The Replicant, the Mole & the Impostor, Part 5
Part 2—the conclusion—of a duology where a reality event held in a refugee camp on a Greek island unfolds in an utterly unexpected manner. There will be 50 parts. Chapter 6: January.
—At the Playground—
Gleeful sounds are erupting from the playground as the children play. Two screams from the myriad of delighted shouts are from Riham Saad and Magdi, who are trying fervently to make their respective swings go as high as they can. They’re quite evenly matched, as the older Riham Saad has more muscle mass, yet the younger Magdi weighs less so has to exert less power.
Close by, their cats Scheherazade—the patchwork one—and Nzinga—the predominantly black one—are playing with each other: each repeatedly bumping into the other, playful jabs with their forepaws, rolling over each other. In short, the friendliest and cutest wrestling match one can imagine.
Olga and Katja are watching the two kittens, wondering—a well-nigh-impossible task—who is the cutest, almost forgetting why they came here. The interplay between Nzinga and Scheherazade is so lovely that even Dewi refrains from giving a short lecture about how play-acting would prepare the young cats for their later life if they were in the wild.
Riham Saad—who notices the adults coming—breaks their adulating trance.
“Katja, Olga, Dewi,” Riham Saad says. “What are you doing here?”
“Your cats are the most adorable ever,” Katja says. “Kristel sure knows her stuff.”
“We were looking for you,” Olga says. “Couldn’t find you in the women and children section, so we came here.”
“And you didn’t answer my snap,” Katja says.
“I always switch off my smartphone when I’m at the playground,” Riham Saad says. “I have a lot of playtime to catch up with.”
“That’s for sure,” Katja cannot help but agree. “We’ll try to keep this short.”
“Doctors and nurses from Médecins sans Frontières have arrived and are giving regular consults,” Olga cuts to the chase, “and children have the highest priority.”
“I know,” Riham Saad says, “and look at Magdi, he’s doing great.”
“Good,” Katja says, “as this was the main thing you requested in your speech.”
“Do watch out for drug pushers from Big Pharma,” Olga says, “they shouldn’t be targeting children, but—”
“You’d rather be safe than sorry,” Riham Saad says. “I’m aware of them.”
“Fine,” Katja says, “just to say that we have been working on your healthcare situation. The next urgent thing you mentioned was education. Which is why we brought Dewi.”
“In your neo-homesteads, children can follow online classes and interactive lectures, as these can be displayed on the wall, or wherever you like,” Dewi says. “We are working with international institutions to get the right lessons, in the right language, to the right children. As much as possible.”
“Online lectures are alright, I guess, better than nothing,” Riham Saad says, “but to me they will never replace being in an actual school.”
“Exactly,” Dewi says with a wide smile. “Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of teachers across the EU, also in Greece. However, there’s one professional lecturer available right now.”
“You,” Riham Saad says, nodding emphatically. “But isn’t teaching children way below your, well, professional level? Aren’t you overqualified for that particular job?”
“Nobody’s paying me, so I can do whatever I want,” Dewi says, “and it helps the children of this refugee camp, which is what matters most right now. On top of that, it gives me some direct experience, interactions with displaced children who need education the most. A good way to recalibrate my biases, that I do have, unfortunately.”
“But how do you want to teach?” Riham Saad says. “There is no school building here.”
“Right here at the playground, beginning late next month,” Dewi says. “Not only because I need time to prepare, but by the end of February it’ll be somewhat warmer. And since you kids still play here in the middle of winter—”
“We should be okay for a few lectures,” Riham Saad says. “We’re tough, but not superkids, so could you keep them relatively short?”
“I’ll start with short ones,” Dewi says, “and make them longer as the weather improves. Obviously, if it rains, we will move the lecture to a day when it’s dry. And if it’s really cold, I might start with a few virtual ones.”
“But why do you ask me?” Riham Saad says. “You don’t need my approval.”
“True, but we would like your blessing,” Dewi says, “and I would like to ask if you’d be willing to be a beta tester for my lectures.”
“A beta tester?” Riham Saad says. “What do you mean?”
“A person who can see and judge the lecture well before I give it,” Dewi says. “So I can use your comments to improve my lectures. Would you be interested in that?”
“Yes. And now I’m getting really curious,” Riham Saad says. “What are you trying to achieve?”
“It’s all meant to stimulate curiosity, to get a good grip of some of the basics,” Dewi says. “Ideally, we’d place you with an EU foster family, meaning you’ll be enrolled to a local school automatically. My lectures will cover a large amount of general topics, hopefully in an easily understandable manner.”
“Sounds great,” Riham Saad says. “I can’t wait. Even if it means I’m the teacher’s pet.”
“Bah,” Olga says, making a face, “first world problems.”
“The ones we’d like you to have,” Katja says, smiling.
—In the Village—
Other refugee camps in crisis while situation stable in Nisí.
