Public Domain Science Fiction Writer Wai Z contents

Yunio had a problem with anger, specifically righteous anger especially righteous anger in relation to employment. He grew up in the generation of angry young men, and it required no moulding of his Karma to become one. Initially it had not been an issue in his work as at the time they encouraged initiative and creativity, the word professional meant something and earned respect. But as time went on there grew an increased desire to mould and repress all workforces in the metropole. Yunio was never sure how true it was, but metropolitan countries started to believe creative initiative did not produce the profits they wanted.

Soon after he started work there was a boom in automation and use of computers as the scientists developed the technology. The implications of this process were still not fully clear to him, nor were they fully impacted but there was devastation of the humanity of society. Clearly manufacturing jobs were lost, and this meant families suffered. As time went on investors began to see that labour costs in their world were greatly eating into their profits. Gradually investment guided research into creating plant that required cheap unskilled labour, and although this increased distribution costs as they sought the labour their profits increased because they were able to employ such cheap labour - some even cut more costs by employing child labour.

Historically the metropolitan countries had not been in such a fortunate position. Under the feudal system many civilisations flourished but around the 15th and 16th centuries European countries began to develop more global transport and at the same time increase their military might. At that time they recognised the increased profits available through industrialisation yet at the same time knew they did not have the finances to develop that finance. Throughout this period ships roamed the globe appropriating monies for their homelands. With this money they developed industry, and with the profits from the industry developed research to improve the processes of production that fuelled the need for greater trade and an increase in the need for raw materials as well as a desire for expansion of markets.

This phase of so-called development culminated in war when these countries fought each other over the existing wealth and over the division of the markets. At the end of the second of these wars the European countries were so devastated that the US were easily able to step in and take control of the means of productions, the raw materials and the markets. During these wars there had been a development of weapons but in peace-time this development turned to automation as a means of increasing profits. But in the US the companies had the foresight to recognise the international nature of trading, and the multinational was born. These multinationals controlled all aspects of production, and increased their profits by building the plant where the labour costs were cheap. At the same time they controlled the distribution and also the sales outlets, and this led to a world where the wealth and the food and other goods produced were on the increase whilst more people were dieing from starvation.

It was these multinationals who were fuelling the development of technology, and because their companies were so large spanning international boundaries they were able to manipulate national laws and escape the humanitarian consequences of their actions. As they increased their control of the world markets they began to control more the behaviour of their workforce, and it was this that Yunio experienced. He began work when human endeavour was still increasing the profits but soon after these multinationals realised that this endeavour required a level of education that began to increase the number of people questioning the inequities of the system. The multinationals realised that these people presented a serious risk that they were unwilling to take. The questions that their creative intelligence began to raise were beginning to raise the awareness of the workforce whose expectations began to rise at the same time - they would use those expectations later.

Meanwhile it was essential to control the workforce. By transferring the plant to less educated countries the awareness of the workforce went down whilst the profits went up. At the same time there were fewer jobs in the countries where the multinationals were based, and with the greater expectation of the workforce they were able to squeeze more work from those people who ended up in one of the fewer jobs. Although the awareness of the workforce had increased that became secondary to the need for work so the knowledge gained was effectively repressed.

However Yunio had been fortunate, he had been able to develop his awareness throughout his life because he had not been caught in the trap of expectations. He had also been involved in a caring profession, and had maintained his vocation whilst others had allowed their expectations to cause compromise. But it also meant that as he got older the righteous positions he took brought him more and more into conflict as the people in his caring profession increased their own compromise due to their expectations and desires. More and more he felt isolated as new generations growing up in his country lacked the awareness and only knew the repressed way of life. Equally fortunately Yunio's soul had grown through his conflicts, and he had the integrity to hold to his ways, the way of Nature.

But all his life he had had to deal with his anger, anger in his family, anger over his work, anger as he saw society increasingly accept that the unfettered business giants continued to exploit people throughout the world.

Peasants and industrialised worker were a difference Yunio first noted in Marxism but never greatly studied it, however it was an issue that developed of interest as he travelled. Then he began discussing it with Mpho as he got to know her.

When Mpho met him many years ago, she had seen something in him but he sadly had not in her. And when she opened her mouth it was worse because she was full of airs and graces, and that hateful attitude of contemporary society - name-dropping. But despite all this he listened and recognised she had much to say about her own people.

