Tuesday 19 March 2024

MY EMAIL IN MARCH 2022 ADVISING THE RUSSIAN GOV TO SWITCH THEIR CENTRAL BANK OVER TO A PEOPLE S CENTRAL BANK TO SIDE STEP DOLLAR SANCTIONS AND BOOM

 

Dear President Vladimir Putin,

Dear Members of the Russian government,

Dear President Xi Jinping,

Dear Members of the Chinese Communist Party,



By switching the Russian central bank to the method of single entry book keeping to print money, Russia can with the stroke of a pen sidestep the economic impact of sanctions from the West, lay the foundations for sustainable prosperity, military and national security expenditures as well as the basis for financial and trade cooperation with China.


By entering into an economic partnership, China and Russian together can form the world's wealthiest as well as the most secure union which other countries can join , as I discuss below.


Without a reform of the central bank system by Russia to bring it in alignment with China s central bank and digital yuan policies, Russia and China remain fundamentally incompatible in key aspects of finance.


The advantages of a central bank switch to single entry book keeping far outweigh the disadvantages for all Russians, especially at this time of conflict with the Ukraine as it would provide a means of government and military expenditure.


A disadvantage of using the private central banking system run by the Bank of Internal Settlements in Switzerland and dominated by the private US Federal Reserve and Wall Street, is the way Russians have been exposed to SWIFT and CHIPS sanctions, currency manipulation and economic bankruptcy as punitive action over Ukraine.


By switching the central bank over to the sytem of issuing money as single entry book keeping, this risk ends.

There are many other advantages.

It would immediately bring Russia s central bank and financial system in alignment with China s and so facilitate a closer economic and trade union as well as promote the use of money transfers using China s system, CIPS, which is not subject to sanctions.


Moreover, the changeover can be achieved easily with the stroke of a pen, a mere decree issued by President Putin.

As you may know, the Russian central bank was privatised in 1917 shortly after the US Federal Reserve in 1913. That, too, with the stroke of a pen. With a decree, the RCB began printing money using the double entry book keeping system with gigantic consequences, which Martin Wolf compared in the FT to a black hole. When all money is issued as a debt with interest owned to private banks, then, over time, the amount of interest and debt accumulates to the point where economies collapse.


The contract for a private RCB signed in 1917 ran for a hundred years and ran out in 2017. Now , 2022, is, therefore, an opportune for Russia to revisit the issue and switch back to the system of printing money as single entry book keeping. This puts money into circulation as a government expenditure and as a facility for trade without charging interest. This system of printing money is the foundation of economic stability and prosperity as noted by Ambrose Evans Pritchard in the Telegraph in 2010 in a discussion of an IMF paper.

Once the switch to single entry book keeping is implemented, the Russian government can

  1. Transfer money directly from the central bank to all Russians also using special digital wallets.

Russians whose money has been frozen abroad can be reimbursed with rubles directly from the central bank.

Transferring money to citizens will create domestic demand for goods and products and will stimulate Russia s domestic manufacturing base and trade with China.

Through trade agreements with China, this newly created demand in Russia can also be supplied by China.

These imports can be paid for by commodities such as oil and gas.

Similar financial systems would promote closer economic union with China

By working together in the economic field, trading raw materials and manufactured goods, China and Russia could form a new economic area which would give both its people growing prosperity in a win, win situation.

Russians who are now very richer, will become even richer as the economy grows. Russians who are now very poor will become well off.

China is also in the process of creating its own capital markets. Russians firms could list there as well to raise funds.



  1. Cancel all debts, all mortgage debts, credit card and business debts.

This step is actually necessary to allow interest rates to perform their proper function in the future in controlling inflation.

Inflation can also be controlled using price controls. China has successfully used price controls to stop energy inflation currently ravaging Western economies.

Mathematical and economic models would be needed to monitor the process. China may be willing to help and send experts



  1. Give direct grants, subsidies to government services like the military and education as well as to priuvate businesses to expand domestic manufacturing base.

One example, if you were to give all Russian family an RCB grant to buy a wooden Datscha, thereby creating demand, then, at the same time, you could give grants to businesses producing wooden Datschas to satisfy that demand. This would create a virtuous upward circle of demand and supply, consumption and employment.

