disagree with that. He who made that stupid statement was my one time leader. He did not really mean what he said because his actions proved the contrary of what he was trying to preach. He claimed all men were born equal but had men who were forcefully taken from their homelands working on his plantations without any pay.
Messenger: Whether he put into practice what he said or not or did the opposite of what he preached is not the issue here. I am using the phrase because it is very true and suits the purpose for which my master created Man. You consider the phrase stupid. What do you consider stupid about it?
Stone: Where he said that ‘All men are born equal’. That is ridiculous… there are those who must be servants or slaves and others who must be masters. There are those who must be rich and others who must be poor. There are those who must think and make proposals and others who must execute the proposals of the thinkers. There are those that must be loved and others that must be hated. In such situations, you cannot talk of equality. Have you tried to imagine a world where everybody is materially or financially rich? Such a world would be chaotic.
Messenger: (Smiles) I like your explanations. But there is something you’ve said there which is really intriguing and it is that ‘there are those that must be loved and those that must be hated’. Who are those that must be loved and those that must be hated?
Stone: I wouldn’t like generalizations here. I will take myself as an example. When I was down there, I loved those that were like me, rich like me, civilized and belonged to my class. I hated those that were poor, different, uncivilized or inferior.
Messenger: Can I ask you a simple question?
Stone: Please go ahead.
Messenger: From the moment you were born till the moment you left that world, did you eat just one kind of meal day in day out?
Stone: Please come on!!! That question is ridiculous. We had a saying down there that ‘Variety is the spice of life.’ If I ate just one meal all my life, I would have died of constipation prematurely. Anybody who wants to live long must eat varieties.
Messenger: That is something which is well said. Well, my master who made you and me love variety too. That is why he made all those people that you hated because they were classless, poor, different, uncivilized and inferior. What bothers me right now is why you loved variety and my master’s own love for variety had to be such a huge problem to you. By hating them, are you by implication trying to tell me that my master shouldn’t have created them?
Stone: ooohh no!!! I think you are getting it all wrong. I am not against the fact that the odd category was created. On the contrary, it was a good thing people like them were created. For example they made us, the privilege group, feel important and also did the jobs we considered odd jobs.
Messenger: I’m glad you admit that they are important because they are useful.
Stone: There you are wrong again. They are useful but not important. People who look different, poor, uncivilized and uneducated are not important. You see, importance goes with class, respect, wealth, the kind of wife, house, car and kind of school one’s children attend. If one is worshipped by the poor, the importance is even greater.
Messenger: wow!!! I am really marveled. But, what I don’t really understand is where that hatred for a fellow human being was coming from?
Stone: I hated some people who were different from me, who were poor and uneducated. They had a queer way of behaving. You needed to see what most of them did especially those that were uncivilized….they sacrificed some of their brothers and sisters in some stupid rituals and equally ate some of their brothers and sisters as food. Others strapped explosives round their waists and blew themselves up. Who in his or her right senses would do such things? How can one be talking about equally with such kinds of people? How can you expect me to associate myself with those low-lives? That is why we decided to catch them by force and use them on our large plantations as cheap labor.
Messenger: I’ve still not understood where that hatred was coming from. Was it just from the fact that they were inferior, uneducated or had some practices which you considered horrible?
Stone: At first I hated them because they were different, inferior, and so on. But it was that hatred that could give room to sympathy sometimes. What deepened my hatred especially for those that were different was the fact that our stupid representatives in the house of legislation decided to pass some stupid bills which they called the Bill of Rights. By the terms of the Bill, those low lives were granted equal rights as those of us who mattered in the society. The stupid things learned of it and wore it on their heads as caps. (Really outrageous) I couldn’t stand it when my servants claimed rights when I asked them to do things they were already used to doing. They asked for payment for their services which they couldn’t dare to before. The legislators went as far as fixing the amounts we had to pay them as wages. The worse thing was that a good number of those low lives and animals took advantage of the new laws to become influential, right to the extent that they became bosses and could dare look in the faces of their former masters. The one that really choked me was the right granting those animals citizenship. I couldn’t believe that my nationality was given to those things we removed from one forest somewhere. That was all intolerable. I couldn’t just take it lying down.
Messenger: That explains why you created an organization to sort of undo what the legislators put in place. Isn’t that right?
Stone: I had to fight back. Those legislators thought they did what Napoleon left undone but they did not know that they were indirectly killing me with that madness they passed in the name of a Bill. Such an act inspired many other houses of Representatives around the world to do same. I started loosing millions in wealth and capital as labor became too expensive. Some of the fools who benefited from the Bill became rich like us and were helping many of their brothers to become rich as well. They produced what we produced and sold to their brothers. That was part of my market that was taken away. People like us were fast fading to the back ground as the trend continued. In different places where the same bill was passed, rich people there were wailing too. You can see that I was not the only one who suffered.
Messenger: If the cost of labor was too high and your wealth and capital suffered, why did you not try to negotiate with your former workers to give them a percentage of what they produced in place of the money you were forced to pay them as wages?
Stone: Do you know what you are asking me? Negotiating with them would have been begging. How do you want me to stoop so low as to negotiating with people I didn’t even consider human beings? That was definitely unthinkable. I had to find another way out, by creating my organization with branches all over the world to combat the threat that was coming from those low-lives. I put in place the RLGO which stood for the Regain Lost Glory Organization. It had two branches. One branch was strictly military which had to execute our prescriptions and the other was the sensitization branch. I headed that second branch and developed the ideology of the organization. I trained followers who reasoned, acted and saw things the way I did. They had to go out to different parts of the world to spread my ideology. It had to do with the development of hatred for anybody that looked different and the separation of amenities. We could not use the same things with them. Those low lives were enemies and had to be treated as such. We could not succeed if someone who reasoned like us was not in a high place. So we imposed a compulsory contribution to our members and we used the funds collected to sponsor some members who became heads of state and members in the House of Representatives in some countries around the world. The military branch on its part was asked to kill some of the low-lives that had become prominent and also create an atmosphere of fear by burning down their homes and issuing death threats. That way they could not aspire to become prominent or dream of anything great. They had to be contented with what we produced and not to aspire to become producers. They had to remain eternal consumers.
Messenger: Did you consider yourself after doing all that a successful man?
Stone: That is a very good question. Yes, I succeeded to a greater extent. I had a large following both at home and in different countries around the world. Thanks to the actions of the military wing of my organization, some of those low-lives got back into their shells and as a direct result, I regained part of my lost market. Because they could not aspire for higher heights, the changing times forced some of them to come back to me for jobs and I trapped them with loans which they couldn’t pay back. Anybody who couldn’t pay his or her loan was forced to work on my estate until he or she could pay it. I presented the papers of the loans given to them to any government official who came around my estate to see if I was keeping anybody against his or her will. I bought some of government officials outright with money and convinced a good number of them to join my organization. My deficits were quickly covered and my business began booming again. My followers who became heads of state or members of the House of Representatives did a marvelous job. They voted into law my famous principle of separation. There was separate development and separation in the use of public facilities like hospitals and schools. It was abnormal that real people should be using the same facilities as those low lives. In addition, we could do whatever we wanted with those low-lives but if they spoke to us without permission or respect, they were immediately put to death. I think I succeeded largely on that front.
Messenger: Did you at any time try to fit yourself in the shoes of those you considered enemies?
Stone: Why was I supposed to do that? Those were people who wanted to put me out of business and you are asking me if I tried to feel for them? I couldn’t feel for them. I could have feelings only for those who were like me in pain and agony because of the madness of our legislators.
Messenger: Did you believe that there was a creator who created you and I, including those people you call enemies?
Stone: Well….yes. I was told in the house of prayer I attended that there was a Supreme Being who created everything. I don’t know why he had to create those ones that were different, poor, uneducated and uncivilized.
Messenger: So, to you He shouldn’t have created them?
Stone: It was better if He hadn’t created them. Can’t you see that they were pests and trouble makers?
