Music for this Chapter

OR1-EP1: Rainbow Nation (8)

Unlike Europe's method of dividing administrative regions according to traditional national borders, the idea of EU's work in Africa is easily management. Therefore, the first European colonists at that time ignored the geographical environment and rudely used the longitude and latitude lines to draw a neat and square piece of land on the map. This practice was later proved to have endless troubles and disrupted the African indigenous people. The early colonial pioneers skillfully used the contradictions between the indigenous people to expand their sphere of influence. They weakened the entire indigenous group by supporting a group of indigenous people to attack another group of indigenous people. At the same time, the martial traditions since the French Revolution have allowed EU citizens to retain the awareness of militias and gun-bearing for a long time, especially in the African colonies where public security is still unstable. Immigrants who settle here must learn Self-defense.

This phenomenon changed after the first century of the Republican calendar. Through a series of bills, the EU has gradually deprived citizens of the right to organize self-defense, and most of the functions have been transferred to relevant departments under the control of the EU. Only in Africa, the last trace of this long obsolete tradition can be seen, that is, a demonstration organized spontaneously by other citizens who decided to pick up their weapons under the threat of indigenous violence. On the second day McNeil came to Rhodesia, he was lucky enough to see people from the Rifle Association organize a rally in the city. Thousands of citizens participated in the event. They claimed that the garrison was unable to protect the citizens. The citizens must be allowed to pick up weapons to protect the lives of local citizens. Rhodesians may be happy to see the result, they did not take any measures to interfere with this massive gathering.

"If they dare to do this in Paris, the military and police will punch their brains out." McNeil and Old Jake sat in a pub on the side of the road and watched the crowd passing by with various banners. Both of them disagree with allowing people to hold weapons, believing that doing so will only increase violence and crime, and will not protect those who need protection from harm. The purpose of adding a lock to the door is to prevent 90% of ordinary people from getting money, not to prevent professional thieves who will try to steal anyway. It is idiotic to expect ordinary citizens who are law-abiding citizens to use firearms against robbers or armed men who lick their blood.

"You have to be considerate of them. Rhodesia's economy has not been very good in recent years, and prices have risen much faster than average income." Old Jake ordered two bottles of beer and sat in front of the bar with McNeil. " It is the most famous place for foreign exchange dealers in Africa. Many speculators who exchange foreign currencies at prices higher or lower than the international exchange rate made their fortunes here. If they make a profit, the citizens will be unlucky."

McNeil saw a striking slogan posted in the bar lobby: No Rhodesian dollars. The euro is always a hard currency on the EU territory, and its credibility is as stable as gold. The price of this stability is naturally that the EU has passed all the risks to marginal colonies or other countries. In the past, the EU also tried to make some diversified economic adjustments, but the hyperinflation that occurred in Rhodesia completely destroyed everyone's confidence. It has become a wasteland abandoned by economists, who are not even confident to re-establish the dominance of the euro here.

"I remember you used to be a soldier in Rhodesia."

"Yes, that was decades ago. At that time, I was still dreaming that I would have the opportunity to be a decent person in the future..." Old Jake drank the beer in his glass, shook the bottle, and found disappointed that it was empty. He reached for the bottle in front of McNeil, who grabbed the bottle and moved it to the other side of the bar.

"Drink less, we still have work."

"Yes, I have to remember this." Old Jake shrank back angrily. "...In short, Rhodesia used to be a very prosperous place. The problems in recent years have been blamed on the increasing use of the indigenous people, and it is often said in newspapers that indigenous people with low intelligence are not worthy of governing the huge Africa."

