Bjorn almost regretted making the calculations. Had he not worked out his change in salary in Grams, he could have fooled himself into thinking he was better off with his nominal change in wages. But now that he had worked out the numbers, it was clear that he was not all that much better off than the people in the village, and that his real income was actually going down, relative to the Gram.
"But the gold price is going down," Bjorn thought to himself. "So how can the Gram go up? It's just a casino token, redeemable in gold. Surely, it should follow the gold price."
Bjorn found a chart on the web showing the change in the gold price over time, just to make sure he had his facts right. And sure enough, the gold price was showing a clear downward trend. So on the one hand, the gold price was going down, and on the other hand, the Gram was going up.
"This makes no sense at all," Bjorn thought. Then he convinced himself that things would have to balance up sooner or later, and that his salary would then return to its proper level. "It must be some sort of temporary imbalance," he concluded before closing the tabs with the two charts. And with that conclusion, he felt quite a lot better. "Things will return to normal," he thought. "It simply has to since nothing can remain out of balance for ever."
Having closed the tabs with the charts, Bjorn was again confronted with the Blacklist, and this made him think of the official blacklist at the department of justice. That, after all, was the blacklist with real legitimacy. Unlike the web page in front of him, which had no legal authority, and did not really represent anybody, the blacklist at the department of justice represented the law of the land and the will of the people.
Bjorn pulled the official blacklist up from his browser history, remembering that he had not actually looked up Gus and his helpers. And curious to see what the department of justice might have on them, he proceeded to type in their names. But it proved hopeless to find anything on them. With only their first names and their nationality to help him in his search, he either got nothing or too much, depending on what he was typing in.
Then he got an idea. Bjorn could look them up on the Blacklist used in Lundby, and find their full names there. That webpage had the advantage that it did not contain all that many names, and with it being possible to restrict the search to Lundby, the list of names would be very short. If they happened to have an account, or even just a mention, he was sure to find them.
And sure enough. After a bit of hunting around, he found the full names of all three. None of them were involved in any squabble, but had evidently taken the trouble to register themselves anyway. However, Bjorn wasted no time wondering why this was so. Instead, he pasted the men's full names into the database at the department of justice, one after another, to see if they had anything on them.
But nothing came up. The department had nothing on either of them. And Bjorn felt strangely disappointed at this discovery. He had nothing against the men, but a database that listed people like Cecilie, Einar and Katinka as criminals, should in Bjorn's mind at least post a warning about people so clearly involved in shady arms deals.
"It must be some sort of mistake," Bjorn thought. "An unfortunate omission." Then, for some reason, Bjorn proceeded to type in his own name. He hit return, and up came a list of people sharing his full name, all with a green all clear status, except for the one at the top which was marked in red. And to his great surprise, the thumbnail image was of him.
"That can't be right," Bjorn thought, feeling his veins slowly freeze in quiet anguish. He clicked on the link to read the details. "Warning:" it read. "Immediate arrest on charges of: Attempted tax evasion (1 count)." Bjorn stared in disbelief at the webpage in front of him. Then it slowly dawned on him what it was all about.
Immediately after getting his divorce from his ex, Bjorn had applied for a passport, thinking he could do with a break. A trip to a southern country for instance, to clear his mind and put things in perspective. However, he had been denied a passport on the grounds that he still had unsettled affairs in Norway. And thinking this had to do with his divorce proceedings which had not been fully completed, he had simply accepted this as just one more slap in the face from his ex. But now that he saw the text in front of him, he realized that the unsettled affairs might just as well have been a reference to his debt to the taxman.
But if Bjorn was on the blacklist for potential tax evasion, why was he allowed to work as a border guard? This made absolutely no sense. Were the people in Oslo really so incompetent that they would let a blacklisted person serve as a border guard, and now even as a customs officer?
Bjorn clicked on the warning in the hope that it might reveal some more information, but as he did this, the session terminated, and he was sent to the log in screen. "Oh no! Not now!" Bjorn though, his frustration and anguish rising quickly. Then he found the note with the log in and password details to log in again. But he was denied access. "No such user or password it said."
Showing posts with label blacklist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blacklist. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
190
Walking back to the barracks with his PC safely tucked under his arm, Bjorn felt strangely satisfied with his situation. Things were not perfect. But they were not bad either. Life at the checkpoint was not bad at all, even with annoying colleagues like Geir.
Bjorn found Frank in the living room, watching sports on TV.
"What do I do with this box," Bjorn asked, dangling the empty package for the scanner above the coffee table.
"Ah... Just leave it there. I'll take care of it," Frank replied before returning his attention to the TV.
Bjorn met Thomas, Espen and John on his way up the stairs. They were on their way down to their regular bridge game, and Bjorn greeted them cheerfully on his way up. The daily routines of the place were comforting, almost soothing, and Bjorn was in a positively cheerful mood by the time he reached his room.
The TV was still on in Bjorn's room, and he was suddenly confronted with images of people in pickup trucks firing rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in a dusty landscape of bombed out houses and sand dunes. However, he had no patience for this constant reminder of the war in Libya, and turned the TV off immediately.
Bjorn put his laptop on the table in front of the window. He hooked it up to the mains, and sat down, eager too double check that Geir had not been up to any more mischief on the Blacklist. Even the remote possibility that Geir might have initiated a law suit against people like Jan and his daughters, was a gut wrenching thought, and Bjorn was eager to free himself from this anxiety. However, the moment he sat down, the envelope he had put in his back pocket crumpled uncomfortably, and his attention was suddenly directed away from his PC.
Bjorn pulled the letter out of his pocket, and looked at it. It was from the headquarters in Oslo, and he was suddenly struck with horror at the thought that it might be related to the foreign minister's plan to deploy ground troops to Libya. Bjorn's heart started pumping hard, and he ripped the letter open with sudden urgency. However, he was immediately relieved to see that the letter had nothing to do with Libya, and his pulse fell back to normal almost as fast as it had risen.
The letter, it turned out, was simply a confirmation of his new status as a customs officer, complete with a calculation of his new salary. "Well, that's good news," Bjorn thought, relieved to see that the letter was nothing to worry about, and so he put it down next to his PC without bothering to read the details of it. Instead, he logged into the Blacklist to double check his activity log.
It turned out that his activity log was nothing to worry about either, with the only activity recorded during Geir's mischievous snooping around, being his attempt to add Mr. Clueless to his list of nick names.
Bjorn gave a sigh of relief. He leaned back in his chair, and let his mind rest for a while. Then he picked up the letter from Oslo to read it in more details. He looked through the salary calculations, eager to see what his new salary had been calculated to be after taxes and deductions. "Probably not a great difference," Bjorn thought to himself as he looked for the right number.
His new salary before taxes and deductions was highlighted and easy to find. It looked promising. But at the end of the day, only the net salary counts, and when he found that number, he could not quite see that it had changed at all. "Surely, they're not taking all of my extra income for themselves?" Bjorn thought to himself, feeling disappointed despite his low expectations.
Bjorn had to go through all the numbers in greater detail to see where all the money had gone. For some reason, all the numbers except the net total had a before and after column, and it was only by adding up the old numbers manually that he managed to calculate the old net total.
"I guess they simply assume that I know this number by heart," Bjorn thought for himself as he added the numbers. "But I really can't remember. I would have to look it up."
It quickly became clear that child support and back taxes were the main factors contributing to the disappointing final number. But Bjorn had also entered a higher tax bracket, and his social security and pension obligations had also increased. In fact, every single item on the list showed an increase in expenses, and the net total, when he finally managed to work out the number, had hardly changed at all.
Bjorn made a quick mental conversion of the numbers into Lundby's local currency, thinking that this would make him seem rather rich in comparison to the poor devils down in the village. But even that did not help much. He was far better off than Ane's workers. However, he suspected that he was in fact earning less than somebody like Nora, with her restaurant, or even Aung with her multiple jobs. And Bjorn's increase in salary was a mere two hundred MG per month. Hardly anything at all, even by Lundby standards.
So small was the change that Bjorn had to do some further calculations to see if his salary, calculated in Gram, had in fact increased at all.
Bjorn looked up the Lundby Gazette on the web and clicked his way to a chart, showing the Gram's performance against the Norwegian currency over the last few months. And his heart dropped at the sight. While his salary had increased by close to nothing in Norwegian currency, the Gram had gained a whopping ten percent over the last month. His salary in Grams had not increased at all, in other words. It had in fact fallen by quite a lot.
Bjorn found Frank in the living room, watching sports on TV.
"What do I do with this box," Bjorn asked, dangling the empty package for the scanner above the coffee table.
"Ah... Just leave it there. I'll take care of it," Frank replied before returning his attention to the TV.
Bjorn met Thomas, Espen and John on his way up the stairs. They were on their way down to their regular bridge game, and Bjorn greeted them cheerfully on his way up. The daily routines of the place were comforting, almost soothing, and Bjorn was in a positively cheerful mood by the time he reached his room.
The TV was still on in Bjorn's room, and he was suddenly confronted with images of people in pickup trucks firing rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in a dusty landscape of bombed out houses and sand dunes. However, he had no patience for this constant reminder of the war in Libya, and turned the TV off immediately.
Bjorn put his laptop on the table in front of the window. He hooked it up to the mains, and sat down, eager too double check that Geir had not been up to any more mischief on the Blacklist. Even the remote possibility that Geir might have initiated a law suit against people like Jan and his daughters, was a gut wrenching thought, and Bjorn was eager to free himself from this anxiety. However, the moment he sat down, the envelope he had put in his back pocket crumpled uncomfortably, and his attention was suddenly directed away from his PC.
Bjorn pulled the letter out of his pocket, and looked at it. It was from the headquarters in Oslo, and he was suddenly struck with horror at the thought that it might be related to the foreign minister's plan to deploy ground troops to Libya. Bjorn's heart started pumping hard, and he ripped the letter open with sudden urgency. However, he was immediately relieved to see that the letter had nothing to do with Libya, and his pulse fell back to normal almost as fast as it had risen.
The letter, it turned out, was simply a confirmation of his new status as a customs officer, complete with a calculation of his new salary. "Well, that's good news," Bjorn thought, relieved to see that the letter was nothing to worry about, and so he put it down next to his PC without bothering to read the details of it. Instead, he logged into the Blacklist to double check his activity log.
It turned out that his activity log was nothing to worry about either, with the only activity recorded during Geir's mischievous snooping around, being his attempt to add Mr. Clueless to his list of nick names.
Bjorn gave a sigh of relief. He leaned back in his chair, and let his mind rest for a while. Then he picked up the letter from Oslo to read it in more details. He looked through the salary calculations, eager to see what his new salary had been calculated to be after taxes and deductions. "Probably not a great difference," Bjorn thought to himself as he looked for the right number.
His new salary before taxes and deductions was highlighted and easy to find. It looked promising. But at the end of the day, only the net salary counts, and when he found that number, he could not quite see that it had changed at all. "Surely, they're not taking all of my extra income for themselves?" Bjorn thought to himself, feeling disappointed despite his low expectations.
Bjorn had to go through all the numbers in greater detail to see where all the money had gone. For some reason, all the numbers except the net total had a before and after column, and it was only by adding up the old numbers manually that he managed to calculate the old net total.
"I guess they simply assume that I know this number by heart," Bjorn thought for himself as he added the numbers. "But I really can't remember. I would have to look it up."
It quickly became clear that child support and back taxes were the main factors contributing to the disappointing final number. But Bjorn had also entered a higher tax bracket, and his social security and pension obligations had also increased. In fact, every single item on the list showed an increase in expenses, and the net total, when he finally managed to work out the number, had hardly changed at all.
Bjorn made a quick mental conversion of the numbers into Lundby's local currency, thinking that this would make him seem rather rich in comparison to the poor devils down in the village. But even that did not help much. He was far better off than Ane's workers. However, he suspected that he was in fact earning less than somebody like Nora, with her restaurant, or even Aung with her multiple jobs. And Bjorn's increase in salary was a mere two hundred MG per month. Hardly anything at all, even by Lundby standards.
So small was the change that Bjorn had to do some further calculations to see if his salary, calculated in Gram, had in fact increased at all.
Bjorn looked up the Lundby Gazette on the web and clicked his way to a chart, showing the Gram's performance against the Norwegian currency over the last few months. And his heart dropped at the sight. While his salary had increased by close to nothing in Norwegian currency, the Gram had gained a whopping ten percent over the last month. His salary in Grams had not increased at all, in other words. It had in fact fallen by quite a lot.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
186
Bjorn got out of bed and rushed down to the glass cage.
"What the heck are you doing?" Bjorn asked angrily as he tore open the door to the little office.
"What you mean?" Geir asked, pretending to not know what Bjorn was talking about.
"You're making changes to my status, aren't you?"
"Status?" Geir asked, still pretending to be clueless.
Bjorn pushed Geir aside and grabbed hold of his laptop. "Yeah, there it is," Bjorn noted. "How did you find it? I'm sure I closed this window before giving the PC to you."
"It came up in your browsing history," Geir explained rather nonchalantly.
"You've been snooping around in my browsing history?"
Bjorn looked at Geir, fuming with anger.
"Hey! I'm not the one with ties to right wing fanatics," Geir said with a smirk.