Of noble birth she had left her country for the metropole where Yunio had met her, a sensible move as people of nobility died under the ensuing change of regime in her country. What happened in her country was horrific but unless you have Mpho's knowledge or others who have experienced similar situations you cannot understand the full impact on her society. For 3 or 4 years a regime came into power with the express purpose of removing the nobility and the educated classes. For this regime's particular brand of socialism the peasant was king, was natural, and all aspects of the development of capitalism must be eradicated in order to free the peasant; at least that was how Yunio understood it.

Mpho had returned to her country 30 years after she left and had been there 3 years when Yunio went to visit her. To help understand more of what she said he watched her with her people. Her manner was so authoritarian, she would order her people around as if she were in the services. She expected her commands to be obeyed and they were, yet it never seemed to perturb her people. He watched one of her staff being balled out and yet within 5 minutes that member of staff had, with appropriate temerity, asked for and got an advance. From his point of view if one of his employers ever spoke to him like that, he would have turned round and reminded them that he was a professional. And would probably have shouted angrily. But it would never happen in his work but then he wasn't a peasant.

"They are so stupid, these people; every day you have to tell them the same thing," Mpho told Yunio after she had just balled out one of her girls again. He laughed to himself about what it was. The girl had brought Yunio some butter for his bread, for bread and cheese, you don't put butter on bread and cheese. The previous day the girl had done the same thing when Yunio had been on his own, and Yunio had happily eaten the butter with the bread and cheese.

When Mpho heard this she screamed at Yunio for defending the girl, as usual with Mpho as she was a friend Yunio let her rant on and on from the point of view of principle that never had any relationship to life; her approach just alienated her and her kind from the rest of humanity, even though most were too scared to say so owing to the politics of liberalism. And because this type of intellectual oppression was worse than any sort of dictatorship for the prevention of freedom of speech, as the weapon of vicious verbal haranguing usually ensued.

However the more Yunio watched Mpho, the more he saw what she was shouting about - and this was without Yunio being able to understand the language of Mpho and her people.

"These people are not smart," Mpho started the conversation where Yunio really began to understand, "they have never been to school."

"Your government provides schools, doesn't it?" asked Yunio.

"Yes, they do," she answered "but my people don't go."

"That is unusual for this part of the world," Yunio knew education was well respected here rather than in the metropole.

"Because the teachers charge the children," she answered with anger.

He began asking why but before he could so he knew why, corruption. He had heard that in this country the people are not paid proper wages. For example a police captain is paid $30 a month by the government. But in order to get to be police captain, a bribe has to be paid, maybe thousands of dollars. And what does this police captain do in order to survive - recoup his employment fee. He has to take bribes, and some take more than others. It is a system of corruption that is totally institutionalised; there is no aspect of criminality attached to it. How can there be? It is a necessary part of survival at every level of society so how can it be a crime in that society? Crime is an anti-social act that destroys the fabric of a society, how can corruption be a crime when it is part of the infrastructure? It is a crime when seen by those from outside her country, people like Mpho also see it as a crime but for her it is a crime against the humanity of her people because of what the corruption was doing to her country.

"No factories will come to my country," she told him one time "how can they? When my people hear of a factory that wants to come, they all find an excuse to get a bribe. Most industrialists complain about the outlay of their plant but in this country the biggest outlay is for bribes."

"The government needs to do something about this or your people will remain poor," remarked Yunio.

"There are some good people, friends of mine, but they are all surrounded by people who are corrupt, taking bribes," she looked exasperatingly at him "what can you do?"

"How can this have happened?" asked Yunio. "Was it the regime?"

"The regime only lasted 3 ½ to 4 years before outside forces came in and destroyed them," she told him.

"So why did the government then allow this?" he asked confused "it is so short-sighted."

"Because they are not smart," she answered.

And he understood; they were peasants. At that moment many things about the words peasant and industrialised workers fitted into place. In Mpho's country the people had not overthrown the regime, the regime had been overthrown by neighbouring countries presumably afraid that the regime would attack their countries. The people had not overthrown them, they had not been oppressed long enough to learn through oppression.

But the neighbouring countries were not interested in ruling Mpho's country, they were only afraid for themselves. So there was a country without nobility, without educated people, all killed or driven out by the regime, so who was left? The peasants, and the peasants became rulers.

And what did these rulers see? Short-term gain. If they were rulers the people would have to pay them - corruption. The rulers were uneducated feudal lords taking every opportunity for short-term gain. These rulers with the military and then the police were then able to take bribes for everything to make themselves rich.

