Redistribution

By Werdna Namssal

With billions of users, the Internet has revolutionised the way we communicate, buy and, sell and accumulate knowledge. The global cult-like success of social media has democratised opinion and given a voice to people hitherto unrepresented. Redistribution takes this phenomenon one stage further through a fast-paced thriller storyline in which a virtual world becomes powerful enough to actually govern.Told through the book's protagonist Goris Hoff – a dot-com billionaire with a conscience who is on a mission to redistribute wealth from the few to the many – the story is a dystopian vision of power, greed and retribution. Having sold his first online venture for a billion dollars, Hoff's American Dream becomes a nightmare as he travels the world in search of self and is witness to unrelenting poverty and disease while his his family are ticking the LA glamour lifestyle boxes of discrete affairs and branded luxury. Hoff's epiphany is meeting the charismatic Angolan John and together they set out to balance the ledger of the world's wealth. Hoff launches e-DRI.com (Democratic Republic of the Internet) and it grows first as as a social website, evolving into a system of redistribution of the wealth of the world. Gathering millions of people from all backgrounds it grows under the radar mainly as a voice for the forgotten third world. But after several years it becomes an intelligent system, a quasi international government with more than two billion subscribers, amassing information through a complex layered artificial intelligence structure, ready to redistribute wealth and smash corruption and inequality. With its declaration that the 1426 billionaires in the world have to give up their wealth voluntarily or be e-trialled and e-executed, DRI's information bank is a technological monster on a feeding frenzy with superior software and capability than those of governments. Economic chaos ensues – governments fall, politicians and leaders are e-trialled and e-executed, economies collapse and the Americans, seeing their ubiquitous power base eroding, concoct a phoney war against Iran. Still DRI gets stronger, evolving into a growing e-global government with an inevitability of controlling the world. Police and governments across the world are looking for Hoff, now armed with a fake identity and UK passport. With the Americans closing in, the billionaire turned fugitive embarks on a survival road trip through two African countries harboured by Angola John and his family. With its spectacular geography, nature and culture juxtaposed with criminal gangs and corrupt officials, Hoff's physical and tortuous journey is exacerbated by the mental strain of the stark reality that his and his family's safety is on the line. Ultimately, will the DRI monster he created be able to save him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Werdna Namssal
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

To: e-DRIO’s

Subject: Redistribution – Welfare Department

‘I sat in McDonalds in Africa and I bought one thousand burgers because I could. I bought one thousand bags of fries because I wanted. I bought one thousand cokes because I was thirsty. Word spread and starving children filled the restaurant to see for themselves. One skeletal child came to me and looking at my mountain of burgers and fries with her huge brown eyes put out her hand and asked. Can I have a burger? Why should I? I said. They are mine. Who am I, you may wonder? I am no-one. I am a distributor. I packaged something for the corporate vultures that always want more. They coveted my useless business that created nothing and contributed nothing and they took it and they gave me lots of money. That is the moment when we are meant to celebrate achievement and go spend our spoils on more houses we can’t live in and yachts we can’t sail and we grow fat on excess and throw a few coins at the poor. But that was for me the moment of shame and realization. That for me was the moment I could no longer look into the eyes of my father. I looked up to him with pride and he looked down at me with pity and I did not understand. He asked me what I had achieved in three years and I had no answer. I was 30 years old with no future, having achieved it too young. Then I decided to use my wealth to see for myself and that is why I started it all. I now introduce myself to you all for the. I am the founder of DRI but I am now one in a billion. I planted the seed with no clear objective. Not for one second did I dream that the seed would grow organically into an e-government with an electorate of one billion. Now I am simply a servant and as senior Welfare distributor, it is my job as your e-EDRIO (Elected DRI Official) to inform you that e- DRI Operation Redistribution is to be launched today. We will emerge as the new ruling voice, the new e-government that has simply evolved over seven years. History is today being written by you and me. Remember this - the collective wealth of the richest 1426 Hyenas amounts to 8% of the total output of the world. It is incomprehensible that twenty people in every 100 million own 8% of the world’s total annual output out of a world population of 7,000,000,000. All of those 1426 billionaires out of a population of seven thousand million people could be moved into a small village by ten busloads in the middle of nowhere with more wealth than almost the entire wealth of any country. But we know that this cannot remain. We must start somewhere and so for now we will start with this. I know that the temptations of our technological world are greater than the will of the individual but together we can change it all. We have the greatest minds, the greatest soldiers with the same ambition. We are the new government of the world and it is our right to take back this world from the rich and corrupt. We are going to fight them with the monster they forced us to create. Remember that this is for our children and our children’s children and all the children of the future. A Tsunami of greed has degraded us all. The inequalities of wealth have grown. Social networking sites and applications have taken away our dignity. Everything is in the public domain. Reality TV has brainwashed our children to desire the undesirable and to covet the unachievable. A lottery win is neither an ambition nor an achievement. A Start-Up is not a worthy business for our children. The start-up is a plague infesting the minds of our children. The creation of something we do not need, a virtual business being bought by virtual people to be regurgitated on a bigger scale to our children caught up in this virtual world that we now live in. As I look in the mirror, I can look at myself for the first time in many years with a pride that I thought had been buried forever. I am honoured to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the world. You know what you have to do. This mail must be deleted through Trashcan.’