On several Greek islands, friction is growing between local people and asylum seekers landing in boats from Turkey. A senior official likened the situation on the islands to “a powder keg ready to explode.” As the governor of the north Aegean said, “It’s crucial that a state of emergency is called.”
In Nisí, on the other hand, the situation seems well under control. The refugee camp over there is also overcrowded, yet the efforts initialized by the reality event candidates are starting to show positive results. The contrasts between the camp on Nisí and those on the other islands could barely be bigger.
On the other hand, as the cash-strapped Greek government tries to keep a lid on the explosive situation, the EU keeps turning a blind eye. It’s high time the EU—in particular after the recovery from COVID-19 is setting in—starts investing in these refugee camps. It’s not as if there is no successful blueprint for improvements, they are already being implemented.
[From the Nisí Chronicle.]
🌚🌝🌞
Next Step: Sharia Law?
(1) Things might seem relatively quiet here at Nisí, but we need only to look at the refugee camps on the other islands to see what the future brings. More refugees, coming in by the boatloads from Turkey. Refugees that cannot be kept in already overcrowded camps, and then start looting and pillaging the local people.
(2) On our islands, farmers have seen their sheep and goats slaughtered. People’s homes have been broken into, properties destroyed, while the police and the authorities just stand by. This cannot go on, we will be forced to take matters in our own hands. It’s either that, or Sharia law.
@GreekMetádosis
No, Next Step: A Shared Future!
(1) We are truly sorry about the situation on the other islands housing refugee camps. Yet, instead of constantly pointing the finger to where things go wrong, we think it is more productive to focus on where things go right, like here on our island.
(2) We are seeing that when investments are made into improvements—even if the investments came through a Kickstarter done by reality event candidates—refugees are willing to work to improve their situation, and then even help Greek citizens out in return.
(3) Yes, after setting up their own infrastructure in the previously polluted, muddy, trash-strewn camp, the refugees have now offered to renovate rundown buildings in the Chorió ghost town, using the knowledge and expertise they’ve gathered by building their own infrastructure in the camp. For free, as a gesture of goodwill to us, their hosts.
(4) Immigrants—if we are smart enough to grant asylum to these hard-working, innovative people—can and will improve the circumstances, lives, and economy of local people. This is what we, the Electric Rays, believe in. This is what we stand for.
@AlextheNisiGuide, RT @ElectricRays
🌚🌞🌝
A song, a singer
Developing worlds that linger
Created out of virtuality
Our destiny calls
Look Up↑—Look Down↓—Look Out!—Look Around✺
There’s a new world waiting inside
We’re just about to uplift our minds
It might occur to us
As it occurred to them
In strange and unexpected ways
It might occur to me
It might occur to you
As it might occur to everyone, always
Poem by Dr. V, first published on the Electric Rays Instagram Feed, with a screenshot of the New Year’s Eve moodscape.
🌝🌚🌞
Hung Council for Nisí Island in the latest poll.
According to the latest poll, the downfall of the current coalition of Syriza and Kinal has come to a halt as the rise of New Democracy and Greek Solution has stopped as well. Here’s how they are polling:
Greek Solution = 17%
New Democracy = 35%
Syriza = 18%
Greens = 11%
Kinal = 9%
Democratic Revival = 5%
Other local parties do not poll above the 3% electoral threshold. While the current coalition is in a neck and neck race with the rightwing parties, neither of them seems to be able to win a majority.
The Green Party continues their rise in the polls, and if current trends hold—which is never a sure thing in these volatile times, and keeping in mind the 3% margin of error—they may well become the kingmakers in the new council.
[From the Nisí Chronicle.]
—In the Camp—
As the unofficial representative of the reality event candidates, Omar—as usual—heads for the African section of the camp. He’d rather spend some quality time with Kristel, but she’s off to visit Nyandeng in the women and children section. The rest are occupied with helping the Middle Eastern refugees finish their neo-homesteads. Somehow, even though they’ve been here for months already, they rarely have time and are always busy. Omar sympathizes because he’s busy enough just trying to keep up—that’s how fast things are moving here.
One would think his African friends would chill out once they’d finished their own neo-homesteads, but the contrary is true. They’re always busy with something. Like now, while they’re waiting for permission from the local island council to start renovating old Greek buildings in Chorió, they’ve developed another project, no matter how ethereal it may seem.
“You are setting up your own cryptocurrency?” Omar says, his eyes wide with disbelief. “But why?” He wants to say that’s impossible, but quickly thinks better of it.
“To control monetization,” Idrissa says, “to ascertain our fair share of the pie. As you all told us—by way of Dewi, a gifted speaker if I ever saw one—Big Pharma is happy to take credit for their untested drugs, but shirks their duties when things go astray. Same thing might happen with all the high-tech companies that have supplied us with AR-glasses and the initial tools to create AR-apps. Once the AR-app economy starts going, who is to stop them from taking the majority of the earnings? Certainly not a bunch of refugees stuck in a lawless camp on an insignificant Aegean island.”