In this way, you would create not only jobs, but also create better living opportunities for Russians for homes in the country, raise the quality of life and revitalise the surroundings of cities like Moscow, Kazan and Novosibirsk.

Pre fabricated versions of these Datchas and, or related products could then be sold to China, Brazil or other countries within your economic trading partnership, diversifying Russia s economy and earning foreign currency.

You could also give RCB grants directly to military or research or scientific groups to develop more environmentally friendly and efficient means of heating Datschas, for example, using new fire and pipe systems with sensors etc.

In this way, you would help, at the same time, to advance research in a specific area.



  1. Create a bigger Russian manufacturing base.

By RCB grants, Russia can also fund new manufacturing and productions sites whether in cars, space exploration, IT, AI, Robots, hydroponics or renewable energy for domestic consumption and export, earning foreign currency for imports



  1. Create a stable exchange rate

A stable ruble would also help maintain a stable exchange rate with the yuan and so facilitate trade.

Russia can sell its commodities at prices knowing that the value of its money and Chinese money will be stable.

In relation to other currencies, the ruble and yuan can be expected appreciate as a stable currency especially at a time when the dollar is being undermined by inflation and high interest rates.

A strong currency will increase the purchasing power of Russians abroad, for example, in relation to imports or to travel to say the Thailand, Philippine or Singapore currencies, for example, creating a new tourism market for Russians to replace the European mediterrean.



  1. Create a stable tax base

With a stable tax base from a stable currency, economy and trade, the Russian government will have a stable and large tax base to fund education, hospitals, culture, pensions as well as the military for national security reasons in addition to having the option of direct RCB grants.

Better quality services will improve the lives of all the people of Russia as well as lay the basis for a renaissance in education and culture.

Since the Russian economy will be growing and prosperity will be increasing for all, there is less incentive for corruption. Honest business practises lead to better economic performances, studies show. They can be underpinned by a well functioning legal system.



The Ukraine conflict and the private banks. A geopolitical context

As this switch over to a state central may be met by aggressive military action by the governments under the control of the private banks in the USA, UK, Europe, Japan, who earn vast amounts of money from interest, it would be wise to put all your military on the highest alert in both Russia and China.

The Ukraine conflict can, perhaps, also be seen as diversion used by the private banks to distract from a collapsing financial and economic system due to growing debt produced by double entry book keeping system.

If we look at history, we see that the same point of collapse for the same reason occurred just before WW1 in Europe and WW2 in USA and Europe. Impoverished people were sent into armies to fight at the front and be killed in large numbers precisely because there were no jobs or futures for them because economies had been looted by private bankers. You may be aware that Nazi Germans argued for euthanasia on financial grouds. People who had claims on pensions were at a priority for euthanasia to reduce the burden on the bankrupt state.

The 1918 Spanish flu which killed millions of people is also believed by some to have come from vaccines given to US troops conscripted fighting in Europe.

Under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, we see the same approach to war being used today in the EU as well as the USA.

Notably in Germany warmongering against Russia and China has just become a pretext to double the budget of the German army , Bundeswerhr, as well as prepare plans for conscription of young men and women, as is possible under the Lisbon Treaty for all EU countries other than Ireland.

Covid lockdowns and measures have accelerated this financial and economic collapse.

German industry has been battered, supplies chains are in disarray, energy prices are soaring, and inflation rising across the board. The German government has gigantic debts at a time when interest rates are rising. In addition, the German share of the eurozone debt through the Target system is well over a trillion euros. In short, Germany is virtually bankrupt, at the bust end of the boom phase of the private banking cycle.

A similar picture can be seen in the USA and UK.

Political tensions are also rising within these countries as the contradictions between the authoritarian covid measures and claims of democracy, between the one sided media, censorship, and claims of a free press, become irreconciliable.

For example, while the UK government, whose head of state is the Queen , has spearheaded the call for sanctions against Russia and resistance (We note that while Prince William is an RAF pilot, he has no plans to go and serve in the Ukraine while making a rare public call for Ukraine to resist), the British people learn that royal family affairs cannot be scrutinised by MPs due to a "rule" which forbids it in the House of Commons. That means that the royal family is essentially a dictatorship above scrutiny of elected officials. In the specific case, MPs wished to discover if tax payer money given to the Queen had been used to fund the settlement between Prince Andrew and a former victim of his sex slavery, Virginia Giuffre, but were unable to.