"Right wing fanatics? What are you talking about?"
"Come on! The Blacklist! What were you thinking, registering yourself with those guys?"
"So you've heard of them?"
"Sure, and I'm a little shocked to see you having an account with them, to be honest."
"And what exactly have you heard about them?" Bjorn asked.
Geir leaned back in his chair, smiling smugly. "It's a pathetic attempt to set up some sort of alternative legal system. It has no legal basis. And the only ones posting there are frustrated hippies and right wing losers. I'd remove my profile right away, if I were you."
"Well, I've tried, and I can't," Bjorn said, feeling his anger change to frustration.
"Is that so?" Geir asked, still smirking.
"Yeah!"
"I believe that ir illegal. Isn't that ironic?"
"It is. It's a trap."
"So you fell into their trap, did you?" Geir asked, clearly happy about the whole situation. "You really are clueless, aren't you?"
Bjorn did not answer. Instead, he looked down at the profile editor on his PC.
"So what sort of changes were you making?" Bjorn asked, eager to put things back in order.
"I opened a case against Jan and Pedro."
"You did not!" Bjorn exclaimed,with a rush of panic spreading through his veins.
Geir chuckled. "Of course not. I'm not that cruel. I just added a nickname to your profile."
Bjorn looked over his profile, and there it was, marked as a tentative change. "Mr. Clueless," it read. Bjorn removed the entry without making any comments on Geir's choice of nickname.
"And that's all?" Bjorn asked.
"That's all."
"You're sure about that?" Bjorn asked again.
"I swear! That's all I did."
Bjorn logged out of the Blacklist. Then, he put his laptop back where it had been.
"I trusted you, you know." Bjorn said. "And this is how you thanked me?"
"Hey! It was just a bit of innocent fun. Come on! Don't be sore!"
Bjorn looked at Geir without saying a word.
"Okay," Geir said reluctantly. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"What the heck are you doing?" Bjorn asked angrily as he tore open the door to the little office.
"What you mean?" Geir asked, pretending to not know what Bjorn was talking about.
"You're making changes to my status, aren't you?"
"Status?" Geir asked, still pretending to be clueless.
Bjorn pushed Geir aside and grabbed hold of his laptop. "Yeah, there it is," Bjorn noted. "How did you find it? I'm sure I closed this window before giving the PC to you."
"It came up in your browsing history," Geir explained rather nonchalantly.
"You've been snooping around in my browsing history?"
Bjorn looked at Geir, fuming with anger.
"Hey! I'm not the one with ties to right wing fanatics," Geir said with a smirk.
"Right wing fanatics? What are you talking about?"
"Come on! The Blacklist! What were you thinking, registering yourself with those guys?"
"So you've heard of them?"
"Sure, and I'm a little shocked to see you having an account with them, to be honest."
"And what exactly have you heard about them?" Bjorn asked.
Geir leaned back in his chair, smiling smugly. "It's a pathetic attempt to set up some sort of alternative legal system. It has no legal basis. And the only ones posting there are frustrated hippies and right wing losers. I'd remove my profile right away, if I were you."
"Well, I've tried, and I can't," Bjorn said, feeling his anger change to frustration.
"Is that so?" Geir asked, still smirking.
"Yeah!"
"I believe that ir illegal. Isn't that ironic?"
"It is. It's a trap."
"So you fell into their trap, did you?" Geir asked, clearly happy about the whole situation. "You really are clueless, aren't you?"
Bjorn did not answer. Instead, he looked down at the profile editor on his PC.
"So what sort of changes were you making?" Bjorn asked, eager to put things back in order.
"I opened a case against Jan and Pedro."
"You did not!" Bjorn exclaimed,with a rush of panic spreading through his veins.
Geir chuckled. "Of course not. I'm not that cruel. I just added a nickname to your profile."
Bjorn looked over his profile, and there it was, marked as a tentative change. "Mr. Clueless," it read. Bjorn removed the entry without making any comments on Geir's choice of nickname.
"And that's all?" Bjorn asked.
"That's all."
"You're sure about that?" Bjorn asked again.
"I swear! That's all I did."
Bjorn logged out of the Blacklist. Then, he put his laptop back where it had been.
"I trusted you, you know." Bjorn said. "And this is how you thanked me?"
"Hey! It was just a bit of innocent fun. Come on! Don't be sore!"
Bjorn looked at Geir without saying a word.
"Okay," Geir said reluctantly. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
185
Bjorn rinsed his thermos and put it on the rack above the kitchen sink to drip dry. Then, he went up to his room for a rest. He felt like being on his own again, and sensing that Ante was feeling the same way, he left the man in the kitchen to finish his things.
Back in his room, Bjorn took a quick peek outside. He looked over at Gus' house in the distance, and was struck by how the place had completely lost its menacing appearance now that he had met Gus in person. Having shook hands with him, it seemed quite inconceivable that the man would do anything to harm him or any of his colleagues at the checkpoint. Gus simply wasn't the type to do anything rash. Bjorn's brief encounter with the man had convinced him of that.
"Strange how that goes," Bjorn thought to himself. "How meeting someone face to face can change ones feeling about another so dramatically."
Bjorn picked up the remote control for the TV, got into bed, and started zapping through the channels.
"... fight extremism," a voice said as he zapped over to one of the news channels. And there was a picture of the Wikipedia logo in the information box next to the anchorwoman that drew Bjorn's attention.
"Is Wikipedia fighting extremism?" Bjorn wondered. But he soon understood that Wikipedia was in fact the source of the alleged extremism, and not an institution fighting it. The TV display split into two, with the minister of cultural affairs appearing with a concerned look to the right of the anchorwoman. The minister explained how articles on Wikipedia had become ever more extreme over time, and that it was currently at a point of being dangerously misleading. She had therefore decided to allocate resources towards a general clean up of Wikipedia to make sure the various articles that so many people rely on for facts, were as factual and reliable as they should be.
It would be a daunting task. But the alternative to facing the online extremism head on would be to let it grow unhindered, and that could have some very serious consequences, the minister explained. Then she made a general appeal to the public about being critical about things found on the web, announcing that people should report suspicious content to the ministry through a newly created website called Real Truth.
The web address was displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the anchorwoman repeated it twice before thanking the minister for her time.
What followed was economic news. There had been a hostile attack on the Norwegian currency, but it had been pushed back by the central bank selling record amounts of US dollars. Nevertheless, the Norwegian currency had fallen, and there were concerns that there would be renewed attacks coming soon.
"That won't go down well with Espen," Bjorn thought, remembering how cross Espen got at the unexpectedly high price of the Gram on Friday. "Surely, the Gram will go up in price even more after this."
Bjorn remembered, with some amusement, how Espen had reacted to the price rise, which had occurred despite the falling gold price, so much touted in the news. But just as Bjorn's mind started to drift, a message came in on his mobile phone, and he was cut short in his meditative ramblings. He picked up his phone to see who it might be, and was somewhat surprised to see that it was from the Blacklist.
"Please confirm the changes to your profile," it read. And on reading these words, Bjorn immediately knew that Geir had been messing around on his PC. He leaped to his feet, and headed down to the glass cage, angry and impatient with Geir's misbehavior.
Back in his room, Bjorn took a quick peek outside. He looked over at Gus' house in the distance, and was struck by how the place had completely lost its menacing appearance now that he had met Gus in person. Having shook hands with him, it seemed quite inconceivable that the man would do anything to harm him or any of his colleagues at the checkpoint. Gus simply wasn't the type to do anything rash. Bjorn's brief encounter with the man had convinced him of that.
"Strange how that goes," Bjorn thought to himself. "How meeting someone face to face can change ones feeling about another so dramatically."
Bjorn picked up the remote control for the TV, got into bed, and started zapping through the channels.
"... fight extremism," a voice said as he zapped over to one of the news channels. And there was a picture of the Wikipedia logo in the information box next to the anchorwoman that drew Bjorn's attention.
"Is Wikipedia fighting extremism?" Bjorn wondered. But he soon understood that Wikipedia was in fact the source of the alleged extremism, and not an institution fighting it. The TV display split into two, with the minister of cultural affairs appearing with a concerned look to the right of the anchorwoman. The minister explained how articles on Wikipedia had become ever more extreme over time, and that it was currently at a point of being dangerously misleading. She had therefore decided to allocate resources towards a general clean up of Wikipedia to make sure the various articles that so many people rely on for facts, were as factual and reliable as they should be.
It would be a daunting task. But the alternative to facing the online extremism head on would be to let it grow unhindered, and that could have some very serious consequences, the minister explained. Then she made a general appeal to the public about being critical about things found on the web, announcing that people should report suspicious content to the ministry through a newly created website called Real Truth.
The web address was displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the anchorwoman repeated it twice before thanking the minister for her time.
What followed was economic news. There had been a hostile attack on the Norwegian currency, but it had been pushed back by the central bank selling record amounts of US dollars. Nevertheless, the Norwegian currency had fallen, and there were concerns that there would be renewed attacks coming soon.
"That won't go down well with Espen," Bjorn thought, remembering how cross Espen got at the unexpectedly high price of the Gram on Friday. "Surely, the Gram will go up in price even more after this."
Bjorn remembered, with some amusement, how Espen had reacted to the price rise, which had occurred despite the falling gold price, so much touted in the news. But just as Bjorn's mind started to drift, a message came in on his mobile phone, and he was cut short in his meditative ramblings. He picked up his phone to see who it might be, and was somewhat surprised to see that it was from the Blacklist.
"Please confirm the changes to your profile," it read. And on reading these words, Bjorn immediately knew that Geir had been messing around on his PC. He leaped to his feet, and headed down to the glass cage, angry and impatient with Geir's misbehavior.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
182
Bjorn felt strangely pleased with himself for having registered his complaint with the Blacklist. He was not alone in finding it intolerable that the website did not allow him to remove his profile, and having registered his complaint together with the three other disgruntled users, he had at least made it clear that he too was less than pleased with the way the site was hogging his data. He still felt irritated that his profile could not be erased, but his anger was gone. It was not like the site had an awful lot of information on him, and apart from the villagers and a few desperate individuals from places like Libya and the Middle East, no one was taking the site seriously anyway.
Bjorn poured himself a final cup of coffee from his thermos. Then, looking out over the fjord, he noticed the barge that had entered the port earlier, maneuvering out towards the center of the bay, filled with a cargo of containers. On studying the containers more closely with his binoculars, he saw that they were accommodation units, similar to the ones next to Ane's fish processing plants. And indeed, pretty much identical to those used as barracks at the checkpoint.
Bjorn sipped his coffee while following the barge on its way to its destination. For a while, it looked like it was heading for the village, but then, as it came closer, it made another turn and headed towards the airport. And just as the barge disappeared from view, another barge appeared, heading out from the port. This one filled with rocks and boulders. "It must have come in on someone else's watch," Bjorn thought as he looked closer to see if the rocks were iron ore, or simply building material.
The rocks carried by the second barge were pale grey, and clearly not iron ore, so Bjorn concluded that it must be intended for some building project, possibly related to the living units that he had just seen. He put down his binoculars and finished his coffee, idly following the barge on its way. And to Bjorn's satisfaction, the second barge followed the exact same path as the first one. They were related, in other words, just like he had thought. "They must be doing some last minute work in preparation for the influx of asylum seekers," Bjorn concluded.
The second barge disappeared behind the hill between him and the airport, and for a while, there was virtually nothing to occupy his mind. The coastguard vessel out to the north east was laying still in the water. The cranes to the north west were hardly moving, and even the luxury apartments down by the water seemed almost lifeless, with very little work being done outside.
Bjorn grabbed his pack of cigarettes, and was about to step outside when a small truck that he had idly been following as it headed towards the port, slowed down by the intersection with the Neiden road. The truck took a right turn, and sped up again as it started its climb towards the checkpoint.
Bjorn put the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket, and looking briefly at his PC to see if he was still logged in with the Department of Justice, he closed the tab connected to the Blacklist, not bothering to log out. A few minutes later, the truck appeared from behind the hill to the north east, after having been out of sight for a while. Then it completed its climb up the winding road before coming to a complete stop next to the glass cage.
The driver was a strong man with a crew cut, and next to him sat two men, just as strong as him but with a less disciplined look.
"We're here with the signs that Frank ordered," the driver said, before Bjorn had time to ask for the men's passports.
"Signs?" Bjorn asked, confused.
"Yep. Frank placed an order for some stuff this morning, and we're here to deliver it."
"Is that so?" Bjorn asked, still a little confused. "Wait a minute, I'll call Frank."
"Sure, you go ahead."
Bjorn called Frank, and got him immediately on the other end of the line.
"There's a guy here with some signs he's delivering," Bjorn explained. "Something you ordered this morning, he says."
"Oh! Already?" Frank replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I thought they wouldn't be here before Geir had taken your place. Just let him in, will you?"
"Okay... He has two guys with him. Is that still all right?"
"Sure! They're putting up the signs. He'll need help to do that. You let them in. Tell them to drive up to the barracks, and I'll meet them there."
"Okay."
Bjorn put down the phone.
"That seems to be in order," Bjorn said to the driver. "Frank will meet you at the back of the barracks." Then, he opened the gate, letting the truck pass.