Many disputes of sentiment turned out to be caused by business disputes. Arms dealers who started from war are facing the risk of bankruptcy or being overtaken by other industry giants in the peaceful era. They need a reliable and stable source of income, not only enough to support themselves, but also to support the entire industrial production related to it. The population of immigrant descendants in Africa is increasing year by year, almost showing a trend of geometric growth. Even so, compared with Europe, the pressure of living in Africa is still relatively small, and some citizens who are unable to survive in Europe will choose to travel to Africa. This is a huge market, which can bring countless business opportunities. How to let these people buy their own products or services has become an urgent problem for businessmen to think about. Most businesses do not have a strong background in Europe, and can only fight each other with their own abilities. This may be part of the economic law in the local area.

"In my opinion, they are no different from the Flat Earth Association. They are neurotic vagrants who hand out leaflets and preach when they meet everybody." McNeil saw three young men in uniforms of the Rifle Association walk into the bar and approached the bar. He doesn't care whether citizens can hold guns or not. If he hadn't suddenly seen Adalbert Herzog's name on the leaflet, he wouldn't even want to take it.

The youth who seemed a few years younger than McNeil looked expectantly at McNeil, who was looking at the flyer attentively, and realized that this might be someone interested in the cause they advocate. McNeil learned from the leaflet that Adalbert Herzog has always been a supporter of the Rifle Association, and at the same time advocated the use of tough methods against the indigenous peoples and completely opposed the moderates. In the entire white community, any remarks that want to compromise with the natives are betrayal and should be punished. Therefore, when the news came that Adalbert Herzog killed Jorge Dias, many people regarded him as a hero, and believed that it was a crusader who killed the Freemasonry undercover who caused disaster to the country and the people. Among the slogans of the Rifle Association is the acquittal of Adalbert Herzog. There is no doubt that since Adalbert holds this view, his father Governor-general Herzog himself will not compromise on indigenous issues. Then, why would those people who knew that Herzog would take a tough attitude still incited the indigenous people to commit violence?

"It seems that we have a consensus, and I also think that Major Herzog should be acquitted-but I think he did not commit a crime at all. The victim was not killed by him." McNeil shook hands with the youth in front of him, " Is there a similar event to support him?"

However, completely different from what McNeil had imagined, the Rifle Association's view on this case was completely opposite to his. McNeil believes that Adalbert Herzog will not kill his close classmates, or that he believes that the real murderer is someone else; the Rifle Association must let Adalbert Herzog become a murderer, just as they praised the Crusades and colonial activities that slaughtered indigenous people, this is part of the Eurocentrism they believe in. Similar things have happened in the past. The parties involved in the massacre tried their best to deny the facts, while his followers continued to exaggerate the facts and touted them as reborn heroes. When McNeil claimed that Major Herzog was not guilty, what he exchanged was not approval, but satire and sarcasm. The passionate young people of the Rifle Association will not tolerate the removal of the halo from their idols. They vehemently opposed McNeil, thinking that McNeil not only did not want to bring justice to Adalbert Herzog, but instead wanted to slander this contemporary hero. McNeil was so speechless that he had to watch these fanatical youths leave the bar. He down casted and said to old Jake:

"I would rather see them working in the factory than let them spend their extra time doing such meaningless things."

"Mike, I think they should be sent to the Britannian Empire, where they can satisfy all their fantasies of violence and authority." Old Jake looked helplessly at the parade still chanting slogans, "They may only want to find a reason to rob and burn the city."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the distance, the ground was trembling violently, and even the glass of the bar was shattered. The slogans outside disappeared instantly, replaced by a series of screams, and then a large group of helpless citizens stepped on each other and fled from the door in opposite directions. The bar owner was so scared that he hid behind the bar early, and none of the customers in the bar dared to go out. McNeil told Old Jake to hide in the bathroom, and he cautiously opened the door and came to the street. The end of the street was enveloped by billowing smoke, and from time to time there were people escaping from the smoke in disgrace. These horrified citizens were unrespectable and screamed like their contemptuous savages on the street, not knowing whether to vent the rest of their lives after the disaster or to express hate to the murderer. McNeil covered his nose, biting his scalp and moving on. He seemed to have stepped on something, and when he looked down, it turned out to be a severed hand. He reflexively wanted to kick this human stump aside, but the watch on that hand attracted all his attention. Based on experience, he concluded that it was an expansive watch, and that it should be able to get a lot of income by selling it.

