Within the Walls of Hell (8 page)

 

 

 

 

(still on the yard long while later)

 

 

Messenger
: Can I go and show you to your room now?

Carlos
: Are you serious that once someone gets in here he cannot get out again?

Messenger
: That is the way it is. That gate can only open to let people in but cannot let them out.

Carlos
: Come on… certainly there must be a way. (
looks around to make sure that no one else is
there to hear what he has to say. Almost in whisper
) if you open the gate and let me out, I will reward you greatly. I will send you any amount of money you want once I get back to my palace. All you will need to do is to say the amount and I will send it.

Messenger:
Money has no use here. It has great use only down there. You are prepared to give me any amount I want now. Is it your money you want to go and get to send to me? Of course not… it is the money of the poor tax payer which you have starched in foreign banks. Those poor people contributed that money so that you would use it to build for them hospitals, provide them with energy and good drinking water as well as roads. But you didn't. Instead you preferred to gather all the money and bank in foreign countries. All you were interested in was amassing money and more money. What kind of money did you really want? Money from the oil refinery went into your private account… you had a salary which was ten times that of your colleagues who governed countries richer and more developed than yours….your presidency was allocated a huge budget by your rubber stamp parliament…. You had some advantages on top of all that…. And that was not all… you insisted on being the one to control the state budget which was again put at your disposal. Now you want to go and get part and send to me. But no…thanks… money has no use here and there is nothing you can offer me which my master can't. Do you want to go and see your room or not?

Carlos
: Ok, I will follow you.

 

 

 

 

In the room Carlos is to occupy

 

 

(
The room is not very different from Sandi's with no furniture and only a bare floor. There is no window and the door is half broken)

 

Messenger
: This will be your room for now. Do you have any question?

Carlos
: Can I have even a couch on which I can lay my head?

Messenger
: I'm afraid that is not possible. What you have been given is what you deserve. That is it. (
Exits while Sandi, William and stone enter the room
)

Carlos:
Listen boys, down there I was a president and I have billions kept in banks around the world. With that money, someone can buy a whole country. What do you guy say about getting rich and owning the best things money could possibly buy? If you help me to get out of this place I will give you any amount of money you want. I saw that crying outside there without trying to get out first was stupid.

 

(
All three explode with laughter. William rolls on the ground and continues laughing
)

 

Carlos
: What is wrong with you guys? What is funny in what I've said?

William
: I was master of the law when I was down there. I had all the money in the world. I could do whatever I wanted. But there comes a time when you must leave all those things down there. All those things belong to that world down there. They have no use here. Also, once you leave that world, you can never go back just as, when you enter that gate, you never get out. This is where you belong now. So try to get use to it.

 

(
Re-enters Messenger
)

 

Carlos:
I thought you went to wait for others who might be coming in here at the gate. What are you doing here?

Messenger
: (
very calmly
) I'm here to clear any doubts you may have incase you start feeling that you are here unjustly.

Carlos
: There I think you are right… I'm here unjustly. I asked you to open that gate so that I could go back to a palace which cost me billions to build and you refused. In it, I have the same furniture that was made in the days of Louis XIV and my bed alone is the world's best. It is now empty while I'm here crawling on a bare floor which is very dusty.

Messenger
: Who tells you that it is still empty? The person who has been fighting for decades to save the people from you now occupies it. The people really love him and see him as a savior. He has started doing what you couldn't do for the people by respecting their wishes.

Carlos
: (
weeps
) how can that bastard occupy my palace? He does not even know how much I spent in it.

Messenger
: It is not his place to know. He equally paid taxes which you used in building it. Anyway that is not what is important now. Tell me, why did you steal the poor tax payer's money and transferred into foreign banks?

Carlos
: (
Tears dry up
) I don't like that word steal. Don't you have any sense of diplomacy? That word is too degrading and only people who are suffering from chronic diplomatic illiteracy use it the way it is, especially with important people like me. Please, I did not steal the money as you put it. I took some which was at my disposal. I cannot steal what is at my disposal. As for why I had to put it in foreign banks, you know that politics is a very uncertain game. You can never tell which wind would blow you off at any given time. If a criminal like the one you say now occupies my palace were to come after you and you succeed in running out of the country only to find yourself in a strange one without money, tell me what would happen to you.

Messenger
: Is that why you had to keep it in so many accounts in many different countries?

Carlos
: Yes of course. When you are running for your dear life, do you choose where to run to?

Messenger
: Why didn't you invest that money in the country you governed whereas you claimed to be its number one citizen? Why didn't you build hospitals, open up roads, generate power, create state owned corporations in which youths could find jobs or open school where they could go in and acquire skills to become self employed? Don't you think that would have been a better way of spending that money rather than going to donate it to countries that were already rich? I'm asking because if you were doing the right things, no one would want to threaten you and you wouldn't be feeling insecure.