But being uneducated they had no vision. They were wealthy, and they built up an infrastructure of corruption; sadly however that was the only infrastructure they did build as they did not have the vision to see that there was more money to be gained through development. Yunio began to understand a little more about the stages of capitalism that Marx talked about. Historically to gain more wealth the feudal lords in the West needed to spend more to earn more. They could earn more by industrialising the people, it was a misguided reversing of this process that the regime had tried to create.

The more Yunio thought about this the more he was learning about the wisdom of Marx's analysis. But theory aside what was happening in Mpho's country was a headless chicken. These people had been moving in the direction of the more developed capitalist countries when suddenly the engine of that type of development had been completely removed. The country was then not driven by that type of capitalist greed that recognises the need for investment. The river of history that moved people from feudal to capitalist continued unabated but the boat that was carrying Mpho's people had been sunk. Some people provided small boats of corruption for themselves, and saw the advantages of keeping the people without their own boat maintaining the sanctity of the profits of their own corruption.

But what was happening to the people of Mpho's country who did not have boats? They could swim a little but basically as the river of history moved on they were stuck on the riverbank. They lost their education and reverted to being peasants. So Mpho's country was a feudal country where the clock had been turned back initially by the regime but more so by those peasants who followed the regime and became feudal lords.

But the process of capitalism is beginning to grip the country again. These feudal lords have recognised that there is more to be gained by becoming a part of global capitalism, however they are not smart and have tried to take advantage of the carrots that capitalism offers. AID. At the moment there is much money coming into Mpho's country from NGO's, the contemporary missionaries. These well-intentioned people, masking the intent of their metropole, are bringing with them the aspirations that Mpho's people will become trapped by. At the moment, the boat-owners - the feudal lords - are gaining from the NGO's but these NGO's will bring with them material benefits that Mpho's people will want. Initially this is seen through tourism where many people are coming to take advantage of the undeveloped beauty of the country as well as the unspoilt natures of the people. Many NGO's decry this exploitation and quite rightly are attempting to do something about this exploitation, but all the while the conditions for changing from feudal to industrial are being built up and soon the demands of the people for those material benefits will oust the feudal lords. And soon the world of capital will have a new market.

But these theoretical generalisations are of no use to Mpho and her people now. These headless chickens are wandering around looking for the crumbs from the feudal lords and the conquistadorial entourage who are arriving in ever-increasing numbers.

Yunio became fascinated with Mpho's country from an educational point of view. Education is a process, it works like a function in an input-output machine. In the West the output of these machines is ostensibly the subjects and their qualifications. Educationalists and the powers-that-be through their politicians recognise that education is so much more, primarily it is a process whereby generation-to-generation the young people are moulded so that they can fit into their society. For the Western countries this process is very similar, the students learn subjects and pass exams in those subjects. In order to pass those subjects they learn basic educational skills through the early learning process of parents, family and schooling. Once they have passed the exams they take on the jobs their society wants, and they become part of the global capitalist economic process.

In countries that are the non-metropolitan part of the hegemony children also join this process. For the rich they become qualified, they meet various people from the West usually by attending Western universities, and they become the new outposts of the global process; some would say satraps. Meanwhile the less powerful gain qualifications and are offered the temptations of the system, the material benefits. The process of educating minds gives them the desires of the West, and these desires then become part of the desires of the society in their own country.

To varying degrees it could be argued that all countries fit into this educational process but how much does this apply to Mpho's people? To fully understand this let us consider some of the inputs into the educational machine. In the West these inputs are generally very similar. Although the children have varying degrees of wealth in the west the parents fundamentally agree that these children will become consumers in their society. To be consumers they need money and therefore work, so the children are being educated to fulfil these roles of consumer/worker to differing degrees. Similarly in non-metropolitan countries the children are being educated to be consumers/workers, but to a lesser extent in differing countries as the potential for such consumerism is often limited. Who tells these children they are to be consumers and workers in the global capitalist system? No-one. But by the time these children start education society, through parents primarily, have presented this as a fait-accompli. Whilst they attend schooling, all of this consumerism trap is reinforced and so by the time they are qualified they fully subscribe to the consumer/worker lifestyle.

What is the difference with Mpho's people? It is a combination of the mentalities concerning corruption and worker. For the time she was out of her country the people had the desires of a small-scale consumer. They saw their feudal lords satisfy those desires through corruption, meanwhile they saw their families survive by farming and selling their goods at the market. In this scenario education was not considered a way out so the families never pushed for education, especially with the corruption costs of the teacher.

That is the basic status quo of the peasants in her country. But the problem is that her country is changing because of the conquistadores. Now her people want to consume more. They want more money to spend, they want to spend like "industrialised workers".

