Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Peace Crusaders: Chapter 21

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The links to all the posts of the novel "The Peace Crusaders":

Chapter 7: http://peacecrusaders.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-peace-crusaders-chapter-7.html


Chapter 21


May 2.

Two news items presented the breaking news of the day in every type of media:

First breaking news: “The Worst Catastrophes Hit Nine Countries of the Planet: A Sheer Coincidence or God’s Deliberate Act?”

Second breaking news: “The Most Powerful Political and Corporate Personalities of Planet Berth Disappear in Thin Air at the Same Time”.

Every newspaper, every news channel on television, and every radio station of each one of 138 countries of the planet Berth went crazy.

The breaking news had filled all the pages of the newspapers and all the tabloids. They were printing the updates of the news every two hours. All the news channels on television were telecasting the explosive news item all the 24 hours of the day. All the stations on radio were continuously broadcasting it throughout the day and night.

Even the people who hated news followed today’s news. The people in the streets, offices, and homes had just one topic to exchange with each other. The commuters in trains, buses, and airplanes had only one subject to talk about.

Entire planet Berth developed a mysterious atmosphere.

The political, diplomatic, and business related activities came to a grinding halt in almost every country. The ongoing wars and the terrorist activities totally stopped on that day- not a single incident took place. In nine countries that were hit by the natural disasters, volunteers started rescue work.

Well before the respective official agencies in Desh, Chinhut, Seher, Bigland, Unon, and Pashan could complete their investigative search operations and announce a confirmation of this kind of total disappearance of their top most bosses, the news was already confirmed by the media of every description. The breaking news reached the wives and families of the missing persons much earlier than what the governmental secret and security services could do.

The official governmental agencies and the immediate deputies of the missing top brass were in two minds whether to confirm the news or not. But the continued bombardment of the news by the media left them with no alternative but to confirm that the top shots were missing since the evening of the earlier day and were not traceable despite exhaustive and meticulous search operations. The extreme public pressure made them to succumb.

The media started publishing the names and related details of the missing persons. Most of the published lists were incomplete. The local media of respective countries did not possess the names of all of missing persons. By noontime that day, one or two international news agencies could bring out a list, which they claimed as near total.

The list included the following names, their designations, and their nationalities:

Mr Zintun- Prime Minister, Chinhut (Western hemisphere of Berth)
Mr Lobhilal- Prime Minister, Desh (Western hemisphere of Berth)
Chief of the armed forces of Desh directly reporting to Mr Lobhilal
Mr Hayan- Prime Minister of Pashan (Western hemisphere of Berth, neighboring country of Desh)
Mr Darpok- President of Nuplace (Another neighboring country of Desh)
Mr Maramar- King of Seher (Centrally located on Berth)
Mr Sharifyar- Chief of Armed Forces of Seher
Mr Zahin- Chief Financial and War Strategist to King Maramar of Seher
Mr Korruptkin- President of Unon (Eastern hemisphere of Berth)
Mr Hardnuts- CEO of Universal Chemicals of Unon
Mr Gushnell- President of Bigland (Eastern hemisphere of Berth)

A note at the end of the list mentioned that two more top personalities, Merciles and Willy, the twin CEOs of Technowiz of Unon, remained missing over many months and still untraceable.

It proved to be a field day for all and sundry, particularly the political analysts, journalists, columnists, news editors, economic experts, business analysts, correspondents, bloggers, commentators, religious pundits, social media gossipers, people on the streets, and such others.

Following types of news items, comments, analysis, and gossip reverberated the entire environment. The scenario was a mixed bag- mysterious, enigmatic, exhilarating, exciting, awesome, pleasing, superstitious, religious etc.

Some rationalists were trying to find logic behind all this.

Comments on social media ran like this (most of the comments accompanied the caricatures of the missing lot):

“Who disappeared in thin air? The biggest crooks of our planet!! Why such a brouhaha? Who cares? Enjoy folks!!”

“It’s never late- the justice. God punishes the evil ultimately.”

“Disappearance is not enough for such criminals. These donkeys should be made to sit on donkeys, one on one donkey. Their faces blackened. Facing the donkey’s tail. Then paraded in all the cities of the entire planet. The audience allowed to hoot and boo.”

“They are two sides of the same coin: war and terror. The list contains the rogues who promoted both. Punish all.”


“The people who disappeared were the main culprits of our planet- designers, promoters, and executors of wars and terrors of all kinds that killed millions of people. They used to put petty criminals behind the bars for years. Now is the time to punish these grand masters of crime thousand times more severely- hang them till they die (if and whenever they are found). Hope this is the end of wars and terror.”

“It’s no coincidence that before the grand disappearance, the entire planet was cursed by the godly punishments. At so many places particularly in the countries to which these jokers belong the natural calamities of huge proportions took place. The heavenly masters are forewarning all of us: stop the wars, stop the terror, and stop all the nonsense otherwise the entire planet Berth will be doomed.”

“Is it coincidence that the disappearance and the catastrophes took place on the same day? Or does it have any grave significance?And catastrophes taking place in only those countries where wars were taking place and corruption was at its peak- was this too a sheer coincidence or God’s warning to stop the nonsense?”

