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Friday, August 22, 2014

109

The skimpy little newspaper was surprisingly full of well written articles, mainly focusing on local news, but also having the occasional musings on world events. Musings that were as anti-government as everything else in the newspaper, with plenty of over the top claims about the evils of foreign and domestic policies. "To understand the world, we have to keep in mind that governments are in fact criminal gangs, running protection rackets and fighting turf wars for their cronies," it said at one point in what would otherwise have been a well balanced and level headed analysis of the mess in Libya.

It was a little annoying to keep finding such blatant anti-government propaganda, but also refreshing in a way, considering how universally pro-government other news providers tended to be. From listening to TV reports, one would think that another military intervention in Libya was nothing short of an obvious must do. Having someone point out the complete mess left by the first intervention, and putting a question mark by the wisdom of further interventions seemed both proper and just, and it made it all the more evident that many so called journalists are not doing their job properly these days since such musings are rarely if ever expressed in the mainstream media.

However, Bjorn felt so uncomfortable being reminded of the possibility, however remote, that he might be called upon to protect so called national interests in Libya that he turned the page before reading the article to its end. He got the point. According to the Gazette "national interests" are in fact shorthand for oil fields, and the war in Libya has nothing to do with the security and well being of ordinary people, neither in Libya nor anywhere else. Rather, it has everything to do with oil companies wanting ordinary people to pay and risk their lives to secure their oil fields in far away places. Bjorn did not have to read the whole article to know that this would be the typical anti-government attitude towards the latest developments in Libya.

"Maybe true, maybe not," Bjorn thought to himself, uncomfortable with the idea that he might be drawn into an ugly war as a mere pawn in somebody else's game. But the article on Libya was soon forgotten as he turned his attention to the fears and anxieties experienced by the locals in Lundby regarding the so much talked about wave of immigrants, soon to flood the village with all sorts of people.

People in Lundby had been buying a lot of guns over the last two weeks, and a shooting range over by the airport had seen considerable business, with many people using it to practice using their newly acquired weapons. Pedro's insurance business had also seen a significant uptick. Everyone was scared, it seemed, and Bjorn got the distinct feeling that Pedro, or Gus the gun store owner, were behind this, doing their best to make things sound worse than they were in order to generate even more business for themselves.

There was nothing very surprising about the first half of the article, which focused entirely on Gus's gun store and Pedro's insurance company. However, when Bjorn came across a mention of a company called Rogue Justice, Bjorn had to reread the sentences in front of him a couple of times to make sure he had understood them correctly.

"Is this serious?" Bjorn wondered, dropping the newspaper onto the coffee table. "Is this real?"

Bjorn looked out of the window, digesting the strange and matter of fact way the article had described the services offered by Rogue Justice. He noted that the snow had now fully turned to rain. Then he picked up the newspaper again, rereading the sentences once more.

 "For those with particular concerns," it read, "Rogue Justice will facilitate assassinations, provided the person in question is clearly and obviously guilty of a grave crime, Rogue Justice will facilitate the elimination of that person against a fee ranging from one KG and upwards depending on the difficulty of the job."

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