on annexing parts of the West Bank..."; "He has given Israel a green light to take so much territory that a coherent Palestinian state is all but impossible. And he offers no viable alternative to the two-state solution. That may soon leave Israel with a choice: give the Palestinians equal rights and watch as they multiply and outvote Jews, or treat them as second-class citizens and formally become an apartheid state."]4 The Economist | Viva Laos Vegas, https://www.economist.com/node/21779133?frsc=dg%7Ce ["In part this is because Chinese companies tend not to hire locals. By 2018 Laotian workers had secured just 34% of the jobs created by all 11 SEZs in Laos—a far cry from the 90% the government had promised. Chinese firms argue that local workers lack skills, but civil society groups in Myanmar respond by pointing to a technical college near Kyaukpyu, a Chinese-inspired SEZ and port; nobody from the college has been hired to work there, according to a report published last year."; "As is common with big developments in the poorer countries of South-East Asia, locals are seldom consulted about the construction of SEZs."; "Golden Triangle SEZ was built over the rice paddies of Ban Kwan village; over 100 households were forced to relocate against their will. And then there is the question of law enforcement within the SEZs, whose light regulation can be as attractive to criminals as to legitimate businesses. In 2018 American authorities declared that the Golden Triangle SEZ was a hotbed of “drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery and wildlife trafficking”."]
5 What a digital government looks like | Anna Piperal, https://youtu.be/kaU7IPlg9PA
6 The Economist | Muay too young, https://www.economist.com/node/21779138?frsc=dg%7Ce
7 Australia election: Fines, donkey votes and democracy sausages - BBC News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y_xXZ7paVI, ["...because it's one of the few countries to have compulsory voting."]
Basic
Aria places a finger into her mouth behind the mask as she licks off the tamarind paste. Then her finger's clean, clean like eating and like we can assume the smell and taste of the tamarind is: unmistakable, profound, like that of a durian if we take this healthy fruit word salad a step on produce further, crushing it.
'The tastes and smells hit you in Singapore,' Aria says. 'They hit you like locusts whom - mind you - are actually in Africa, seeking millet [1.], maize [1.], and sorghum [1.] in Kenya [1.], Ethiopia [1.], Somalia [1.], Uganda [1.], and Sudan [1.]. But the food in Singapore is so much better than basic. Processed, yes, but basic, no. But they still need the basic foods in Africa, where people are too far removed from Singaporeans to know what's hitting them.'
'Locusts?' Matt asks.
'Yes,' Aria says, hesitantly, now tapping her chin with the figurative fallen finger of hers, had it flattened a locust. 'But boiling them alive is wrong, I can see that. What if instead they were killed with an inert gas so that they literally won't know what hits them?: oh the unknowns now, for good.'
'Would locusts taste strange if they'd died by inhalation of helium, nitrogen, methane or argon?' Matt asks.
'Can you taste ignorance and bliss?' Aria asks. 'Actually, methane has the rotten egg smell if it mixes with hydrogen sulfide, much like Singaporean salted egg crisps.'
'In South Africa, stadiums lie abandoned after the World Cup [3.],' Matt says. 'They smell of desertion rather than dessert. But what if they were built to be moved? Imagine at least a relatively light and portable retractable roof, used to trap swarms of locusts. Then fill the stadium with an inert gas: of course, now, it's imperative that the stadium is deserted when dangerous Singaporean and African occupations (cooperation) are thoughtfully considered on their merits. Preventing a swarm of locusts from forming may not actually be as necessary as containing the swarm, the larger it is the better. I dare say that stadiums could smartly be constructed in Yemen and Somalia, if they're basically more form than for people. You can wait for the locusts outside the areas where it's too dangerous [1.] to go after them in: food first still when you're ready. And maybe fighters could find it fine to man a stadium for locusts in deserting, hopefully without being deserted like streets leading to it. If locusts fly in a pack then they're pre-packaged, standing out like a crisp package on a Singaporean street.'
'Meanwhile, people in the Philippines [2.], Tanzania [2.], and Ghana [2.] are tricked into repaying others' loans [2.] or taking out loans they won't be able to repay [2.] themselves,' Aria says. 'If they're given locusts instead of money, along with good food from Singapore, then they won't have to worry about fraud and cyber security. Being on a healthy diet can boost prestige, so the new Africans won't know what's hit them. Suddenly, everything that may have been promised by a scammer in terms of fulfillment can be realized, albeit without the money. That's life without pain, like the locusts' death sans suffering. Sure, not everyone will get the locusts, but mainly community leaders. They can share them among their people. Locusts can go with everything from ice cream to meat if need be. Fill stadiums with an alternative to cash: put your phone down and watch what's happening.'
'Basic understandings of public national consumption are necessary,' Matt says. 'The more basic foods are, the less need there is for money: just barter. That's basic common humanity. Everyone sees the locusts right before their eyes. (See locusts and humans and bodies are analogues, so their phones are on the table now and they're coming together to eat). There's change, sure, but still health is the ultimate goal. That should never be forgotten, and seats should never be too big to move to ensure that circumstances are ideal for persistent better consumption (drive of sorts, ground flights of bands of locusts even when you don't know where they're from. Then find out the source of the food. I guess we'd recommend Singaporean). Heads of locusts and human analogues can be important when needed to promote an alternative to standard consumption, but kept basic.'
'Ignorance is bliss, but if you're in the know about highly tasty food then Singapore's your stop,' Aria says.
'But basic breath is just fine,' Matt says.
Aria rolls her eyes like they're caught in a draft, like you only get one draft to perform a move.
_____________________
References
1 The Economist | Severe swarms https://www.economist.com/node/21779171?frsc=dg%7Ce, ["One enormous swarm, recently over north-eastern Kenya, contains nearly 200bn of the creatures and occupies a space in the sky three times the size of New York City. There are dozens of swarms in Kenya alone. And the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warns that the number of locusts could increase 500-fold by June, when it is hoped that drier weather will check their spread. The insects eat a lot. A swarm the size of Paris consumes the same amount of food in one day as half the population of France. Crops such as millet, sorghum and maize are a big part of their diet, making life even harder for the 12m or so people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia who are already hungry...Northern Uganda and South Sudan are also at risk; swarms are just 200km away and moving fast."; "...prevention does not attract much funding...“Donors are interested in funding big emergencies, big problems.” And governments, unlike locusts, move slowly."; "Preventive measures have also been hindered by conflict in Yemen and Somalia, where gaining access to some areas for spraying was deemed too dangerous."]
2 The Economist | Hidden costs https://www.economist.com/node/21779079?frsc=dg%7Ce, ["in the Philippines 83% of people surveyed had been targets of mobile-phone scams, with 17% losing money. In Tanzania, 27% had been targeted and 17% fleeced; in Ghana, 56% and 12%. For the most basic deceptions, a thief needs only a phone number. A text message might offer congratulations on winning a prize, requiring only a small contribution to unlock it. Your identity might be stolen to make you responsible for repaying a loan disbursed to somebody else."; "Predatory lenders and vendors might learn when a costly loan or product would be hard to refuse. Or an algorithm might (by design or accident)