I stood over the send button taking in the moment that would unleash the beginning of worldwide chaos and a new order but I could not send it. I knew what President Truman must have been feeling before he gave the order to unleash the bomb. It was the lesser of two evils for us both. There was no doubt in our minds that we had no choice so why was it so difficult. I went downstairs to get a drink. I called the lift but decided to walk. I was attracted to the noise in the kitchen. My wife and daughter were seated on opposite bar stools, tapping away on their keyboards on 7b.com, talking to each other whilst their phones sat on the worktop buzzing every few seconds with messages from one or other of their social group Apps. They didn’t have time to look up. I stood in the doorway staring at them for some time. I allowed myself a speech that I would never give.

I’m sorry for what you are feeling now. I’m sorry for the pain you are going through and I hope you will forgive me. I know what I have done to you but you will thank me. In the end you’ll know what really matters. I am not asking you to forgive me. I’ve done this for everyone, to make all our lives better. We have this house, this life because I made money. It was all a means to an end. The business I sold was not a business. I built nothing. I made no profit. There were no real jobs. We built a box with a concept in it and we wrapped it up in gold. We knew that everyone would want what was inside even though there was nothing in it. I didn’t build houses or heal the sick. I had an idea on Monday, an investment on Tuesday and I sold it on Wednesday. I just sold a link in the chain that is imprisoning us all simply for the sake of greed. I never dreamt about being an architect or a surgeon like dad. I dreamed only about getting rich like this new internet generation. Where is the nobility in this? Where is the pride? I want you sweetheart to grow up wanting to do something good where money is a bi-product and not an ambition. I want you to see that we don’t need excess to be happy. We still have enough. I have not spent it all. I have no issue with money or wealth. I respect the rich –the empire builders, the inventors, the entrepreneurs but I despise the money. I understand greed. I have been there all my life. I grew up surrounded by greed. I know the desire to have houses and cars and holidays and jewellery. I love the feeling of being surrounded by beautiful things, the thrill of a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. These things are good. It is simply the feeling of having too much that I despise. I have an issue with excess, with the hoarders not the big spenders. Hoarding money that can never be spent. I just want a fairer world and that is why I did it. And now everyone will be a little richer and some like us will be a lot poorer and it’s not going to stop. One billion people have ‘supported’ us on our website. The viral world they created has turned on them. No jury in the world could convict me for redistributing. Not a single billionaire is free of guilt. We have files on every single one of them and information that could convict each and every one. This is a new world voice of one billion, the loudest voice that has ever been heard with a superior artificial intelligence. An e-government has evolved and that is something to be proud of.

They didn’t hear and they didn’t see because they were at that moment, virtual. Were they a sacrifice worth making? I couldn’t allow myself to think like that and so I blocked that avenue for after. I went by lift back to the office and shut the door behind me. I opened my laptop and pushed ‘send’. The culmination of seven years’ work, travelling across the globe, e-meeting after e-meeting, meeting the hackers, the mercenaries, ex SAS and CIA, ex- army generals, the anarchists, the leakers, the politicians, the lawyers, the accountants, the bankers, the communists, the police, the farmers and the villagers. Intercontinental DRI meetings and one billion supporters later, we were ready. Not even now, at the moment of impact, did I understand what exactly had been unleashed. Of course, every now and then someone understood the unstoppable force and made the odd attempt to shut us down but nothing could match the power of numbers. The court systems everywhere upheld our right to exist. Nobody foresaw the enormity.

