The O.D. (40 page)

Loud silence assaulted Pilot’s ears. He expected nothing less.

“It is implausible that countries will be able to depopulate mandatorily, and that’s why Population Dismantlement has to be
consensual
– a life practice woven
into
our culture the way smoking was tweezed
out
of it. Today, all but seven countries have eradicated smoking completely within their borders. With the same perserverence, we can reach the stage where the single child family is the socially accepted norm. Over our two hundred and fifty year Dismantlement period, those people who stop at one child will be hailed as heroes by their peers and revered forever by future generations for their sacrifice.”

Pilot’s intuitive mind could sense opposing opinions shooting around the auditorium like laser beams.

“We are here – Eydos is here – to simplify an easy job that has been made difficult by the mass of opposing positions on the subject of birth control. There are people looking at it through the eyes of religion, through the eyes of civil rights, market interests and nationalism. A common Population Dismantlement policy, drawn up by a party whose interests lie indelibly
outside
those I have just mentioned, will cut through all these differences. It will neither favour nor disfavour personal, religious or political beliefs, economic systems or national interests. It is the only guarantee we’ve got that what has to be done,
will
be done.”

There was loud, albeit scattered applause at these words, but Pilot was eager to carry on, sensing that he did not have long before emotional overload took him down.

“Vested interest has no role in population or any other form of Dismantlement,” he shouted above the ruction. He shifted from one foot to the other in an attempt to relieve his back, which he could feel tightening at the base of his spine.

“Let us go back to the mid 1700s and the birth of our global man. There were nine hundred million people alive then. As I said earlier, that’s just four rows of our forty row auditorium, and a much more manageable number in every respect. Anything more than a billion people in the world is unsustainable by natural means. Our huge numbers today depend on intensive farming, genetic modification and chemical fertilization to keep them alive. To get back below a billion mouths to feed by the end of our second lap two hundred and fifty years from now will, in theory anyway, be easy to accomplish.

“If every single female during this period has only one child, we will be very near our target by the year 2275. Through this natural shrinkage, or generational halving, the world would shed a city the size of Shangha
i−
20 to 30 million people –
every
year
. When we reach our target two and a half centuries from now, the single child can be replaced by a two-child norm to maintain the population at around the nine hundred million mark. Cousins, uncles and aunts – absent for 250 year
s−
would once again exist. If we ever get there, we will have achieved the greatest Dismantlement of all. Future historians will look back and document the courageous step we took from this conference and thank us for their existence.”

Pilot paused for a moment, not for dramatic effect, but because he could sense trouble ahead.

“How will halving be accomplished on our second lap? How will single births be encouraged worldwide? We will no doubt be told it is impossible. The Chinese method was not consensual. It was imposed. We are not so naïve as to think Population Dismantlement is going to be easy to put in place. Couples will resist the single child ideal as an infringement of their rights. Big Business will fight it for reducing their markets. In a perfect world there would be
no
opposition to Population Dismantlement. We are all in the same boat, and the stability and smoother sailing that will come through having fewer people in it will benefit everyone. Our proposals may sound draconian, but not when you place them next to the alternative.” He looked across at Macushla and smiled for a millisecond.

“We have done some work on the mechanics of the problem. One of our projects has been the development of a device, quite different from the intra-fallopian inserts our women here used up until last year, that can be implanted inside the female to render her eggs latent for as long as it is in place.” He raised his hands to forestall the storm he could feel breaking. “Before I go any further, I need to state our reasons for selecting the female and not the male to carry this responsibility. Our own women asked for and participated in the development of this appliance, reasoning that it is far easier to implant such a device into the mother at the time her first child is born than to similarly treat the father, who may not even still be in the picture by the time of the birth. It is also our belief that the female will be more accepting of the overall aims of Dismantlement than will the male, especially as it relates to her progeny. No mother will ever be
forced
to have the device implanted. She can opt out if she so wishes.”

In an attempt to get this sensitive subject behind him, Pilot quickened his rate of speech and cut out his long pauses. “Obstetricians will be trained in the simple surgical procedure for inserting our tiny device, which, I might add, is safer, more effective and more tamper-proof than any existing contraceptive. It is as good as permanent, but, in extenuating circumstances later on, such as the death of the single child, it can be removed until a second, healthy child is delivered. We have been testing a prototype of the device for two years on our own women, including my partner, whose idea it was in the first place.

“Females will support the programme for different reasons. Some will do so through altruism and a genuine belief that it is right. Others will have to be offered financial and other incentives. The orange-coloured flashdrives in your packs contain details of a variety of such incentives tailored to different socio-economic groups, geographies, religions, political structures. With the
PSA
Incentive, for example –
Pregnancy
Set
-
Aside
– countries will pay a levy based on their rate of population growth into a central fund. The money in this fund will be used to make payments to new mothers on insertion of the device – similar to agricultural set-aside, where farmers are paid
not
to grow crops. Countries will encourage population control amongst their citizens to reduce their levies, and mothers who agree to be fitted after the birth of their first child will bank a sizable sum of money.” There was a wave of white noise from the delegates which Pilot rode like a seasoned surfer as it swept over the stage. He took a step back and announced that he was handing over to the President of Ireland, who had some relevant points to make on the issue of Population Dismantlement. From the wings, a man with a rustred Asterix moustache strode forward to scattered applause from a congress half bemused and half enthused. Pilot shook hands with him, then returned to his seat.