One religious and spiritual pundit wrote a following blog with elaboration of the sentiments expressed in the foregoing two comments:

“Who did it? God did it. Even a superman or a spiderman cannot accomplish the kidnapping or disappearance of the most powerful beasts of planet Berth at the same time- it’s not the job of any human being. It cannot be a coincidence that some supernatural things happened in different parts of the planet at the same time. I remember the night was eerie. The sky was overcast in most of the countries. It was a night of lightening and thunder. And then Bigland experienced a deadly earthquake of MM 8 intensity and 7.5 magnitude on Richter scale in some towns. The biggest volcano of the planet situated in Chinhut erupted again yesterday night in the most dangerous way. In Desh the worst snowfall occurred in those areas where in past several centuries not even a flake of snow had ever dropped. In Seher a few of the oil wells caught fire mysteriously and the rising flames could be seen from the places hundreds of miles away from Seher. Unon and Nuplace were hit by the worst Tsunami of the decade. It rained cats and dogs in Pashan and the floods destroyed all the crops signaling wearisome famine possibilities. In Isonia and Kasban- the two countries from the central part of the planet- a very large sized meteor struck the ground in the holy city on which these two countries are claiming their ownership and fighting with each other. The God precisely timed the disappearance of the most corrupt and most cruel people of our planet with warnings to others, particularly their immediate deputies and other persons of such sinister character to stay away from wars, terrorist actions, corruption, and human exploitation. These warnings came in various forms of catastrophes.”

The blog went viral and millions of inhabitants of the planet read it in just few minutes time and were highly influenced by it. A large number of readers believed in what the blogger wrote.

Soon the TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers started releasing several updates on the main story. In the introductory remark to the updates on the missing persons’ news, a common theme was being constantly relayed. It claimed that they were telecasting and broadcasting these updates based on the audio and video clips they were continually receiving wirelessly in digital format from someone they didn’t know. The contents were being relayed absolutely unedited, as they seemed to be very authentic. There was no way of tempering with them or editing them in any way. The digital audio and video messages were very securely encrypted and were accompanied by unique decrypting software. The media emphasized again and again that they were receiving the information from some unknown places and unknown sources. However the places and the sources remained untraceable despite their best efforts.

Amar, Victor, Adarsh, and Shakti were quite satisfied and happy to hear this. They wanted to remain in the background and carry on their work anonymously.

The updates were watched or heard with maximum interest and attention by the people all over Berth. The contents were starkly revealing. The general public of 99% club all over the planet was shocked to hear and see the blackest deeds of many of their so called leaders of the 1% club.

The one sentiment that commonly emerged in the minds of the general public was: “These guys are far worse than the ordinary people.”

As an aftermath of the numerous fiery news items, in addition to the verbal and written reactions of the general public and various experts, violent physical reactions were also reported from various parts of the planet, particularly from the countries where the vanishing act took place.

There were demonstrations on the streets. Offices and homes of the politicians were attacked. The people who were found supporting the wars were manhandled.

In Desh supporters and fans of Lobhilal who lauded him for his much-publicized image of a man of simple living despite his being a prime minister got disillusioned.

Various TV channels televised a video clip where extravagant interiors of the retirement home of Lobhilal the well-known hut were shown. The opulence of the hut particularly loads of jewelry items of gold and precious stones, thousands of dresses, and shoes of Lobhilal’s wife etc shattered the myth that surrounded Lobhilal.

All along people used to think that Lobhilal would really live a very simple life just like one of them after his retirement. They were equally shocked to hear the news that informed them about how Lobhilal and his chief of the armed forces were always ready to trade their country and threw their countrymen in the wars for personal gains. This information annoyed the public beyond limits. A huge crowd invaded Lobhilal’s hut, hurled slogans against him, and torched the hut.

The inhabitants of Seher gathered in huge numbers in the sprawling square that faced king Maramar’s mansion. They shouted slogans voicing their anger against the king and his two deputies Sharifyar and Zahin. A self styled leader addressed the crowd, “We have learnt our lessons. Never ever accept a king or a fundamentalist as the head of your state. We need to bring in a broadminded, educated, and reformed leader who believes in establishing peace and stop the wars.”

In Chinhut a vast movement to install democracy started. Also in Chinhut the weapon manufacturing factories were ransacked. The people of Chinhut burnt the effigies of their prime minister Zintun.

People of Bigland voiced their strong sentiment against the wars their country was engaged in or about to start. Various NGOs supporting the peace and opposing any kind of war became vociferous again. The consensus was:

“The heads of the states of the leading countries of the planet and those of all the other countries should work toward bringing in absolute peace on the planet Berth. That’s their primary job. Starting and fighting the wars is not their job. Right now it feels as if their main job is to plan and execute wars. This kind of thinking is absolutely deplorable. Drastic mindset change is required.”

In Unon, activists opposed to warfare attacked the offices of many companies who designed and sold weaponry and related products like war ships, fighter airplanes etc. They were appalled to know that their country’s president was promoting sale of armaments on the planet.

Overall picture presented the sentimental outbursts of the people of planet Berth.

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