A little later, Geir appeared from behind the barracks, all smiles, wearing his bomber jacket and pilot sunglasses. Bjorn checked his watch, and was surprised to see that it was indeed time to call it a day.
"So, who was that guy I just let in?" Bjorn asked as Geir entered the glass cage.
"That was Gus, the owner of the gun store down in the village," Geir explained.
"Really?" Bjorn said in amazement.
"It's not as crazy as it sounds," Geir continued. "He is good with these kind of things. He does it cheaply and quickly. And Frank figures that we can influence him to our advantage if we promise him some business from time to time. Pretty smart, huh?"
Bjorn was not convinced, but nodded nevertheless. Then he handed the automatic pistol over to Geir.
"And let me use your PC, will you?" Geir insisted, as Bjorn was about to unplug it.
"No! It's mine," Bjorn retorted, pulling the cord from its socket.
"But mine is a stationary. I can't very well bring that one out here. And Frank suggested I use yours."
"He did, did he?" Bjorn asked, still very reluctant to hand his PC over to Geir.
"Yeah, he did."
Bjorn looked at his PC, then back at Geir. "Okay. If that is so, I'll let you use it. But only this once."
Bjorn poured himself a final cup of coffee from his thermos. Then, looking out over the fjord, he noticed the barge that had entered the port earlier, maneuvering out towards the center of the bay, filled with a cargo of containers. On studying the containers more closely with his binoculars, he saw that they were accommodation units, similar to the ones next to Ane's fish processing plants. And indeed, pretty much identical to those used as barracks at the checkpoint.
Bjorn sipped his coffee while following the barge on its way to its destination. For a while, it looked like it was heading for the village, but then, as it came closer, it made another turn and headed towards the airport. And just as the barge disappeared from view, another barge appeared, heading out from the port. This one filled with rocks and boulders. "It must have come in on someone else's watch," Bjorn thought as he looked closer to see if the rocks were iron ore, or simply building material.
The rocks carried by the second barge were pale grey, and clearly not iron ore, so Bjorn concluded that it must be intended for some building project, possibly related to the living units that he had just seen. He put down his binoculars and finished his coffee, idly following the barge on its way. And to Bjorn's satisfaction, the second barge followed the exact same path as the first one. They were related, in other words, just like he had thought. "They must be doing some last minute work in preparation for the influx of asylum seekers," Bjorn concluded.
The second barge disappeared behind the hill between him and the airport, and for a while, there was virtually nothing to occupy his mind. The coastguard vessel out to the north east was laying still in the water. The cranes to the north west were hardly moving, and even the luxury apartments down by the water seemed almost lifeless, with very little work being done outside.
Bjorn grabbed his pack of cigarettes, and was about to step outside when a small truck that he had idly been following as it headed towards the port, slowed down by the intersection with the Neiden road. The truck took a right turn, and sped up again as it started its climb towards the checkpoint.
Bjorn put the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket, and looking briefly at his PC to see if he was still logged in with the Department of Justice, he closed the tab connected to the Blacklist, not bothering to log out. A few minutes later, the truck appeared from behind the hill to the north east, after having been out of sight for a while. Then it completed its climb up the winding road before coming to a complete stop next to the glass cage.
The driver was a strong man with a crew cut, and next to him sat two men, just as strong as him but with a less disciplined look.
"We're here with the signs that Frank ordered," the driver said, before Bjorn had time to ask for the men's passports.
"Signs?" Bjorn asked, confused.
"Yep. Frank placed an order for some stuff this morning, and we're here to deliver it."
"Is that so?" Bjorn asked, still a little confused. "Wait a minute, I'll call Frank."
"Sure, you go ahead."
Bjorn called Frank, and got him immediately on the other end of the line.
"There's a guy here with some signs he's delivering," Bjorn explained. "Something you ordered this morning, he says."
"Oh! Already?" Frank replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I thought they wouldn't be here before Geir had taken your place. Just let him in, will you?"
"Okay... He has two guys with him. Is that still all right?"
"Sure! They're putting up the signs. He'll need help to do that. You let them in. Tell them to drive up to the barracks, and I'll meet them there."
"Okay."
Bjorn put down the phone.
"That seems to be in order," Bjorn said to the driver. "Frank will meet you at the back of the barracks." Then, he opened the gate, letting the truck pass.
A little later, Geir appeared from behind the barracks, all smiles, wearing his bomber jacket and pilot sunglasses. Bjorn checked his watch, and was surprised to see that it was indeed time to call it a day.
"So, who was that guy I just let in?" Bjorn asked as Geir entered the glass cage.
"That was Gus, the owner of the gun store down in the village," Geir explained.
"Really?" Bjorn said in amazement.
"It's not as crazy as it sounds," Geir continued. "He is good with these kind of things. He does it cheaply and quickly. And Frank figures that we can influence him to our advantage if we promise him some business from time to time. Pretty smart, huh?"
Bjorn was not convinced, but nodded nevertheless. Then he handed the automatic pistol over to Geir.
"And let me use your PC, will you?" Geir insisted, as Bjorn was about to unplug it.
"No! It's mine," Bjorn retorted, pulling the cord from its socket.
"But mine is a stationary. I can't very well bring that one out here. And Frank suggested I use yours."
"He did, did he?" Bjorn asked, still very reluctant to hand his PC over to Geir.
"Yeah, he did."
Bjorn looked at his PC, then back at Geir. "Okay. If that is so, I'll let you use it. But only this once."
Friday, February 13, 2015
181
Bjorn made a few more attempts to change his profile at the Blacklist, but there were simply no way to change anything of significance. At best, he could change his name, but his real name would still be listed as one of his nicknames. There was no way to get rid of his real name, and no way to get rid of his contact details. His initial feeling of shock on discovering that he was stuck, gradually morphed into a lingering irritation with the site. Its refusal to let him remove his profile was in such blatant disregard of generally accepted rules. Surely, he had the right to remove his profile. Refusing him this right was clearly against the law.
The Blacklist, claiming to support the law of the so called empire, was breaking his right to privacy, and Bjorn found this both ironic and arrogant to the extreme. He looked around on the page in front of him to see if he could find out who might be the responsible owner. And there, at the bottom of the page he found a link to someone called Vinod. "That's it!" Bjorn thought to himself. "Now, let's sue him for everything he got!"
Bjorn clicked on the link, and somewhat to his surprise, he was not sent to a different site. He was simply presented with Vinod's profile on the Blacklist. It was reminiscent of Maria's profile in that it was rich in text and complete with a picture of Vinod himself, an Indian looking guy, proudly presenting himself as the owner and developer of the Blacklist.
Going down to the list at the bottom of Vinod's profile, Bjorn saw that the man had already managed to get himself into a dispute with three users over a privacy issue, and sensing that this dispute might be related to what he himself was going to write, Bjorn clicked on the case.
Bjorn read quickly through the complaint, which was marked as resolved, and realized that it was in fact identical to what he was planning to post. Bjorn was not the only one frustrated with the fact that he could not remove his profile. The three plaintiffs were just as frustrated with Vinod as Bjorn was. But the plaintiffs had lost the case. Maria had closed it with a remark saying that there is no such thing as a right to privacy.
Bjorn could hardly believe his eyes, but there it was. Maria had come out in favor of Vinod, and had closed the case. Bjorn moved his mouse over the status field and saw to his surprise that he could re-open the issue. Bjorn clicked on it and was presented with a comment field where he was required to make a legal argument, disputing Maria's closing argument.
"Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself again," Bjorn thought, panicky and closing the comment field almost as soon as it had popped up. "I better not do anything rash." Then he proceeded to read Maria's closing argument in detail.
"There is no such thing as a right to privacy," it read. "There are only property rights, and the data typed into the Blacklist are residing on Vinod's server, and are therefore Vinod's property. The so called right to privacy is actually a feature of property rights, and not a right in itself. Every person has an absolute right to privacy in their own home, because they have an absolute right to their property. The right to privacy cannot extend to other people's property, unless contractually extended by the rightful owner of said property. But Vinod has not extended such a right to the users of his website. In fact, everyone opening an account at the Blacklist had to agree to the conditions that explicitly stated that all data stored on the Blacklist belongs to the owner of the Blacklist. All data stored on the Blacklist belongs to Vinod. He can do with it what he pleases. And that includes his refusal to delete it."
Bjorn read Maria's comment with a sinking feeling of loss. He had indeed checked off on the warning when he in all haste opened his account, foolishly thinking that it was of little or no consequence. But he knew, even then, that the Blacklist was no ordinary website. He just assumed that it had to abide by the generally accepted rules and laws governing the internet. As it turned out, his assumption was wrong, and now that he had read Maria's final argument, it was evident that Vinod was not obliged to change the way the website worked, at least not according Maria's legal standards.
Bjorn moved the mouse over the list of plaintiffs. Then, as he let the marker hover over their names, a comment box appeared. "This case is close, but you can still join the plaintiffs if you agree with their case," it read. "Well, that's one way to register my dissatisfaction with the system," Bjorn thought. He clicked on the list. Then, when asked if he wanted to join the plaintiffs, he responded by clicking the OK button.
The Blacklist, claiming to support the law of the so called empire, was breaking his right to privacy, and Bjorn found this both ironic and arrogant to the extreme. He looked around on the page in front of him to see if he could find out who might be the responsible owner. And there, at the bottom of the page he found a link to someone called Vinod. "That's it!" Bjorn thought to himself. "Now, let's sue him for everything he got!"
Bjorn clicked on the link, and somewhat to his surprise, he was not sent to a different site. He was simply presented with Vinod's profile on the Blacklist. It was reminiscent of Maria's profile in that it was rich in text and complete with a picture of Vinod himself, an Indian looking guy, proudly presenting himself as the owner and developer of the Blacklist.
Going down to the list at the bottom of Vinod's profile, Bjorn saw that the man had already managed to get himself into a dispute with three users over a privacy issue, and sensing that this dispute might be related to what he himself was going to write, Bjorn clicked on the case.
Bjorn read quickly through the complaint, which was marked as resolved, and realized that it was in fact identical to what he was planning to post. Bjorn was not the only one frustrated with the fact that he could not remove his profile. The three plaintiffs were just as frustrated with Vinod as Bjorn was. But the plaintiffs had lost the case. Maria had closed it with a remark saying that there is no such thing as a right to privacy.
Bjorn could hardly believe his eyes, but there it was. Maria had come out in favor of Vinod, and had closed the case. Bjorn moved his mouse over the status field and saw to his surprise that he could re-open the issue. Bjorn clicked on it and was presented with a comment field where he was required to make a legal argument, disputing Maria's closing argument.
"Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself again," Bjorn thought, panicky and closing the comment field almost as soon as it had popped up. "I better not do anything rash." Then he proceeded to read Maria's closing argument in detail.
"There is no such thing as a right to privacy," it read. "There are only property rights, and the data typed into the Blacklist are residing on Vinod's server, and are therefore Vinod's property. The so called right to privacy is actually a feature of property rights, and not a right in itself. Every person has an absolute right to privacy in their own home, because they have an absolute right to their property. The right to privacy cannot extend to other people's property, unless contractually extended by the rightful owner of said property. But Vinod has not extended such a right to the users of his website. In fact, everyone opening an account at the Blacklist had to agree to the conditions that explicitly stated that all data stored on the Blacklist belongs to the owner of the Blacklist. All data stored on the Blacklist belongs to Vinod. He can do with it what he pleases. And that includes his refusal to delete it."
Bjorn read Maria's comment with a sinking feeling of loss. He had indeed checked off on the warning when he in all haste opened his account, foolishly thinking that it was of little or no consequence. But he knew, even then, that the Blacklist was no ordinary website. He just assumed that it had to abide by the generally accepted rules and laws governing the internet. As it turned out, his assumption was wrong, and now that he had read Maria's final argument, it was evident that Vinod was not obliged to change the way the website worked, at least not according Maria's legal standards.
Bjorn moved the mouse over the list of plaintiffs. Then, as he let the marker hover over their names, a comment box appeared. "This case is close, but you can still join the plaintiffs if you agree with their case," it read. "Well, that's one way to register my dissatisfaction with the system," Bjorn thought. He clicked on the list. Then, when asked if he wanted to join the plaintiffs, he responded by clicking the OK button.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
180
Bjorn finished his ham sandwich and poured himself another cup of coffee. "So this woman would argue against me," he thought, bringing the coffee to his lips. "So what? Who does she think she is anyway."
Bjorn felt the weight of the automatic pistol on his lap, and he put his free hand on it to feel its cold metal. "She has no authority," he thought, smiling to himself as that word authority appeared in his mind. For was it not the case that she was in fact arguing against herself. Her argument implied that she herself had no authority. She could argue as much as she wanted, but who would come to arrest him?
"The Blacklist is a joke," Bjorn thought. "I can't believe that I'm taking this seriously. After all, it takes a great deal more to establish a legal system than setting up a website." But Bjorn could not escape the fact that quite a few people, including Jan and Pedro, were in fact taking the Blacklist seriously, so if he were to get blacklisted, it could make it difficult, if not impossible, to enter the village without being harassed or otherwise inconvenienced.