Why does the desire to consume more mean that they want to become "industrialised workers"? Here is the most interesting aspect of the situation of the peasants in Mpho's country for Yunio as an educationalist. The industrialised worker has some educational skills that are required for their functioning in industry. These are organisational skills, skills of punctuality, skills of remembering instructions, generally skills that mean that the boss can rely on tasks being completed in order for the product to be manufactured, distributed and sold. Does the peasant have these skills? In Mpho's view they don't as they are not smart.

As an educationalist Yunio recognised that one of the key hidden curriculum skills that education offers is organisation, and that the difference between a peasant and a worker educationally are these organisational skills perhaps culminating in the highest organised worker, the professional, who defines his own organisational process because he has his own motivation for working.

"Mpho, I am confused," he spoke carefully as sometimes Mpho was not patient "On a farm a peasant must be organised. Why can't they transfer those organisational skills to the workplace?"

"My people just don't," she said shortly.

"For example in a home a mother looks after the home so why can't she transfer those skills to being a maid or a domestic cleaner?" asked Yunio genuinely trying to understand.

"The women have no concept of home," replied Mpho sadly; their relationship with their partner is based on sex and procreation but they don't have a nest-comfort concept. This is why, although married, they still have primitive attitudes to their partner. If a woman looks at another man then she will be beaten. If a man goes with another woman then the wife will kill the other woman. Even a home requires organisation but my women don't do that. Our men drink and the women try to make ends meet. You cannot have a beautiful home unless you have money to pay for it, and money to buy things for it. My people don't have money."

Yunio watched the peasant children on the beach, they were so happy playing. Never in the metropole could he see the children with such joy, in fact it appeared to him his country's children were sad because from the time they were born they were always wanting and demanding. Mpho had not talked about the farming but a thought struck Yunio. These were peasants not farmers, a farmer is an industrialised worker. For centuries peasants grew their crops, fed their animals; they responded to the laws of Nature. They responded to Nature's imperative. Isn't that what Mpho's peasants did? Only Mpho took on Nature's role. These peasants were not organised. They did not remember to do ABC, they did them when Mpho told them. They fed the cows when they were hungry. The crops grew and the peasants removed weeds when they were stopping the crops from growing. In season they planted to survive. These were instinctive imperatives that peasants followed responding to natural conditions.

As an educationalist Yunio knew that a primary educational skill to teach is that of organisation, he had always been strong on organisation as he was a well-organised person himself. The degree of organisation is a level of education starting from peasantry.

These ideas brought together two dilemmas that Yunio had been working on for his own life. He had considered business ventures in peasant countries to escape the ravages of institutional teachers whose lack of understanding of education, or participating in it, and disillusion with life often brought conflict into Yunio's life. What could be nicer than an island guest house that ran itself whilst he followed his Path of Nature? How can that ever happen when the islanders were peasants? If they were not peasants they would be feudal lords and not interested in his non-profit business.

In another time he had known peasant girls and they were so much fun because of their simplicity and lack of airs and graces. He had known these girls were not organised, and had said it was a problem the country had. But it was not. These girls were peasants who did not know how to run a home. Money was spent in the short term and month-end there was no money. At that time he had seen it as a discipline issue, and it was. But their minds were not organised, educated. From experience other locals living there had told him women must be educated but he never saw the connection between subject qualifications and running a home. However now he understood education and organisation, if it happened to him again he could help the women. But he would be foolish to let it happen again.

In the East he had met many western men who became enamoured of the peasant beauty of some of the women. Sadly even in their traditional societies many of these peasants took the easy way and earned money from sex; such women found it hard to change back to the difficulties of organised daily life. These men tried and failed with these beauties for whom life was disorganised. The men never knew that their education and consumer/worker lifestyle were in complete contradiction to an uneducated peasant, mainly because many of the men were rejecting their own backgrounds. But they could not see beyond their desires. They wanted the benefits of the undemanding peasant lifestyle whilst also keeping in part more organised minds. They never saw the fundamental conflict within themselves, and between themselves and their partners - they continually tried to grasp a dream but the reality eluded them producing great sadness and frustration.

Yunio yearned for the simple life but that was not the simple life of the disorganised peasant but the simple organised life of a man of Nature following his Path through meditation, discipline and organisation. Picture the lifestyle from outside, could you tell the difference?

When Yunio thought back he remembered discussions. He remembered a token liberal, a woman who hid behind liberalism as a way of personal development, and yet had great personal dissatisfaction. Her society proclaimed that educated women should behave in a certain way and this intellectual oppression of her gender caused her great discomfort. Many of these confused women were critical of white men with women who are not white.

