The Albanian

A tale of administration and regulation set in a dystopian future perhaps not so far removed from our own...

Press play and listen along with the story for maximum effect:

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

10102052:0717
Mary Worth, 33, Class 4. ID: X217467
14 Augusta Compound
IX District

     Administrator Grainger tapped the PDA and wiped a gloved finger across its surface with a tick-tock motion. He sighed and lifted his eyes to the lacklustre ball that laboured at the skyline, its pale light filtered weakly through the standing buildings of Augusta Compound and a faint breeze followed it. Housing Unit 14 stood on the first floor.
     He cast a glance at Senior Administrator Ribero who gestured onwards; the man�s mouth, as always a savage gash in a pockmarked landscape. The lips twitched, it could almost been a smile. �Something the matter Grainger?�
     The younger man shook his head and returned the PDA to the pocket at his side. �No nothing�� he muttered.
     Ribero sniffed and stalked onwards. �Good, I�m hungry, I don�t need to be messing around in there.�

     Grainger rapped curtly on the door to HU14 and waited, his heart thumping in his chest. Silence. The breeze picked up and blew sand across the walkway with a sibilant hiss, a small eddy of blown sand twisted at his feet. Ribero moved suddenly reaching for his weapon.
     �No, wait,� Grainger said quickly, throwing up a hand. He knocked again, louder this time. �Just let me handle this will you?�
     Ribero cursed sourly and returned the firearm to its holster with a look of disgust. He stepped back and turned to stare out across the interlinking blocks that comprised the sprawling Augusta Compound.
     The door opened as Grainger made to knock again. A woman answered, half-hidden behind the door, a bathrobe bound tightly at her waist and her auburn hair in disarray. Her eyes widened slightly and her mouth moved noiselessly.
     �Hello Mary,� Grainger said with a light nod.
     Mary Worth clasped a hand to her chest, her eyes creasing and the corners of her mouth curling ever so slightly. �Frank? My God� Frank? It�s been� how long?�
     �A long time�� He acceded.
     �How are you?� she said, blinking rapidly and exhaling, her relief palpable.
     Grainger set his jaw and raised his warrant card so that she could see. �I�m sorry, can we come in?�
     Mary blanched and her hand tightened on the door frame, her words tripping and stumbling from her lips. �I�I� it�s not a good�. not a good time, Frank, I�m just on my way out� and � and� how�s Judy?�
     Grainger placed a steadying hand against the coolness of the door, his gaze hardening a little. �Mary� we�re coming in.�

     Mary sat on the couch and clutched at her robe, her fingers bunching and twisting the soft material. Grainger sat opposite her, his hands clasped between his legs and his shoulders hunched. Ribero leaned against the far wall arms folded, his fingers tapping impatiently, his mouth twisted into a disagreeable line.
     �Mary,� Grainger said softly, extracting his PDA, �we�ve had a tip-off and you know as Administrators we have to follow up every-�
     She shook her head wildly, exaggeratedly. �A tip-off? What� what about? I haven�t done anything wrong.�
     �You know why we�re here,� Ribero snapped, scowling.
     �I just need to a check a few things, Mary,� Grainger said, ignoring his partner. �You�re a class 4 citizen aren�t you?�
     �No, no� I�m class 3, just waiting for my papers-�
     �Mary, hold out your hand.�
     Trembling Mary held out a hand whilst, Grainger passed the scanner across it briefly. It clicked.
     He raised his eyes to hers. �ID number X217467, Mary Ann Worth� Class 4.�
     She shook her head. �There must be a mistake, but it�s okay, I can go down to the Municipal Sector and get it straightened out this morning.�
     �Where�s Larissa, Mary?� Grainger asked.
     �She�s not here, she�s at her Grandmother�s,� Mary replied swiftly, blinking back big blurring tears.
     �F**k this.� Ribero spat. �This is taking too f*****g long.� He started towards the rooms beyond the living area.
     Mary sprung from her seat, a terrified gasp escaping her lips. As she flung herself before him, Ribero brought back his hand and swatted her from her feet. She crashed back across the couch with a grunt but scrambled to her feet and moved towards him again. Grainger caught her arm and wrenched her back. �Mary no! You know it�s an offence to impede a Administrator-�
     Ribero�s boot crashed against the door.
     �Well, well, well.� He cracked a humourless smile. Grainger moved beside him, already knowing what he�d see, his heart heavy.
     �And who is this?� Ribero said crouching, his dark eyes danced dangerously and his thin smile was mocking, almost jubilant. �You must be Larissa� but you, you shouldn�t be here at all��
     Mary pushed past them both gathering the two children in her arms. One, a girl around six years old, honey ringlets hanging to her cheeks and her green eyes glistening. A coded tattoo marked the inside of her right wrist, a signature, a seal of approval. Wrapped within the girl�s secure embrace, a baby, a few weeks old at best, its azure eyes inquisitive, round and blinking. The girl removed her hand from its mouth, the need for silence no longer required.
     The scanner clicked in Ribero�s hand and he arched an eyebrow. �It seems we have an unchipped child here.� He stared into Mary�s eyes and his gaze tightened.
     �Please,� Mary choked, �he�s not mine� I�m looking after him for a friend, I� I��
     �Then you are harbouring an illegal neonate and liable to prosecution.� Ribero stood and produced his PDA configuring a design upon its screen with a finger. As he did so he tilted his head slightly to speak into the mic at his throat. �Bring me the Albanian.�

