It all got a bit complicated that time I opened a casino. Gamblers came and lost all their money. They lost their money and never came back and the casino looked like it was going to close down. So, here’s what I did, I gave the gamblers the money they lost back. Now, after I gave the gamblers all their money back it looked like the casino was still going to close down because I didn’t have any money left to pay the staff their wages. So, what did I do? I borrowed the money I needed to pay the staff from the gamblers, the same money I gave back to the gamblers in the first place. LOL! But guess what? The gamblers charged a huge rate of interest, not as much interest as the local loan shark would have charged but a pretty colossal rate of interest all the same. So, what did I do then? I reduced the staff’s wages. It was a drastic reduction, it had to be. It was barely a wage at all at the end of the day but it was still a wage. Most of the staff understood, they wanted to keep their jobs. Some of them were moaning though. They said the interest was too high and we’d never make a decent profit again. They said I could’ve just cut their wages to keep the casino running. They said if I did that I never would have needed to give back the money the gamblers lost in the first place. But I told them if I did that the gamblers could never have come back and we’d be back where we started. I drew a diagram on a white board and everything, to make my point clear. And here’s the funny part, all the arrows and graphs I put on the board kind of made a picture. When you stood back from the board a bit you could see it clearly. It was a picture of Sisyphus, he was pushing a rock up a mountain and the mountain was in Hell.
Going Forward, and backward, and forward, and backward, and forward, and backward, and. . .
‘A new decade is here and, boy, has it got a lot of cleaning up to do after the last one.’ At least, that’s what the C.I.A. told me over a few pints in town. ‘As if that ain’t bad enough, the whole house of credit default swap cards is going to come crashing down, we’re going to have water and oil shortages causing wars and there’s going to be refugees spilling out all over the place causing racial tension. We’re in the shit Mr. Fugger,’ they informed me.
‘So, what do you want me to do about it?’ I asked.
‘Well you like telling stories,’ replied the C.I.A., ‘and we need stories to keep people distracted while we maintain order. Maintaining order ain’t pretty. A lot of people are going to get hurt and we don’t want the bleeding hearts getting all moralistic about it. Order trumps morality Mr. Fugger. Morality is abstract subjective bull crap. Order is an objective and observable phenomenon.’
I didn’t like the sound of that. I downed my Guinness and nodded to the barman for another. The C.I.A. kept talking as they peered at me over their whiskeys. ‘We’re going to start shit in Bolivia Mr. Fugger. We need gas and they got it. We’re going to replace democratically elected President Morales with hardcore racist son of a Nazi Branko Marinkovic. It sucks but whachagonnado? We need your first rate story telling prowess to make people look the other way. We want you to come up with an event that will keep everyone talking while we do the old switcheroo.’
‘And what if I don’t?’ I said, playing hard-ball.
The C.I.A. fixed me with a chilling glare. ‘What’s the name of your cat Mr. Fugger?’ I was asked.
I was puzzled by the question but I answered it. ‘Rupert’, I said, inciting a round of sniggers and feeling my masculinity suddenly diminish.
‘You like Rupert don’t you Mr. Fugger?’
I saw where they were going with this so quickly changed the subject. ‘Right, a distraction is what you need. A news event to keep people talking. Let’s see. Let’s see now. How about . . .um . . .a racoon.’
The C.I.A. leaned forward in unison and stared expectantly as my mind darted from place to place, grabbing anything it could. ‘Yeah, a racoon, go on,’ they urged.
‘Right, a racoon,’ I continued, ‘and it gets on a TV show and what’s her name is on it too, you know, Katie Price, um, Jordan, and. . .’
‘Hold on,’ one of the C.I.A. interrupted. ‘What’s the racoon doing on a TV show?’
‘Well, maybe it’s a special racoon. Maybe it pulled a baby from a house fire or has been to space or something.’
‘We can’t arrange that Mr. Fugger. Not even we can send a racoon to space or train it rescue kids.’
‘Right well, could you teach it to cycle a little bike?’
‘Yeah, maybe.’
‘Right so, the racoon is cycling a little bike and Graham Norton is jumping around delighted when all of a sudden the racoon jumps up off the saddle and bites Jordan on the tits and. . . um . . .they explode.’
I wasn’t sure where the hell that came from and I was even less sure how it would be received. I found myself putting my hands up my face and looking at the C.I.A. through the gaps in my fingers. I need not have worried, they were grinning from ear to ear.
‘I like it,’ one said, ‘the broad’s bazoobahs go boom and at that very moment, in another continent, Morales takes a bullet to the brain as his cavalcade passes through Santa Cruz.’
‘Exactly,’ I confirmed.
The C.I.A. quickly scribbled a few notes, finished their whiskeys and stood to leave.
‘Nice doing business with you Mr. Fugger,’ one said, ‘oh, and give our best to, eh, what’s he called, yeah, give our best to Rupert.’
There was more laughter as they sauntered out the door. I downed my pint to calm my nerves.
Then someone cleared his throat behind me. I turned and saw Ajai Chopra of the I.M.F.
‘Any chance you could dream up a distraction for us? We need a product, a kind of craze for some gee-gaw everyone will want to get while we take everything else from them.’
The fact that I probably had no choice but to assist him did little to assuage the wave of self-loathing that overcame me.
‘What about a, um, let’s see, yeah, what about a board game for all the family. Like Hungry Hungry Hippos only with racoons instead of hippos and, um, instead of the marbles you could have tits?’ I offered.
Ajai smirked and made a note. He seemed happy enough.
Jesus, I’m scraping the barrel on this blog these days. O.K., enough of that. Click the link and find out how CRAP MAN HANDLED THE NEW YEAR!