Messenger: But you needed those ‘enemies’ as laborers on your estates as well as a market for your products, not leaving out the fact that you needed them to feel important. You ate the food those of them who were your cooks prepared with their hands. You benefited from their labor which you exploited. You benefited from the natural resources tapped out of the regions the low lives came from. You benefited from the trade between your country and theirs. I would have thought that since you hated them for one reason or the other, you would have kept them out of every picture. I mean… not sell your products to them, exploit their labor, and so on. What would have happened if the Supreme Being hadn’t created them?
Stone: (Scratches his head) Well, if it was for the purpose of labor and market, He had the right to create them.
Messenger: I see…one last question: Did you love your creator?
Stone: What a question… I think it is the same as asking me if I loved my mother. The answer is a big YES. That was the first thing we were taught in school and houses of prayer. I loved my creator very much. He is the ultimate destination Everyman wants to get to. But wait a minute….since I came in here you’ve been bombarding me with questions. Do you have a problem with the way I lived my life?
Messenger: Do you really want to have an answer to that question?
Stone: Yes.
Messenger: Alright… I will give you an answer. I would like you to sit down because I wouldn’t want anything to distract you.
Stone: (walks to the couch. Contemplates if to sit on it or not. Finds the couch too dirty Decides to remain standing)
Messenger: Half bread is better than none. You must learn to love that couch as it is.
Sandi: (walks and sits on the couch).
Stone: (looks at Sandi with a stern expression on his face).
Sandi: (leaves the couch and remains standing).
Messenger: You would remember that somewhere in the course of our conversation, I told you that I could not understand why my master’s love for variety had to become a huge problem to you in the course of your life down there. He created everything you saw including those that you called enemies with love. It was your place to treat all those people and things He created with dignity. My master is very please when he sees that all what He created is treated with dignity. Instead, what did you do? You brandished some enemies simply because they looked different, were poor, were uneducated and had a civilization you considered primitive. Let me tell you that when He created you, He breath into you so that you would have life. He did the same thing with those people you considered enemies or low-lives. Breathing into you so that you could have life meant that He lived in you just as He lived and lives in every one of them. With such a behavior I wonder how you can now claim to have loved my master whom you’ve never seen during your life time when you could not love some people you could see under the pretext that they looked different, poor, uneducated and primitive. Listen, my master measures your love for Him through the love you show to your brothers human beings. By rejecting those people, it was my master, our creator you rejected because he lived in them.
Secondly, when my master’s servants came to you to tell you that all human being were created equal, you grew furious and had them kicked out. When your leaders and some members in the House of Representative passed Bills to make your treatment of the so called low-lives illegal, you referred to them as mad men. They simply wanted to reinforce the wishes of my master. You thought it unimaginable for someone to tell you that you were equal to those ‘low lives.’ And even right now, you are still arguing for the sake of argument. Well I will explain how equal all human beings are.
Stone: I am all ears
Messenger: You are made using the same material….soil of the earth. You are all born of a woman. You are all born with nothing. After living for some time, you all die. After death, your bodies return to the earth where you were taken from. Your blood is red. You all have the ability to speak and reason. You do not choose your parents and do not decide the day you die. All these are what connect you human beings as equals. You refused to see them and focused only on what your eyes could see. You saw and defined them by their poverty, illiteracy and uncivilized nature. It’s true that they looked different, they were poor, they couldn’t read and write but that didn’t in any way cancel the fact that you were all equal in the eyes of my master.
Stone: I don’t see why you keep trying to defend what cannot be defended. Things are so clear for you and me to see that all human beings were not born equal.
Messenger: That is not true. Let me buttress my point with an example you knew so well. Your mother was a business woman who started trading in ice cream ever since you were a child. You grew up to know that ice cream was white because your mother made hers and used only the white color. When you grew older, you picked up a girl friend called Tania with whom you decided to go on a trip. When you got to your destination, it was too hot and you decided to go for ice cream. When you got to where it was sold and requested to be served, you were given ice cream which had a different color from the white you grew up knowing. The one which was given to you had a pink color and you refused to touch it because it was not white. Your girl friend was served with one which had yet another color. Hers was brownish. You called the young man who served you and asked him what he would call what he served you with. He told you that what he served you was called ice cream. But you could not still believe because you had it in your mind that anything ice cream must be white in color. You even tried to stop Tania from eating hers but she was stubborn and urged you to taste yours. When you did, you realized that it was not different from the one your mother made though it had a different color. Do you know why the name of those ones could not be changed from ice cream to something else? It was because the main ingredients remained the same. The color was just a minor ingredient and it was not even the principal ingredient among the minor ingredients. That’s why the taste remained the one you knew though the colors were different. You human beings are like that ice cream having main and minor ingredients which my master used in creating you. You left the main ingredients which united all of you together and concentrated on the minor ones which sort of disunited you. You had the opportunity to taste what was served to you in a different town and after tasting it, you saw that it was indeed ice cream. Did you give the opportunity to those people to prove their worth before brandishing them low-lives?
Stone: Your explanation on the ice cream is very true. But when you try to connect it to us humans, it does not fit. Do you know why? It is because your equality theory does not fit as well. Now tell me something… if our creator created us and wanted us to be equal, he would have made everybody rich. But He didn’t. Why?
Messenger: Have you yourself tried to picture a world where everybody is materially rich? That is a question you’ve asked not long ago. There will be chaos and my master was aware of that and had to make opposites. You would realize that for example the poor were always where the rich were. You could not find a materially rich man without finding many materially poor people around him. You could not find an educated man without seeing many uneducated men around him. You could not find a civilized man without seeing many uncivilized men around him. You could not see a financially rich man without seeing many financially poor people around him. That was no coincidence. It was my master’s design to test your generosity, selflessness and love. You were supposed to use what was given to you, to serve humanity. If you are a rich man and you hate somebody else because he is poor, then use some of that your wealth to make him what you expected him to be. There is nothing wrong in doing that. That was what you failed to do and are still here contesting my ‘equality theory’ as you put it. You yourself just said a few minutes ago that some of those low-lives became prominent as a result of the madness of some of your leaders. If they could become prominent, it means they were endowed with the same creative and managerial abilities as you were. They too went to school and became pilots, doctors, engineers etc. What could you or your likes do that they couldn’t? That still goes to show that you were made equal and endowed with a common ability……reasoning. Do you know why everybody could not be rich? It’s because everybody could not be a doctor, or a business man or a teacher. If everybody were to become a doctor, who would be a teacher, engineer, or pilot?
Stone: (Bends his head and stares at the dusty floor. Opens his mouth to speak but the words do not come out. Remains silent)
Messenger: (Continues) So, my master did not create people and make them materially rich because He knew what creating people and making all of them materially or financially rich would engender. That’s why he made some people different, poor, uncivilized and uneducated. It was out of my master’s love for variety that things were made that way and I don’t see how that was supposed to become a problem to you. (Reflects for while, Smiles uneasily) isn’t it strange that you showed so much love towards animals but couldn’t show some love towards your fellow brothers simply because they were poor or looked different or uneducated? You participated in voting laws protecting the rights of animals but you denied the same rights to your brothers because of some trivial reasons. You were given the right to do whatever you wanted with animals from creation including killing them for food. But you were forbidden to kill your fellow human and it was well spelt out in the fifth commandment. If you can kill an animal for food it means that it is not supposed to be more important than your brother for what ever reason. If you could give rights to animals, what more of your fellow brothers? Up till today, some of the sons and daughters of those you hated because they looked different do suffer all forms of discriminations especially in work places or job offers though they may have the same qualifications, talents or better. Only some jobs that are considered inferior are reserved for them. My master’s heart bleeds when He sees all that. Hating your brother because he looks different, inferior, uneducated or uncivilized is telling your creator that you do not appreciate his own love for variety. In that case, Any Man who hates his brother for whatever reason has a case file to come and face here once he or she crosses that bar that separates this world from the one you just came from. That brings us to your third transgression.
Stone: (Raises the head and stares at messenger but does not say anything).
