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What was easier to hijack than democracy? Like most things in the world of men, democracy was principally a question of money, and the prince had plenty.
As with every curse, the victim was also the vehicle for conquest and expansion.
“What you lose in strength, you gain in clear-sightedness. The trick is to reach the age of wisdom while you’re still strong enough to do things.”
‘God blesses the man of good deeds, and men bless the man of many sheep!’
Once again, man, in search of land, gave the plague to his fellow man in the folds of his offerings.
The religious competencies of its ministers didn’t solve a single economic or social problem, and in many respects, the situation worsened. The country remained mired in poverty and its young people in unemployment, while the violence of a fringe of radicals and their hate-filled discourse proliferated with the leaders’ complacency. Within the dream of prosperity and tolerance, nothing remained of fragile democracy but the illusory right to talk shit.
“Professor, you will notice that there are several buttons in the bathroom that generate multiple sprays of water. Do not panic. Trust your instinct.”
“Like our bees that have to coexist with the giant hornets, we are a people who must coexist with the flaws in the earth—earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—and with war, the flaw of human nature. We know that our archipelago is fragile, that our existence is fragile, and that the survivors must always rebuild. We are a people well versed in catastrophes, Professor. The ‘other’ is none other than ourselves, a survivor and a partner.
“However,” she continued, “you shouldn’t idealize Japanese society either. It’s secretive and hides many peculiarities that are difficult for foreigners to grasp.”
He went back for Staka and took the road to the village, damning in his heart the commander, his katiba, and all the murderers and warmongers prostituting God to their ends. A God that could still console him for the cruelty of man through the gentleness of his bees.