Carlos
: How can you say that I donated my money to those rich countries? I merely gave them to keep and to give it back to me in due time.

Messenger:
I've used the word ‘donated' because you shall never go back there to collect it. If they do not feel sorry for your people and feel that there is no moral ground to send back the money, it will remain with them. They are not compelled to send the money back to your people. Anyway that is not the issue now. Do you know the consequences of stealing that money and hiding in foreign banks and not investing in the well being of your people?

Carlos
: (
Bends his head looking at the ground and says nothing
)
Messenger
: I will tell you. Thousands of young girls especially those that left school were not opportuned to be employed and so, turned to prostitution with some as young as 12. Their male counterparts became armed robbers and many others were forced to date women old enough to be their mothers. Many people died in hospitals because they were ill equipped and lacked even essential drugs. Thousands of women died on their way to the hospital to give birth because of the very bad nature of roads. Those that struggled and made it to the hospital ended up dieing in labor rooms because those in charge were ill qualified. Why? Because they were the children of your brothers, sisters, friends and relatives who had to get into the training schools though my master did not destine them for those functions. Thousands died in their attempts to find a better life else where through deserts. Many drowned in water bodies in their attempt to escape the poverty you created for them by stealing their money and hiding in foreign banks. Thousands still take their lives even at this moment because they have lost hope in the future. You pushed millions to live in crime.

Carlos
: I've told you that I did not steal but took. Your sermon is very touching. (
Pointing to Sandi
) I think if you continue like that he will soon start crying. From the way you are talking, anybody can understand that you know nothing about politics. You sound as if you wanted me or my government to employ everybody. That is not possible. In fact it is impossible even in those countries you referred to as ‘richer than mine'.

Messenger
: Is it because you couldn't employ everybody that you had to steal the tax payer's money and go and store in foreign banks? I know that it is impossible for any government to employ everybody. But all I'm saying is that you would have created or opened schools where your youths go and acquire skills with which they could survive on their own. With such skills they could either create jobs for themselves or move to an area or another country where their skills were needed. If you used or managed the tax payer's money only in educating your children of school going age and they acquired skills even if you couldn't employ them, nobody would have been reproaching you of anything. That would have been better than pushing them to foreign lands without the intellectual or technical know-how.

Carlos:
I don't like the way you are sounding. You are sounding as though I didn't do anything at all for my people. I opened a hospital in every major town and city in my country…

Messenger
: Which were ill equipped and the staff was not qualified. Do you know why they were not qualified? It was because they were mostly the children of your friends, relatives and party members. Do you know why being the children of your friends, relatives and party members made them unqualified? It was because while in the medical professional school, their parents prescribed the marks they wanted to see on the score sheets of their children. So the children knew that whether they worked or not, studied or not, their futures were guaranteed. You were aware of it. If you want to contest what I've just said, tell me how many times you went to any of those hospitals only for consultation when you were sick.

Carlos:
Well, I admit that I had never gone to any of them for treatment or consultation. But I did not open them for myself.

Messenger
: You really sound like a politician. You went to hospitals abroad which were well equipped and those who treated there you were very welcoming and very dedicated. You liked the way you were treated out in another country. Yet, you denied that same opportunity to your people. You did not want to offend your relatives, friends and party members by being hard on their children who worked in the hospitals. So, you let them to do what they liked. Consequently, the hospitals were turned into money-making institutions and poor patients who could not afford the high consultation fees were assisted to their graves. That is what happens when people find themselves in places or posts they are not supposed to be in… they do the wrong things.

Carlos
: But I opened one in the capital of my country where I built my magnificent palace and equipped it with the type of instruments I saw abroad. I got well trained workers and staffed the hospital with. It served my people.

Messenger
: You have left out so many things. You've forgotten to say that the hospital you are referring to was your private hospital which you didn't even go there for consultation. It served mostly your ministers and their families, friends, relatives, party members and big business men. The poor could not come close to it. In addition, you have forgotten to say that those well trained staff you talked about were not paid by the huge amounts the hospital generated but by the poor tax payer's money. Have I said anything which is out of place?

Carlos
: (
Does not say anything
)

Messenger
: The next thing you will say is that you opened professional schools to train youths who were to serve in different sectors of the economy. Well yes, you did open the schools but they were filled only by the children of those in high places.

Carlos:
What was wrong with the schools I opened? Was it that I opened them or that they were occupied by the children of those I loved?

Messenger
: There was no reason why competitive entrance exams into the professional schools you opened were organized and only the children of those in high places always made it. Those who scored very high marks had to be sidelined because they were children of poor parents or their parents belonged to the opposition or they did not belong to this or that social class. You knew there were irregularities through the protests and demonstrations that went on. You did something about it and it was to unleash the army on the protesters. That was not the right thing to do. You have to create a level-plain field for everybody. That was what you were supposed to do.