Messenger: Because you did not consider some of your brothers as human beings, you created an organization through which you tried to undo what my master came down there in person and established. You tried to do away with the one thing the world desperately needed and still needs…love. When my master created man, He gave to him ten commands which He wanted man to carry out so as to glorify Him. It seemed man could not understand the commands and had difficulties practicing them. So after a while, my master decided to come down there in person and during His stay there he decided to summarize His ten commands to just two. The two commands were all centered around one thing only….love. That is, love for Him our master and love for our fellow human being which he sowed in the hearts of men. You tried to uproot it through your ideology of hate and separation which you spread around the world. By doing that, do you know how many people you sent down the path of destruction? Did you ever sit back and think of its impact in human relationship? It almost destroyed what my master established. By planting the seed of love in the heart of Man, my master wanted him to see his fellow kind as a brother, sister, neighbor or friend. And what did you and your ideology do? Your preaching led to the history of lynching in America where killing somebody because he or she looked different became a favorite sport. It also led to the execution of over six million people from the same household in Germany during the second world war, the mass deportation of Chechens in the former USSR out of pure hatred for them, massive killings in the Balkans especially Serbia, the Rwandan genocide, many terrorist attacks around the world etc. In some countries some people kill others for a reason as minute as ‘he or she physically looks different.’ That was not what my master wanted. What He wanted to see was love like the one among a football team made up of players from different nationalities when a goal is scored….the innocent love among children when they are playing. The irony of all what you did was to carry your gospel of hate and separation right inside houses of prayer where the walls of separation, class distinction, social status, race and ethnic differences had to be torn down. The house of prayer was supposed to be a sacred sanctuary where only those who recognized my master in everyone came for worship. The most aching of what you did was that you implanted your seeds of destruction even in the hearts of innocent children. It is a terrible thing to mislead children. It was better you were never born.
Stone: (Raises his head and looks at messenger) That last statement shows that you’ve condemned me already and I don’t think you are in a position to do that. It is our master to come and condemn me.
Messenger: That was not the only disheartening thing you did. The government knew that you were a farmer out to curb hunger but what they didn’t know was that you cultivated more than just crops. You farmed what was used to produce cocaine and marketed it all over the world. You knew the bad and addictive effects of such a drug. You knew that those who consumed that product did not do so for medical reasons but used it to escape from the difficulties of life. Yet you went ahead to make money out of it at the expense of human life. Those who tested it became addicted to it and used it to auto destroy themselves. Men, women, children…. That was not different from suicide and you assisted them by providing what was needed to take their lives. You who provide the destructive ingredients are as guilty as the one who uses them for self destruction. Of course, you were not interested in the bad effects of cocaine but in the money you generated from it. You used it to fund your organization and gave the seeds to others in different countries. Today in many countries, people fight and kill each other over it. Combating the production and consumption of cocaine is proving really difficult. With the advent of technology, some of your followers catch people who look different, execute them, while at the same time, video tape their acts and then post them on the internet. When they leave that world, they would account for their acts. However, do you think my master would be happy with you for doing such things? Yet you want my master to come here? He does not come here. But if he were to come, he would ask you just one question. “What did you do with the children I sent to you?” What would you tell Him? Would you tell Him that you turned them into objects of hate and destruction? Is that what you want Him to come and hear? He will never come here. The fact that, that door opened and let you in is a clear indication that He did not approve of your actions. He created all human beings with the differences which lay only in what your eyes could see and gave them different personalities. You were supposed not to merely tolerate them but love them and never let unity pass you by. That was what you were supposed to do. Did you do that?
Stone: (remains silent)
Messenger: Any man who follows your preaching and hate another man for whatever reason has a case file here in the world beyond to face. When my master came down there he asked Everyman to love his neighbor as himself. That was a divine command and an open door for you to use in entering (pointing) that golden city over there. It was made on the basis that every human person intrinsically commands some respect no matter his or her size, age, race, or position in work or society. Take away that respect and you reduce the individual to a beast. So what you had to do was tear down the walls which might have been erected between you on the basis of color, race, religion, sex, material and economic status. That is to say that the fact that you were an employer was not supposed to make your employee a lesser human being. In the same vein, a house owner should not consider his or her tenants as mere beggars; a house man or wife should not consider her housemaid little less than a slave; a political, traditional, religious or public authority should not bring his or her subjects to the level of mere listeners who are never heard.
Exits the room leaving stone and Sandi
Still in Stone’s room
Stone: (To Sandi) why are you staring at me like that?
Sandi: Because of all what that Messenger said to you. Are you convinced of all the transgressions he said you committed?
Stone: Why do you ask? Is it because I kept arguing? It is in my nature to argue even when I know that what is being said is true. Of course I am convinced. I did all those things he said but it’s too late now to make amends.
Sandi: (Extending the hand) I’m called Sandi:
Stone: (Takes the handshake) and I’m Stone.
Sandi: Nice meeting you stone.
Stone: (Furious) Did I just hear you say nice? What is nice about this encounter? It seems you do not still know what you are in. You are in this hole meant for rats with no prospects of ever getting out and you are talking about nice?
Sandi: (Startled) Hei! Hei! Hei! Brother, I’m not responsible for your being here and don’t see why you want to take it out on me.
Stone: (Calms down) Sorry about that. You know it’s not easy to be living in affluence and within a twinkle of an eye you find yourself with nothing and being forced to answer tough questions. It really makes me nervous. Sorry about that.
Sandi: It’s ok. Since you cannot have what you want here, like what you can find.
Stone: You know quite much about me concerning how I got here. What did you do that landed you here?
Sandi: I did some things which I’ve come to realize were really terrible.
Stone: What kind of terrible things are you talking about?
Sandi: I killed young girls who disobey my orders by going to school and women who were already professionals and refused to quit jobs I considered to be for men. I equally killed people who were not of my religion and members of my religion who collaborated with them.
Stone: What did you have against girl children going to school and educated women occupying posts of responsibility?
Sandi: My spiritual leader told me that girls who went to school opposed their husbands. They were supposed to be seen and not to be heard and education was changing all that. The women who held posts of responsibility became models for others who aspired to become like them. When we asked them to quit their jobs, it was intended to kill the aspirations of those who wanted to be like them. They were a threat to our authority as men and we couldn’t just let that happen.
Stone: …. And those who did not belong to your religion?
Sandi: They were considered as infidels who could not inherit the kingdom of our creator. We had to eliminate them so that only those who were considered worthy were allowed to live. That messenger told me that I had no right to do all those things.
Stone: I disagree with the fact that ALL what we did was wrong. At least we did some dignified things which have to be considered.
Sandi: If your problem is with the word ‘All’, it does not matter. But I think most of what we did was wrong. I think that messenger was right otherwise why are we here?
Stone: (Remains silent for a while in a pensive mood) I think we are brothers in crime.
Sandi: What do you mean by brothers in crime?
Stone: I mean we had a lot in common. We were afraid of anything that was different, we killed people, we wanted to maintain our supremacy and last but not the least, we were all afraid of change and used all the means at our disposal to combat it. But unfortunately change was the only thing that remained permanent. Now that we are speaking, all what we fought to preserve is fast being relegated in to the backyard of history.
(As they sit talking, they can see Messenger and another person pass outside heading to another room).
Sandi: I think we should go and see that guy who has just walked in.
Stone: That’s a good idea. I think we can forget about thirst and hunger if we are constantly busy. Let’s go
They both Exit.
Messenger: (Introduces William to his room)
William: (Enters the room. There is nothing as furniture. There walls are perforated and the floor is very dusty. William goes in reluctantly and stands in the middle of the room peering around with a very disgusting look on his face).
Messenger: That is where you will have to put up.
William: Please, is there no other room better than this one?
Messenger: I’m afraid not. You sent absolutely nothing here for us to prepare for your coming.
Enter Stone and Sandi while Messenger exits.
William: (Looks very afraid and runs to one end of the room) who are you guys and what do you want?
Stone: Don’t be afraid. We are not going to hurt you. I’m called Stone. (Pointing to Sandi) and this is Sandi: We are your neighbors. We arrived here…. (Can’t say when exactly) since there is only continuous day light here, it’s difficult to say when we came. But he came first and I came after him.
William: (feels less threatened and introduces himself). My name is William. When I saw you guys walk in here, I thought you were coming to torture me.