But it was not like Bjorn was going to shoot anyone. The pistol on his lap was a defensive weapon, meant for his protection only. If he spotted someone trying to escape the village by foot, he was simply to report this, and the escapees would be picked up by the police in Neiden. Similarly, if some desperado was to ram a truck through the barrier, it too would be reported to Neiden where the truck would be stopped.
However, now that he had been promoted to the status of customs officer, Bjorn would from time to time have to stop smugglers and confiscate their wares. And Bjorn suspected that such confiscations would qualify as theft in Maria's eyes. The smugglers might in other words try to get back at him by blacklisting him, burdening him with the inconvenience of a mock trial. Bjorn did not think that such a trial would come to anything. He was after all warning people of the change in rules, so it was not like things were happening out of the blue. Maria might in fact end up agreeing with him, saying that the smugglers were forewarned, and that they had no case. But even the vague prospect of a conflict felt uncomfortable.
Bjorn suddenly regretted having registered himself with the Blacklist. Having registered with it, he had in a way lent it legitimacy, and now that his contact details were known, he was suddenly an easy target. Bjorn pulled up his profile, looking for a way to delete his profile, but there did not seem to be any way to delete it. "Well, that's definitely illegal," Bjorn thought to himself, feeling trapped by the system. Then he tried to blank out the fields, but that was not allowed either.
Bjorn changed his name and hit return, and to his relief, the Blacklist accepted the change. Then he proceeded to change his contact details. He hit return again, but to his shock he saw that the changes could not be made. He was presented with a popup informing him that the changes he had made required his confirmation. He had to go to his e-mail and respond to the automatic message found there. Similarly, he had to respond to the automatic message sent to his phone to make the new phone number permanent. But both the e-mail and the phone number he had typed in were phony. He had no access to them, if they even existed at all.
Then his mobile suddenly vibrated in his pocket, and for a moment Bjorn thought that he might have misunderstood, and that the confirmation had to be done on his existing phone rather than the phony one he had entered. But his hopes were soon dashed. The message was from the Blacklist, but it was simply informing him that his account was experiencing suspicious behavior. Then his phone vibrated again. This time he was asked to confirm his change of name. To make his change official, the message read, he had to respond with OK. If he did nothing, the name would appear on his list of nicknames. Else, he had to respond with NO, or alternatively log in and remove the nickname in the profile editor.
And sure enough, looking over his profile once more, Bjorn saw that his real name was not removed. It was still there, marked as his real name. And the phony name he had typed in was marked as his nickname. Bjorn put his mobile back in his pocket. Then he deleted his phony name from his profile. And Bjorn realized to his quiet horror that his profile at the Blacklist was completely unchanged. Once registered with the Blacklist, there was simply no way to un-register, or even blank out the essential fields.
Bjorn felt the weight of the automatic pistol on his lap, and he put his free hand on it to feel its cold metal. "She has no authority," he thought, smiling to himself as that word authority appeared in his mind. For was it not the case that she was in fact arguing against herself. Her argument implied that she herself had no authority. She could argue as much as she wanted, but who would come to arrest him?
"The Blacklist is a joke," Bjorn thought. "I can't believe that I'm taking this seriously. After all, it takes a great deal more to establish a legal system than setting up a website." But Bjorn could not escape the fact that quite a few people, including Jan and Pedro, were in fact taking the Blacklist seriously, so if he were to get blacklisted, it could make it difficult, if not impossible, to enter the village without being harassed or otherwise inconvenienced.
But it was not like Bjorn was going to shoot anyone. The pistol on his lap was a defensive weapon, meant for his protection only. If he spotted someone trying to escape the village by foot, he was simply to report this, and the escapees would be picked up by the police in Neiden. Similarly, if some desperado was to ram a truck through the barrier, it too would be reported to Neiden where the truck would be stopped.
However, now that he had been promoted to the status of customs officer, Bjorn would from time to time have to stop smugglers and confiscate their wares. And Bjorn suspected that such confiscations would qualify as theft in Maria's eyes. The smugglers might in other words try to get back at him by blacklisting him, burdening him with the inconvenience of a mock trial. Bjorn did not think that such a trial would come to anything. He was after all warning people of the change in rules, so it was not like things were happening out of the blue. Maria might in fact end up agreeing with him, saying that the smugglers were forewarned, and that they had no case. But even the vague prospect of a conflict felt uncomfortable.
Bjorn suddenly regretted having registered himself with the Blacklist. Having registered with it, he had in a way lent it legitimacy, and now that his contact details were known, he was suddenly an easy target. Bjorn pulled up his profile, looking for a way to delete his profile, but there did not seem to be any way to delete it. "Well, that's definitely illegal," Bjorn thought to himself, feeling trapped by the system. Then he tried to blank out the fields, but that was not allowed either.
Bjorn changed his name and hit return, and to his relief, the Blacklist accepted the change. Then he proceeded to change his contact details. He hit return again, but to his shock he saw that the changes could not be made. He was presented with a popup informing him that the changes he had made required his confirmation. He had to go to his e-mail and respond to the automatic message found there. Similarly, he had to respond to the automatic message sent to his phone to make the new phone number permanent. But both the e-mail and the phone number he had typed in were phony. He had no access to them, if they even existed at all.
Then his mobile suddenly vibrated in his pocket, and for a moment Bjorn thought that he might have misunderstood, and that the confirmation had to be done on his existing phone rather than the phony one he had entered. But his hopes were soon dashed. The message was from the Blacklist, but it was simply informing him that his account was experiencing suspicious behavior. Then his phone vibrated again. This time he was asked to confirm his change of name. To make his change official, the message read, he had to respond with OK. If he did nothing, the name would appear on his list of nicknames. Else, he had to respond with NO, or alternatively log in and remove the nickname in the profile editor.
And sure enough, looking over his profile once more, Bjorn saw that his real name was not removed. It was still there, marked as his real name. And the phony name he had typed in was marked as his nickname. Bjorn put his mobile back in his pocket. Then he deleted his phony name from his profile. And Bjorn realized to his quiet horror that his profile at the Blacklist was completely unchanged. Once registered with the Blacklist, there was simply no way to un-register, or even blank out the essential fields.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
178
Bjorn poured himself another cup of coffee, not at all convinced by Maria's arguments. By her logic, people like Hitler would be innocent. After all, he never killed anyone himself.
Bjorn felt suddenly provoked and angry with Maria's arguments, and he had a strong urge to comment on Maria's line of thought, pointing out its obvious flaw. But only registered users could comment, so he was left to simmer with frustration over the ignorance of the woman. Unable to contribute with a rebuttal, he felt the anger swell in him. Suddenly he felt convinced that he had the ultimate counter argument at hand. And he just had to get himself an account on the Blacklist to post this for everybody to see. Letting this woman get away with her nonsense, was just too much to bare. Not least because the woman was obviously influencing people with her flawed logic.
Bjorn opened an account with the Blacklist, filling in the required fields only. He had no desire to say much about himself. All he wanted to do was to post his killer argument against Maria's nonsense. But when he returned to the case against the foreign minister, he got second thoughts. Maria had after all defended a representative of the Norwegian government. Being himself a representative of the government, he could hardly start arguing for the prosecution of the foreign minister. He had to find some other place to post his argument, so he clicked on Maria's name to see what other cases she was commenting on.
There was no lack of cases that Maria had commented on, but the list was confusing, with only titles and status shown. There was no good way to know which one to choose. He recognized the case against the head of the child protection services in Alta, but that was as hopeless a place to post Bjorn's argument as the case against the foreign minister. Bringing up Hitler and the Holocaust in either of these cases would not do. He had to find a case against some private individual, and use his argument there.
Bjorn took another sip of his coffee. Then he recognized the case against Ane and the fish waste she was dumping into the water under her factory. The case was resolved, but that didn't necessarily mean that the comment field was closed. And, with her being an authority figure, Maria might have used her flawed logic there too. Bjorn clicked on the case, hoping to find it an opportune place to put his rebuttal.
Bjorn browsed through the case and the first few comments until he got to the point where Maria had commented that the plaintiffs had no case against Ane as long as there was no damage made to their properties. But Ane was fighting an uphill battle against Jan and Pedro, with the men arguing that they would rather see Ane come up with a solution before any damage was made. If she persisted in dumping fish waste into the fjord, this would surely result in a pollution problem at some point, and then they would demand generous compensation for the damage caused.
At that point, Maria made the comment that Ane was not in fact spewing fish waste into the waters below her factory. This task was done by one or more of her employees. Ane was innocent of any pollution coming from her factory as long as she was not personally doing the polluting. The case should not be made against Ane, but the employees doing the dumping.
"But that's insane," Bjorn thought as he read this. "The poor workers are probably not even aware of the fact that they are doing anything wrong. You can't hold them responsible for this. They are just doing their job." And Bjorn was not the only one reacting as he did. Ane made the very same argument, to which Maria responded that it nevertheless was the case, and that she was putting her employees at risk of being prosecuted if she did not do anything about the situation.
Following up on Maria's comment, Jan told Ane that he would inform all her workers of the risk they were taking. He would print fliers and distribute them among her workers so that no one would be able to claim ignorance. Every worker would know that they may be stranded with colossal fees unless they stop the dumping immediately. And this threat, Jan figured, would most likely set an immediate stop to the dumping. Ane, in his opinion, had no choice but to find a solution to the problem.
What followed was a brief exchange of messages relating to practical issues and conditions required for Ane to continue her business until Sunday when she suggested a meeting with Jan and Pedro to resolve the problem. They all agreed to meet after church, and to let Ane continue her business as normal until then.
On reading this, Bjorn remembered how Ane had approached Jan and Pedro after mass on Sunday. And whatever they had agreed had proved to be fruitful since the case was closed that same evening. There was no explanation to what the three had agreed on, but the case was resolved. The threat against Ane's employees had made her fold, and the case had ended in some kind of compromise.
Bjorn wondered what they may have decided, but he quickly realized that the possibilities were practically limitless. It could have been anything from a joined ownership of the factory, to some practical solution pertaining to the waste itself. Maybe Ane had to pay some monthly fee, or give the men a cut of the profit. There was really no way to tell, and no point in speculating.
Then, looking at the comment field at the bottom of the page, Bjorn realized that his argument would be completely misplaced on this thread. The case was resolved. Threatening to sue Ane's employees had proven successful. To mention Hitler and the Holocaust on this thread would simply make him look like a complete moron.
Bjorn felt suddenly lost. His killer argument was not as good as he had thought. In fact, it was a stupid argument. And he knew what Maria would answer. She would simply repeat herself, saying that being a psychopath is not a crime. Just as following orders is no defense, giving orders is no crime. The crime is not what a psychopath says, but what the executioners do.
Bjorn felt suddenly provoked and angry with Maria's arguments, and he had a strong urge to comment on Maria's line of thought, pointing out its obvious flaw. But only registered users could comment, so he was left to simmer with frustration over the ignorance of the woman. Unable to contribute with a rebuttal, he felt the anger swell in him. Suddenly he felt convinced that he had the ultimate counter argument at hand. And he just had to get himself an account on the Blacklist to post this for everybody to see. Letting this woman get away with her nonsense, was just too much to bare. Not least because the woman was obviously influencing people with her flawed logic.
Bjorn opened an account with the Blacklist, filling in the required fields only. He had no desire to say much about himself. All he wanted to do was to post his killer argument against Maria's nonsense. But when he returned to the case against the foreign minister, he got second thoughts. Maria had after all defended a representative of the Norwegian government. Being himself a representative of the government, he could hardly start arguing for the prosecution of the foreign minister. He had to find some other place to post his argument, so he clicked on Maria's name to see what other cases she was commenting on.
There was no lack of cases that Maria had commented on, but the list was confusing, with only titles and status shown. There was no good way to know which one to choose. He recognized the case against the head of the child protection services in Alta, but that was as hopeless a place to post Bjorn's argument as the case against the foreign minister. Bringing up Hitler and the Holocaust in either of these cases would not do. He had to find a case against some private individual, and use his argument there.
Bjorn took another sip of his coffee. Then he recognized the case against Ane and the fish waste she was dumping into the water under her factory. The case was resolved, but that didn't necessarily mean that the comment field was closed. And, with her being an authority figure, Maria might have used her flawed logic there too. Bjorn clicked on the case, hoping to find it an opportune place to put his rebuttal.
Bjorn browsed through the case and the first few comments until he got to the point where Maria had commented that the plaintiffs had no case against Ane as long as there was no damage made to their properties. But Ane was fighting an uphill battle against Jan and Pedro, with the men arguing that they would rather see Ane come up with a solution before any damage was made. If she persisted in dumping fish waste into the fjord, this would surely result in a pollution problem at some point, and then they would demand generous compensation for the damage caused.
At that point, Maria made the comment that Ane was not in fact spewing fish waste into the waters below her factory. This task was done by one or more of her employees. Ane was innocent of any pollution coming from her factory as long as she was not personally doing the polluting. The case should not be made against Ane, but the employees doing the dumping.
"But that's insane," Bjorn thought as he read this. "The poor workers are probably not even aware of the fact that they are doing anything wrong. You can't hold them responsible for this. They are just doing their job." And Bjorn was not the only one reacting as he did. Ane made the very same argument, to which Maria responded that it nevertheless was the case, and that she was putting her employees at risk of being prosecuted if she did not do anything about the situation.
