Bigger Brother. Matthew Vandenberg
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'Well, we know we didn't fly anywhere, but we still could be somewhere that's like San Francisco, or somewhere that's like the Congo. So what do we say to the people watching us?'
'We ask the engineers and architects if it's possible for hydroelectric dams to have areas designated for living: living quarters, on the whole,' Matt says. 'Of course, living quarters to such a degree that the residents are well separated from the water: but they can still see what's left of it at any given time. San Franciscans and Congolese people have different needs: San Franciscans need houses [2.], and the Congolese people need roads [1.]. But maybe if some Congolese people are given green cards and allowed to use the roads in San Francisco, like they're European roads for holders of Green Cards from the UK, then they can transport goods, like bottles of alcoholic liquid, from one area of San Francisco to another and send some of their profits back home to family members: remittance payments. After all, rich people in San Francisco should get all the alcohol, as they can afford to drink more than the Congolese. And fewer Congolese people will be stealing drinks in San Francisco because of efficient oversight of the whole process of transporting goods. Plus, this is legal as the Congo isn't Columbia and alcohol isn't cocaine. Also, San Franciscans can live with Congolese people inside hydroelectric dams both in the Congo and in San Francisco. Come to think of it, we could be in a dam right now, the reason we're far and safe from fires.'
'The dams in the Congo will need to be pretty strong,' Gao says. 'People with guns will want to gain entry to them.'
'They can be built like pyramids,' Matt says. 'With dead-end passages to fool intruders and keep them busy until authorities show up. It's not like this is a standard building with an obvious entrance anyway. How did we get in HERE?' - Matt looks around - 'We don't even know. Maybe we're in a pyramid. A personal pyramid, like a personal hydroelectric dam, with secret tunnels for bootlegging figurative bottlenecks of bad breath.'
'What?' Gao says.
'Never mind,' Matt says. 'I'm off in my own world. But roads are not as good as tunnels or passages. The Congo doesn't need roads. The chances are - like in Kenya and Nigeria - more people will die [3.] the more roads are paved. However, very narrow roads [4.] could save lives, especially if they bridge the Congo River time and time again. So personal hydroelectric dams that double as dwellings should be constructed in the middle of narrow roads that the Congo River's criss-crossed by. These pyramids can be pillars, homes, and dams all at once, but for making electricity rather than hoarding water. The more homes the better, because they need them for safe roads (narrow and lit), just like San Franciscans need them for remote (unfriendly) living and living (intensive) heavy urban traffic (hell, let's discuss that in the middle of the road, in a house). Living (intensive; moving) Congolese (or African, for greater effect and more electricity) waters breaking [5.] in dams more than arms and stories and people breaking water with tools more than speed limits means hospital supplies should also be at the ready in the dams. That's fast. And upward social mobility is required, to become aware of new states. After all, planes are faster than cars and definitely rivers. And marriage is a very fast route to citizenship of a country, especially with tools in dams, and that's virtual reality and living movement.'
'No one should be scared of waters breaking anywhere,' Gao says. 'Or any electricity. If they are then it's important that we find out why. That is to say: why is no one using the kitchen to cook anything decent around here?'
'We have a kitchen?' Matt quips. 'Then we own a restaurant. All eyes are on us and we're not eating them because we're vegetarian, right?'
'I like fish,' Gao says. 'And so do poor fisherpeople worldwide. Technically, being a pescatarian is more ethical.'
Matt picks at the air like it's a fish.
'What are you doing?' Gao asks.
'Fishing for my response,' Matt says, smiling. 'Too little, had to let it go.'
Gao smiles.
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References
1 The Economist, Middle East and Africa, Follow the bottle, How to get beer around Congo, a country with hardly any roads, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/01/18/how-to-get-beer-around-congo-a-country-with-hardly-any-roads ["Congo is not an easy country to get around. China has three metres of road per citizen; Congo has three centimetres. Only four out of 26 provincial capitals have roads that reach Kinshasa. Some villages are so isolated that they still use a currency that was abolished in 1997. It is no surprise that, in the east, the government has little control and the people in power are those with guns. Millions have fled the violence there over the past 20 years."; "The Congo river...If its roaring water mass was turned into energy through hydroelectric dams, it could light up most of the continent."; "Clever, aspirational marketing and Herculean logistics help explain why the company manages to sell alcohol even when people are getting poorer. (Its addictive qualities probably help, too.)"]
2 The Economist, Special report, Housing for the poor, Governments are rethinking the provision of public housing, https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/01/16/governments-are-rethinking-the-provision-of-public-housing, ["The best way to make housing more affordable would be to make the supply more responsive to increases in demand. A big underlying reason why homelessness in Tokyo is so low is that housing is reasonably affordable. Meanwhile, Zug builds more than twice as many homes per person as San Francisco. Research suggests that a 10% fall in rents in a high-cost city such as New York results in an 8% decline in the number of homeless residents. Until governments keep overall housing costs under control, the rest is tinkering."]
3 The Economist, International, Crunch time, Globally, roads are deadlier than HIV or murder, https://www.economist.com/international/2020/01/13/globally-roads-are-deadlier-than-hiv-or-murder, ["According to official statistics, 19,930 people perished from injuries sustained on Thailand’s roads in 2018, including 837 in Bangkok. The country’s annual road-death rate is almost double the global average and more than seven times the rate in nearby Singapore, a wealthy financial hub. What is less well known is how easy it would be to change this."; "In China and South Africa deaths have been falling since about 2000, according to ihme—though crashes still claim about a quarter of a million Chinese lives each year. In India deaths peaked in 2012. It is possible that the Philippines reached a peak four years ago. In Kenya and Nigeria deaths are still rising."; "Rob McInerney, head of the International Road Assessment Programme, a charity, says that countries tend to go through three phases. They begin with poor, slow roads. As they grow wealthier, they pave the roads. Traffic moves faster, which pushes up the death rate..."]
4 Road diets: designing a safer street, https://youtu.be/Rs7jHvh7v-4
5 Medecins Sans Frontieres, Women's health, The perils of childbirth in Democratic Republic of Congo, https://www.msf.org/perils-childbirth-democratic-republic-congo
Intruders
The walls of the Big Brother house are membranes that protect housemates from the coronavirus [3.] [4.] and intruders. On the other hand, news is a vagina they're not being exposed to, having left the outside world and entered the house via cesarean section and avoided vaginal [1.], and fecal [1.] bacteria, meaning that all they can now think about is fat [1.], sugar [1.], and a potentially heavy heart (that's cardiomyopathy if you're not feeling down). The atmosphere is proteins from tardigrades [2.] as the mouths of the housemates are so dry and unmoving, like silently competing with still air that's the still of the night. Film stills suffice for seeing this. The housemates have water in their cells but what they need is still water like refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. Choppier passages from a floor are hard to imagine, shore? . . . no, sure.
But they remain calm, before waters break on and in a new dawn (worn and breaking over the room through one tiny window), trapped in their sleep for the time being, not anxious [5.], not sleep deprived [5.] (not seemingly banging on the aforementioned walls if walking), and not seeking benzodiazepines [5.], dependent instead on one another. But how many women didn't come here? How many unborn babies never made it out of a mother alive, and who cares for those women [6.]? It's depressing to think about this. An unborn baby is like one of the benzos and prospective mothers probably shouldn't become too attached to this. We could try to understand