The Queen and her family have also been among the greatest supporters of experimental covid vaccines and especially of AstraZeneca whose developer John Bell has received a knighthood from the Queen.

His exact word s as confirmed by so called Fact Checker are.

But then don’t forget, these vaccines are unlikely to completely sterilise the population. They’re very likely to have an effect which works in a percentage, say 60 or 70 per cent. "


https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/professors-vaccine-sterilisation-comment-used-out-of-context-to-mislead/


Although John Bell attempted to give another meaning to his words, they are so clear and unambiguous and so significant coming from the expert on the vaccine, with inside knowledge of all the studies, still not made public as well as a leading world science, who is familiar with scientific language, that AZ has not applied for approval in the USA. In May 2021, when AZ did apply, the FDA gave rare public rebuke citing incomplete data.


It is more likely, AZ, its funder Bill Gates, and the FDA fear legal action in the USA will be lost given this evidence that John Bell has himself supplied as dicussed in my submission to Larisa prosecutors as part of D 15 218.


Please see attachment "Sir John Bell"


This extraordinary probe opened in 2015 has collected unambiguous proof that Bill Gates and George Soros have personally organized repeated murder plots against myself for exposing a sinister side to their activities as a reporter who once worked for the MSM (the BMJ, Nature, The Scientist etc as you can see from Google scholar)


The final and absolute proof has come in the delivery of an invalid verdict sentencing me to prison for "slander" for putting up the proofs of the crimes of Gates and Soros on the internet, and which I have appealed -- another irregularity -- before I have received the appeal decision which must find me innocent under due process.

Please see attachments.

The connneciton with the Nazi programme of eugenics is clear.

Even the same methods are to be used.

Just as many European countries like Switzerland, Finland and Denmark end all covid restrictions, the Austrian government has passed a law, the Bundesgesetz über die Impfpflicht gegen COVID-19 (COVID-19-Impfpflichtgesetz – COVID-19-IG) which makes it mandatory for Austrians to take experimental vaccines, including AZ designed to sterilize and so make sick and kill, foreseeing huge fines and prison if they do not comply.

This on the basis of a 29 page law with virtually no reference to any scientific studies at all, let alone offering a solid scientific basis.

Never before have Western nations and corporations had to face an avalanche of compensation claims for vaccine injuries caused by the experimental covid vaccines.

US government data on OpenVaers show that through to February 18th, 2022 nearly three quarters of all reports of deaths after vaccines since 1990 have been made in relation to covid vaccines, mainly Pfizer.

There have been 24,402 covid vaccine reported deaths compared to a total of 33,740 total reported deaths.

In addition, the 133,057 covid vaccine reported hospitalizations are now nearly twice as many as the c 70,000 vaccine reported hospitalizations at a total of 215,078.

OpenVaers website itself highlights a study estimating its passive surveillance system captures only 1% of actual events reported after a vaccination and temporacy proximity is a key evidence of causation as underlined by an ECJ Curia on vaccine injury issued in 2017.

If we use the OpenVaers method to calculate actual covid vaccine deaths and hospitalizations, the USA is in the midst of an unprecedented public health disaster with dead and seriously injured victims numbering millions.

It continues despite all safety signals being breached and amid a media blackout by media largely bankrolled by the funders and promoters of those vaccines, Bill Gates and George Soros, although Soros Foundation cut back on the circa 10% of its staff that focus on pandemics in 2021.

As mentioned, the main vaccine used in the USA was Pfizer as AZ was unexpectedly not approved.

Where AZ was approved in the UK, EU, there is some UKHSA and PHS government data suggesting the picture could be worse though most EU governments do not publish statistics on covid vaccine related deaths and hospitalisations.

The mass vaccine campaign, using coercion and a campaign of misinformation, omission and false claims has already wrecked unprecedented deaths, sickness, injury and suffering on large numbers of people in the West and is set to become potentially the biggest ever scandal the world has ever seen.

By working together, Russia and China can also gain more control of some of the US military Biosecurity labs on Ukrainian territory and improve their joint biosecurity.

To conclude, I believe that Russia and China can benefit greatly by closer economic, trade and financial ties on the basis of central bank reform.

They can become a force for justice and peace throughout the world.