Following up on Maria's comment, Jan told Ane that he would inform all her workers of the risk they were taking. He would print fliers and distribute them among her workers so that no one would be able to claim ignorance. Every worker would know that they may be stranded with colossal fees unless they stop the dumping immediately. And this threat, Jan figured, would most likely set an immediate stop to the dumping. Ane, in his opinion, had no choice but to find a solution to the problem.
What followed was a brief exchange of messages relating to practical issues and conditions required for Ane to continue her business until Sunday when she suggested a meeting with Jan and Pedro to resolve the problem. They all agreed to meet after church, and to let Ane continue her business as normal until then.
On reading this, Bjorn remembered how Ane had approached Jan and Pedro after mass on Sunday. And whatever they had agreed had proved to be fruitful since the case was closed that same evening. There was no explanation to what the three had agreed on, but the case was resolved. The threat against Ane's employees had made her fold, and the case had ended in some kind of compromise.
Bjorn wondered what they may have decided, but he quickly realized that the possibilities were practically limitless. It could have been anything from a joined ownership of the factory, to some practical solution pertaining to the waste itself. Maybe Ane had to pay some monthly fee, or give the men a cut of the profit. There was really no way to tell, and no point in speculating.
Then, looking at the comment field at the bottom of the page, Bjorn realized that his argument would be completely misplaced on this thread. The case was resolved. Threatening to sue Ane's employees had proven successful. To mention Hitler and the Holocaust on this thread would simply make him look like a complete moron.
Bjorn felt suddenly lost. His killer argument was not as good as he had thought. In fact, it was a stupid argument. And he knew what Maria would answer. She would simply repeat herself, saying that being a psychopath is not a crime. Just as following orders is no defense, giving orders is no crime. The crime is not what a psychopath says, but what the executioners do.
Friday, February 6, 2015
176
Bjorn had just sat down in his chair when he became aware of a car coming down from Neiden. Every time the car made a turn, the headlights flickered in the big mirror hanging outside the office. Bjorn watch the car as it came down the windy road, disappearing behind rocks and hills, reappearing a little later, and then disappearing again, off and on until it finally arrived at the checkpoint.
"Passport!" Bjorn said in a formal voice. Then he proceeded to tell the driver about the new rules before typing in the number found in the passport handed over to him. Bjorn hit return, and up came a copy of the passport he was holding in his hand, complete with a green banner telling him that all was clear.
"So I better stock up on things today, while it's still legal?" the driver asked rhetorically.
"That's right!" Bjorn answered with a friendly smile, handing the passport back to the driver. Then he pushed the green button to raise the barrier.
Bjorn followed the car with his eyes as it wound its way downhill until it disappeared behind the hill to the north east, and he was again left to his own thoughts. He looked at his PC. Then he pulled up a second tab on his browser. "I wonder what the Lundby Blacklist has to say about Einar," Bjorn thought, finding the web address in his browser history. "Somehow I doubt they have anything on the man." And sure enough, the Blacklist used by the citizens of Lundby did not contain any mention of Einar.
Bjorn typed in Katinka's name. Nothing. Then he typed in Roger's name: also nothing. "How about David?" Bjorn wondered. He typed in his name, and got nothing. "But he's married to that Maria woman. That's probably worth something," Bjorn thought while idly typing in Cecilie's name for a final search. Bjorn hit return, and to his surprise, he got up Cecilie's profile. However, it was the same page he had seen earlier so his surprise soon passed. She was, as Bjorn already knew, listed as plaintiff in the case against the head of the child protection service in Alta. There were no charges against Cecilie. No one had charged her of anything.
Bjorn looked at the woman's profile. "So, which is it?" he wondered. "Is she dangerous and a criminal, or not?" He thought back to the episode in the church where Cecilie had come with her daughter, all done up and pretty. It did not look like anything was amiss. And they sat down with Ane and Ola. Why would Ane and Ola be involved with this woman if she was dangerous?
On the other hand, why would the child protecting service want to interfere if nothing was amiss? That made no sense either. Bjorn stared at the computer screen, trying to make sense of the situation. But the pieces simply did not fit together. He was missing something, some important fact that would solve the puzzle. Then he became aware of the status field associated with Cecilie's complaint. The case was on hold. It was not new, not active, nor resolved. It was on hold, and curious to know why, Bjorn clicked on it.
Up came the details of the complaint with its long list of plaintiffs. Bjorn clicked on the name of the defendant. However, all he got was her summary page. The woman was either ignorant of this case, or more likely, ignoring it as a crank thing with no legitimacy. Either way, she did not have a profile on the Blacklist.
Bjorn returned to the complaint. Then he scrolled down to the comment section, the last comment being posted by Maria. "Again, and I repeat myself," it read. "Just like following orders is no defense, giving orders is no crime. Unless you can show hard evidence that this woman has acted and aggressed personally against you and your children, you have no case. Please go to my defense of the foreign minister for a complete explanation."
"Passport!" Bjorn said in a formal voice. Then he proceeded to tell the driver about the new rules before typing in the number found in the passport handed over to him. Bjorn hit return, and up came a copy of the passport he was holding in his hand, complete with a green banner telling him that all was clear.
"So I better stock up on things today, while it's still legal?" the driver asked rhetorically.
"That's right!" Bjorn answered with a friendly smile, handing the passport back to the driver. Then he pushed the green button to raise the barrier.
Bjorn followed the car with his eyes as it wound its way downhill until it disappeared behind the hill to the north east, and he was again left to his own thoughts. He looked at his PC. Then he pulled up a second tab on his browser. "I wonder what the Lundby Blacklist has to say about Einar," Bjorn thought, finding the web address in his browser history. "Somehow I doubt they have anything on the man." And sure enough, the Blacklist used by the citizens of Lundby did not contain any mention of Einar.
Bjorn typed in Katinka's name. Nothing. Then he typed in Roger's name: also nothing. "How about David?" Bjorn wondered. He typed in his name, and got nothing. "But he's married to that Maria woman. That's probably worth something," Bjorn thought while idly typing in Cecilie's name for a final search. Bjorn hit return, and to his surprise, he got up Cecilie's profile. However, it was the same page he had seen earlier so his surprise soon passed. She was, as Bjorn already knew, listed as plaintiff in the case against the head of the child protection service in Alta. There were no charges against Cecilie. No one had charged her of anything.
Bjorn looked at the woman's profile. "So, which is it?" he wondered. "Is she dangerous and a criminal, or not?" He thought back to the episode in the church where Cecilie had come with her daughter, all done up and pretty. It did not look like anything was amiss. And they sat down with Ane and Ola. Why would Ane and Ola be involved with this woman if she was dangerous?
On the other hand, why would the child protecting service want to interfere if nothing was amiss? That made no sense either. Bjorn stared at the computer screen, trying to make sense of the situation. But the pieces simply did not fit together. He was missing something, some important fact that would solve the puzzle. Then he became aware of the status field associated with Cecilie's complaint. The case was on hold. It was not new, not active, nor resolved. It was on hold, and curious to know why, Bjorn clicked on it.
Up came the details of the complaint with its long list of plaintiffs. Bjorn clicked on the name of the defendant. However, all he got was her summary page. The woman was either ignorant of this case, or more likely, ignoring it as a crank thing with no legitimacy. Either way, she did not have a profile on the Blacklist.
Bjorn returned to the complaint. Then he scrolled down to the comment section, the last comment being posted by Maria. "Again, and I repeat myself," it read. "Just like following orders is no defense, giving orders is no crime. Unless you can show hard evidence that this woman has acted and aggressed personally against you and your children, you have no case. Please go to my defense of the foreign minister for a complete explanation."
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
174
Bjorn felt a sting of discomfort on seeing the red banner above Cecilie's passport details. His suspicions were at once confirmed, and it did not feel good. The woman was a fugitive, and he had let her into the colony.
He sat back in his chair, focusing again on the view ahead of him. "It's a good thing I kept this to myself," Bjorn thought. "I'd better keep this a secret between Ante and me."
Bjorn's eyes were drawn to the little gray ship patrolling the straight. It moved a little to the side as the ferry entered the bay. And soon after, a fishing boat appeared. The ferry headed towards the port, the fishing boat towards Ane's factory.
The coastguard did not interfere visibly with any of the two boats. The ship just laid there idly in the water, and the lack of activity felt reassuring. The rules concerning the colony had been tightened, but business went on as usual. The appearance of the coastguard did not signal a great shift in policy, just a general tidying up of loose ends. People had been slipping into the village. People who should not be there, and no one was to blame for it. Bjorn was surely not the only one having let somebody in who should have been arrested.
He returned his focus to his PC. He typed in Einar in the search field and hit return. And up came a list of two people. The top one, appearing with a red frame, was the Einar he had met in the village. Bjorn clicked on the name, and sure enough, there was Einar's passport details, complete with a red banner. "Warning:" it read. "Immediate arrest on charges of: Murder (1 count), Assault (6 counts)."
So, there he had it. Definite proof that someone had let in a true criminal, much worse than Cecilie. Bjorn felt strangely relieved by this fact. He was not the only one having inadvertently done something wrong. "How about Katinka?" Bjorn wondered, suddenly curious to know how many criminals he had actually come across down in the village.
Having first misspelled her name, using Cs instead of Ks, which returned nothing, he then got up a single suggestion. And sure enough, her name had a red frame too. He clicked on it, and there she was, wanted on charges of three counts of assault. Bjorn made a search for Roger. "Fraud, embezzlement, and copyright infringement."
"How about David?" Bjorn wondered, eager to see what the Department of Justice might have on him. Bjorn got up a relatively long list, but Bjorn recognized David's face immediately. He clicked on it. "So he is from Lebanon," Bjorn thought to himself on seeing David's foreign passport. "Wanted by Interpol, no less, on charges of drug trafficking."
"The village is indeed full of desperadoes," Bjorn concluded, focusing again on the mountains across the fjord.
He sat back in his chair, focusing again on the view ahead of him. "It's a good thing I kept this to myself," Bjorn thought. "I'd better keep this a secret between Ante and me."
Bjorn's eyes were drawn to the little gray ship patrolling the straight. It moved a little to the side as the ferry entered the bay. And soon after, a fishing boat appeared. The ferry headed towards the port, the fishing boat towards Ane's factory.
The coastguard did not interfere visibly with any of the two boats. The ship just laid there idly in the water, and the lack of activity felt reassuring. The rules concerning the colony had been tightened, but business went on as usual. The appearance of the coastguard did not signal a great shift in policy, just a general tidying up of loose ends. People had been slipping into the village. People who should not be there, and no one was to blame for it. Bjorn was surely not the only one having let somebody in who should have been arrested.
He returned his focus to his PC. He typed in Einar in the search field and hit return. And up came a list of two people. The top one, appearing with a red frame, was the Einar he had met in the village. Bjorn clicked on the name, and sure enough, there was Einar's passport details, complete with a red banner. "Warning:" it read. "Immediate arrest on charges of: Murder (1 count), Assault (6 counts)."
So, there he had it. Definite proof that someone had let in a true criminal, much worse than Cecilie. Bjorn felt strangely relieved by this fact. He was not the only one having inadvertently done something wrong. "How about Katinka?" Bjorn wondered, suddenly curious to know how many criminals he had actually come across down in the village.
Having first misspelled her name, using Cs instead of Ks, which returned nothing, he then got up a single suggestion. And sure enough, her name had a red frame too. He clicked on it, and there she was, wanted on charges of three counts of assault. Bjorn made a search for Roger. "Fraud, embezzlement, and copyright infringement."
"How about David?" Bjorn wondered, eager to see what the Department of Justice might have on him. Bjorn got up a relatively long list, but Bjorn recognized David's face immediately. He clicked on it. "So he is from Lebanon," Bjorn thought to himself on seeing David's foreign passport. "Wanted by Interpol, no less, on charges of drug trafficking."
"The village is indeed full of desperadoes," Bjorn concluded, focusing again on the mountains across the fjord.
Monday, February 2, 2015
173
Still feeling uncomfortable about the things said during breakfast, Bjorn appeared at the glass cage with his PC and charger tucked under his arm, a thermos with black coffee in one hand, and an ham sandwich in the other. He excused himself for being late to John, briefly mentioning the new instructions and Frank's insistence on everybody following the new rules.
"He'll go through all the details with you and Geir later today, I'm sure," Bjorn continued, dropping off his things on the ledge by the window.
John handed the automatic pistol that was hanging across his abdomen over to Bjorn. "Okay, put this on, will you," he replied, eager as always to get out of the cage and back to the barracks. And as soon as Bjorn had tossed the belt of the gun over his shoulder, John was out of the office and heading quickly back to his other colleagues.
The gun felt clunky and uncomfortable, but he quickly go used to it. Sitting down, the gun rested across his lap where it did not get in the way of his movements. Bjorn plugged the power supply of his PC into a free socket by the door, and put the laptop itself on the narrow shelf-like desk in front of him. He turned it on, and knowing that it would take a few seconds before he could use it, he looked out at the view in front of him.
The sun was shining, and the view was as stunning as always. The great landscape, so indifferent and peaceful, was soothing to watch. "There are no rules or regulations out there," Bjorn thought to himself. "Nothing complicated to keep in mind. Just the natural order of things, intuitively known by all beings." Bjorn heaved a great sigh, and was about to return his attention to his PC when he spotted a small gray ship over by the narrow strait to Kirkenes.