Sandi: Well as you can see, we are not torturers. Did the Messenger tell you why you were sent in here? We all know that you are not happy to be in a place like this. No normal person will.
William: I don’t need him to tell me why I’m supposed to be here. I know why I’m here.
Sandi and Stone: (Surprised…simultaneously) you know why you are here? How?
William: In that world down there, I was master of the law. I knew what was morally right and morally wrong. I was charged with deciding the fate of people who were accused or suspected of committing crimes.
Stone: Are you telling us that you made the conscious decision to come to this place?
William: Not really. Sometimes you know the right thing to do but you fail to do it. Instead you do what you are not supposed to do. It is like wanting to succeed in an academic examination but failing to read. By failing to read in preparation for the exam, you’ve prepared to fail. We humans were made and punished with too many weaknesses. The major ones were those of the flesh and love for material things as well as love for power. Once you allowed those I’ve just enumerated to dominate you, you became disinterested in what was morally wrong so long as you stood to benefit from them.
Sandi: But I thought having the knowledge of what is right and wrong should help you avoid a place like this.
William: Yes I agree with you. But being armed with the knowledge of what is right and wrong is not enough. You would be gravely mistaken if you think that having the knowledge of what is wrong or right would make things easy for you. On the contrary… the more you become aware, the more it becomes difficult. Do you know why? It is because you would have to constantly battle with yourself. Battling means you would try to fight yourself not to seize that power, money and all the many other beautiful things life can offer which unfortunately were there in abundance and my job gave me the opening to grab more, more and more. The temptation was so great and I had to take advantage of it and live life to the fullest. I saw that fighting the temptations for the sake of honesty, honor and moral uprightness as useless and senseless. Anything that was morally acceptable depended on the whims and caprices of those with physical, economic, judicial and political might. I was one of them.
(Sandi and stone are listening with mouths open. They are almost dreaming)
Stone: So what did you do that brought you here?
William: I worked in the courts and had the responsibility to either free or condemn someone everyday that went by. That had to be done after all evidence had been laid down and proven beyond every reasonable doubts. But…
Sandi: But what? You didn’t look for evidence before condemning people?
Stone: (To Sandi) can you be quiet and let him speak? When you keep interrupting him, my thirstiness comes back and I don’t want to think of it when the tap is not flowing.
William: (Surprise and unhappy with what he just heard) what did you just say? Did you say there is no water? I’m really thirsty too.
Stone: If you continue with the story on how you got here, you will not feel it. You were on the point of verifying evidence.
William: Ah yes. I was saying that the evidence presented in court whether true or false did not matter to me. All what mattered was the amount the plaintive had to pay for a case file to be opened and the fines the defendants had to pay when charged. The court premise was never a place where justice was served but a place where a lot of money was made. Nothing went for nothing. I set booby traps for anybody who came into the court premise either to complain or to defend his or herself.
Sandi: What sorts of booby traps did you set?
William: No one had to wear shoes which made noise when he or she was walking in the court premise. Anyone who entered in any office and sat on a chair without permission was asked to pay a fine. Anybody who came in to complain or defend his or herself and spoke without being asked to do so had to pay a fine. No mobile phone had to ring and if it happened even by mistake, there was a fine. I did nothing to publicize my self made rules and regulations. They were out to fetch money for me. Any signature, pen or ink or piece of paper was paid for. All those who worked with me were very happy because they shared all they collected into three parts… one for me, one for the state coffers and the last one for themselves. The court was really a money making institution. I became addicted to money. The more I had it, the more I desired it and the more I reinforced my booby traps to obtain it. I weighed the pockets of any two individuals who came to me with a problem. The one who had more money won the case. There was no justice for the poor. My numerous booby traps sacred many of them from the courts. I had no use for the little salary the government paid me.
Stone: What did you do with all the money you collected?
William: That is a timely question. That is where I was driving to. With all that money, I lived the best life any normal human being could really dream of. I traveled to any country I wanted to, at any time I wanted. I drove in the most expensive cars and built many mansions in my home town. The one I lived in was a come and see. It had a name which eventually became the name of my neighborhood.
Stone: What about those who were already incarcerated and were awaiting trial? Did you use them to make money too?
William: I did not spare anyone. There were thousands who came to court over ten times but I kept adjoining their cases. I wanted them to pay a huge amount of money from which I could have a share. You know, the state had a huge percentage of the fines the courts charged criminals and I had to make mine behind what I charged. Those who were rich quickly got a trial and had their sentences reduced to base minimum. Some simply bought their freedom and got out of prison. For those that were poor, they had their cases adjoined several times. The intention was to get them to pressure their family members to bring money. That’s why some of them could spend up to five to ten or more years in prison without trial. I turned the wives of some of the poor men in prison into mine and had children with them. Some beautiful women who ended up in prison but were poor became my concubines and I equally had children with them. From the last count before I left that world, my children numbered 60. I just couldn’t keep my hands off the ladies. My job really gave me the power and opportunity and I seized it.
Stone: And your wife in all that?
William: I had many concubines outside but they could not replace my wife. She was meant for my home to take care of me and my legitimate children. She cried many days and nights because she wanted me only for herself but I had a contrary view. With money, power and wealth, I considered myself a gift to all women. She ended up developing high blood pressure as a result of my actions. She is still there battling with it. I think it will end up claiming her head.
Stone: From the way you sound, it seems you do not regret coming here.
William: Far from it. Nobody would live a life of affluence and all of a sudden descend into misery and would be happy. My life down there was not the best and I was aware of it. It was a life of vanity because what I had as wealth was acquired through illegal means and the justice I applied was that of money. The power I had through my job as well as the money, made the women flock to me because of what I had and that made the temptation too great. I lacked self discipline and allowed worldly pleasures to condition my way of life and reasoning.
Stone: Were there no protests against the way you did things or managed the courts??
William: There were oppositions. There were protests almost on a daily basis against the amounts one had to pay to lay a complaint or defend oneself or have a document signed. Of course the police was always called in, to disperse the crowds. Those that tried to offer stiff resistance were arrested and I decided their fate. With demonstrations not working, the people resorted to writing petitions. Many of them were sent to the government to have me removed but nothing of that sort happened. Do you know why? It was because the government badly needed me. Those in power wanted to remain there for as long as forever and needed me to help shut up some of those who were eyeing their posts.
Stone: How did you do it?
William: It was quite simple. The government wanted to remain in power by all cost and so became very uncomfortable with the educated class. As a result teachers, lecturers, journalists, philosophers and opposition leaders became targets. Any of them who openly criticized their way of doing things had to either be bought over or killed or locked up in prison for as long as possible. Any aspirant who could not be bought over was sent to me with strict instructions concerning the verdict. I then had to charge him or her with any crime and decide the number of years he or she had to spend behind bars after fabricating evidences or buying witnesses. Very recalcitrant ones were sent to their graves directly and indeed they were in their thousands. For some that I really wanted to make them feel that I had their lives in my hands, I put them on death row and did not tell them when they would be executed. Some of them had to stay for years and I knew the impact on their psychology. It is terrible going to sleep without knowing if that would be your last night alive. That anxiety and uncertainty kills than any poison.
Sandi: If you knew that putting them on death row and not informing them of when they would be executed was too torturing, then why did you do it?
William: I don’t know….may be I enjoyed it. To make matters worse, I informed some of them of their executions only one or two hours before it was carried out. I loved when they were like butterflies in my palm and I could do with them whatever I pleased. I was a product of a system that killed people. Such a system was inhumane and it helped to shape me.
Sandi: I think my methods were better because I did not subject my victims to that kind of torture. I used explosives which killed most of them instantly or a knife to cut their throats and they died shortly after.
Stone: Were there any formal trials for critics of the government and potential aspirants?
William: Only when there were too many eyes on us especially those of the international community and campaigners for the respect of human rights. Most of the trials were done behind closed doors. In most cases, there were no trials. We simply produced documents which the accused merely had to sign with no questions asked. We presented such documents to the international community as prove that the accused actually acknowledged their faults.
Sandi: listening to you, I have the impression that I did not do anything.
Stone: Really… you think? I think what you did was worse.
