The Islands, Novel Plot

Maybe this is just one of those great ideas that wake you up in the middle of the night, and you really think you will be compared to George Orwell because of your wits, but in the end it turns out to be something worth only of an elementary school composition about last summer vacation.

Maybe… but here is the “big” idea that awoke me today, and the reason why I am blogging at 4:30 am:

There are 2 islands: Usame and Xicome, ok?

Usame is a big, rich, developed island with green--yes, GREEN--, tall, and beautiful natives who live in large huts and wear fashionable and expensive loincloths and waistcloths. Xicome is smaller, poor, underdeveloped and full with ugly, short white--yes, WHITE--natives who live cluttered in little, shaggy huts, and wear old loincloths, or no clothes at all. Being green is far more sexier than being white, so Xicomeans are considered to be inferior than Usameans due to their white skin and ugly looks. That’s why Usameans are a little racist against Xicomeans. Do you get the picture?

Usame needs the cheap labor that comes with Xicomean illegal immigrants, and some of Xicome’s crops—like coffee and sugar--, and Xicome needs the products made in Usame. There is a global interdependence, although Usame tends to underestimate that intertwined relationship.

One day, some influential old sorcerer in Usame, who is called Bush’o, decided coffee was a bad drug which had to be forbidden. “It impairs the mind, perverts the soul, destroys families, and it does not let you sleep at night,” she said. “And sugar is also bad,” Bush’o added. Coffee was bad, bad, and worse. Sugar was bad, bad, and worse. “Coffee with sugar and milk is the worst thing in the whole archipelago,” Bush’o ended.

Coffee and sugar cane, of course, are grown in Xicome—not in Usame due to climatic differences—, and are the most important crops on the island. And both Xicomeans and Usameans love coffee with sugar and milk. Usame, of course, urges Xicome to pursue an anti-coffee, anti-sugar policy, and to criminalize both producers and consumers.

Due to the prohibition, criminal gangs begin to form. In no less than a few weeks, they become rich, and they corrupt authorities in both islands. The sorcerer’s government of Usame establishes then the war on coffee and sugar, and urges Xicome to do the same. Usame even establishes an index to grade Xicomeans’ efforts to prosecute coffee and sugar kingpins, and achieve results on the war on coffee.

But, as I said, Usameans love coffee with sugar and milk, and they have money to buy it, even if the price is higher due to the prohibition. Later on, we will discover that Bush’o, the main sorcerer who had the idea of forbidding the coffee trade, is a coffee addict herself, and cannot avoid drinking coffee with sugar and milk all the time. How can that be possible? We also find out that the war on coffee is against one of the gangs, and benefits the other. There’s something fishy smelling here, isn’t it? Later on, we will also learn that the spears, bows and arrows used by Xicomean gangs are made in Usame, and guess who owns the weapon factory… You got it, the owner is Bush’o herself. Something is not smelling, something is rotten, stinking and even reeking!

Before the prohibition started, a very wise Xicomean shaman went to the hills to meditate. Her name is Pej’o. After months spent in solitude, she comes back to the village and finds out about the coffee prohibition. Pej’o does not drink coffee herself but finds the prohibition ridiculous and starts to preach against it. She says that coffe and sugar cane are the most important crops in the island, and reveals what is behind all this: corruption. Pej’o knows that Bush’o is a coffee addict and she owns the weapons factory in Usame. She explains what is behind all this prohibition to the Xicomeans.

The sorcerer leader of Xicome, Fox’o, starts saying that Pej’o is a threat to Xicome. An investigation is carried against Pej’o, and some coffee and sugar is found in her hut. Fox’o calls for a ballot among the sorcerer’s congress, and counts the votes herself, and then burns the ballot slips. “By a slight majority”, Fox’o says, “the Xicomean sorcerer’s congress has decided to banish Pej’o, that gossiper, who is spreading social unrest, that addict who wants to corrupt our young.”

“Pej’o is a threat to the island, to the archipelago, to mankind, and the whole universe. That foul-mouthed bitch has to be banned,” Fox’o added. (Then, after all the stress, Fox’o had to drink a cup of coffee with sugar and milk--on the sly, of course).

So, Pej’o is banned to a much smaller island, which in fact is just an uninhabited atoll, where there are just a few palm trees and lots of crabs. She is happy—she has always been happy—because she can meditate as much as she like, she has a lagoon with drinking water, and she can fish and eat as many crabs as she wants—even though she is quite measured.

Meanwhile, the situation in Xicome gets worse and worse because of the prohibition. The gangs are always fighting each other, authorities are rotten with corruption, and people are poorer and poorer. The gap between the rich and the poor widens. There are only three ways of surviving: migrating to Usame, becoming a corrupt sorcerer or a gangster.
(To be continued)