Bjorn picked up the binoculars to take a closer look. "It must be the coastguard," he thought to himself. And he was right. The coastguard had already taken up its position by the straight to make sure no one could enter or leave the colony by boat without proper documentation. The ship, with its small artillery gun at its bow, looked uncomfortably menacing, and Bjorn was again struck by a sense that things were getting out of control. The sight of the ship should have given him a feeling of control and order. However, much to Bjorn's own surprise, he was feeling quite the opposite. Watching the gunboat float almost motionless at the mouth of the narrows, he could not help thinking of it as a predator laying in wait for its pray.
Bjorn put the binoculars down, and was about to return his attention once more to his PC when a car, coming down from Neiden, pulled up next to the glass cage. He recognized the driver immediately as the man who had offered him a pack of cigarettes the other day.
Bjorn opened the window. "Your passport please," he said, pretending not to know the man.
"Ah! But you know me. We're friends, remember?" the man said with a broad smile.
"Sure. But I still need your passport. And you have to stop taking so much stuff with you out of the colony."
"Really? Why?"
"New rules. Effective from tomorrow. Lundby will be treated like an airport. You can't take with you as much as you please. And you'll have to be down there for at least 24 hours to get your quota."
"No exceptions?"
"No exceptions."
The man handed over his passport, and for a moment Bjorn did not know what to do with it. He had not logged into the web site yet, so he had nowhere to register the passport number. However, he soon found a pencil and a scrap of paper to note it down for later. He would punch the number into the database as soon as he was logged in.
"We'll be registering everybody going in and coming out of the colony," Bjorn explained. "So there's no way around this, now."
"Not even between friends?" the man asked cheekily.
"Like I said. No exceptions."
"But today is still all right?"
"Yep. Today is your last day of freedom," Bjorn said, handing the passport back to the man.
"My last day of freedom, aye?" The man said with a cheeky smile.
Bjorn had no idea why he had used the word freedom as he did. It was silly of him. And having nothing more to say, he closed his window and opened the barrier for the driver without saying anything, ignoring the man as he sent Bjorn a friendly wave of his hand before heading into the colony.
The car drove swiftly down the curvy road, and soon disappeared behind the hill to the right, leaving Bjorn once more to himself. He returned his focus to his PC, pulled up his favorite browser, and proceeded to punch in the web address given to him by Frank.
The web site was hosted by the department of justice, and once he was logged into it, Bjorn had no trouble finding the right place to type in the passport number he had scratched down. And the response was pretty much immediate. A copy of the man's passport was presented on his screen, complete with a little comment in a yellow banner at the top of the page. "Warning:" it read. "3 past convictions. Smuggling (2 counts), Possession of narcotics (1 count)."
Bjorn thought for a second that he had made a mistake in letting the man into the colony, but once he clicked on the warning, he found to his relief that he had done nothing wrong. A pop up explained that yellow warnings were simply helpful remarks. Then, clicking on a link for further help, Bjorn learned that the web site operated with three different banners. Green banners were all clear signs. Yellow banners were warning signs, and red banners were immediate action signs. Typical action on a red banner would be either denial of entry or arrest.
Bjorn clicked on the phrase denial of entry, curious to learn more, and found himself immediately presented with a searchable database. It was the blacklist that Frank had mentioned. He had several fields he could use to search. And he could even browse if he so wished. One field was fixed, though. He could not change his own location from being Lundby. The database was in other words set up to give different results depending on location, and the only location Bjorn was allowed to browse was Lundby.
Bjorn did not immediately know of anyone he would like to check. But then, remembering the nervous looking woman and her daughter that he had let in the other day, Bjorn chose to try out the database by typing in the woman's name. He typed in Cecilie's full name, hit return, and was immediately presented with a copy of her passport. It had a red banner. "Warning:" it read. "Immediate arrest on charges of: Kidnapping (1 count), Assault (1 count), Harassment (5 counts)."
"He'll go through all the details with you and Geir later today, I'm sure," Bjorn continued, dropping off his things on the ledge by the window.
John handed the automatic pistol that was hanging across his abdomen over to Bjorn. "Okay, put this on, will you," he replied, eager as always to get out of the cage and back to the barracks. And as soon as Bjorn had tossed the belt of the gun over his shoulder, John was out of the office and heading quickly back to his other colleagues.
The gun felt clunky and uncomfortable, but he quickly go used to it. Sitting down, the gun rested across his lap where it did not get in the way of his movements. Bjorn plugged the power supply of his PC into a free socket by the door, and put the laptop itself on the narrow shelf-like desk in front of him. He turned it on, and knowing that it would take a few seconds before he could use it, he looked out at the view in front of him.
The sun was shining, and the view was as stunning as always. The great landscape, so indifferent and peaceful, was soothing to watch. "There are no rules or regulations out there," Bjorn thought to himself. "Nothing complicated to keep in mind. Just the natural order of things, intuitively known by all beings." Bjorn heaved a great sigh, and was about to return his attention to his PC when he spotted a small gray ship over by the narrow strait to Kirkenes.
Bjorn picked up the binoculars to take a closer look. "It must be the coastguard," he thought to himself. And he was right. The coastguard had already taken up its position by the straight to make sure no one could enter or leave the colony by boat without proper documentation. The ship, with its small artillery gun at its bow, looked uncomfortably menacing, and Bjorn was again struck by a sense that things were getting out of control. The sight of the ship should have given him a feeling of control and order. However, much to Bjorn's own surprise, he was feeling quite the opposite. Watching the gunboat float almost motionless at the mouth of the narrows, he could not help thinking of it as a predator laying in wait for its pray.
Bjorn put the binoculars down, and was about to return his attention once more to his PC when a car, coming down from Neiden, pulled up next to the glass cage. He recognized the driver immediately as the man who had offered him a pack of cigarettes the other day.
Bjorn opened the window. "Your passport please," he said, pretending not to know the man.
"Ah! But you know me. We're friends, remember?" the man said with a broad smile.
"Sure. But I still need your passport. And you have to stop taking so much stuff with you out of the colony."
"Really? Why?"
"New rules. Effective from tomorrow. Lundby will be treated like an airport. You can't take with you as much as you please. And you'll have to be down there for at least 24 hours to get your quota."
"No exceptions?"
"No exceptions."
The man handed over his passport, and for a moment Bjorn did not know what to do with it. He had not logged into the web site yet, so he had nowhere to register the passport number. However, he soon found a pencil and a scrap of paper to note it down for later. He would punch the number into the database as soon as he was logged in.
"We'll be registering everybody going in and coming out of the colony," Bjorn explained. "So there's no way around this, now."
"Not even between friends?" the man asked cheekily.
"Like I said. No exceptions."
"But today is still all right?"
"Yep. Today is your last day of freedom," Bjorn said, handing the passport back to the man.
"My last day of freedom, aye?" The man said with a cheeky smile.
Bjorn had no idea why he had used the word freedom as he did. It was silly of him. And having nothing more to say, he closed his window and opened the barrier for the driver without saying anything, ignoring the man as he sent Bjorn a friendly wave of his hand before heading into the colony.
The car drove swiftly down the curvy road, and soon disappeared behind the hill to the right, leaving Bjorn once more to himself. He returned his focus to his PC, pulled up his favorite browser, and proceeded to punch in the web address given to him by Frank.
The web site was hosted by the department of justice, and once he was logged into it, Bjorn had no trouble finding the right place to type in the passport number he had scratched down. And the response was pretty much immediate. A copy of the man's passport was presented on his screen, complete with a little comment in a yellow banner at the top of the page. "Warning:" it read. "3 past convictions. Smuggling (2 counts), Possession of narcotics (1 count)."
Bjorn thought for a second that he had made a mistake in letting the man into the colony, but once he clicked on the warning, he found to his relief that he had done nothing wrong. A pop up explained that yellow warnings were simply helpful remarks. Then, clicking on a link for further help, Bjorn learned that the web site operated with three different banners. Green banners were all clear signs. Yellow banners were warning signs, and red banners were immediate action signs. Typical action on a red banner would be either denial of entry or arrest.
Bjorn clicked on the phrase denial of entry, curious to learn more, and found himself immediately presented with a searchable database. It was the blacklist that Frank had mentioned. He had several fields he could use to search. And he could even browse if he so wished. One field was fixed, though. He could not change his own location from being Lundby. The database was in other words set up to give different results depending on location, and the only location Bjorn was allowed to browse was Lundby.
Bjorn did not immediately know of anyone he would like to check. But then, remembering the nervous looking woman and her daughter that he had let in the other day, Bjorn chose to try out the database by typing in the woman's name. He typed in Cecilie's full name, hit return, and was immediately presented with a copy of her passport. It had a red banner. "Warning:" it read. "Immediate arrest on charges of: Kidnapping (1 count), Assault (1 count), Harassment (5 counts)."
Monday, September 1, 2014
113
With Thomas in the room, it was suddenly as if the whole thing with Frank's gun was settled and sorted out, including the strong suspicion that Frank was somehow compromised or corrupted. And when Ante and Thomas left for the kitchen, Bjorn did not immediately see any problem with Frank's gun being left at the coffee table in front of him. However, Bjorn soon felt like going up to his room, and feeling it a little too irresponsible to leave the gun unattended in the living room, he brought it with him to the kitchen.
"Isn't it better if you keep this gun with you until Frank comes down to pick it up?" Bjorn asked as he put the gun down on the dining table.
"Why not leave it on Frank's spot?" Thomas suggested from over by the counter where he was preparing a sandwich for himself.
"Like here?" Bjorn asked, pushing the gun over to Frank's regular spot.
"Yeah, like that."
"And that's all right with you, Ante?" Bjorn asked.
"Sure! Why not?" Ante answered as if the whole discussion was without consequences as far as he was concerned.
Bjorn smiled. Ante's sudden change of temperament was amusing, considering how anxious he had been. And Ante smiled back in unspoken recognition of this.
Thomas' cluelessness regarding the significance of the gun had clearly been both refreshing and uplifting as far as Ante was concerned. And Thomas' continued ignorance as he headed for the glass cage with his sandwich and thermos with freshly made coffee, was putting Ante back into his usual careless and happy self. However, Bjorn did not stay behind to chat with Ante. Instead, he followed Thomas out in the hall before heading up stairs to his room.
Bjorn wanted to find out more about Rogue Justice. The way it had been mentioned in the Gazette was strangely obscure, and its business model seemed far fetched to say the least. Bjorn knew that he would not be able to keep his mind off the subject before doing at least some research on it, so small talk with Ante, no mater how pleasant this usually was, was of little interested to him at the moment.
Back in his room, Bjorn felt completely at ease as he sat down in front of his computer. He could see cars down by the fjord driving back and forth between the village and the port, and he was reminded of the article in the Gazette predicting an unusually busy weekend with record number of bargain hunters coming and going. And he could also see Nora's place in the distance. The large boulder next to it made it easy to pick out among the houses along the distant shoreline.
Bjorn turned on his computer and typed in "Rogue Justice" in the search field of his browser.
Nothing of relevance came up on his screen, so Bjorn added the word "assassins" to the search string to see if this gave a better result, but this search returned an even sadder looking list.
"So it does not exist, then?" Bjorn thought to himself. Then he changed the word "assassins" with the word "blacklist", more out of idle curiosity than anything else, and immediately got up the address of the recently created web site for registering all sorts of bickering and complaints.
Bjorn clicked on the link to the Blacklist, and was surprised to see how much it had developed since the last time he looked at it. People had clearly been busy adding people they disliked to the web page, and the first page that Bjorn found himself reading even had a list of "most wanted criminals".
There was a banner in a bold font stressing that all of the bellow mentioned people must be considered innocent until proven guilty, but on clicking on a few of the people in the list, there was no doubt that they were all guilty of grave crimes. Two of them had pictures of themselves grinning from ear to ear as they held up severed human heads, and a third had a video attached to his name showing him executing a bunch of kids by shooting them in the back.
Bjorn found the collection of evidence so sickening that he stopped clicking on the links to them, and focused instead on the written accusations and the demands for retribution.
Not too surprisingly, the top ten list was filled entirely by mass murderers from far off places like Mexico, Columbia, Congo and Syria. However, when he narrowed the list down geographically to Lundby and surrounding areas, Bjorn was surprised to see public officials being listed among the most wanted, with the single most sought after "criminal" being the head of the child protection services in Alta.
Bjorn clicked on the link to see what the complaint was, and was not too surprised to see the accusation of kidnapping being levied against her. It is after all the job of the child protection services to act forcefully at times to save children form their abusive parents, and it is inevitable that some of these parents feel strongly about their loss of custody over their own children. To accuse the head of this social service in Alta of kidnapping was in other words nothing short of low level bickering.
However, the list of plaintiffs levying charges against this particular woman was surprisingly long, and looking through the list Bjorn was struck by how many of the plaintiffs were shamelessly exposing themselves with a resent picture of themselves and with their full name and address for everyone to see. "Where is the shame?" he wondered as he eyed the list with quiet curiosity. "Didn't it use to be the ultimate shame to be judged unfit to raise a child? Didn't people use to come up with all sorts of excuses and avoid the subject all together if their child was taken away from them by the state?"