“Normally not,” Omar agrees, “unless the ‘hapless’ refugees take unexpected counter-measures.”
“Good,” Idrissa says. He points at Jean-Pierre. “Like the boss, you’re much quicker on the uptake than you pretend to be.”
“When questioned by the authorities in our Parisienne walkways, aka banlieues,” Omar says, “playing dumb convincingly is a survival strategy.”
“Gotcha,” Idrissa says. “So as we’re at the bleeding edge of AR-developments—where we not only deliver the best apps, but have greatly refined the tools, as well—we can only stay ahead by constantly improving ourselves. To quote the famous saying, ‘to skate to where the puck will be.’ Since we’re all from tropical countries—I wouldn’t know how to skate to save my life—and football fans like the rest of the world, we interpret it as ‘sprint to where the ball will be’.”
“That sounds rather easy,” Omar says, “but in the football I watch it isn’t.”
“Indeed. You need to mislead the defense—who are also trying to be where the ball will be—and either be faster than them, jump higher than them, or be so stupendously skillful that you can outplay them (and you know who we’re talking about). Anyway,” Idrissa says, taking a breath, “we are up against companies so big their turnover exceeds that of a medium-sized country and who are supported by the powerful countries—USA, China—from where they originate. Therefore, it would be foolish to meet them on their own terms, and at their own playground, which would be a recipe for disaster.”
“Seeing what you’re up against, is it really worth the fight?” Omar says. “For that little bit of extra income?”
This makes Idrissa, Yannick and the rest burst out in laughter. So hard, some of them are rolling on the ground while others have tears of glee rolling from their eyes. Omar’s eyes become big as saucers, wondering why his remark was so funny.
“Oh, Omar,” Idrissa says, snorting away some last merriment, as tears smudge his eyeliner. “Do you know what France’s GDP is?”
“Oh, yes,” Omar counters, “well over three trillion euros.”
“Fine,” Idrissa says. “Do you know the worth of today’s app economy?”
“No,” Omar admits, “but it can’t be more than a few hundred million euros.”
“Wrong,” Idrissa says. “It’s well above seven trillion euros, or—to put it in terms that literally bring it home to you—twice the economy of France.”
“Merde,” Omar says in his finest French. “But the app economy for AR surely is not that big.”
“Of course not,” Idrissa says. “It’s just starting. But keep in mind that while the first ones, very simple by today’s standards, were around in the ‘80s, smartphone apps did not really take off until 2008. A dozen years later, their economic value exceeds six trillion dollars. That’s how fast it goes, and we want to make sure we don’t get left behind—or monetarily screwed—when AR-apps hit the big time.”
“And you want to do that with your own cryptocurrency?” Omar still has trouble grasping their plans. “I thought these were extremely volatile? And could be made illegal?”
“We are well aware of BitCoin’s volatility,” Idrissa says, “but from the viewpoint of early developers—which is what we are in this upcoming AR-economy—it’s a goldmine. On top of that, we are taking steps to assure that using our particular cryptocurrency is the only game in town—the ‘town’ being the place where all the truly avant-garde AR-apps are.”
“So there will be plenty of competition,” Omar says, “sponsored by Big Tech. What will prevent them from crushing you?”
“Think of it like the Apple strategy,” Idrissa says. “We don’t want to maximize market share—that’s what the competition wants. We focus on the top segment of the market, those who are willing to pay top price for the best possible experience. The rest can fight over the scraps, with the diminishing profit margins. Even better, like the Apple Store, we’re trying to keep customers in our ‘walled garden’ by forcing them to use our cryptocurrency. Then we control the monetization of our apps, not the Big Tech companies.”
“Fight fire with fire,” Omar says, “but will the powers-that-be let you get away with it? They sure as Hell are trying to crack Apple’s app store wide open.”
“We don’t know,” Idrissa says, “but we have to try. And what we just told you is only a part of our long-term strategy. Which we’ll get to when—as the old saying goes—the time is right.”
“Which is all fine and well,” Omar says, “but suppose you succeed, and your AR-app economy takes off, then you can expect several governments—the EU being the most predominant one—to ask you to pay taxes.”
“Why should we pay taxes to countries that won’t even let us in?” Idrissa says. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, and then the EU—and other entities—can expect to have a huge, ethical hammer thrown at them.”
Author’s note: this part should have been posted two weeks ago. So, in order to catch up, I’ll be posting part 6 tomorrow, part 7 Thursday, and part 8 Sunday after which—I really hope—the normal schedule will resume (there are 50 parts and 52 weeks, so I’m allowed to skip one week per six months).
In all honesty, I’ll still be very, very busy until August, after which I should have more time on my hands. Thanks for your patience and many thanks for reading!