"You only live with Nomatemba because she doesn't argue, doesn't answer back," ranted on Magsuz.

"I am hoping we can make a go of it," answered Yunio spiritedly.

"Some story, you only go with her because she is compliant," repeated the Magsuz line.

He gave up on this walking-talking indoctrination, the line was repeated and his words never entered her ears. He was amused by the arrogance of her and her clones. Here they stand up arguing against what they perceive as some sort of sexual exploitation by white men by classifying the women by a stereotype that was totally inaccurate - and itself a stereotype. Firstly was the implication that western women were superior and that was why these men went with local women because the men were unable to cope with the superior white women. Secondly the implication that these women were compliant. But what the women of this culture did try to do was to make a home, and a home was not a place where a man went to be lambasted by a clone's rhetoric for the sins of chauvinism - simply because he had a penis. But compliant, he and his friends laughed because how often they had failed to change the minds of their partners.

Sadly Yunio did not make a go of it, and suffered serious psychological hardship trying. He later drew up categories in his mind - the peasant who desired more yet wanted to remain a peasant, a peasant with more possessions. And then there were peasants who desired to be more, to leave behind the simple responsive life and move onto a more educated Path. Yunio knew that his partner, as many others, only wanted more possessions and his hardship was caused because he accepted attachment to his desire instead of discerning the truth about his peasant girl.

On returning to UK after travelling, Yunio met a political friend and discussed his understanding of peasantry.

"This regime tried to reverse the timeline," Yunio argued.

"Yes, you cannot turn back the clock," agreed Vindio, "once the peasants have become organised as workers in an industrial class they cannot pretend to be peasants again."

"It seems strange that this organisation is gained through education systems provided by the capitalist system," remarked Yunio wickedly.

"You're right," answered Vindio not taking the bait, "but what you must understand is that the purpose of this education is not to help the peasant but to create a worker who can earn the capitalist more money."

"Whilst earning more money for the peasant," interjected Yunio.

"Yunio, what are you trying to say?" stabbed Vindio "that education is about self-realisation." They both laughed as they had previously discussed this sop that was thrown at teacher trainees as a justification for the obvious failures of education.

Vindio followed his Marxist line and did not waver. Yunio recognised this function of education and accepted it but he knew education was more than this. But that was not education that the system provided but education for life that started man on a Path of Nature. This was not however a discussion to have with Vindio.

"Are you saying that capitalism is a stage that we must go through?" asked Yunio beginning to get a picture of what Vindio discussed.

"It is essential to understand that people need to organise," began Vindio's rhetoric "because as peasants they will just be taken advantage of. People need to organise especially in manufacturing as there they have power to halt production and so affect the profits. If the profits are affected then the bosses listen.

"The bosses have educated the peasants because they know they can get more profit from them in manufacturing than they can from them in the field. But at the same time the bosses, giving them skills to increase their own profits, have also given them the organisational skills to cause their own defeat, the organisational skills that lead to collectivisation.

"And that is the inevitability. To increase the profits the bosses must impart more skills, and the more they impart the more they are creating the situation of their downfall. When the workforce recognises its collective strength of withdrawal of labour, then capitalism has died."

"I understand," said Yunio sympathetically "but in this world where workforces are in such differing levels of development …."

"Yes we must educate from a class perspective," agreed Vindio. Vindio had fallen back on his own intellectual cross. We must educate, thought Yunio, but globally it cannot be a class issue. How can the workers of the world unite when their own wealth and circumstances are so different? Withhold labour in the West and the plant moves to the Third World. Vindio's perspective had been surpassed in the global era.

It's an issue about who and what we are, and maybe that includes a class perspective but it must be balanced. Was it ever?

A peasant responds, Yunio thought one evening, and then came the appalling word proactive. There seemed to be a spectrum here but care needs to be taken, responsive to who, proactive with what. The peasant farmer responds to Nature in terms of what is required to be done, and then the other end of the spectrum is proactive with Nature? What does that mean? Proactive usually has a context in business, a bit like - take the initiative to increase the profits. But is this proactive? Is this not just another form of acceptance, responding to society with some initiative? But what about not responding at all and being in a permanent state of proactivity? This is a man of Nature setting the agenda, such humanity is powerful.