McNeil picked up the severed hand, took the watch off, put it in his pocket, and said to himself:

"Brother, you are dead anyway, and your watch can't follow you to heaven, just leave it to me."

The corpses lying on the ground reminded him that this was not an exercise. Someone took advantage of the rifle association to hold a parade. According to the power of the explosion, if the attacker himself is present, there must be no place to bury him. McNeil watched back and forth at the explosion site several times, but found no suspicious clues. He returned to the bar, called out the old Jake who was still hiding in the bathroom, and briefly told him what he had seen and heard.

"This may be someone using Sakuradite bombs to carry out sabotage activities. As early as in ancient times, some people used this characteristic of Sakuradite to assassinate kings or nobles." Old Jake shivered and sank in a chair. "We are stared at by the devil. Now, all I encountered along the way were such disasters."

The explosion caused the garrison to declare total martial law. McNeil and Old Jake can only stay in a nearby hotel and wait until the relevant departments have completed the investigation before leaving. Later, they heard that someone had detonated a time bomb made by Sakuradite in a pressure cooker, and calculated the time it took for the parade to pass through the neighborhood, and blasted it accurately. At that time, hundreds of people died on the spot, not including the damage to nearby buildings. The Rifle Association issued a statement through the Rhodesian television station that evening, publicly condemning the murderer or organization that placed the explosives, and continued to call on EU citizens in Africa to take up arms to defend their homes.

"Our enemies are trying to overwhelm us with fear, but we will never succumb to violence." A spokesperson for the Rifle Association said in a TV interview. "We will catch these cowards who don't dare to confront each other one by one. Then we will hang them. At the same time, we hope to warn those who have excess compassion not to defend these gangsters. Today it may be our disaster, tomorrow it will be your turn, they will not put down the butcher knife just because you pretend to be compassionate."

Old Jake began to seriously consider listening to the recommendations of the Rifle Association. After he inquired about the selling prices of these guns, he began to feel distressed about all his little possessions.

"Anyway, people are dying, so I won't waste money."

Governor-general Herzog took time out of his busy schedule to deal with the tragedy. He first went to the hospital to see the survivors being treated, and then accepted an interview with the local TV station. In accordance with his usual style, he painlessly criticized the unknown attackers who relied on violence to endanger the lives and property of citizens, and then condemned the Rifle Association that incited violence. He will not easily let himself completely lose the support of any party, and being a peacemaker is more in line with his position.

"What makes me particularly sad is that during the whole process, the organizations involved refused to engage in dialogue and refused to understand each other. There is no rational argument, only absurd judgments; there is no reflection and rectification, only repeated mistakes." Although he tried his best to be as sincere as possible, his tone seemed to be telling something unrelated to him. Even the audience who supported him the most did not agree with him. " I suggested last year that we should conducted a consultation at Transvaal, and all the people I invited refused—they didn't think I had the ability to resolve their conflicts. Okay, then I'll let them solve the problem by themselves. Now a year has passed, and it turns out that letting them take care of the problem on their own will only make the conflict worse." At this point, Governor-general Herzog turned his head and looked directly at the camera, "If you are still watching this show, listen up: the lives of your relatives and friends are in the control of your own hands, if you always refuse any peaceful dialogue, then you and your opponents you hate will eventually be submerged in a sea of blood."

McNeil originally thought they would stay in the hotel like this until the ten-day period passed, but the governor ordered the lifting of the martial law the next day, because the guards claimed that the attacker (not unexpectedly an indigenous) was already dead in the explosion, and the attack itself was isolated and not planned by any organization. However, it can be expected that the public's hostility to the indigenous people is rapidly heating up and will soon exceed the tolerance of anyone, even the Governor-general.

TBC