Finally, I urge you to consider that the majority of Ukrainian people did not want to go to war with the Russians in 2014. There were videos of Ukrainian soldiers on tanks rolling into Russian towns stopping and putting down their weapons and returning home. Ukrainians who received their conscription papers burned them. Many conscripts were sent to the front without adequate food, clothing, equipment or training and became canon fodder.

The most victious, brutal and murderous units were the private militia financed by oligarch Igor Komoloisky. He funded the Azov Battalion, a group of mercenaries formed in May 2014 who flashed Nazi emblems on their uniforms and who comitted atrocity after atrocity against Russians in fighting around Donetsk and in Mariupol. One sickening video shows them crucifying a Russian soldier and burning him alive. The number of murders, tortures, rapes that these private militia s in particular committed will forever be a wound inflicted on the ethnic Russians in the Ukraine.

That is why I urge you to insist on sovereignty for these regions like Donetsk. After all, it is a geographically relatively small part of the Ukraine. Independence will help the local people feel safer after the utra right Azov Battalion reappeared in the Ukraine this January.

In addition to executing a reign of terror against civilians, Kolomoisky used his private militia for economic looting. He sent a portion to take over an energy facilities by force.

US Billionaire George Soros himself admitted on US TV to funding the Colour Revolution in the Ukraine in 2014, and must bear a heavy burden of responsibility.

Therefore, I urge you to focus your plan of denazification on the wresting control of the assets and wealth of the Ukrain from oligarchs and Billionaires who funded the Nazi militias for cynical personal enrichment and returning them to the Ukrainian people under a new government.

I am sure I am joined by many others in hoping Russia and China forge a fruitful financial, economic, political and military partnership, which can de nazify the globe and restore justice and peace and prosperity to all people.



Kind regards,

Jane Burgermeister



Larisa, Greece


Tuesday 5 March 2024

MY FICTIONAL STORY BASED ON VICTORIA NULAND AND HER VISIT TO GREECE IN MARCH 2016

 

The Battle of Idomeni </em>

<em>(Edited : bibliotherapy for the writer need not mean pain for the reader)</em>

&nbsp;

Regina Newman, surrounded by security agents, police and journalists, toured the battlefront.

Leaving her assistant to carry her umbrella, she climbed down from the safety of the SUV <strong>with black tinted windows and US diplomatic license plates. In ankle boots, she splashed through the mud to the camp that had sprung up on the new defensive line. Aware of the camera teams breathing at her heels, she put on a grim smile. Her eyes scanned the mass of tents pitched on the gravel railway bank, flitted over to flimsy shelters floating in a sea of brown.</strong>

<strong>There was a commotion throughout the camp as the entourage advanced to the main border crossing point. Hundreds of figures, wearing identical green raincoats, issued to the troops when the torrential rain had begun, lifted up their hoods. From all directions, exhausted figures appeared. They staggered over gleaming railway tracks. They waded through pools of water. They came in search of a scrap of food, a bit of fire wood, a change of dry clothes or just some information about how long they would have to stay at Idomeni.</strong>

<strong>Wielding batons, the police held the throng away from the visitor. She walked briskly along. Ignoring everything to her left and right, she zeroed in on her objective.</strong>

<strong>Buffered by her cordon of security, Newman paused on the railway bank lined with a tangle of electricity poles. She put her hands in her pockets and assumed the stance of an observer. From this position, she had a good view of the fence that had appeared virtually overnight obstructing the railway tracks, and stopping her migrant army. She frowned at the sight of enemy soldiers with guns on the other side, guarding the main gateway to northern Europe. Gazing past the formidable fortifications to survey the terrain in the distance, she saw what, at first sight, looked like mist and shadows. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a chain of mountains capped with snow. Appearances can deceive, she thought to herself. A smile crinkled her tight face as she thought about the gap between who she was in reality and what she seemed to be before she turned back to her task.</strong>

<strong>The terrain north through the Balkans would be difficult for her troops, she mused. Especially at this time of year. But then her troops were highly motivated if only in a negative sense. There was nothing for them in the camp except hunger and disease.</strong>