Tonight, the whole world will witness the emergence of the most powerful government in history. The whole world will witness a redistribution of wealth, unprecedented in history. The Voluntary Redistribution of the wealth of the 1426 Hyenas. Every detail, photographic and documentary, will be posted on e-DRI.com. It will expose pure corruption, political collusion, political alliance, military alliance, tax evasion, tax avoidance, duress, unfair practice, destruction of competition, acquisition of national assets, violence, bribery, murder, industrial espionage, reverse engineering – hundreds of creative, immoral and illegal ways to create a fortune and to hold on to that fortune. We will stir up hatred and we will redistribute.

Almost every country in the world has elected e-politicians, elected online in free and fair elections. Fair campaigns online for a fair government online - a pure international e-democracy with everyone equal. Distributor forums have been set up in 38 languages answering to one billion supporters, growing at a volcanic rate. We are a non-profit making e-government with unpaid politicians accounting to one billion voters with the current sole objective of redistributing wealth.

To: Distributors

Subject: e-DRI launch

‘DRI has attracted the best banking minds, forensic accountants, lawyers, computer, IT experts and hackers. Artificial Intelligence programmes have evolved. DRI has developed the most effective and sophisticated ways of amassing, recognising and organising information, the most evolved and complete process of redistributing the wealth of Hyenas. DRI has uncovered layer after layer of manipulation and deceit. We have found offshore and onshore methods of filtering wealth and avoiding tax. A web of complex means to amass more and pay out less, often legal and supported by corrupt or indebted government. Technological redistribution alone is not enough. DRI has the intelligence to track movement of money, to unravel financial deceit. Art, jewellery, antiques, property, cars, gold, property and other physical investment will be redistributed by DRI. The relevant Distribution Departments in each country will give their Hyenas the procedure. We have the mandate from you. We have pledged that at all costs, violence is not necessary. We need your support’. SEND

I was tired. I called down to Gallie and told her that I was upstairs working. She sent back a muffled, virtual response. I watched tv lying on the bed then showered. I felt calm and somewhat removed knowing that tomorrow was the beginning of the unknown but also knowing that nothing in my life would ever again be this calm and functional. I waited for her and as she entered, she smiled at me, the smile of a 17 year married couple who still cared for each other in an age-diluted way. I watched her undress. The ease with which she stood naked in front of me amazed me, unashamed of her age – a compliment to us I suppose. I could only see the young and beautiful woman I had married inside the body of the older woman she had become. The sagging breasts and enlarged buttocks were not hers. I loved her and I knew that I had betrayed her. We would never be the same again. She was oblivious to it all for now and that hurt because she deserved better.

Gallie, can I ask you something?

Sounds ominous. What is it? I know something has been bothering you. Is it work?

Yes it is work but that doesn’t matter now.

What do you mean? – That doesn’t matter ‘now’. Goris what’s going on? Oh my God, please don’t tell me it’s another woman! Please don’t be so obvious. You’re better than that. Goris?

No it’s not another woman. It would be easier if it were. Please just listen. Do you have any idea what I’ve been doing since I sold the business? No you don’t. Why have you never shown real interest?

I’ve asked you so many times but I knew that you didn’t really want to involve me in your stuff. Goris I’ve always let you come to me in your own time. That’s why we work and I couldn’t take the preaching. I always thought it was better that we didn’t know everything about each other. You know that. What’s wrong with you? You’re beginning to worry me. You’ve been acting so odd recently and I’m not the only one who’s noticed it. Jazzy says the same.

Listen Gallie I’m going to try to tell you something. I want you to sit down. Please. Do you know how much money I sold the company for?

Yes. And I was so proud of you. All your hard work. You deserved it.

And ‘that’ is the point. I did not deserve it. Why did I deserve to make an obscene amount of money? How exactly did I deserve it?

