A Second Letter
Many of you will remember I recently sponsored a child in the developing world, who sent me a letter. I, being a warm and tubular person, responded, expecting that would be the last I heard. It would seem, however, that the child has caught a bit of a writing bug, because I got another letter in reply, just a couple of days later.
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Dear Jalab,
I am glad to hear things are going so well for you and that my small donation has been well received. I also offer my congratulations to you on becoming the first president of Kualatumba.
I offer you the same advice that I give to all fledgling African nations. The most important thing you need to achieve is to unite your people. In many African countries, wars start because no one can agree who the leader is. You need to tell your people that your are their leader, and that they need to trust you. Running a country is hard by yourself, so you will need a few men around you to help and give you advice.
After that, I am pleased you are so focused on the economy. The well being of your people can not be achieved by fostering an atmosphere of love and trust, but rather through the accumulation of money and material wealth. The successful transition to a fully functioning economy is likely to be a hazardous one.
I leave you with one final thought. Many people used to refer to countries like yours as the Third World, but now we refer to them as the Developing World because the original term was deemed offensive and divisive. However, it's important to remember that Third is a bronze medal, which is still quite an achievement, so you should all be proud of yourselves.
Yours sincerely,
Craig Holmes
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Dear Mr Craig
Since I last spoke to you in written form, I have been very busy. You may remember that we had begun to advance into more remote areas of Kualatumba, seeking to unify all the people of my country under my leadership. We have so far come across five other settlements, and everything has been peaceful.
Indeed, in each we found one man who was a registered voter and had travelled all the way to our settlement to vote for me. When asked why only one of them had come to vote, it turned out to be a misunderstanding over the One Man One Vote system we have here. Each settlement chose one man, and he had a vote. I asked these people how they decided who voted. They had a vote. Only one man was allowed to vote in this vote. He was the man who won the vote. Taking your advice on board, I have decided these five men display all the necessary attributes to advise me.
I made one of the men, Lahatma, the new minister for the economy. He has been asked to encourage settlements to specialise and trade in produced goods. Currently, four of the six settlements are producing mangoes, and are trading furiously. This has caused a few problems because his first act as minister was to introduce the mango as the unit of currency. Currently, a mango is priced between two and three mangoes. With current inflationary pressures, the price of mangoes is expected to rise to over five mangoes before the end of the year. Obviously, this is a worry, as mangoes form a major part of the Kualtumban diet, especially with them growing everywhere.
With all the increased activity, jobs are created at an incredible rate. Unhappily, Laco remains unemployed, while Riki now has three jobs. During the day, he works in a local mango farm, where he cuts mangoes off trees. In the evenings, he works in our new fledgling bank and is in charge of circulating the new currency, where he cuts mangoes off trees. He spends the remainder of his time telling people about the benefits of having a job. He offered Laco the job as a way to get him into work, but as soon as he did, there was no one else without a job to talk to, so he was let go almost immediately. He reapplied the following day, but was turned down because of his poor record in keeping a job for a decent length of time.
I have decided that educating our people is key to growing as a prosperous nation. We have begun to teach woodwork to young children from the surrounding villages, so they can build their own school. When the school is completed, I hope for a diverse schooling experience. We will naturally be teaching Kualatumban, which I believe is key to our national language. Study will mainly consist of examining Kualatumban literature, such as the classic poem, Oh God, That Lion Looks Hungry, which was found carved on a broken tree branch, unfinished and anonymous. As well as the obvious symbolic meanings, I believe the poem is also about one man's struggle not to be eaten by a lion.
We will also be teaching our children how to use numbers. An elderly man from a nearby village has volunteered to teach all the numbers he knows. He seems knowledgeable on the first few, and he finishes well, but he sometimes gets muddled up with a few in the middle. We will be running classes in history (by a young man who seems very forward-looking), and religious instruction. The latter will be taught through a combined effort of seventeen people, talking over each other, each claiming their own religion is the true one.