What are the implications of these proactive people? They are in Nature but detached from the desires around them. Society asks them to consume and to work, these must be done but on their own terms. They make the decision about their livelihood. Some would argue that was not possible, the boss tells you what to do. But the boss has power over your actions only if you allow it. The significant issue about an employment situation is that it is based on mutual need and mutual benefit. The boss requires your labour to make a profit; this is the mutuality of the situation. Employers tolerate unions because a union in acting for the interests of its members can also act in the interest of greater productivity and profit. Of course employers and unions can function in a negative way leading to no mutuality and worker unrest.

Basically people can give labour yet still be proactive - choosing to give labour to satisfy appropriate needs. Yet employees can move on, if they have the skills that bosses need to make profits then they can be proactive. But much of this choice depends on the amount of money desired, and Nature can show you your needs are little. Such a Natural human does not have to live rough but doesn't have the financial aspirations of the king consumer. They don't have the addiction of needing to work all the time - workaholic; their decision is proactive.

Society places restrictions on people, gives them responsibilities - as such all humans respond. The more contact with society the more response is required. Yet at the same time humanity is part of Nature, there is an imperative to work together for the betterment of each other enjoying the giving that is an essential aspect of civilised life. The peasant works in a community and responds to that community. Industrialised humanity develops responsibility for the family, and functions within that consumer unit. But humans insighting Nature become solitary without the pressures of family, without the community placing demands on him. Yet at the same time as being solitary they will always have the need to give, a need that provides joy and reassurance to their own humanity.

This was enough theorising; people love and live with compassion yet detachment. But anger regularly got in the way of detachment, especially for Yunio.

It was his anger that led him to change and move forward. As a teacher he lived an almost schizophrenic life, in school the diligent teacher and on holiday developing as a Man of Nature following his own Path. Teaching was a profession of words, he was tempted to say a profession of liars but although it amounted to the same thing many had some bone of genuineness within them. He lost a friend because that friend described him as absurd for expecting people to love teaching, but you either love teaching and the children or you end up exploiting. Sadly many are exploiters but have learnt the rhetoric of love because that is what gave them career. Weigil was one such. A young man with a silver tongue that he had used to climb the career ladder far before his insight and experience merited, and he had landed in a hopeless situation - a situation wiser refused. But how does a careerist refuse power - the rungs of the ladder?

Weigil spouted the old sop that in power he could ameliorate the problems, but as usual with this sop the establishment controlled. Yes he could pretend to fight and might occasionally win, but the reality is he wins token battles. And each battle he wins the more he is trapped. He was fodder for Goldie - the pet name for the owner. Goldie played Weigil, and all the time this arrogant youth claimed a few battles - and claimed he controlled the owner. Watching this colleagues were horrified as they had seen such arrogance before, yet at the same time they feared for themselves. Weigil was not local and did not understand local ways, they had seen many such westerners. The locals wanted to improve but they had watched career after career parade before them, and vent their frustration on the locals. Weigil was no different, and so they started to do whatever Weigil wanted . But Weigil didn't know, he was too young. He imitated those that were his superiors in other situations, and told the locals to do this. They tried but failed, and what had been previously of value disappeared. Eventually Goldie saw this and dumped on Weigil, but by then Yunio was far gone.

Yunio had managed to establish some good teaching as amidst all this career stupidity the students wanted to learn, but more and more Weigil made Yunio do stuff that was best described as a waste of time - but was far worse. After spending an evening doing such rubbish Yunio went in the next day to find Weigil had allocated him another day of rubbish. That was it, Yunio's temper got the better of him. He stormed into Weigil's office, tiraded left right and centre, packed up what he could carry and stormed off to the airport. As the plane rose he felt such a sense of relief wash over him, but this was soon followed by a great sadness for the people he had left behind - the students who could put with whatever was thrown at them but gained very little, the powerless locals who were never exposed to expertise to help them, whilst Goldie and her ilk bought their puppets like Weigil and took the heart out of the population of the country.

He blanked then as time flew by with the plane. He rested but thoughts didn't fill his head, no plans - nothing, he had escaped. It was a trap of his own making but a trap nonetheless, he had lasted as long as he did because of the kids. His health and sanity were suffering. The kids would never understand, people don't. They can cope so why can't you? In a way there is no answer to that except that you don't have to. Yunio didn't have to - he walked.

Or rather he flew, and without consciously knowing he had flown to the UK. But the UK had nothing for him. His parents had just died, and the limited UK humanity that had existed in his youth was being swallowed up by the powerful pound following the almighty dollar. UK countryside is still beautiful what little of it is left, and he drove to his place and walked.