You had a fantastic idea and from that you had the talent to create something great. You built it up into a business and then everybody wanted it.

Really? Three years’ of work, if you can call it work? A Social Network platform is not a ‘great’ idea. It is borderline evil. It’s like a new sweet filled with poison.

That’s ridiculous. First of all it is not poisonous, it is simply a new world whether you approve or not and the fact that it took a few years is because of your talent. So if it had taken ten years, would that make it better?

It’s not that simple. It’s not about time. All I did was persuade some greedy bastard to invest in us. All of us, driven only by greed, put together something that we knew millions of children would like and sold it for obscene money. We made no profits. We didn’t care about profit. Why should we? It was never a business. Gallie, you know what I did every day. I had meetings and felt important. Meeting after meeting after meeting. Talking crap and feeling important. A constant feeling that you’re on the verge of something big where big meant money. It wasn’t a scientific breakthrough. We were just waiting for our numbers to come up. I wasn’t restructuring the public health system or researching the cure for cancer. I didn’t work every day of my life operating on the sick like my dad. What a sense of worth he must have had. He never doubted his motives. My dad didn’t have time for coffee and long lunches and meetings. He had real work to do. The day I saw the money in my account, I felt sick. It felt like blood money, dirty, stolen and not mine. I truly wished that the government had taxed 90% of it. I don’t have a problem with people getting rich but I do have a problem with excess and start-up wealth. How could one man spend more than a few million, a hundred million if you’re excessive? No single person has the right to such excess. I stopped seeing the Oligarchs and the billionaires and start-up pricks as business people a long time ago. Do you know that the combined wealth of a few busloads of billionaires is greater than the combined wealth of half the world’s population? These rich are hoarders with no conscience. They want the adoration for a few charitable foundations they set up but rest assured, they hold on to their wealth. Teams of lawyers and accountants trying to find ways to avoid tax. They’re the bully in the school playground, stealing all the sweets from all the other kids, never sharing and always taking.

I don’t know what’s wrong with you. It’s good to have a conscience so that you can appreciate what you have but we can’t change the world. Look where we live. Do you know how lucky we are? You should be so proud of yourself. You did something great. You created a global business. That’s amazing and there are millions of people who agree with me. Even if I agree with what you’re saying what is the point of feeling like this. You can’t change anything so enjoy what we have. You’re just having a bad day.

Actually I’m having a great day. The best day I’ve had in years. I feel free, worthy and for the first time in years, I can look my dad in the face.

What are you talking about? You’re worrying me. What’s going on?

I’m trying to tell you. I’ve tried to tell you many times but you didn’t want to know. You were too busy spending more and more money on more and more things we didn’t need but that was ok because we had more money than we could ever spend. I mean, how many houses and cars and holidays and clothes and phones can one family have? You don’t have a clue what I’ve been doing for the last seven years. Investing – that’s what you assume.

Then if you were investing, why the crisis of conscience now?

The crisis of conscience has long gone because I have been spending on something that made me feel better about me and not for monetary gain. I’m sure you know DRI.Com.

What are you talking about? DRI is that ridiculous anarchist’s website. What’s that got to do with you?

Absolutely everything.

Don’t be so stupid. I’ve been on the site. It’s some sort of information website and forum for the loony left. People who want destroy governments and redistribute wealth stuff. I heard it on the news I think. Jonathan Harvey was talking about the impact the site could have. Apparently it has more than one billion subscribers and no advertising. Imagine that. Imagine how much money they’ve lost? I hardly think you’d be welcome there.

Actually I am very welcome there. It’s my website and to set the record straight, I set it up so that people could talk about the unfairness of things, the redistribution of wealth but it evolved and took on a life of its own. Now it has nothing to do with me.

What are you talking about?

It was my idea, my money and all the lies you see in the news about the illusive owner, is about me. They think it’s an Iranian website, set up by the government to create world unrest and anti-feeling towards the excesses of the West. It’s incredible that the monster they created is now the monster they will have to account to. It has become an online international government. The CIA and FBI were too busy looking in the wrong direction. One billion people is an enormous number. Do you know how many of our subscribers come from these agencies, from armies and the police?

You know what Goris? I’ve had enough of this. I want to go. We are late. I think this is mad. Is it some sort of joke because it’s not funny? I don’t know what’s wrong with you. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Why are you doing this? Are you angry with me?

