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Chapter 4
Victor
was aiming to recruit someone who had spent a good amount of time in Chinhut
and knew that country and its ways of working. He had shortlisted three
persons. One name seemed quite familiar. The name was Shakti. He looked at it
again and again.
Victor
thought, “Could he be the same person who shared my room during my post
graduation days? He was quite fascinated by this country Chinhut because of its
huge population and its dire poverty. He used to think in terms of settling
there and helping its people.”
Deep
in thoughts he punched the numbers on his cell phone. The bell on the other
side kept ringing. He tried again after some ten minutes with no luck. He
paused for a few minutes and rang again saying to self, “This is the last time
to this so called Shakti. I will turn to other two guys if Shakti doesn’t
respond this time.”
Then
he heard a voice. “Shakti here. Whosoever is calling me deserves my apology. I
couldn’t have answered your call since I was in a session with my students of
my advanced economics course.”
“I
understand. Let me hurriedly tell you I am Victor.”
“Victor,
who?”
“I’m
calling from Desh. Are you the same Shakti who shared my room during our
post-grad time?”
“Hey
you dude! What the hell you are up to by telephoning me after so many years?”
“Shakti,
you won’t believe how relieved I am now after knowing that you are my old
roommate. How long you have been in Chinhut?”
“It’s
almost more than a decade. I have seen this country’s metamorphosis from very
close quarters.”
“But
now it’s almost the second or may be the third most powerful country on planet
Berth and the most powerful in Western side of the planet where it’s mainland
is located.”
“You
are right in that expression of yours. Lately it has occupied literally so much
of extra land in many developing and even the developed countries particularly
in central and southern parts of the planet. So you need to call the original
boundaries of Chinhut its main land.”
“Tell
me briefly how all this whole metamorphosis took place?”
“Once
a very poor nation it became powerful in just a decade’s time. The reason? It
had more than 30% population of the entire planet. Corporate giants of all the
developed countries saw a huge potential of making money there. It was an exceptionally
huge base of consumers provided the consumers could be made capable of buying.
So they invested heavily in Chinhut.”
“Was
it easy for them to invest? No bureaucracy? The hanky-panky dealings?”
“Of
course all the deals were rife with hanky-panky things of the worst caliber.
You can’t think of such corporate deals in any country and more so in a country
like Chinhut without collusion with the country’s governmental bigwigs. They
grabbed bribes of gigantic proportions from the potential investors. The hungry
dogs and worst opportunists.”
“The
new investments must have had an impact on employment and economy?”
“Yes.
So with these investments new ventures came up and a significant percentage of people
got employment. Also the new investors introduced the concept of buying on loan
or borrowings so far unknown to the normal public of Chinhut. So soon the
public acquired natural as well as an artificially created purchasing power and
they started buying helter-skelter. The insane buying fuelled up the
artificially created economy. In turn the corporate investors of Chinhut, foreign
investors, country’s politicians, and their cronies had a field day.”
“How
did Chinhut expand its wings in the other countries? Its people are everywhere
and they have acquired so much of land in all kinds of countries.”
“With
the riches created, it was now Chinhut’s turn to invest in the developing
countries. But the politicians and the rich guys of Chinhut were far smarter
than the investors of the other developed countries. Not only did they invest,
they also exported their manpower to the countries where they made the
investments. Chinhut had a big problem of having extraordinarily large
population with very limited land to accommodate them and to produce enough
food for them. The solution lied in throwing out as many from the country as
possible.”
“But
I’m sure the people who were exported must have been from the lower strata of
the society?”
“Yes.
Absolutely. They threw out from the country as many unskilled, semiskilled, and
low earning people as possible. They did depute a few high ranking individuals
also but their deputation was temporary in nature. Their main job was to
strictly control the displaced people of the lower rung to stop them from cribbing
and complaining. Their other job was to expand the businesses further as an
extension of Chinhut’s expansionist mentality.”
“Smart
move!”
“Really
smart! This gave Chinhut an opportunity to have its people placed in every nook
and corner of the planet. The politicians and the power brokers here think that
this strategy could also be politically useful for them in the future.”
Shakti
paused for a moment and asked, “Victor, tell me what was the purpose of your
call. I’m sure it wasn’t to strike just a general conversation with me.
“Ours
was not a general conversation Shakti. It was to confirm my knowledge about Chinhut
collected so far only from the hearsay.”
“OK.
OK. Good explanation. But now quickly tell me the exact purpose of your call.”
“Shakti,
I need your help. I know you to be a man of objectivity and very high
principles. Here in Desh we are trying to form a small group of likeminded
people who hold high values and who will be willing to contribute toward welfare
of our entire planet. Can you make to Desh in next couple of weeks so that we
can discuss this matter further in more details?”
“In
fact I have been invited to deliver the keynote address next month in a global
conference being held in Desh. I can meet with you then.”
“Thanks
a lot. I look forward to our meeting. Bye.”
“Bye.”
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