“My fellow delegates, don’t look so shocked,” President Traill began. “I sympathise with you. The ideas emanating from Eydos
are
shocking. It seems as though they want to take away all those things that make us human beings – ambition, expectation, competitiveness, libido… What are we supposed to do, trapped inside the only bodies we know? What is a society trapped inside
its
body of jobs, economies, religions and social mores supposed to do when faced with the apocalyptic vision that, to stay within it, means certain degeneration and eventual death? What Eydos is really proposing is that we
redirect
our societal body towards a different goal.

“As Madame Lim said, you don’t kill the messenger for bringing bad news. In fact, Lonnie Pilot is only telling us what we know already in our heads and hearts. Nor do you kill the doctor because you don’t like the taste of the medicine he’s prescribed. As George Bernard Shaw said, ‘People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they
want
, and if they cannot find them,
make
them.’ Dismantlement will allow us to create a world that we would all rather live in than this one.

“My fellow delegates, I don’t claim to speak on behalf of the Irish people, who had no prior knowledge of this initiative put forward by our friends in the Bay of Biscay, nor of my decision to support it. However, it is my duty as Head of State to serve the interests of the people of Eire to the best of my ability. We have been watching Eydos closely since its first days above the water. Lonnie Pilot has always had our ear, and vice versa. Our concord, however, has never been the incestuous one of worldly alliances with their mutual back scratchings, favours granted and favours exacted. For Ireland’s part, we’ve always known that any solution to the human condition would never come from the existing cast of players, but would have to come from the outside … from a free state.

“The Saorstat Eireann, or Irish Free State, wasn’t every Irishman’s answer to the questions of the day over a century ago. Nevertheless, there was no doubt the State needed freeing. Just as we need freeing today. From ourselves. Eydos was
born
free. And it’s on this wind-blown rock shelf that our hopes now lie.

“I’ve heard it said that Eydos represents only those people living in the developed, educated, privileged countries either side of the North Atlantic. Well now, that’s not surprising when you consider that the majority of those who settled this island were from Western Europe and the United States. Also hardly surprising when you consider where most of the rot in our world was born. Dismantlement must begin in these countries, so the authors of Dismantlement might as well speak their language.
Everyone
will benefit from Dismantlement, even if they never fully understand the word, let alone hear it spoken.” President Traill turned to make brief eye contact with Lim, then slowly panned the auditorium.

“There’s no conspiracy afoot here and no outside paymaster. That’s why my first job on returning to Dublin will be to bring Dismantlement to the Oireachtas, our national parliament. As an advocate for Population Dismantlement first and foremost, I will stake my Presidency on its passage.”

“I don’t know whether to praise our President or certify him insane,” an Irish journalist whispered to the woman next to him.

“If I were you, I’d start writing his obituary,” she answered.

President Traill stuffed his notes in his pocket and turned to shake hands with another moustachioed man who had joined him on the podium from the wings – a man whose own mother, Gabriella Lucia Laurenço Barreiras, would not have recognized him. His fifteen months on the grounded ocean-going barge,
Fort
Lowell
, had served him well.

“I am Doctor Carlos Laurenço, President of Brazil,” he announced slowly in Portuguese whilst removing the white wig he had been wearing since leaving Rio de Janeiro two years previously. There was an audible intake of many breaths from the audience, and the born-again President stood silent to allow the shockwaves from his surprise reincarnation to pass over the hall.

“What, my friends, am I President
of
?” he said eventually, almost in tears. “I am President of a country broken by excesses of every kind. I am the head on the fleshless skeleton of a man who has eaten himself to death.” Laurenco’s speech was slow, the clauses separated by enormous gaps – a translator’s prayer.

“I, myself, am a criminal of epic proportions.”

(Three seconds)

“In that respect, I do not differ so much from the leaders of your own nations.”

(Four seconds)

“We rape and pillage as one… stealing from our own children… from our own planet… and defecating in its emptied jewel boxes. We Brazilians were unfortunate in that we got caught.

“How long, I wonder, can the rest of you remain at large with the truth closing in all around you?” His doleful brown eyes seemed to probe those of each delegate over what seemed like an age.

“You are banging on the gates of hell now with increasing persistence, in spite of all the sign
s−
the heat behind the door; the smoke seeping through the cracks; the smell of burning flesh. One day it will open for all of you as it has done already in Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Phoenix and a thousand other places. I have been through those gates. Therefore I am qualified and duty-bound to give you this admonition.

(Five seconds)

“
Turn
around
, as our friend says. Start the dismantlement process
now
. If the first tentative steps of Dismantlement had been applied in Brazil ten years ago, even five, my country would be on the long road to recovery today.

“It
is
a long road back. A Long March that will span twenty generations. Those twenty generations will go down in history as
the
people
who
saved
the
human
race
from
itself
. We must use the time we have left to turn this massive machine of ours around and begin that march. And we must empower those willing to go in the right direction to help those who are not.