William: (To stone) What did he do?
Stone: From what I gathered, he allowed a crazy fellow he called Spiritual leader to mislead him into killing innocent girls and women for just being females.
William: Kill girls and women for being females? They wanted a world just for men or what?
Stone: They did not want girls and women to go to school and their reason was that women were going to challenge their authority as men. Those that disobeyed were brutally killed. Besides, they killed other people in the name of religion. If you belonged to another religion, you were automatically an enemy and had to be eliminated. His spiritual leader claimed our creator instructed him to do so and my friend here was one of his greatest agents.
Sandi: (Looking annoyed) you are talking about what I did with a lot of pleasure forgetting about the terrible things you also did.
Stone: You provoked me to do so by comparing what you shouldn’t. By telling him what you did does not mean that I’m any better. What I also did was terrible.
William: (To Stone) What did you do that brought you to this place?
(Stone does not reply immediately and all three remain silent for a while)
Stone: Well, I was a wealthy man too before coming here. I was a farmer who did agriculture on an industrial scale. I forced people to work for me because I did not consider them human beings. I hated them because they were given rights, they looked different, they were uneducated and uncivilized. I personally ordered the deaths of thousands and indirectly caused the deaths of millions around the world through the ideology of separation and hate. I came to learn here that we were all equal and I had to use my wealth to make those I hated what I wanted them to be. (To Sandi) That messenger forgot to say that I made so many people that really looked different from me to hate themselves. I made them believe that if they were not like me, they were not human beings. That pushed millions of them to delve into cosmetic pane-biting which of course had very devastating effects. I created an army to spread my gospel of hate to all nations which resulted in the killing of millions worldwide. (Remains in a pensive mood for while) that was not all, I erected very high fences between me and those I hated so that even their children could not come into my territory to beg. For those that forced their way into my house because of hunger, I had them locked up and fortified my fences with armed guards, wild dogs and barbed wires. At the same time, I used them as my market and exploited their labor. I really frustrated people. . But that one was mild. I was interested in expanding my business and that necessitated more land. So, I seized the lands of the poor communities that settled around my large estates. Those that resisted, I looked for their source of water and contaminated it. That forced them to go and I took over their lands. After claiming the lands, I cut down every tree to make way for the planting of cash crops that would give me a lot of money. There were cries and campaigns against deforestation but that did not mean anything to me. I was a farmer and business man and anything that stood on my way had to be cleared by all means available.
William: That was really cruel, I must say. Goose pimples would cover anybody’s body who listens to all what you did.
Stone: There you are. When you listen to what I did, you forget what you did.
William: Sorry about that.
Stone: (face brightens up) Do you know what that Messenger would have told you if he were here to hear your story?
William: No, can you tell me?
Stone: (Tries to imitate the Messenger) you are here because you did what you were not supposed to do. You were supposed to defend the poor against the rich, the weak against the powerful, the common man against the government and the exploited against the exploiters. Instead you joined the exploiters to exploit those who could not fight for themselves. You were supposed to use your office to serve and not to be served. You were supposed to use your office to make friends especially with the underprivileged but you used it to make enemies and instead to serve, you wanted to make the people feel how important you were. All your life, you served a well to do minority group against a vast majority you were supposed to serve.
Voice of the Messenger: You have spoken well.
(All three run to one end of the room quivering with fear. They can’t see him but can still hear his voice).
Voice of Messenger: Do not be afraid. I am not going to hurt you.
Sandi: (To William and Stone) do you think we can trust that guy?
William: You can see that we really have no choice. We are completely deprived of rights here. We had rights down there and refused the same rights to others. Since we could not feel what those people we subjected to pain felt, we have to feel it now. That guy is the only one we can communicate with now. We have to trust him whether we like it or not. If he has said he is not going to hurt us, we have to take him for his word. So chill guys.
Stone: Before I forget, there is one question which is still troubling my mind. I am here because I was obstinate and blind to see other people as my equals. I was also very obsessed with class and social distinction which made me internally blind. There you can see that there was an umbrella of ignorance which covered my vision. My friend here was misled by someone he put all his trust in blindly. He too was suffering from chronic ignorance. But it was not the case with you. You knew what you were doing and knew very well that it was wrong. Before you came here, didn’t you try to implore the mercy of our creator?
William: I must tell you that I had the visit of so many men who claimed to be servants of our creator. They belonged to many religions but they served me with conflicting messages. The first one that came to me told me that our creator could only forgives transgressions which were committed out of ignorance. Since all the transgressions I committed and still continued to commit long after he left were not committed out of ignorance, I considered myself doomed for ever. Many others came after the first one and told me a different story. Some said that there were some transgressions which could not be pardoned by our creator. I committed some of the transgressions they cited as examples. Yet there were others who came and told me that there were no transgressions that our creator couldn’t forgive but that He could forgive only after certain conditions were met like I going to beg for forgiveness from the men in prison I slept with their wives. That was something I could not do no matter what. I was worried about my reputation. The last thing that finally confused me was science that tried to prove that everything we had down there resulted from evolution. That science theory suit my conscience and it made me less guilty since I did not know who or what to believe. The words of the first servant of our creator who came to me kept echoing in my mind and I knew that I was already condemned. I did try to go to the house of prayer. I knew at least how to pray but failed several times because my restless conscience wouldn’t let me be. As a result, I was gripped most of the time by the syndrome of procrastination. I was finally banished from below there by prostate cancer and I left without begging for forgiveness. (Sighs)
Sandi: I understand your frustration. I came with high hopes of being crowned a martyr as well as to be given so many virgins for my pleasure.
Stone: Where? Here?
Sandi: Yes of course.
(William and Stone explode with laughter to the extent that Stone rolls on the ground. Sandi looks very surprise as he does not see what is funny in what he has said).
Sandi: What is it? Have you guys started loosing your heads?
William: (Still laughing) where did you get that idea from? How can it even cross your mind in a place like this?
Stone: (To William) Maybe we should try to grant one of his wishes by giving him a crown.
William: I think you are right. (Runs out of the room and finds some dry grass which he uses to make a grass crown. Brings it to the room and place it on Sandi’s head. They all bow to him as a king)
Stone: It’s a pity we can’t find virgins around here. But I think half bread is better than none. If you can’t have the virgins, well, you have at least the crown. (Bows again)
Sandi: (With a disgustful look on his face) I dreamt of a golden crown and with the virgins fanning me and bathing me. Not this shit you guys are doing here. You are just mocking me. (Sighs) I think I should go to my room and try to have some sleep.
(Just as he is about to exit, they hear the crackling sound made by the gate).
William: I think someone is to be let in.
Sandi: let’s go and see who it is.
(They all exit William’s room).
At the Gate.
Messenger: This way please.
Carlos: I can recognize that gate. It looks like the one leading into my palace. But I can see only a vast yard with no tiles and the nature of the structures leaves much to be desired. They are not good for human habitation especially for somebody of my rank. Where have you moved my palace to?
Messenger: Nobody has moved your palace. It is still where you built it.
Carlos: Then where is it?
Messenger: It is in the world below your feet.
Carlos: Then what am I doing here? I don’t remember asking anybody to take me anywhere. Someone must have kidnapped me from my palace. (Stops and thinks hard for a while) But how is that possible? I have the best trained guards in the world and kidnapping wouldn’t have been possible. (Thinks and rethinks) How did I get here?
Messenger: Nobody kidnapped you. From the way you are sounding, it seems you don’t even remember what happened to you.
Carlos: It seems I don’t know what happened to me? (Remains silent for a while. Searches his brain again and again) AAAH yes, I was addressing a crowd at the capital city Square when a flying object was spotted heading towards me. The last think I can remember was a huge noise the flying object made upon touching the ground. Could it be…
Messenger: The flying object was a missile and it catapulted you here, not instantly though. You have moved from that world down there to this one.
Carlos: But I didn’t ask to be sent here. Those who used that missile to catapult me here did so without my consent. I want to go back to my beautiful palace. That is the only place where I feel really comfortable and safe.
Messenger: alright, see you soon.
