Unknown - Deportation

— Which caused riots that required police intervention — said Sekar — so was it reasonable to let that happen?

— Reasonable for whom? — asked Graendal.

— I mean, maybe it was better to spare the boy’s feelings and to compromise on kids’ pens? The world doesn’t spin around the pig.

There was a pause. Graendal thought for a quarter a minute and then said:

— Pens are the kid’s issue, but the problem is the grown-up one . It’s always tiny things that become the problem: pens, T-shirts, balloons. Our freedom is made ​​up of these tiny things. We teach children to be free on such trifles. As an old book said: freedom is the ability to openly do what others don’t like. In my opinion, that’s a very good definition.

— Are not you afraid that in this way we educate children against mercy?

— No. Mercy, as I said to Dr. Ahmadi, cannot be forced. Mercy is the desire to take care and to protect, not to obey and suffer. Remember what happened fourteen years ago, when the government intended to pave a road through Leal Imo?

— Leal Imo, the Ancestors hill on the Votalevu island?

— Yes. Back then, as you remember, utafoa monuments were not yet protected by the government, and the protection of utafoa personal rights was problematic.

Sekar smiled:

— You bet I remember! My father and older brother stood in the living chains.

— And nobody forced them, right?

— The opposite. Mom was afraid that there would be a fight with the police.

— And we met each other in that chain — Laysha pushed Graendal in the side — remember?

— Yes — he winked to his wife — you even said "it looks like we’re gonna get our butts kicked".

— Aha! And you said, "bet a beer cops will chicken out".

— That's interesting! — said the reporter — tell me more.

Laysha snorted.

— Oh, nothing special. We stood the whole day face to face with the cops. They shouted into a megaphone, "You are resisting police illegally! We will be compelled to use force!". And we shouted into our megaphone, "read your contracts before you get yourselves fired! This is no man's land, and we will stand here until there is a court decision!". By the evening of the second day the bailiff came with papers, the cops got into boats, and went away. That's how I lost the bet, and had to buy this guy a beer.

— I paid for the snacks — recalled Graendal.

— In the pub you did, and later at my home you ate everything I had in the fridge.

— Oh, what was there? A skinny chicken and a slice of cheese.

— An what about four-egg omelette for breakfast?

— Er… I counted them with the chicken, for brevity. Anyway, this is a thing of the past.

— Yeah... remember how you found these warehouses?

— Yes, and you called them dinosaur coffins.

— Which warehouses? — asked the reporter.

Laysha laughed.

— You did not notice? The house is constructed around a warehouse. The nearby ones too. Many atolls had military bases and warehouses, and after the revolution, the foreign military got kicked out of them. They stripped away, of course, everything they could, leaving bare concrete boxes, and the government began to sell them. Right then me and Gren decided to move in together, and were looking for a cheap house. With the money we had, so to speak...

— To be precise, we had no money at all — interrupted Graendal — and then I found an ad about these warehouses. They went for £2000, as good as free.

— They weren’t worth even that — said Laysha — Four walls with holes and no roof.

— I added the roof ​​in a week — he reminded.

— Yeah, you did. You know what he did? Ganged up with two of his neighbo rs, Wang Ming and Rohan Vijay, as madcaps as him at the time, and ransacked the area. Found a broken Second World War aircraft, dragged it ashore with a tractor and tore it apart. So instead of a roof we had half a wing and a piece of a fuselage. Like, a loft with a balcony. And the boarding ramp for stairs.

— Come on, it was just fine, — said Graendal.

— Well, yes. Except that the first storm almost blew us out into the ocean, otherwise all cool.

— Almost does not count. And remember how I made a windmill out of a propeller?

— You bet! It hummed so loudly that it scared the fish in the lagoon.

— But we saved on fuel for the generator. And anyway, are you saying it was bad?

— It’s been great, Gren — she said simply — and it’s great now.

— Why have you never told me this story? — wondered Irji resentfully.

— You never asked — Laysha smiled — and, by the way, now is really time for you to bathe and sleep.

— A minute. Let me just get to level 9 .

— Ten minutes, okay?

—Fifteen.

— OK, but not a minute more. Sen Sekar, do you intend to publish all that? I mean, the things we just told.

— Well, actually — the reporter hesitated — I think your participation in protecting the Ancestors hill and the history of your life here, with neighbors of different ethnic origin and, I guess, a different religion, right?

— Yes, different, — she said — no big deal.

Sekar nodded vigorously.

— Thus, this story — it is a very important detail. So, if you don’t mind, I’d publish that.

— I do not mind — Laysha shrugged — nothing wrong with it.

— I do not mind — echoed Graendal — although I don’t quite understand the importance.

— Here’s why it’s important. When you, sen Vlkov, were charged of intolerance towards people with views different from yours, you told the Speaker of the European Commission: "your tolerance is just cowardice". Your words have been interpreted as an apology for uncompromising ideological unification.

— Please speak straight. You mean fascism.

— Generally, yes. And after all your stories, these accusations are laughable.

— OK, you’re the press, you know better.

The reporter smiled and nodded again.

— To clarify your position, I'll ask another question: talking about swine boom, you mentioned that the father of the child haven’t presented his claims tactfully enough. Could you explain how could he do it right?

— He said something along the lines of: “Islam teaches pig is an unclean animal, and you do not have the right to insult my faith”. He began to dictate free people what they are allowed to do and what they are not. Had he presented the case of his son’s suffering because of this pig, and proposed, if the picture is not essential, to please ask the children to use pens with different pictures, the reaction would probably have been different.

— Mercy? — asked the reporter.

— Something like that. In the beginning nobody wanted to terrorize the boy with these piglets. The moral terror only began in response to the coercion attempt. When a vegetarian comes to visit us, we do not put meat on the table. Not out of respect to the vegetarian doctrine, but simply so as to not offend people just in spite.

— So — said Sekar — if vegetarians demanded you to stop eating meat in public places...

— ... I would defiantly go to the central park and barbecue sausages for everyone to see.

— And if they just asked, but not demanded?

— Then I would not have paid attention to it. Everyone has the right to campaign for what they want , within the limits of Magna Carta, but this specific agitation would not persuade me.

— In other words, you are willing to accommodate odd traits of an individual, but not of a social group?

— Right. Because each individual has some odd traits, but in public life, this is inappropriate.

— But in the case of the Ancestors hill you, however, have made ​​concessions to the odd Aboriginal religion.