     Grainger watched as the door opened to permit the tall man who ducked his head as his entered and removed a wide brimmed hat. The Albanian was skeletal with a waxy pallid skin, stretched like parchment over flat features. His head was bald and domed and his eyes were colourless and bleak. Wordlessly, he set down a black case upon the table and opened it with long tapering fingers.

     Tears ran down Mary�s ashen cheeks as Ribero began to read from the PDA:
     �By issue of the State: citizen�s of the Fourth Class are subject to governing rules in accordance with Para 13a of Article 9 of the Population Bill, 2047��
     Grainger�s eyes flickered between the three, his throat tight and his chest thudding, unconsciously he tightened his grip on Mary�s arm. The Albanian�s emotionless mask was in direct contrast to the horror and anguish that wreathed Mary Worth�s features. Ribero�s eyes glinted as he read on seemingly oblivious of the ministrations of the Albanian�s hands as they moved over the case�s contents.
     �Unauthorised or surplus offspring are deemed property of the State��
     �Please�� Mary said, �please don�t...�
     Her knees buckled and she crumpled to the floor.
     ��and are therefore liable for confiscation, destruction or employment if it is considered beneficial to the State.�
     �Please� I�m begging you��
     Ribero lifted his gaze and nodded to the Albanian.
     �Rules are rules, Mary and the law is the law. One child per family unit. You brought this on yourself��
     The Albanian tapped the syringe with a long finger and removed the cap from the needle. And then, looking down at her as if seeing her for the first time, said.
     �Which one do you want to keep?�


.......................

According to estimates published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on February 25, 2006.
The World�s population is currently growing by approximately 75 million people per year and is expected to hit 9.1 billion by 2050, a rise of 40%.

Author's Note

Effects of overpopulation:
Some problems associated with or exacerbated by human overpopulation:
� Inadequate fresh water for drinking water use as well as sewage treatment and effluent discharge. Some countries, like Saudi Arabia, use energy-expensive desalination to solve the problem of water shortages.
� Depletion of natural resources, especially fossil fuels.
� Increased levels of air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and noise pollution. Once a country has industrialized and become wealthy, a combination of government regulation and technological innovation causes pollution to decline substantially, even as the population continues to grow.
� Deforestation and loss of ecosystems that sustain global atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide balance; about eight million hectares of forest are lost each year.
� Changes in atmospheric composition and consequent global warming.
� Irreversible loss of arable land and increases in desertification. Deforestation and desertification can be reversed by adopting property rights, and this policy is successful even while the human population continues to grow.
� Illegal (and legal) immigration to the developed world on an unprecedented scale, creating an unprecedented demographic and political problem in Europe and the United States. Even the controlled and legal migration of talented and well-educated people from the Third World to the developed world denudes it of its limited skills base.
� Mass species extinctions from reduced habitat in tropical forests due to slash-and-burn techniques that sometimes are practiced by shifting cultivators, especially in countries with rapidly expanding rural populations; present extinction rates may be as high as 140,000 species lost per year. The IUCN Red List lists a total of 698 animal species having gone extinct during recorded human history.
� High infant and child mortality. High rates of infant mortality are caused by poverty. Rich countries with high population densities have low rates of infant mortality.
� Increased incidence of hemorrhagic fevers and other infectious diseases from crowding, lack of adequate sanitation and clean potable water, and scarcity of available medical resources.
� Starvation, malnutrition or poor diet with ill health and diet-deficiency diseases (e.g. rickets). Famine is aggravated by poverty. Rich countries with high population densities do not have famine.
� Poverty coupled with inflation in some regions and a resulting low level of capital formation. Poverty and inflation are aggravated by bad government and bad economic policies. Many countries with high population densities have eliminated absolute poverty and keep their inflation rates very low.
� Low birth weight due to the inability of mothers to get enough resources to sustain a fetus from fertilization to birth
� Low life expectancy in countries with fastest growing populations.
� Unhygienic living conditions for many based upon water resource depletion, discharge of raw sewage and solid waste disposal
� Elevated crime rate due to drug cartels and increased theft by people stealing resources to survive.
� Conflict over scarce resources and crowding, leading to increased levels of warfare.
� Over-utilization of infrastructure, such as mass transit, highways, and public health systems
� Higher land prices.