Carlos: (walks back towards to the gate. Murmurs to himself as he does so) My goodness, what a place!!! Even the house of my dog is better than this place. And he is trying to say that we have two worlds we have to live in. If this is the one someone has to leave and come to, then it is of no use. It is better someone remains down there. It seems the president of this place is not a serious man. He has not built a palace worth the name even for himself because I can’t see any good structure anywhere. This place looks like a slum. If I have to accept that nonsense of moving to this next world, what would my people think of me now? I brutally shut up those who tried to say that there was a supreme being some where greater than me. I couldn’t tolerate that and had many of them killed. I am the only supreme one who is the giver and taker of life. My people all know that and I have to keep it that way. This is not possible! If this is the palace of that Supreme Being those foolish religious fanatics talked about, then I think he needs to come to me for some lessons about living in a luxurious house. This place is not good for human habitation. (Gets to the gate. Tries to open it but it doesn’t open. Tries to use force but it does not still open. Shouts to the messenger) Come and help me open this gate. That is an order.
Messenger: (Does not move but remains rooted where he is, just watching)
Carlos: Is this real or I’m just dreaming? Did that guy just disobey me? Down there, nobody could do that without having a knife go through his or her throat or a bullet through the head. (Starts walking back to meet the Messenger) Could it be that power is deserting me? I hate to feel that I’m not in control. (Gets closet to the messenger and stares him straight in the eyes. loudly) Didn’t I order you to come and open that gate?
Messenger: (Remains silent and does not show any reaction)
(Stone, Sandi and William come closer to where Carlos and the Messenger are)
Carlos: If this guy does not want to go and open that gate, you three should go and do it. That’s an order? (They do not move and remain staring at him. Start laughing at him) is this stupidity or outright stubbornness? If Combo was here, all of you would have been dead by now. I would have asked him to take all of you to the guillotine and have your heads cut off for insubordination.
Stone: It seems you don’t yet know where you are.
William: You are in the land of Eternal Discomfort.
Sandi: And once you get in here through that gate, you can never get out again.
William: We had a saying down there that when you are in a position of power, be wise and leave it before it leaves you. Power has forgotten you and the earlier you get use to it, the better for you.
Carlos: (Not believing his ears. To Messenger) What are you guys... a relay team of the kidnappers? Where are you going to take me next?
Messenger: Nobody kidnapped you and you are not moving from this place. In other words, you shall never leave this place.
Carlos: What do you mean? What happens to my beautiful palace?
Messenger: What I mean is, the money, beautiful palaces, cars, politics, power and all the nice things of life belong to that world below your feet. You were born with none of them and you take none of them along the day you die.
Carlos: Are there no such nice things here?
Messenger: Well, there are. Those here are better than what you knew down there but they are not found in this part. (Pointing to the golden City) They are found over there.
Carlos: Can I go there?
Messenger: No you can’t. You must earn your ticket into that place. You must earn it while you are down there in that world below your feet where your beautiful palace is.
Carlos (Unable to continue standing on his feet. sits on the ground buried in his thoughts. The others retire to their rooms because of the intense heat leaving Carlos out side in the open yard).
(still on the yard long while later)
Messenger: Can I go and show you to your room now?
Carlos: Are you serious that once someone gets in here he cannot get out again?
Messenger: That is the way it is. That gate can only open to let people in but cannot let them out.
Carlos: Come on… certainly there must be a way. (looks around to make sure that no one else is there to hear what he has to say. Almost in whisper) if you open the gate and let me out, I will reward you greatly. I will send you any amount of money you want once I get back to my palace. All you will need to do is to say the amount and I will send it.
Messenger: Money has no use here. It has great use only down there. You are prepared to give me any amount I want now. Is it your money you want to go and get to send to me? Of course not… it is the money of the poor tax payer which you have starched in foreign banks. Those poor people contributed that money so that you would use it to build for them hospitals, provide them with energy and good drinking water as well as roads. But you didn’t. Instead you preferred to gather all the money and bank in foreign countries. All you were interested in was amassing money and more money. What kind of money did you really want? Money from the oil refinery went into your private account… you had a salary which was ten times that of your colleagues who governed countries richer and more developed than yours….your presidency was allocated a huge budget by your rubber stamp parliament…. You had some advantages on top of all that…. And that was not all… you insisted on being the one to control the state budget which was again put at your disposal. Now you want to go and get part and send to me. But no…thanks… money has no use here and there is nothing you can offer me which my master can’t. Do you want to go and see your room or not?
Carlos: Ok, I will follow you.
In the room Carlos is to occupy
(The room is not very different from Sandi’s with no furniture and only a bare floor. There is no window and the door is half broken)
Messenger: This will be your room for now. Do you have any question?
Carlos: Can I have even a couch on which I can lay my head?
Messenger: I’m afraid that is not possible. What you have been given is what you deserve. That is it. (Exits while Sandi, William and stone enter the room)
Carlos: Listen boys, down there I was a president and I have billions kept in banks around the world. With that money, someone can buy a whole country. What do you guy say about getting rich and owning the best things money could possibly buy? If you help me to get out of this place I will give you any amount of money you want. I saw that crying outside there without trying to get out first was stupid.
(All three explode with laughter. William rolls on the ground and continues laughing)
Carlos: What is wrong with you guys? What is funny in what I’ve said?
William: I was master of the law when I was down there. I had all the money in the world. I could do whatever I wanted. But there comes a time when you must leave all those things down there. All those things belong to that world down there. They have no use here. Also, once you leave that world, you can never go back just as, when you enter that gate, you never get out. This is where you belong now. So try to get use to it.
(Re-enters Messenger)
Carlos: I thought you went to wait for others who might be coming in here at the gate. What are you doing here?
Messenger: (very calmly) I’m here to clear any doubts you may have incase you start feeling that you are here unjustly.
Carlos: There I think you are right… I’m here unjustly. I asked you to open that gate so that I could go back to a palace which cost me billions to build and you refused. In it, I have the same furniture that was made in the days of Louis XIV and my bed alone is the world’s best. It is now empty while I’m here crawling on a bare floor which is very dusty.
Messenger: Who tells you that it is still empty? The person who has been fighting for decades to save the people from you now occupies it. The people really love him and see him as a savior. He has started doing what you couldn’t do for the people by respecting their wishes.
Carlos: (weeps) how can that bastard occupy my palace? He does not even know how much I spent in it.
Messenger: It is not his place to know. He equally paid taxes which you used in building it. Anyway that is not what is important now. Tell me, why did you steal the poor tax payer’s money and transferred into foreign banks?
Carlos: (Tears dry up) I don’t like that word steal. Don’t you have any sense of diplomacy? That word is too degrading and only people who are suffering from chronic diplomatic illiteracy use it the way it is, especially with important people like me. Please, I did not steal the money as you put it. I took some which was at my disposal. I cannot steal what is at my disposal. As for why I had to put it in foreign banks, you know that politics is a very uncertain game. You can never tell which wind would blow you off at any given time. If a criminal like the one you say now occupies my palace were to come after you and you succeed in running out of the country only to find yourself in a strange one without money, tell me what would happen to you.
Messenger: Is that why you had to keep it in so many accounts in many different countries?
Carlos: Yes of course. When you are running for your dear life, do you choose where to run to?
Messenger: Why didn’t you invest that money in the country you governed whereas you claimed to be its number one citizen? Why didn’t you build hospitals, open up roads, generate power, create state owned corporations in which youths could find jobs or open school where they could go in and acquire skills to become self employed? Don’t you think that would have been a better way of spending that money rather than going to donate it to countries that were already rich? I’m asking because if you were doing the right things, no one would want to threaten you and you wouldn’t be feeling insecure.
Carlos: How can you say that I donated my money to those rich countries? I merely gave them to keep and to give it back to me in due time.
Messenger: I’ve used the word ‘donated’ because you shall never go back there to collect it. If they do not feel sorry for your people and feel that there is no moral ground to send back the money, it will remain with them. They are not compelled to send the money back to your people. Anyway that is not the issue now. Do you know the consequences of stealing that money and hiding in foreign banks and not investing in the well being of your people?
