assorted writing

He opened up the old, faded book with the brown tattered cover that the Seer had given him all those long years ago. The Seer had been on his death bed and had chosen him from all of the young men in his village to be the honoured one to receive the book of prophecies. At the time of receiving the book, he was just beginning to make his way in life, travelling the length and breadth of his land, his country, his China!

In those far off days, he could move freely all over his beloved land. He had roamed from the Tibetan border up and along to the Mongolian border, returning via the seaboard skirting around the polluted cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou before finishing in Kunming. Here was to be his final resting place, up in the mountains amongst the Stone Forest.
      He had his precious memories of when his land was cleaner and unspoilt covered with thick, dense green forests, clean running rivers, unspoilt aquifers, fresh clear & breathable air, skies that were blue and viable farm land that fed his fellow countrymen.
      As he travelled around the country, he would stop in each little town preaching his message against the ever declining state of his country. He had to be cautious of speaking out about the pollution he saw. He had witnessed the yellowing of the Big River, the discolouration of the once blue skies; the dust storms that came howling off the Gobi desert mixing with the toxic pollution from the coal fired factories and the systematic felling and logging of timber from the once thick and dense forests. Often times he would quietly speak to one or two people at a time encouraging them to listen to his message of approaching doom. He found his message wasn’t well received but he kept on trying.
      The Chinese Central Government officials were vehemently against his message about the environment. The government officials enforced the doctrines issued from the Central Government who controlled everything the Chinese people did or thought. The Chinese Central Government killed their own countrymen back in 1980s for protesting and speaking up against them. They were mowed down by tanks or shot where they stood. Even today the Chinese Central government deals with opposition by suppression and mitigation. They jailed the activists. The greatest collateral damage was to the ruling Communist party, with the growing unrest of the population. Increased knowledge meant the Chinese people were rising up and joining together to protest about the poor quality of the environment which ultimately leads to shorter lifespans. He too had feared for his life more than once over his lifetime.
      “Why do you come here speaking of such bad things and doom? Why do you speak against the Government?” the villagers would ask him. “We have good water and farm land here” they would tell him. “You are a liar, you speak with forked tongue.” They would hiss at him.
      And he would tell them why he was travelling the length and breadth of his country.
      “I was chosen as a young man to be the messenger for the environment.” he said. “On his deathbed an old Seer gave me his book of prophecies and begged me to continue his lifelong work of warning people of the consequences of their actions in damaging the environment. The book of prophecies has been correct in a number of areas,” he added. “For instance, in the book there is a mention of the giant Gobi desert describing how it will encroach upon the grasslands gobbling it up at a rate of over 2,000 miles per year. The Gobi desert has grown because all of the trees have been cut down to fuel factories, make bridges, build houses, keep people warm and cook food. The forest has been desecrated. Now the grasslands are arid and inhospitable growing and supporting nothing. The Central Government has tried to replant the arid desert with unsuitable trees, but without moisture in the ground and very little rain they have a very minute chance of surviving. There aren’t any birds or insects living amongst the small trees. It’s as if they know they would be better off finding somewhere else to live. The book of prophecies predicted that hundreds of thousands would be forcibly relocated by our Government to areas that had better land for them to farm”.
      The villagers looked at him in surprise. ”What has that got to do with us?” they asked him. “We are not near there. How do we know what you say is the truth?”
      The old man opened the Seer’s book of prophecies and read passages from it out aloud to them. “The waters of the Big River will turn yellow. It will be called the Yellow River forever after”. He looked at them. “Who has seen the Big River?”
      A few of them murmured that they had indeed seen the Big River when it was flowing across China clear and unpolluted.
      He said to them, “It is now no more. It is a river filled with so much silt and dirt that its colour has changed to yellow. It’s now called the Yellow River.”
      They nodded slowly not wanting to agree with him.
      He asked them, “What has happened here that you can’t explain?”
      They thought about it and eventually replied “The water. It smells and our white clothes have turned yellow, our animals have died and our crops haven’t grown”.
      It was the old man’s turn to be surprised. He muttered to himself, “It’s too early for that. That shouldn’t have happened yet”. Out aloud he said, “It’s written in the book that the river here had some poisonous material dumped into it that will do just what you have described. What are you doing for water?” he asked them.
      They told him of the journey to cart water from the next village that still had clean water. “We have been told of a very long pipeline that is going to be built. It’s coming from a Russian lake. The Government tells us we will have clean water again. We believe what they tell us”.
      Opening up the Seer’s book he read out aloud “The air will become so thick, filled with pollutants that turn the skies into a yellow and charcoal tinted blanket. This toxic blanket will make breathing difficult, killing millions of people a year.”
      “Oh yes we have people from the north coming here to escape the blanket of toxic fumes”! they exclaimed. “They come here because they are afraid they will die like so many others that live in the big cities.”
      Another told him “Government officials have shut down factories that belch out coal fumes, now there aren’t any jobs.”
      “Why should we listen to you, our skies are blue?” asked another.
      He asked them, “How does your town cope with the extra people? Can you feed them? Do you have enough clean water for them? Do you share these things with them? Are the Northerners helping you with this?”
      They muttered to themselves about the imposition that the escaping Northerners caused them. It created a shortage in the available food and put pressure on the clean water they had to cart in.
      The old man opened another page and read out to them, “The number of deaths caused by the polluting skies will continue to rise, along with the cancers caused by contaminated water. People will come here looking for blue skies and cleaner water. They will continue to use your water and food. Climate change will result in a rise of sea levels threatening millions of the population living along the seaboard as the ice melts. They will lose their homes, jobs, family and their towns. Fish will not live in the polluted water of the lakes, rivers and seas. Crops will fail without clean water and sunshine, while livestock will die from lack of fodder and clean water. We are facing a food scarcity with famines becoming widespread which will kill millions and millions of the population.”
      He looked up and sighed. He had just read out a death sentence. Would they realise that he wondered or would they continue to believe their Government that these were just passing problems that they could solve for them. The world was quickly heading towards a dismal death, taking with it all who had so far survived the toxic air, the undrinkable water, famines, and the pressure from the remaining hordes looking for a better place to live.
      He closed the old, faded book with the brown tattered cover that the Seer had given him for the last time. He lay down to sleep. There was no need for another chosen one, it was too late.

There, up amongst the Stone Forest in his beloved mountains he died, far away from the horrific devastation of his beloved China.