I hope to hear from you soon,
Jalab Rumadumanana
President of Kualatumba
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Dear Jalab,
I am glad to hear things are going so well for you and that my small donation has been well received. I also offer my congratulations to you on becoming the first president of Kualatumba.
I offer you the same advice that I give to all fledgling African nations. The most important thing you need to achieve is to unite your people. In many African countries, wars start because no one can agree who the leader is. You need to tell your people that your are their leader, and that they need to trust you. Running a country is hard by yourself, so you will need a few men around you to help and give you advice.
After that, I am pleased you are so focused on the economy. The well being of your people can not be achieved by fostering an atmosphere of love and trust, but rather through the accumulation of money and material wealth. The successful transition to a fully functioning economy is likely to be a hazardous one.
I leave you with one final thought. Many people used to refer to countries like yours as the Third World, but now we refer to them as the Developing World because the original term was deemed offensive and divisive. However, it's important to remember that Third is a bronze medal, which is still quite an achievement, so you should all be proud of yourselves.
Yours sincerely,
Craig Holmes
---------------------
Dear Mr Craig
Since I last spoke to you in written form, I have been very busy. You may remember that we had begun to advance into more remote areas of Kualatumba, seeking to unify all the people of my country under my leadership. We have so far come across five other settlements, and everything has been peaceful.
Indeed, in each we found one man who was a registered voter and had travelled all the way to our settlement to vote for me. When asked why only one of them had come to vote, it turned out to be a misunderstanding over the One Man One Vote system we have here. Each settlement chose one man, and he had a vote. I asked these people how they decided who voted. They had a vote. Only one man was allowed to vote in this vote. He was the man who won the vote. Taking your advice on board, I have decided these five men display all the necessary attributes to advise me.
I made one of the men, Lahatma, the new minister for the economy. He has been asked to encourage settlements to specialise and trade in produced goods. Currently, four of the six settlements are producing mangoes, and are trading furiously. This has caused a few problems because his first act as minister was to introduce the mango as the unit of currency. Currently, a mango is priced between two and three mangoes. With current inflationary pressures, the price of mangoes is expected to rise to over five mangoes before the end of the year. Obviously, this is a worry, as mangoes form a major part of the Kualtumban diet, especially with them growing everywhere.
With all the increased activity, jobs are created at an incredible rate. Unhappily, Laco remains unemployed, while Riki now has three jobs. During the day, he works in a local mango farm, where he cuts mangoes off trees. In the evenings, he works in our new fledgling bank and is in charge of circulating the new currency, where he cuts mangoes off trees. He spends the remainder of his time telling people about the benefits of having a job. He offered Laco the job as a way to get him into work, but as soon as he did, there was no one else without a job to talk to, so he was let go almost immediately. He reapplied the following day, but was turned down because of his poor record in keeping a job for a decent length of time.
I have decided that educating our people is key to growing as a prosperous nation. We have begun to teach woodwork to young children from the surrounding villages, so they can build their own school. When the school is completed, I hope for a diverse schooling experience. We will naturally be teaching Kualatumban, which I believe is key to our national language. Study will mainly consist of examining Kualatumban literature, such as the classic poem, Oh God, That Lion Looks Hungry, which was found carved on a broken tree branch, unfinished and anonymous. As well as the obvious symbolic meanings, I believe the poem is also about one man's struggle not to be eaten by a lion.
We will also be teaching our children how to use numbers. An elderly man from a nearby village has volunteered to teach all the numbers he knows. He seems knowledgeable on the first few, and he finishes well, but he sometimes gets muddled up with a few in the middle. We will be running classes in history (by a young man who seems very forward-looking), and religious instruction. The latter will be taught through a combined effort of seventeen people, talking over each other, each claiming their own religion is the true one.
I hope to hear from you soon,
Jalab Rumadumanana
President of Kualatumba