Carlos: (Bends his head looking at the ground and says nothing) Messenger: I will tell you. Thousands of young girls especially those that left school were not opportuned to be employed and so, turned to prostitution with some as young as 12. Their male counterparts became armed robbers and many others were forced to date women old enough to be their mothers. Many people died in hospitals because they were ill equipped and lacked even essential drugs. Thousands of women died on their way to the hospital to give birth because of the very bad nature of roads. Those that struggled and made it to the hospital ended up dieing in labor rooms because those in charge were ill qualified. Why? Because they were the children of your brothers, sisters, friends and relatives who had to get into the training schools though my master did not destine them for those functions. Thousands died in their attempts to find a better life else where through deserts. Many drowned in water bodies in their attempt to escape the poverty you created for them by stealing their money and hiding in foreign banks. Thousands still take their lives even at this moment because they have lost hope in the future. You pushed millions to live in crime.
Carlos: I’ve told you that I did not steal but took. Your sermon is very touching. (Pointing to Sandi) I think if you continue like that he will soon start crying. From the way you are talking, anybody can understand that you know nothing about politics. You sound as if you wanted me or my government to employ everybody. That is not possible. In fact it is impossible even in those countries you referred to as ‘richer than mine’.
Messenger: Is it because you couldn’t employ everybody that you had to steal the tax payer’s money and go and store in foreign banks? I know that it is impossible for any government to employ everybody. But all I’m saying is that you would have created or opened schools where your youths go and acquire skills with which they could survive on their own. With such skills they could either create jobs for themselves or move to an area or another country where their skills were needed. If you used or managed the tax payer’s money only in educating your children of school going age and they acquired skills even if you couldn’t employ them, nobody would have been reproaching you of anything. That would have been better than pushing them to foreign lands without the intellectual or technical know-how.
Carlos: I don’t like the way you are sounding. You are sounding as though I didn’t do anything at all for my people. I opened a hospital in every major town and city in my country…
Messenger: Which were ill equipped and the staff was not qualified. Do you know why they were not qualified? It was because they were mostly the children of your friends, relatives and party members. Do you know why being the children of your friends, relatives and party members made them unqualified? It was because while in the medical professional school, their parents prescribed the marks they wanted to see on the score sheets of their children. So the children knew that whether they worked or not, studied or not, their futures were guaranteed. You were aware of it. If you want to contest what I’ve just said, tell me how many times you went to any of those hospitals only for consultation when you were sick.
Carlos: Well, I admit that I had never gone to any of them for treatment or consultation. But I did not open them for myself.
Messenger: You really sound like a politician. You went to hospitals abroad which were well equipped and those who treated there you were very welcoming and very dedicated. You liked the way you were treated out in another country. Yet, you denied that same opportunity to your people. You did not want to offend your relatives, friends and party members by being hard on their children who worked in the hospitals. So, you let them to do what they liked. Consequently, the hospitals were turned into money-making institutions and poor patients who could not afford the high consultation fees were assisted to their graves. That is what happens when people find themselves in places or posts they are not supposed to be in… they do the wrong things.
Carlos: But I opened one in the capital of my country where I built my magnificent palace and equipped it with the type of instruments I saw abroad. I got well trained workers and staffed the hospital with. It served my people.
Messenger: You have left out so many things. You’ve forgotten to say that the hospital you are referring to was your private hospital which you didn’t even go there for consultation. It served mostly your ministers and their families, friends, relatives, party members and big business men. The poor could not come close to it. In addition, you have forgotten to say that those well trained staff you talked about were not paid by the huge amounts the hospital generated but by the poor tax payer’s money. Have I said anything which is out of place?
Carlos: (Does not say anything)
Messenger: The next thing you will say is that you opened professional schools to train youths who were to serve in different sectors of the economy. Well yes, you did open the schools but they were filled only by the children of those in high places.
Carlos: What was wrong with the schools I opened? Was it that I opened them or that they were occupied by the children of those I loved?
Messenger: There was no reason why competitive entrance exams into the professional schools you opened were organized and only the children of those in high places always made it. Those who scored very high marks had to be sidelined because they were children of poor parents or their parents belonged to the opposition or they did not belong to this or that social class. You knew there were irregularities through the protests and demonstrations that went on. You did something about it and it was to unleash the army on the protesters. That was not the right thing to do. You have to create a level-plain field for everybody. That was what you were supposed to do.
Carlos: (Mockingly) And if I did that, it would have cleared All the problems you have just enumerated, I suppose?
Messenger: I did not say that all problems would have been solved. But they would have been greatly reduced.
Carlos: You are not different from that fool who called himself an opposition leader. He never saw anything good in what I did or in my government. He criticized everything and turned a good number of the people against me. Most of them started following him and did only what he said. I felt I was loosing control and had to take drastic measures. You are doing exactly the same thing. You disobeyed me and they (pointing to Sandi, William and stone) have followed your example. I have no authority here. If my military chiefs were here, you would have suffered the fate of that opposition fool. (Stone, William and Sandi burst into laughter)
Messenger: I believe that opposition leader you are referring to was Khan Hill. Tell us what happened to him.
Carlos: (Mockingly) you seem to know everything. Don’t you know that one?
Messenger: If I ask you to tell me something yourself, it is not that I don’t know but I want to point out your mistakes from what you say. You are given the chance here to say something but you didn’t give that same chance to your victims. You decided what their crime was and the punishment that was meted out to them. They had no say. Can you tell us what happened to khan?
Carlos: That fool had the guts to eye my throne…my birth right. He wanted to replace me by inciting the population against me. I asked everybody to dream and aspire to any post except that one. It was mine alone but he disobeyed me.
Messenger: Your country was not a monarchy but a republic. As a republic, there were rules which all republics came together and laid down. One of them was the organization of elections after a determined number of years. That means that the post of head of state had to be open to contest. If you wanted to be a ruler for life, why didn’t you change the republic into a monarchy? That way, you would have been claiming birth right unopposed.
Carlos: I couldn’t do that. The reason was that times were changing too fast and if I wanted to be a monarch, I wouldn’t have had absolute powers. The term ‘Constitutional monarchy’ became too fashionable everywhere around the world. Turning my republic into a monarchy and not dancing to the same rhythm would have been out of place. It would have attracted criticisms and that was what I hated most. Besides, if I turned my country into a monarchy, I wouldn’t have been the one in public in front of cameras and taking the major decisions. All constitutional monarchies gave that job to a prime minister who became the sole actor while the monarch was locked up in a palace feeling bored. That was not the life I wanted. I wanted to be in charge and to be noticed.
Messenger: Then maintaining the country as a republic meant you had to open the post of president to competition. You ratified the conventions which were laid down to that effect.
Carlos: In politics and international relations, accepting to do something is one thing and actually doing it is quite another. I was good at ratifying the conventions but my post was not to be opened to competition. I created a parliament which was there to do what I told them. Any motion which was tabled by individuals or opposition leaders had to be rejected especially if the motion was going to disfavor me in anyway. I put it in place because I didn’t want to be brandished a dictator. I made all the decisions and the parliament was just there to endorse them.
Messenger: You were good at ratifying conventions and making promises which you hardly honored. One of such conventions was the protection of refugees, mentally impaired people and underprivileged people. You left the refugees at the mercy of your uniform officers who exploited them in anyway they wanted. Whenever you had to receive a very important personality from abroad, you asked your uniform men to arrest all the mentally impaired people, beggars as well as all the young girls and women who were forced to sell their bodies for money in order to survive and lock them up somewhere. You considered them as dirt, dirtying the streets. Those were the people you were supposed to get closer to. Those were the people your way of doing things rendered in that state. You never asked yourself what role you plaid in their plight. You did not see them as human beings but rejected objects of the earth through which you could assert your importance. Tell me, how did you want people to know that you were that way and at the same time wanted them to continue entrusting their destinies into your hands?
Carlos: I never asked anybody to entrust his or her destiny into my hands.
Messenger: Any aspirant to the highest office does just that. Anyway, that is not the issue now. You still have not told us what happened to Khan.