"Not any more, evidently," Bjorn concluded as he finally reached the end of the list, where to his shock a familiar face was staring right at him. It was the woman who insisted on being let into the colony the other day, and Bjorn realized on seeing her that he had in fact enabled a crime by letting her in. This woman was most certainly running away from the authorities, and a danger to her daughter. And he had let her into the colony without mentioning this to anybody but Ante.
Bjorn clicked on the picture, getting up the full details on the woman. Her name was Cecilie, and her address was still unchanged from the one she must have had in Alta. And her accusation levied at the head of the child protection services in Alta was that of attempted kidnapping of her daughter.
There was no more information on the woman, and Bjorn was about to leave the page when he glanced over at the right column with its add for Lance Securities. The ad was unchanged. However, a thin black banner appearing directly underneath the ad for Lance made it look somewhat altered.
He looked at the banner, and got another surprise. "Rogue Justice" it said in deep red letters on the black background, as if deliberately making itself hard to find. Bjorn clicked on it and found himself redirected to a website with no name. The URL field did not contain a name of a website, but an IP address, followed by a few slashes separated with some more numbers.
The odd looking address only added to the sense that the website was deliberately hiding in the very darkest corners of the web, and when Bjorn poked around on the screen, he realized that the webpage was nothing but a single image. The little text there were was clearly meant for purely human interpretation, deliberately using hard to read fonts to make image recognition software incapable of reading it. And the only text on the page was a cryptic message which required some thinking in order to be recognized as an e-mail address. The rest was a series of images making it clear to the determined reader that the service provided by the webpage's owner was indeed that of a hired gun.
"Isn't it better if you keep this gun with you until Frank comes down to pick it up?" Bjorn asked as he put the gun down on the dining table.
"Why not leave it on Frank's spot?" Thomas suggested from over by the counter where he was preparing a sandwich for himself.
"Like here?" Bjorn asked, pushing the gun over to Frank's regular spot.
"Yeah, like that."
"And that's all right with you, Ante?" Bjorn asked.
"Sure! Why not?" Ante answered as if the whole discussion was without consequences as far as he was concerned.
Bjorn smiled. Ante's sudden change of temperament was amusing, considering how anxious he had been. And Ante smiled back in unspoken recognition of this.
Thomas' cluelessness regarding the significance of the gun had clearly been both refreshing and uplifting as far as Ante was concerned. And Thomas' continued ignorance as he headed for the glass cage with his sandwich and thermos with freshly made coffee, was putting Ante back into his usual careless and happy self. However, Bjorn did not stay behind to chat with Ante. Instead, he followed Thomas out in the hall before heading up stairs to his room.
Bjorn wanted to find out more about Rogue Justice. The way it had been mentioned in the Gazette was strangely obscure, and its business model seemed far fetched to say the least. Bjorn knew that he would not be able to keep his mind off the subject before doing at least some research on it, so small talk with Ante, no mater how pleasant this usually was, was of little interested to him at the moment.
Back in his room, Bjorn felt completely at ease as he sat down in front of his computer. He could see cars down by the fjord driving back and forth between the village and the port, and he was reminded of the article in the Gazette predicting an unusually busy weekend with record number of bargain hunters coming and going. And he could also see Nora's place in the distance. The large boulder next to it made it easy to pick out among the houses along the distant shoreline.
Bjorn turned on his computer and typed in "Rogue Justice" in the search field of his browser.
Nothing of relevance came up on his screen, so Bjorn added the word "assassins" to the search string to see if this gave a better result, but this search returned an even sadder looking list.
"So it does not exist, then?" Bjorn thought to himself. Then he changed the word "assassins" with the word "blacklist", more out of idle curiosity than anything else, and immediately got up the address of the recently created web site for registering all sorts of bickering and complaints.
Bjorn clicked on the link to the Blacklist, and was surprised to see how much it had developed since the last time he looked at it. People had clearly been busy adding people they disliked to the web page, and the first page that Bjorn found himself reading even had a list of "most wanted criminals".
There was a banner in a bold font stressing that all of the bellow mentioned people must be considered innocent until proven guilty, but on clicking on a few of the people in the list, there was no doubt that they were all guilty of grave crimes. Two of them had pictures of themselves grinning from ear to ear as they held up severed human heads, and a third had a video attached to his name showing him executing a bunch of kids by shooting them in the back.
Bjorn found the collection of evidence so sickening that he stopped clicking on the links to them, and focused instead on the written accusations and the demands for retribution.
Not too surprisingly, the top ten list was filled entirely by mass murderers from far off places like Mexico, Columbia, Congo and Syria. However, when he narrowed the list down geographically to Lundby and surrounding areas, Bjorn was surprised to see public officials being listed among the most wanted, with the single most sought after "criminal" being the head of the child protection services in Alta.
Bjorn clicked on the link to see what the complaint was, and was not too surprised to see the accusation of kidnapping being levied against her. It is after all the job of the child protection services to act forcefully at times to save children form their abusive parents, and it is inevitable that some of these parents feel strongly about their loss of custody over their own children. To accuse the head of this social service in Alta of kidnapping was in other words nothing short of low level bickering.
However, the list of plaintiffs levying charges against this particular woman was surprisingly long, and looking through the list Bjorn was struck by how many of the plaintiffs were shamelessly exposing themselves with a resent picture of themselves and with their full name and address for everyone to see. "Where is the shame?" he wondered as he eyed the list with quiet curiosity. "Didn't it use to be the ultimate shame to be judged unfit to raise a child? Didn't people use to come up with all sorts of excuses and avoid the subject all together if their child was taken away from them by the state?"
"Not any more, evidently," Bjorn concluded as he finally reached the end of the list, where to his shock a familiar face was staring right at him. It was the woman who insisted on being let into the colony the other day, and Bjorn realized on seeing her that he had in fact enabled a crime by letting her in. This woman was most certainly running away from the authorities, and a danger to her daughter. And he had let her into the colony without mentioning this to anybody but Ante.
Bjorn clicked on the picture, getting up the full details on the woman. Her name was Cecilie, and her address was still unchanged from the one she must have had in Alta. And her accusation levied at the head of the child protection services in Alta was that of attempted kidnapping of her daughter.
There was no more information on the woman, and Bjorn was about to leave the page when he glanced over at the right column with its add for Lance Securities. The ad was unchanged. However, a thin black banner appearing directly underneath the ad for Lance made it look somewhat altered.
He looked at the banner, and got another surprise. "Rogue Justice" it said in deep red letters on the black background, as if deliberately making itself hard to find. Bjorn clicked on it and found himself redirected to a website with no name. The URL field did not contain a name of a website, but an IP address, followed by a few slashes separated with some more numbers.
The odd looking address only added to the sense that the website was deliberately hiding in the very darkest corners of the web, and when Bjorn poked around on the screen, he realized that the webpage was nothing but a single image. The little text there were was clearly meant for purely human interpretation, deliberately using hard to read fonts to make image recognition software incapable of reading it. And the only text on the page was a cryptic message which required some thinking in order to be recognized as an e-mail address. The rest was a series of images making it clear to the determined reader that the service provided by the webpage's owner was indeed that of a hired gun.
Friday, May 16, 2014
65
It was slowly getting darker outside, and Bjorn's reflection in the window was starting to bother him, so he got up of his chair and pulled the curtains shut for the night. Then, once he was seated again, he clicked his way back to the complaint made against Pedro.
From reading the complaint, it was clear that the journalist over at the Gazette had pick much of her material directly from the Blacklist. But there was also no doubt that the journalist had in fact been talking to both the stall owners and Pedro to get the full story. The complaint was relatively short and to the point, basically claiming that Pedro had no right to the village square, that the village square belonged to the people of Lundby, and that no one had the right to impose any kind of tax or restriction on the stall owners.
Pedro on his side begged to differ, of course, pointing to his claim to all the pubic areas of Lundby, including the village square. Directly below Pedro's comment, Jan had a short comment directed at both the stall owners and Pedro, suggesting they sort out their differences in his office in the casino. And directly under Jan's comment, there was a third and final comment written by the same Maria that had made a comment on Jan and Pedro's complaint against Ane.
Maria's comment was directed directly at the stall owners, basically saying that their complaint was confused and muddled, and lacking in precision, her main objection being that the village square could not possibly belongs to "the people" since no such entity exists. Then she went on to say that she would not touch the case before the stall owners sort out among themselves what exactly they were asking for.
And quite understandably, Maria's comment had a long tail of sub-comments, all from the plaintiffs, basically saying that she was the one confused, and that a further specification of who "the people" were was in any case besides the point. The stall owners had no intention of paying any kind of rent or tribute to Pedro, and would resist any attempt to force them into doing so.
"So, who is this Maria," Bjorn wondered. "Clearly some sort of self styled lawyer, judging from her pretentious remark about not wanting to touch the case." And with this in mind Bjorn clicked on her name in order to find out more which brought up the fact sheet on her, showing that she was not involved in any disputes at the moment. Bjorn clicked on Maria's name again to go to her personal details page which turned out to be surprisingly elaborate, with a picture of her face, a list of achievements and a whole lot of data on her career and education.
Maria was indeed a self styled lawyer of sorts, running a company called Independent Law. Maria offered what she called "arbitration services", claiming extensive experience with "private law", and her comments on the Blacklist were clearly all part of a marketing strategy from her side. By offering a quick initial analysis of the various disputes in the village, she was showing off her legal skills with a hope to attract paying customers for her arbitration services.
Bjorn looked at the picture of the woman with her thick black hair and almost child like appearance. She looked friendly and approachable, in contrast to her remarks on the Blacklist which had been pointy and almost aggressive in their criticism of the complaints. Then, looking over to the right hand margin of the page, Bjorn's attention was drawn to an ad that had stayed with him throughout his browsing of the Blacklist, but not caught his attention before now. It displayed a stylized icon of St. George slaying the dragon, under which it read Lance Security in gold letters, followed by a sub-title with the text: "To Serve and Protect".
"But isn't that Pedro's company?" Bjorn wondered, surprised to see an ad by Pedro on a web site containing a scathing denouncement of him. "Why is Pedro sponsoring a web site full of bickering and conflict mongering?"
Bjorn clicked on the ad to learn more about Pedro's business, which he now suspected to be involved in something different from what he had first assumed. Reading about Pedro as the CEO of Lance, Bjorn had simply assumed that Lance was a company involved in the prison and detention camp industry, which was one of the few businesses currently doing well, with economic crisis and political unrest spreading like wildfire everywhere. But it made no sense for such a company to have an ad on the Blacklist, so Bjorn was now very much doubting his first assumption. And as it turned out, Lance was not a private prison company, or any such thing.
Lance Security was an insurance company offering what it called "disaster insurance", defined as "high cost, low probability events", with "criminal loss" being its core business, and accident and health insurance being offered as add-ons. The idea was that a person could start off by insuring him or herself against criminal loss, and then add on insurance for loss of property and health as needed. The basic product would pay out up to a thousand Gram in the event of loss of life, health or property due to a criminal event. And this basic insurance cost a "mere" half a Gram per year.
The basic product could be scaled up, from a maximum of a thousand Gram to as much as ten thousand Gram, by agreeing to pay correspondingly more in premiums. Adding accident and health to the basic product increased the cost in a similar manner. The insured person could in other words not buy anything cheaper than the basic product, so Lance's target customers were clearly people for whom a disaster would result in losses up to or beyond a full Kilogram of gold. And the website confirmed this by stating specifically that losses below ten Gram would not be compensated. However, all criminal losses should be reported regardless, it said, since a group action against a criminal element may nevertheless result in a pay out, even for minor losses.
Bjorn leant back in his office chair, contemplating what he had just read, and feeling content that he had finally found something concrete about Pedro's business in Lundby. Not only was Pedro claiming ownership of all public property in the village, he was aiming to make money off of people's fears as well.
From reading the complaint, it was clear that the journalist over at the Gazette had pick much of her material directly from the Blacklist. But there was also no doubt that the journalist had in fact been talking to both the stall owners and Pedro to get the full story. The complaint was relatively short and to the point, basically claiming that Pedro had no right to the village square, that the village square belonged to the people of Lundby, and that no one had the right to impose any kind of tax or restriction on the stall owners.
Pedro on his side begged to differ, of course, pointing to his claim to all the pubic areas of Lundby, including the village square. Directly below Pedro's comment, Jan had a short comment directed at both the stall owners and Pedro, suggesting they sort out their differences in his office in the casino. And directly under Jan's comment, there was a third and final comment written by the same Maria that had made a comment on Jan and Pedro's complaint against Ane.
Maria's comment was directed directly at the stall owners, basically saying that their complaint was confused and muddled, and lacking in precision, her main objection being that the village square could not possibly belongs to "the people" since no such entity exists. Then she went on to say that she would not touch the case before the stall owners sort out among themselves what exactly they were asking for.
And quite understandably, Maria's comment had a long tail of sub-comments, all from the plaintiffs, basically saying that she was the one confused, and that a further specification of who "the people" were was in any case besides the point. The stall owners had no intention of paying any kind of rent or tribute to Pedro, and would resist any attempt to force them into doing so.