"No more No more No more No more," he screamed to himself, or it might even have been out loud. He sat down and breathed in the air, real air or the nearest the UK could offer. "No more," he returned to the car, and saw nearby caravans. That's it, his dream - the combi with satellite, DVD, bed and kitchenette. He waited 3 months whilst it was kitted out and off he went.

That 3 months had flown by. He had thought having to wait 3 months would drive him insane but at least he could plan his trip. But first he would see friends. Glad to see him, as he them, these meetings were often strained.

"What are you going to do?" they would ask. And he didn't have an answer, and these people who had bought into structure feared for him. But what was the fear? The fear if they were doing it, or fear for Yunio. It mattered not, he was not afraid. If any doubts arose then "No More" screamed through his mind - "No More." Before he knew it, the van was ready and he crossed the channel.

As a youth he had once left to travel the world, and had begun by going down the French coast. He had not got far before his money had been lost or stolen, so he would start from there. As a youth he had been a week at Sancal enjoying it immensely as youthful mind had begun exploring, but he had been weak and with money gone he fled home again. This time he reached Sancal he saw the same lack of freedom that he had fled from the UK, and screaming "Jamais non plus" he got on a boat for the Southern hemisphere.

Nothing seemed to happen on the boat but something very necessary changed in his mind. He learned to slow down, he had to. Not only was there nothing to do on the boat, his mind was completely messed up with speed, so messed up it was not relaxed. Many said he was in control as he managed to juggle much in an active life, and he himself judged others by their inability to be efficient. But in truth his control was superficial, he had no depth. He was spread thin as he juggled this commitment with that, staying up to the early hours to maintain that commitment. But there was no depth, no deep understanding of what happened in life. How could there be, he was too busy. Initially on the boat he tried to make himself busy, forcing early-rising for sport, developing other routines, the paper, times for coffee, afternoon tea, a stroll on the deck, but it was all an effort to fit in with a racing mind that jumped from busy to busy. After a while he saw this in himself, and he was relieved to slow down. He didn't have to get up, he didn't have to be for coffee at 11.

Soon this developed further as he began to meditate. Just watching his mind creating this and that, chattering here and there, making constructs and patterns that were totally unimportant. He even remembered, his mind speaking in a pattern without words, it was as if he was in a discussion with someone and he watched the way he spoke. Crazy patterns. Slowly he tried to unravel these patterns looking ot see what was underneath. This process of watching his mind and unravelling patterns became more and more important, and gradually he slowed down. It became a daily routine he knew he wanted to keep.

F-ville, someone told him F-ville, and as the ship neared dock he was ready with his map to move on to F-ville. He then learned the joy of driving on the wide open roads. This was not something he could possibly have known before. In the UK clear road meant he could make the speed limit, but it was not about the road being clear. The nearest was a stretch of motorway over Cumbria. It was never clear as there were always cars, but being a motorway in his lane he was free to see. The hills rolled green as the m-way wound round their contours and it gave a sense of clearness. But this was a short stretch of ten miles, and how did that compare with ten miles of clear view?

He would watch as towns appeared in the distance, maybe pre-warned by a sign, and then buildings would take shape, coming up gradually and slowly disappearing as he passed them by. It was gentle driving as his foot rarely moved, and his gaze fixed his mind could gently wander or listen to music. He remembered one town. It was bright sunlight, and there had maybe been rain, but the town was highlighted against a mountain backdrop and the scene fixed in his memory. Mind you when he got to the town, it was a town. He bought petrol and a snack, but beyond that he could not remember the town. Yet lives passed, and passed on in these places, full of importance to the participants, but ….

He smiled, that's what they would say of where he used to live. Of course people in big cities always said their lives were more important, and whilst often they did control the lives of others it was not more important, nothing better happened and often much worse.

This part of the world had a good way to travel as here were many places where you just camped - often game parks. Providing basic amenities you could park and eat and sleep, and at night look up at the wonder of starry skies. After a couple of days of this travel he loved the freedom, and felt completely at rest.

In this camping many people would talk. Well yet again, maybe that was not true. Some people would talk, and others would pointedly keep themselves to themselves. It was a level of distrust as if they had brought the city with them, or whatever baggage had built their islands in the face place. And yet there were others for whom the road and camp opened up a freedom, perhaps a freedom they couldn't have in their daily lives. All levels of conversation could be entered into. Often people could reflect on their lifestyles, the problems in their lands and much more.