<strong>Her goal now was to identify a way for her troops to rapidly cross the obstacles and continue their march north. By their sheer weight of numbers, these soldiers of a new hybrid army would destroy the social and economic system of Europe and sow political division. And the advance guard was already deep in enemy territory. In NATO and US military bases, terrorist sleeper cells from Brussels to Berlin were being armed and organized to destabilize the heartlands of the enemy.</strong>

<strong>As Newman surveyed the fence, she became aware of the odour of smoke. She turned and saw an elderly man in a red jacket squatting by a fire on the other side of the railway bank. His trousers were pulled up to reveal horribly swollen, blue feet. They were half stuck in filthy sneakers.</strong>

<strong>In the tent behind him, a figure was lying under wet blankets, convulsed with coughing.</strong>

<strong>Newman stood, for a moment, mesmerised by the sight of the old man and of the battle between the elements, of fire and water, the fire vanishing in the rain; and the old man turning more and more towards the flames, the water reflecting its fading glow; and more and more away from the cold in his own small battle between life and death.</strong>

<strong>Drops of rain began to fall. They were so heavy that Newman felt the weight of every single one of them on her face. The same sting, the same wetness, the same tears, bound her for a moment to the figures around her, to the elderly man crouched beside a fire and the sick figure in the tent behind him.</strong>

<strong>For a split second, others' suffering encroached on the edges of her tunnel vision. Thoughts about other people rarely crossed her tidy mind. Instead, she was constantly preoccupied with calculations, estimations, classifications of how she could achieve whatever goal she had set herself or been set by her superiors. Results, quantifiable in terms of money or territority or power, were all that interested her. Results were also all she was asked to report on to her higher ups.</strong>

<strong>An assistant pushed out an elbow. An umbrella flew open above her head. Sheltered from the icy lashings of rain, Newman lifted her eyes from the blurred figure at the fire and looked back to the fence. She could no more explain the process by which her feelings of sympathy for the people who composed her migrant army turned to contempt for their weakness and to the wish to use them for her gain, than she could explain the process by which the clouds and mist turned to rain, and the rain turned back to mist and clouds again.</strong>

<strong>She was a mystery to herself. The only clear thing in her mind was a global vision of total power under the control of a banking elite. It was a multi phase plan for the total conquest of the world. And now she had her bit to do.</strong>

<strong>Walking up the railway tracks past figures sleeping in the rain under blankets, Newman saw armoured vehicles parked beside the railway buildings on the other side of the fence. She realized the defensive line would be hard to breach at this point even with the thousands of troops that had been massed in the camp. A full out attempt to storm the fence might not succeed. She would have to find another route around the fortifications at Idomeni.</strong>

<strong>Darkness was falling as she walked over to the enemy guards to talk to them and assess their morale. For, although she was a general commanding an army, she could not be identified as such by any insignia.</strong>

<strong>...</strong>

<strong>The old man rubbed his feet, numb and swollen from walking, then rose to check the tent and that all was ready for the night. Under the dark skies, inside the flmsey</strong> tent, l<strong>ying on a muddy sheet, half covered with wet blankets, he saw his daughter. Fatimah was coughing loudly. Until two months ago, she had been a beautiful and strong woman, but now she was pale and thin.</strong>

<strong>Beside her, her two year old child sat and played with a filthy doll. The old man smiled and said a few encouraging words to the child. The child smiled back. Fatimah coughed again.</strong>

<strong>Tariq turned to look at his daughter with anxiety</strong>

<strong>'Are you alright, Fatimah?' he asked.</strong>

<strong>'Yes, yes,' came a weak voice. 'Is Asra back?'</strong>

<strong>'Not yet.'</strong>

<strong>His son in law had gone to the nearest petrol station to get some food and fire wood in the morning and he had still not returned. It was a four hour march to the petrol station, and four hours back.</strong>

<strong>Tariq looked at his daughter, worried, then sighed. There was nothing he could do. He just had to hope Asra would come back with some food and wood. He hobbled back outside the tent to where the fire glimmered beside the railway bank, sat down, pulled his jacket around him against the icy air, and threw another piece of wood onto the flames.</strong>

<strong>All was silent in the camp. The TV crews, the visitors, the police had left. Everyone had gone into their tents to sleep or to prepare whatever scraps they could find for a meal. The only sound was the wind, the wind blowing down from the mountains, wailing around the tents. Even the rain had stopped.</strong>

