Pa was sitting on the beach, enjoying the fruits of a coconut he had cracked open, when he saw the boat. He immediately shot to his feet. Visitors were rare to his island. It was well off the trade wind routes and well away from the path that anyone would take to get from one place to another.
There had been the occasional
visitor in the past but they usually came armed with spears, ready to pillage
whatever they could, including the island’s females.
He thought about going for help,
but the only village on the island was on the other coast where the reef
offered bountiful fish and shelter from the prevailing wind.
As the boat got closer, Pa
noticed that there was only one occupant and he felt brave enough to greet him.
He waved and when he saw that the sailor was unarmed, he helped him ashore.
They stared at each other for a
few minutes until the visitor spoke. Pa didn’t understand all of it but picked
up enough to know that coconuts were the target of his trip. His home island
had suffered an ecological disaster which had wiped out their crop and he had
been sent out across the waves to seek help.
Pa’s island had more coconuts than
they could use and every year they would gather up all the rotting remains of
unused husks and use them as fertilizer for the vegetables they grew.
Pa offered the visitor as many
coconuts as he could fit into his boat, but the sailor shook his head and
explained with a mixture of hand movements and broken vernacular that he was
interested in a long-term relationship.
He reached into his pocket and
took out a small bag filled with roughly crafted coins. Pa stared at them in
wonder and asked what use they would be to him.
The sailor walked back to his
boat and retrieved a box filled with chocolate and fizzy drinks. He explained
to Pa that he would pay for the coconuts with coins and then Pa could use the
coins to buy as much chocolate and fizzy drinks as he wanted.
Pa sampled some of the products
and his taste buds exploded. He’d spent his like living on a diet of fish,
vegetables and coconuts. Refined sugar was as alien to him as space travel.
The visitor sat on the beach and
with the help of a stick drew out his plan. He would lend some coins to Pa who
would then lend them to his island friends. They could then use the coins to
buy the chocolate and fizzy drinks from Pa. To repay the coins they had
borrowed and to earn more to satisfy their new found processed food addiction,
they would work for Pa during the week to collect as many coconuts as possible.
The visitor would return each week with new supplies of chocolate and return
with a boat of freshly picked coconuts.
Pa sat down and stroked his chin.
His island had never needed money. They had more than enough food to feed
themselves, fresh water and if you needed a new house, the village would gather
round to build it. They also had the advantage of not knowing what was going on
in the rest of the world and therefore had no idea what they were missing.
He looked at the box filled with
chocolate and fizzy drinks and realised that this was a window into the wider
world that could change everything. He shook hands with the visitor and with
the box under his arm, returned to the village, rehearsing the speech he would
make as he went.
Six months later, most of the
islanders were working for Pa and living on a diet of chocolate and fizzy
drinks. They were having to go higher into the mountains to source coconuts and
several of them had already been killed trying to desperately fill the weekly
quota.
Pa quickly built up a large
bounty of coins. It didn’t take him long to realise that he could pay the
workers much less than he was receiving from the visitor and sell them the
chocolate and fizzy drinks for more than he had paid for them. But he struggled
to find anything to spend them on. He quickly lost interest in the chocolate
after it rotted his teeth. And the islanders started to resent his wealth with
meant he was excluded from most of their social events.
Then the visitor arrived for his
weekly visit. As he unloaded that week’s cargo and refilled his boat with fresh
coconuts, he explained to Pa that this would be his last trip. He had found
another island that could supply coconuts at half the price that he was paying currently.
Pa was speechless. His fellow
islanders mistrusted him already. How was he going to explain this? In the end,
he took the coward’s option. One thing he had managed to do with his money was
to convince the best carpenter on the island to build him a boat. He had
planned to use it to travel but never built up the enthusiasm. It had sat on
the beach outside his house for months, used only by a family of crabs that nestled
in it’s hull.
He waited for darkness and then
slipped back to his house. He gathered his belongings and collection of coins
and loaded them into his boat. As he was pushing it towards the water he heard a
noise behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw the islanders marching
towards him carrying torches that lit up their angry faces. They shouted at him
to come back. To explain why he had ruined everybody’s life.
But Pa ignored their call and
pushed his boat into the waves. He climbed in and started rowing as fast as he
could. The islanders tore down his house and cast the nameplate with “Capitalism”
written on it into the sea.