Reviews

[Nicole Hellene]

Hey sqiptar! I'm albanian! I'm guessing you must be too or at least you know one because you got the description pretty ironically dead on. You've got us portrayed as bad mutha's. Then again, the italians don't mess with us for a reason.

critiques: Let the dialogue stand alone. Good dialogue should always stand on its own and "she put her hand over her chest and answered�" only hinders the flow and annoys the reader. It's okay every now and then but you have it after every quote.

Ease up on the Albanians in the future man aight?

[Chantal-lise Mirman]

You certainly know how to rip someone's heart out, Howie! This gut-wrenching tale is unfortunately not so far from the the truth in some countries. China has had a limit of one child per family for some time, and been willing to enforce it through Draconian measures. Here is an article from just last week:

Oct 7 2007
One Child Policy in China Designed to Limit Population Growth
China has proclaimed that it will continue its one child policy, which limits couples to having one child, through the 2006-2010 five year planning period.
China's one child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit communist China's population growth. Although designated a "temporary measure," it continues a quarter-century after its establishment. The policy limits couples to one child. Fines, pressures to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization accompanied second or subsequent pregnancies.

It is not an all-encompassing rule because it has always been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Citizens living in rural areas and minorities living in China are not subject to the law. However, the rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years.

This rule has caused a disdain for female infants; abortion, neglect, abandonment, and even infanticide have been known to occur to female infants.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other side of the coin is that countries such as Russia have long encouraged large families, offering financial incentives to those who embraced fertility. And then there is the fact that the highest birth rates are in under-developed countries (and the highest birth rates in developed countries are among the uneducated disenfranchised underclass).

There is no simple solution, although it does seem a paradigm shift is necessary.

This is a powerful, bleak and chilling story, Howie, and belies your journalistic talents.

Another one for the Howie fave bin!! You should send this in as an Op Ed piece to the newspapers!

[James Watts]

This sad and what makes it really bad is that this can take place in a world where wealth and technology are abundant...well abundant if you are wealthy. We live in a greedy world.

[Ice QueenJen]

wow what an intense reading. I can't imagine this happening in the U.S., but you never know when they mandate a certain amount of children per household.

Yet at the end you shared some really insightful information about the plight of the world, which in itself was great reading. Hope you are able to write another part to this story, its fantastic.

[Zephyr]

wow, howie.

that was emotionally powerful and, in sad reality, a very plausible future.

we're facing a really hard series of decisions as a population. either cut down acres and acres of land and kill thousands of plants and animals that give this world its vibrance, or do what you implied in the story and restrict populative growth. which one should we do?

[Sunny]

Of course it is written brilliantly even though it is very sad.

With that said you need to come to Texas and Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and many other states where there is tons of arable land. You also didn't figure in war and pestilence. Aliens (illegal or not) are going to travel to all countries as our transportation systems are fast and efficient.

Almost all of the USA are immigrants if you go back 200 years. My grandmother and grandfather were both from Germany on my mother's side and my grandmother on my father's side was a descendant from Bohemian stock. I also have a wee bit of the Irish in me. There are more Irish-Americans than there are Irish in Ireland. Yes, we have our crowded crime riddened cities but we also have our open spaces. The USA is a richer country because we have illegal immigrants working for cheap in our vegetable and fruit fields and in our homes as cleaning ladies and nannies. Hopefully they will be able to find better living conditions and positions.

Resources dwindling are a matter of politics and technology. By 2050 we are supposed to have fuel cells for our cars cutting down on carbon produced smog.

I believe in the future of our world and even though I probably won't be able to see it I believe things will improve somewhat. You have seen more of the world than I have and I have lived somewhat sheltered life so you may be more correct than I. I am not a all out there patriot of our country but I see open spaces and nice homes with all races and people going upward.

I have worked in South-Central and East LA. Yes, it is horrible to see gangs controlling the neighborhoods and front windows boarded up due to possible gunfire but I have also seen in those neighborhoods camaraderie between neighbors after an earthquake.

So dear Howie, please don't try to predict the future and live moment by moment because that is all we have. In 1960 they said we would be living on the moon and have flying cars by the year 2000. Help direct your politics as much as you can which you have done by writing your opinion intelligently.

Take care, Sunny