"So, who is this Maria," Bjorn wondered. "Clearly some sort of self styled lawyer, judging from her pretentious remark about not wanting to touch the case." And with this in mind Bjorn clicked on her name in order to find out more which brought up the fact sheet on her, showing that she was not involved in any disputes at the moment. Bjorn clicked on Maria's name again to go to her personal details page which turned out to be surprisingly elaborate, with a picture of her face, a list of achievements and a whole lot of data on her career and education.
Maria was indeed a self styled lawyer of sorts, running a company called Independent Law. Maria offered what she called "arbitration services", claiming extensive experience with "private law", and her comments on the Blacklist were clearly all part of a marketing strategy from her side. By offering a quick initial analysis of the various disputes in the village, she was showing off her legal skills with a hope to attract paying customers for her arbitration services.
Bjorn looked at the picture of the woman with her thick black hair and almost child like appearance. She looked friendly and approachable, in contrast to her remarks on the Blacklist which had been pointy and almost aggressive in their criticism of the complaints. Then, looking over to the right hand margin of the page, Bjorn's attention was drawn to an ad that had stayed with him throughout his browsing of the Blacklist, but not caught his attention before now. It displayed a stylized icon of St. George slaying the dragon, under which it read Lance Security in gold letters, followed by a sub-title with the text: "To Serve and Protect".
"But isn't that Pedro's company?" Bjorn wondered, surprised to see an ad by Pedro on a web site containing a scathing denouncement of him. "Why is Pedro sponsoring a web site full of bickering and conflict mongering?"
Bjorn clicked on the ad to learn more about Pedro's business, which he now suspected to be involved in something different from what he had first assumed. Reading about Pedro as the CEO of Lance, Bjorn had simply assumed that Lance was a company involved in the prison and detention camp industry, which was one of the few businesses currently doing well, with economic crisis and political unrest spreading like wildfire everywhere. But it made no sense for such a company to have an ad on the Blacklist, so Bjorn was now very much doubting his first assumption. And as it turned out, Lance was not a private prison company, or any such thing.
Lance Security was an insurance company offering what it called "disaster insurance", defined as "high cost, low probability events", with "criminal loss" being its core business, and accident and health insurance being offered as add-ons. The idea was that a person could start off by insuring him or herself against criminal loss, and then add on insurance for loss of property and health as needed. The basic product would pay out up to a thousand Gram in the event of loss of life, health or property due to a criminal event. And this basic insurance cost a "mere" half a Gram per year.
The basic product could be scaled up, from a maximum of a thousand Gram to as much as ten thousand Gram, by agreeing to pay correspondingly more in premiums. Adding accident and health to the basic product increased the cost in a similar manner. The insured person could in other words not buy anything cheaper than the basic product, so Lance's target customers were clearly people for whom a disaster would result in losses up to or beyond a full Kilogram of gold. And the website confirmed this by stating specifically that losses below ten Gram would not be compensated. However, all criminal losses should be reported regardless, it said, since a group action against a criminal element may nevertheless result in a pay out, even for minor losses.
Bjorn leant back in his office chair, contemplating what he had just read, and feeling content that he had finally found something concrete about Pedro's business in Lundby. Not only was Pedro claiming ownership of all public property in the village, he was aiming to make money off of people's fears as well.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
64
The article on the conflict between the stall owners and Pedro had a link to the formal complaint logged by the stall owners, and curious to see what this looked like, Bjorn clicked on it to have it come up on his screen. The page with the complaint was set in a dark frame, with "The Blacklist" written in grey letters, as if set in stone, at the top. The subtitle stated, also in grey letters, that "all are innocent until proven guilty." And next to the title, there was a search field, and an option to go to an advanced search page.
The complaint itself was tidy and clean cut, with its title displayed at the top, followed by some basic information, such as status and location, a full list of the plaintiffs and the name of the defendant. Each person in the list was highlighted with a link, presumably to get to more details on each individual, and still curious to learn as much as he could about Pedro, Bjorn clicked on his name to see what more, if anything, the Blacklist had on him.
But instead of going directly to more personal information on Pedro, the link directed Bjorn to a short fact sheet containing only his name and contact details together with a list of accusations and another list of grievances in which he was presently involved. To get more personal details on Pedro, Bjorn had to click on Pedro's name again, but the page on Pedro was kept down to a bare minimum with no more than his full name and minimal contact details filled in.
So it was clear that Pedro's personal information page at the Blacklist did not tell Bjorn anything new. However, the short fact sheet on him did in fact tell Bjorn a little more, because it did not only list the dispute with the stall owners under open grievances against him, it also listed a dispute in which he was a plaintiff. Pedro was listed as having a grievance against Ane, and this surprised Bjorn so much that once he saw it he clicked the link to see what it was all about.
And sure enough, there it was. Pedro and Jan were complaining about Ane's fish factory. They were concerned about the pollution coming from it due to all the untreated fish waste that she was dumping into the fjord, and they wanted her to clean up her act. Their personal grievance against Ane was that her disregard for the environment would soon cause a stench, and thus negatively affect the value of the casino and the village square.
Bjorn looked at the date of the complaint, thinking it odd that it had been logged so soon after the factory had been opened. The factory was after all, only opened the day before, and it could not possibly be the case that the environment was already affected by this. And it looked like someone had had the exact same thought, because someone called Maria had made a comment on the complaint, very much to that effect. However, while Bjorn was reading Maria's short comment, another comment appeared, this one directed to Maria, and authored by Jan, saying that "we don't need to wait for the inevitable. There is no doubt that the untreated sewage will cause problems, and that this will damage our properties. Ane cannot simply ship her stench over to us without any kind of compensation. And it is not like the technology to treat her waste does not exist."
"Boy! These people don't kid around, do they?" Bjorn thought to himself. Then, curious to see what the Blacklist had on Ane, he clicked on her name to get up her short fact sheet, and then on her name again to go to her personal details. However, Ane's personal details page was not filled in. Instead the page asked him politely to fill in the page if he happened to be Ane. However, right below the polite invitation to fill in the details was a stern warning. "Do not fill in this page if you are not in fact Ane, or a person authorized by Ane," it said in bold red lettering. "Any abuse of the Blacklist is a crime and will be treated accordingly."
The complaint itself was tidy and clean cut, with its title displayed at the top, followed by some basic information, such as status and location, a full list of the plaintiffs and the name of the defendant. Each person in the list was highlighted with a link, presumably to get to more details on each individual, and still curious to learn as much as he could about Pedro, Bjorn clicked on his name to see what more, if anything, the Blacklist had on him.
But instead of going directly to more personal information on Pedro, the link directed Bjorn to a short fact sheet containing only his name and contact details together with a list of accusations and another list of grievances in which he was presently involved. To get more personal details on Pedro, Bjorn had to click on Pedro's name again, but the page on Pedro was kept down to a bare minimum with no more than his full name and minimal contact details filled in.
So it was clear that Pedro's personal information page at the Blacklist did not tell Bjorn anything new. However, the short fact sheet on him did in fact tell Bjorn a little more, because it did not only list the dispute with the stall owners under open grievances against him, it also listed a dispute in which he was a plaintiff. Pedro was listed as having a grievance against Ane, and this surprised Bjorn so much that once he saw it he clicked the link to see what it was all about.
And sure enough, there it was. Pedro and Jan were complaining about Ane's fish factory. They were concerned about the pollution coming from it due to all the untreated fish waste that she was dumping into the fjord, and they wanted her to clean up her act. Their personal grievance against Ane was that her disregard for the environment would soon cause a stench, and thus negatively affect the value of the casino and the village square.
Bjorn looked at the date of the complaint, thinking it odd that it had been logged so soon after the factory had been opened. The factory was after all, only opened the day before, and it could not possibly be the case that the environment was already affected by this. And it looked like someone had had the exact same thought, because someone called Maria had made a comment on the complaint, very much to that effect. However, while Bjorn was reading Maria's short comment, another comment appeared, this one directed to Maria, and authored by Jan, saying that "we don't need to wait for the inevitable. There is no doubt that the untreated sewage will cause problems, and that this will damage our properties. Ane cannot simply ship her stench over to us without any kind of compensation. And it is not like the technology to treat her waste does not exist."
"Boy! These people don't kid around, do they?" Bjorn thought to himself. Then, curious to see what the Blacklist had on Ane, he clicked on her name to get up her short fact sheet, and then on her name again to go to her personal details. However, Ane's personal details page was not filled in. Instead the page asked him politely to fill in the page if he happened to be Ane. However, right below the polite invitation to fill in the details was a stern warning. "Do not fill in this page if you are not in fact Ane, or a person authorized by Ane," it said in bold red lettering. "Any abuse of the Blacklist is a crime and will be treated accordingly."
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
63
Bjorn looked up from his computer screen while contemplating the arguments laid out by Pedro and the stall owners. The sun setting behind the mountains to the north west of Lundby made the sky flare up in the same dramatic fashion as it had done when Bjorn first arrived at the checkpoint, less than a week ago. It was a truly impressive view. Stunning and eerily cold and indifferent, as if completely immune to anything anyone might want to do to it. Watching it from the comfort of his office chair was delightfully meditative, making his thoughts move freely from one thing to another.
Bjorn found Pedro's argument quite revealing in that it exposed a motive for Pedro's decision to go into the deal with the foreign minister in the first place. The village was at the time completely uninhabited, and it was not unreasonable of Pedro to think that his promise to maintain public properties would include a right to "tax" anyone using these properties. And with a growing population, the money he could get through taxation would increase.
However, Pedro had not actually made his claim to the public properties widely known, so it was quite understandable that the stall owners felt that they had a right to use the village square without paying any dues to Pedro. And with this in mind, Bjorn returned to the article he was reading, feeling empathy for the squatters who were fighting for their right to be left alone.
The leaflets handed out by Pedro's men had come as a complete surprise to the stall owners, and feeling threatened by Pedro's sudden land claim, some of the stall owners had immediately gone ahead and bought themselves handguns over at Gus's gun store. And shortly after, the stall owners had formed a union, agreeing to stand together against what they felt was an attempt at extortion.
The union of stall owners, with its armed members, had in turn caused concern over at the casino, which prompted Jan to arm his employees, just in case the squatters would get the idea that they could do anything they wanted now that they have banded together. But the stall owners were quick to contact Jan, assuring him that they had no other agenda than to protect their right to be left alone. And having no interest in frightening their customers they agreed among themselves that they would keep their weapons concealed, and continue their peaceful activities as if nothing had happened.
Eager to find a peaceful resolution to what could potentially lead to an ugly situation right across from his casino, Jan volunteered to act as a mediator between the stall owners and Pedro, with a further suggestion that the stall owners not only complain directly to Pedro, but also make their case public by publishing a formal statement on the Blacklist, a website specifically designed for public grievances.
And it was the public statement made on the Blacklist that had drawn the attention of the journalist to the rapidly escalating conflict. It had prompted her to go out and get the full story, interviewing both the stall owners and Jan and his people. But, unable to reach Pedro, the only statement in his defence was the short reply made by him to the formal complaint on the Blacklist. Pedro's unwavering position was that since he had taken on obligations to take care of public properties in Lundby, he had in effect also received the right to demand rent from these same properties.
Bjorn found Pedro's argument quite revealing in that it exposed a motive for Pedro's decision to go into the deal with the foreign minister in the first place. The village was at the time completely uninhabited, and it was not unreasonable of Pedro to think that his promise to maintain public properties would include a right to "tax" anyone using these properties. And with a growing population, the money he could get through taxation would increase.
However, Pedro had not actually made his claim to the public properties widely known, so it was quite understandable that the stall owners felt that they had a right to use the village square without paying any dues to Pedro. And with this in mind, Bjorn returned to the article he was reading, feeling empathy for the squatters who were fighting for their right to be left alone.
The leaflets handed out by Pedro's men had come as a complete surprise to the stall owners, and feeling threatened by Pedro's sudden land claim, some of the stall owners had immediately gone ahead and bought themselves handguns over at Gus's gun store. And shortly after, the stall owners had formed a union, agreeing to stand together against what they felt was an attempt at extortion.
The union of stall owners, with its armed members, had in turn caused concern over at the casino, which prompted Jan to arm his employees, just in case the squatters would get the idea that they could do anything they wanted now that they have banded together. But the stall owners were quick to contact Jan, assuring him that they had no other agenda than to protect their right to be left alone. And having no interest in frightening their customers they agreed among themselves that they would keep their weapons concealed, and continue their peaceful activities as if nothing had happened.
Eager to find a peaceful resolution to what could potentially lead to an ugly situation right across from his casino, Jan volunteered to act as a mediator between the stall owners and Pedro, with a further suggestion that the stall owners not only complain directly to Pedro, but also make their case public by publishing a formal statement on the Blacklist, a website specifically designed for public grievances.
And it was the public statement made on the Blacklist that had drawn the attention of the journalist to the rapidly escalating conflict. It had prompted her to go out and get the full story, interviewing both the stall owners and Jan and his people. But, unable to reach Pedro, the only statement in his defence was the short reply made by him to the formal complaint on the Blacklist. Pedro's unwavering position was that since he had taken on obligations to take care of public properties in Lundby, he had in effect also received the right to demand rent from these same properties.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)