DigiVoyager

All's West that ends West

A boy named West is born. One of two brothers, in fact. Perhaps he has a promising future.

Life is good to the boy. Sunny skies and clear waters, some great days for sailing. He is going to venture beyond the horizon, he will do great things. Of course, no one wonders why the boy is rich, they just enjoy the wealth.

But the boy is not as kind as he seems. As it turns out, he is a sneak. The boy steals from his brother, East, quite regularly, and everything, in fact.

The boy, now a mighty officer in the Men in Green^tm decides he does not want to mix with the common rabble, so he creates his own walled off community. Inspired by his very colonizers, who he idolizes for some reason.

Happy Independence Day? How bothersome. As a Man in Green^tm, it is imperative that West make a show of liking East, no matter how much he loathes him. Things must look alright, after all.

The boy continues to rob and exploit his brother, but enough is enough. He is no more welcome. East is done with West, he is no longer related to him. West is sent packing, and he will never be close to East again.

Now that the free ride has stopped, West can no longer enjoy his old life. A new friend, Mr. World Bank appears. West hates Mr. W.B., because he is practical, and reminds West that money doesn't grow on trees, even though he forgets practically every hour. Silly Mr. World Bank, West knows money doesn't grow on trees, it's printed for free. All made up, he laughs.

West skimmed through The Communist Manifesto, and he has decided it is time to nationalize Pakistan. Despite the finance minister and all the cabinet warning him not to do so, West knows best. He nationalizes the industrial sector by kicking out the dirty privateers that have seized the economy, now he will seize the means of production from them. He feels a little guilty about doing so, but life must go on, you know. Russia is Red, and now so will be Pakistan. Of course, West is shocked to see, the very tiger that carried his burdens, also fell off the narrow bridge he was on. West had failed to account for the bridge's length, sadly.

His citizenry, once booming and leading happy, blissful lives, are shocked to be crushed by this thing called inflation. Where did all the money go? Why is everything expensive? West's move to nationalize everything had crushed them, quite literally. No more free money from East, and now, the organizations that had once been great money makers, were loss making entities, costing billions. They wondered why.

Of course, good old West does not feel the consequences of his actions, in his walled garden. West had this picture taken to celebrate his achievements in bringing about the demise of private capital, which was also coincidentally the economy, some time later. The headstone, and indeed the grave plot, was paid for by selling state owned assets, of course.

And even though 52 years have passed, the ghost of his achievements, and indeed the prime minister of that time (standing to the left of the headstone) still haunts Sindh (and the rest of Pakistan) to this very day, and for the foreseeable future. Take that, dirty privateers!

In the end, things ended much like they started for West, but far worse. In almost every way possible, he was worse off than he had begun.

And what of East?

East too, had his struggles, and in fact, is still struggling. But unlike West, he has a better life now, and his citizenry has a more promising future. He is happy to know they still stand up for their rights, when needed.

And finally

Life does not get easier for West's people, as they are about to be visited by many great floods, one after another. All he can do is watch since he did not plan or account for them. Who ever said water security was a thing?