<strong>Tariq half closed his eyes as he stared at the fire. He imagined he was back in his home country, in the city where the sun shone without a break, where there was always a bustle in the market, where the Mosque was always filled with chants and songs full of deep mysteries, and where he was used to going to sleep at peace, not like this place.</strong>

<strong>He regretted that he had not remained there in the relatively safe and peaceful city but had gone with his son in law and daughter to this foreign land, where it was a struggle just to keep warm and dry.</strong>

<strong>"What have I done?" He thought to himself. "I am going to die here, turn to dust here in this grim, grim place, far from God, my home, my land where all my relatives are, where I was able to eke out a living. I didn't appreciate what I had. Now I've lost it all, and its too late. I ll never be able to get back on my own. My feet are all swollen. I have no more money.'</strong>

<strong>He thought about all the money he had spent on the long and dangerous journey to get here, on smugglers to bring them across the Aegean sea. And all that effort, just to arrive and find the border at Macedonia closed. He had watched the tent city grow with every passing day and his daughter get sicker.</strong>

<strong>He was roused from his gloomy thoughts by a voice.</strong>

<strong>'Well, how is Fatimah?' asked Asra emerging from the darkness.</strong>

<strong>'Not good at all. Did you get some food?"</strong>

<strong>'Potatoes and cooking oil. I have good news. There is a way out. Tomorrow a group are leaving for Germany.'</strong>

<strong>'What do you mean? The border is closed. Look!'</strong>

'I <strong>got this leaflet.'</strong>

<strong>Asra took out a soggy piece of paper from his jacket.</strong>

<strong>'The activists were handing this out everywhere. Fanny, you know the Austrian who helps out at the kitchen, gave it to me.'</strong>

<strong>Tariq looked at the paper by the dim light and saw Arabic writing.</strong>

<strong>'What does it say. My eyes are bad.'</strong>

<strong>'It calls on people to assemble tomorrow at 2 pm in the camp and cross the border about five miles from here. Look at the map.'</strong>

<strong>Tariq screwed up his eyes and studied the document.</strong>

<strong>'It shows a river. How do you plan to cross that?'</strong>

<strong>'The river is dry, it says. Look," Asra replied impatiently.</strong>

<strong>'Even if you get across the border, what about the rest of the journey. How are you going to get through Macedonia? And how are you going to get into Austria? The borders are shut.'</strong>

<strong>'Austria and Germany are still open. It was an Austrian who gave me the leaflet. She works in the camp for Doctors without Borders. She must know.'</strong>

<strong>'I don't know. I can't go any further. It's as simple as that. Look at my feet. The journey to Austria, the mountains in this weather is too far and we have no money left. Fatimah is sick and the child is weak.'</strong>

<strong>'What do you mean?' said Asra angrily. 'Do you think we should give up now after all that effort? We have come so far we can't just stop here. We ll get to Germany, have a future, trust me!'</strong>

<strong>The old man shook his head.</strong>

<strong>'I can t go, but if you and Fatimah want to go, I won't stand in your way.'</strong>

<strong>'What will you do?'</strong>

<strong>'Try to go back. I wish I had never left. Even with the Taliban it was better there than here."</strong>

<strong>'When we get to Germany, it'll all be worth it. I'll get a job as an electrical engineer. We'll have a good life. You know I have some heroin in my pack from that Turkish guy. I can sell it when we get to Germany.'</strong>

<strong>'A drug mule. Good that Fatimah doesn't know where the money has come from.'</strong>

<strong>'We have to be ready tomorrow. I'm going to pack my things."</strong>

<strong>'I can t go. Look at my feet. And what about Fatimah? I don't think she has the strength to go any further right now. She is sick.'</strong>

<strong>'I know but I'll help her. She can t stay any longer in this mud and cold. We ll all die here if we don't do something.'</strong>

....