Carlos: He violated a fundamental law by having his eyes on my birth right throne. By doing that he had to face the full weight of the law and I had to make sure that it was well applied. He was arrested and handed to the judges who found him guilty of treason which carried a death penalty. Justice was done.
Messenger: Did I just hear you mention the word justice? When you were down there, how much did you know about justice? Did you really mean justice or injustice? You saw Khan as an enemy. You asked your men to arrest him. You called your judges and instructed them to hand down nothing less than capital punishment. They took charge of organizing and acting out a piece of drama in the name of a trial, which was even behind closed doors. Those who tried him never knew him. They neither knew the neighborhood he grew up in nor came from. Those who tried him were total strangers. Is that what you call justice? There were some actors too there and the name you called them was ‘members of the jury’. When they could not be unanimous on a decision, they opened it to a vote as if somebody’s life is something they can gamble with. Is that what you call justice? What was justice was what favored you. Once anything was not in your favor, it was injustice. The courts were never there to render justice in the real sense of the term but to help you put away those you saw as enemies. The courts existed just as a window dressing for the international community.
Carlos: I thought there was some knowledge in that your head. How do you expect me to be the head of the Judiciary and then the courts pass a judgment which disfavors me? How did you expect the judges whom I personally appointed to disfavor me? I appointed them to serve me. I had the right to fire any of them at any time when I had the impression that they were not doing their job.
Messenger: Let’s leave out Khan, what happened to Wang Mills?
Carlos: That was the biggest fool who ever lived. He was an important committee member of my party and had many followers who were of his tribe. His tribes’ men numbered over a million and that was an important figure to me when it was elections time though elections were just a formality. I made him minister and he used his position to open many businesses of his own. As a good tool, I exempted him from all taxes and gave him exclusive rights to supply certain goods. His people loved me just for the simple fact that I made one of theirs minister though they were not benefiting much from him. That made Mills to think that he was indispensable and grew horns. He dared to challenge me when I asked him to resign from his post of minister so that I could bring in someone else. The intention was not to offend his tribes’ men who might have hated me for firing their son. He was too greedy and did not want to do it. I asked one of my servants to prepare a resignation letter on his behalf and he was forced to sign. The reason for his resignation was read on national television. As punishment for challenging me, I decided to have the amount of money he had to pay as taxes for the number of years he was exempted calculated. He was given a deadline to pay. He couldn’t and I decided to seize all his businesses. In one of his business premises, there was resistance. There was exchange of fire between my men and his guards which resulted in the death of three of my men. He had no right to kill and I decreed that anybody who killed had to die.
Messenger: Did you investigate to find out if Mills was the one who killed your men?
Carlos: It was not necessary. If his guards opened fire, he certainly gave the order. Even if he didn’t, give the order, the deaths occurred on his property and he had to go in for. Besides he had a lot of money which was enough to sponsor a rebellion against me. I had to keep him away by all means.
Messenger: Let’s say he actually killed your three men and by law he had to face the death penalty. “Anybody who killed another had to die” that is what you’ve said. But you killed thousands. Why didn’t you hand in yourself for execution because that was equally a violation of the law?
Carlos: Are you crazy? How do you want me to set a trap only to turn around and fall in it? Do you sometimes reason before asking those your questions? I ordered people to be executed. I didn’t go out cutting people’s heads or putting bullets in their heads myself. So, I can still say that I didn’t do anything and be logically correct.
Messenger: Mills supposedly killed three people and had to face the death penalty. You and your likes, who killed thousands remained free or in cases where you were toppled, you were sent on exile with huge material and financial benefits. Even your ministers who were accused of committing atrocities got promoted instead. That was the culture of impunity you promoted and it helped to push millions into the alms of poverty. Your men in uniform took advantage of it and committed all sorts of atrocities like summary executions, armed robbery, rape and extortions from those they were supposed to protect. When there were outcries against the impunity, you created commissions of enquiry. Those commissions rarely handed in any reports. Even when they were handed in, they remained in drawers. The commissions of enquiry were just there with their long cutlasses to cut long stories short. Those that were killed or were victims of extortion were people that did not matter or were those in the opposition. Their woes benefited you and you will still call it justice if I ask you. But that kind of justice where the net catches only the small fishes and let the big ones go through remains down there. Here, the story is different. Now, tell me something… did the killing of Mills bring your three men back to life?
Carlos: Not at all. I had to have him killed so that he couldn’t be a threat to me and to others.
Messenger: Was he really a threat in the true sense of the word? Yet he had to face the death penalty. If you ordered the death of thousands only to end up entering the grave yourself, where was the sense or benefit in killing in the first place?
Carlos: The benefit was that those I killed did not disturb me anymore or anybody else.
Messenger: There you are right…a dead man does not disturb anybody. What happened to Goodwill Johnson?
Carlos: Ahh! That one too was a case. He was making a turn on the road with his car when my convoy was approaching. I was obliged to slow down because of that. I had so many enemies and they would have seized the opportunity where he was turning his car to kill me. I had to get out of my car and have him punished. He was supposed to bow as soon as he saw me. But he did not and that was crime number two. I asked my men to give him ten lashes of the cane after which I asked him to bow as the law specified. He still refused and told me that I was not his Master and he could only bow to his Master who was far greater than I was. He even added that his Master was omnipotent and omniscient and I was not qualified even to be His shoe cleaner. That was too insulting because I was the giver and taker of life and no one could possibly have been greater than me. I was head of everything like army, administration, judiciary, associations….in short everything. I spent billions making all sorts of portraits of myself which every home in my country was obliged to have one. My portrait was in every office whether private or public. No minister dared to say anything in public without mentioning my name. That way, my omnipotence was felt and my status of the giver and taker of life could not be challenged. I had to send him to go and meet the one he claimed was greater than me. What insubordination!
Messenger: There were some three hundred people who ran away from a neighboring country into yours because they were being persecuted because of their minority status and religion. What happened to them?
Carlos: My eastern powerful and rich neighbor communicated me that the three hundred people you are referring to were criminals. They were a minority group quite alright but they tried to fight for their rights the wrong way. They instigated violence which resulted in the death of hundreds. They got involved in unholy acts of suicide bombing and planting of explosives which killed many.
Messenger: Did you try to find out if what your neighbor said was true or why they had to resort to such ‘unholy acts’ as you call it?
Carlos: I did not need to know because I was not at the scene of the action. If my rich neighbor said that they were criminals, I had to accept it as the whole truth. After all, there were criminals everywhere. They were using the wrong methods to make their voices heard. Do you think I should have tried to know?
Messenger: That is the first thing any normal person would do. They resorted to violence because their lands were invaded and seized, their women and girls were raped, and they were discriminated against in almost all spheres of society because of their minority status and their religion. When they petitioned the government, nothing was done. Instead, those of them who took the steps to petition the government were arrested and jailed without trial. That happened on several occasions and that was what opened the road to violence. When someone is pushed to the wall that is what happens….he fights back with all the methods and weapons at his disposal.
Carlos: Fighting against a government using violence was the worse thing they could do. There is no government that would tolerate uprising of that form or any other form. My neighbor told me that those that ran to my country for protection were criminals and that if I had them sent back to face justice, I would benefit from investments and financial aid. That was a very generous offer and I would have been insane to turn it down. So, I sent them back to go and answer for their crimes in exchange for what my rich neighbor promised.
Messenger: So, for investment and financial aid, you decided to sell people who ran to you because they were under the threat of being wiped out.
Carlos: International relation is a game of interest. There are gains to be made and loses to be incurred. Either way, there is always a price to pay.
Messenger: That was a very bad way of looking at things and sending them back was definitely the wrong thing to do. Your neighbor was reputed for extrajudicial killings and you knew that sending them back was sending them to their graves. How were you sure that those you sent back were part of the unholy acts you talked about? The reason you advanced for sending them back when faced with criticisms was that they entered your country illegally. Trading lives for money is the most disheartening thing any man can do. You considered them criminals simply because your neighbor called them so. The least thing you would have done would have been to give them the protection they came for and if you did not want to offer them the protection, you would have sent them to another country where the justice system was more human friendly. I will be back for us to continue this conversation. There is someone who is on his way here. See you soon.
(Exit Messenger)