One such land was a major trouble spot, and yet he met many people from this land. And they talked. The land was South Africa, and he met the whites. He spoke to them as a white man, yet to begin with, in his heart, he thought they were his enemy, their strong accent grating against his sensitivities. It was coming to the end of white rule, and these people were beginning to understand what they had been a part of. They had become trapped in a life of lies, lies propagated by government and media, lies that presented a distorted lifestyle of the different communities and in the end creating those distortions as a form of reality.

He remembered a description of conscription, and how these guys had been in the tanks and gone into the townships. Death was not discussed but it was a possibility but repression was readily accepted. They knew no better, these white men, it was expected of their society and they did it.

More and more he met these people and he began to lose his pre-conceptions. In part they were to be admired for their lifestyle in these wide open spaces. It was as if space gave them joy. But also space made them vulnerable, and they protected themselves. And in the end that's what he saw in these crimes of South Africa, people of all races protecting their families and trying to make a living. It was unfair, it was criminal, the crimes maybe can be forgiven, but they were only protecting their families. He thought back to his own childhood. He came from a financially stable background but nothing special. Father, then mother, worked, and brought him and his brother up. What was different between his family and the family of these white South Africans?

Only the government. And yet how different was the government? In white South Africa a religious group of whites-only created a system that favoured them and didn't favour others. In the UK a group of whites are in charge, they favour themselves, their class, but do not favour others. The difference is they export their problems. The problems caused by the money deals in London don't occur in London, their knock-on effects damage the poor throughout the world, but British people remain comfortable with their homes and their excuses. We give Aid but people exploit along the line, these dictators are the problem, what about the droughts and the famines, how can we blame ourselves?

But these excuses are predicated on the mortgage and not the truth, on the comfort and not the reality, on their own version of lies and delusion. In some ways Africa had an honesty that was missing in the tiers of hiding that characterise UK life and "civilisation".

F-ville 500, then 200, 100, 20 and he was in it. In what, well he couldn't describe it as being a lot. He got lucky, a contact led to another who let him rent a house cheaply giving him a respite from his van, space above his mattress when he slept, and avoiding the horrendous hotel prices. He stayed in F-ville a while, long enough to get to know the place and one of the local girls. These girls were tremendous. On the one hand lively and pleasant, yet on the other the best description is "lump". But it was a squeeze. He enjoyed her company and her body, she began to want money; what can you say about relationships without love. Or relationships that call themselves love, but love is defined in terms of comfort and security. Of course it doesn't matter how you define love if it exists within your own community then it is understood. But as soon as you step outside understandings that are never talked about appear for one partner, and not the other. Contention, strife, whatever.

Whilst in F-ville he enjoyed the local dam, Shazeduma. This dam had a uniqueness he had never seen or heard of. For half the year the dam was full, you could drive to its edge and perhaps walk 50 yards in either direction. It was still a pleasant expanse of water, maybe fishing. However as the year wore on and the rains receded so did the water line. And the sun quickly dried the edge of the dam, enabling his combi to drive round for maybe 10 km. What a joy that was, it was as if it was his own drive. His and the flamingos. For when the dam was low, they appeared and whilst too timorous to be approached just to be close was a wonder of Nature. Mind you he could buzz the vultures. They kept their distance but were not afraid, and he enjoyed driving through their picking buzzing them into flight.

But the greatest joy was the reeds. The water level must drop 2 or 3 metres, and reeds that were barely visible when the dam was full, grew to 10 foot shelters from the searing sun. He would drive the combi part-way round, find some reeds, and sit - ostensibly with a book, but more with the peace and neo-meditation that came from this solitude in Nature. It was this he missed most when he drove past the village on parting.

In the end this girl moved him on from F-ville, just one more unnecessary argument about money, so at the start of Shazeduma's second rains he left. He had heard of a resort. You took a boat and then jeep, and the resort manager could even take care of his combi. He went for it, tried one night, hated the reminders of the West who were staying there, and moved on. He had been out walking, there was an unused hut in the jungle. He visited it several times, and no-one had appeared. With a mat and mosquito net for cover he moved in.

He couldn't believe his doing this, Jerry was intrepid he wasn't. He was a soft teacher but he wanted the peace after the girl had driven him to distraction. What a fool he had been, but he knew why - he would never forget her body. And the smell of her armpits, he smiled to himself.

He had managed to sneak up a stove, there was some fruit he could eat, but he could go back to the resort shop every so often. Life was pleasant in his new home as he slept, ate sparingly but well, and stared at the night skies with a sense of wonder. How grateful he was to have experienced such skies.

Then one day he was pottering around, sweeping away the ants when from out of the bush came Mpho.