<strong>Fatimah, thin and pale, with her head covered in a scarf, carrying a bundle of blankets, saw though the bare branches of the trees, at the bottom of a ravine, hundreds of people thronging both sides of a river bank. The river was muddy and swollen with rain.</strong>

<strong>Activists in water proof clothes were waiting to help the crowd across. They had hung a rope over the water and stood up to their waists at intervals in the river forming a straight line.</strong>

<strong>'I thought you said the river was dry, Asra?' Fatimah said, frightened.</strong>

<strong>But Asra, who was carrying their daughter on his shoulders, was already walking down the slope.</strong>

<strong>'Come on, we have to hurry.'</strong>

<strong>Fatimah did not move at first. She felt sick and dizzy. The walk from the camp to the river had been hard and tiring because they had had to walk across rain soaked fields and through woods.</strong>

<strong>By the time, Fatimah had made it to the bank, Asra was already in the river, wading knee deep through the water carrying their daughter on his shoulders. Soon the water came up to his waist. Fatimah watched with anxiety. After passing an activist in a yellow jacket, he began to emerge out of the water on the other side, his clothes dripping. He turned and waved to her to hurry up and cross.</strong>

<strong>Fatimah's releief turned to apprehension. She looked at Asra and her daughter on the other side. They seemed so far away.</strong>

<strong>'I have to go,' she thought to herself. "I can't stay here without them."</strong>

<strong>As she prepared to step into the brownish river, it suddenly seemed to her that her whole life had been a process of crossing over from one stage to another, from one phase to another without time to really think about the significance of it all. She had passed from child, to woman, to wife to mother at the age of 20, moved from the countryside to the capital Kabul. And in the past few weeks on her way to Europe, she had crossed more landscapes and countries than she could count. And she did not even know what for. She had no idea what Europe or Germany might be like. Asra had decided to go and she had to go with him according to the ideas of her culture.</strong>

<strong>As she waded deeper into the river, she lifted up her bundle of blankets above her head. Keeping the blankets dry would be indispensible for her, Asra and her child to avoid freezing that night. Who knew where they would be forced to stay?</strong>

<strong>The volume of water flowing through the river, seen through the air filled with drops of rain from the side of the ravine, had seemed slower, smaller. But when she was inside the river, the waves sped by with a ferocious weight. The water hissed and foamed around her. The bottom of the river was also full of rocks, uneven and slippery, but she could not see anything through the muddy brown waters. Tentatively, she put one foot forward, halted, shifted her weight and lifted her other foot. Her clothes became wetter and heavier, and it cost her more and more effort to move.</strong>

<strong>One of the activists who was standing in the space in between her and the river bank where Asra was standing held out her hand and beckoned her on when she nearly slipped.</strong>

<strong>Fatimah hesitated. Her head pounded. Her arms strained to find the strength to keep the bundle in the air and out of the water. She kept looking to see how far she had to go. She saw Asra and her daughter waiting on the bank.</strong>

<strong>Next, she lost her footing. She was falling into the freezing water, losing her grip on the bundle, pulled down by the heaviness of the water into a whirling thickness, and driven along by a powerful current.</strong>

<strong>It suddenly seemed to her that her whole life had been a process of change, and now she was about to cross a new threshold into a new state of being...</strong>

<strong>Before Asra could clamber down the river bank, the photojournalists were there. Watching them standing on the dry bank and take photos of his drowning wife, he felt rage and betrayal.</strong>

<strong>'So, we are just propaganda fodder!' he thought to himself.</strong>

<strong>He plunged into the water.</strong>

<strong>...</strong>

<strong> I</strong><strong>t was late in the night, when Asra finally arrived back at the camp, carrying his child. Tariq was sitting beside a fire, staring at the flames. As soon as he saw his son in law and granddaughter, he jumped up with joy and hobbled over to them.</strong>

<strong>'Come and warm yourselves. You look frozen through,' he said. 'What happened?'</strong>

<strong>He scanned the darkness for Fatimah. But there was no sign of her. It was then that he noticed the terrible expression on the face of Asram. He did not dare ask any more. He turned back to the fire and kicked it with his swollen foot.</strong>

<strong>'You did this!' Tariq said. 'You and your blind ambition have brought ruin to us all! You and your idea of being an electrical engineer in Germany?'</strong>

<strong>Asra watched as Tariq went into the tent together with the exhausted child. The darkness around him seemed thicker than ever. The rain seemed colder than ever. The way back seemed further than ever. He slumped down by the fire.</strong>

<strong>Bent over in fury and pain, he watched the play of light and darkness. Inside him, was the fire and water, that elements that fought, met, separated, could never be reconciled, the flames that were extinguished, the fire wood that disintegrated into ashes...The battle was inside him.</strong>

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