No, not really. Maybe, that you don’t believe me. The truth is that I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why I feel like this but I do. Something changed in me. Maybe when I achieved everything I always thought I wanted and more, I realised it wasn’t what I wanted after all. To have that kind of money, having done nothing to deserve it and by the age of 30! What was I supposed to do? Make more money? Invest in start-ups? No thank you. Fuck that!

Ever since I first met you, you told me that you wanted to be rich. I liked it, that you knew what you wanted and you were so confident and I believed you. You have always loved money and now you want me to believe that you’re ashamed of the money you made and that a crackpot loss- making website is yours with one billion users. Let’s assume you’re telling the truth. What possible motive could you have? Let’s be real Goris. You said that it has one billion users and but some reason it has been an untapped revenue source. That’s a lot of lost revenue. Somehow that is not you. It is so obviously an Iranian government thing. Oh for god’s sake, you always do this, drag me into something that I have no interest in, fighting over something I don’t care about. I want to go.

Yes that’s all true but not now. How many people actually know what it feels like to achieve more than they ever dreamed possible? It used to be a slow accumulation of riches for most rich people. Years and years of building businesses and accruing wealth and with that time, a sense of pride and respect from others for what they had achieved. Maybe if I’d done it this way, I would be ok with it but for me and so many nowadays, it is a lottery win. When I got that money, everyone wanted a slice of it and I gave here and there. We both did. It made us feel better about ourselves for a while but I had a voice in my head, telling me it was wrong to keep the money when so many people were starving and sick and helpless and then all the places we went, the cruises, holidays in the Caribbean, and the news, the papers, the streets – everywhere and everything I saw and heard made me feel more and more guilty. Gallie I am sorry for what I’ve done to you and Jazzy. I really am. I’m sorry.

It’s ok. Can we go now? Goris are you listening? I know that whatever you’ve done, you didn’t mean to hurt us. Look I don’t know what you’ve actually done but I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think. Come on, we are going to be late. Let’s talk about it later.

She held me and it felt good, really good. It gave me hope for a second that our lives would not change but that moment passed for I knew that it was only time before she understood the enormity of my actions and the impact on our lives. I put everything aside for the time being. We were going to a party at Steve and Katrina’s. Drinks and catered nibbles for the rich, the bankers, the businessmen for the money, the doctors and the lawyers for the status, the criminals for the thrill. We were late. Steve opened the door, dressed appropriately for him apologizing for the rush and dragging us into the cinema room as he explained that there was a major news announcement that everyone was watching. Gallie had no clue. A few familiar faces turned round and acknowledged us for a split second. Everyone was glued to the breaking news.

e-DRI.Com, a social network site with a social conscience has been making breaking news across the world today. At exactly 3pm today a message was broadcast in thirty eight languages simultaneously –declaring itself the largest, true democratic International Government –The e-DRI. What exactly does that mean? To find out, we go over to our correspondent in New York, Guy Streeter. Guy what can you tell us? Well Martin, the Secretary of State has released an official statement and I quote ‘this is a terror threat against every democratic country in the world. We will stand shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm with every free democracy to counter this threat. The US government will use all its resources to fight e-terrorism and all other forms of terrorism. The US will never allow elements in the East to undermine our very civilization.’ Yes Martin, the speech today by Secretary of State, Henshaw left no-one confused. It was a direct attack on Iran and Iranian interests. The detailed speech went on to say that the US government along with its allies would ‘close down, break up and destroy’ every atom of this subversive organization with all means at ‘our’ disposal. For the first time, openly threatening, using phrases, such as, covert and overt, inside and outside the line. It seems that the release of the DRI demands must have hit at the very core of modern government. We can only speculate as to the outcome. Thank you Guy. President Michele of France, Chancellor Rauch of Germany issued a more reserved, joint statement on behalf of the EU condemning the DRI announcement as ‘a feeble attempt by subversive, government backed terrorist groups to unsettle our very freedom.’ Now over to our political correspondent, Justin Wheeler. Justin, what’s all the fuss about? It seems to me to be an international disaster of miniscule proportions? Well Martin, if it were a statement from a loony leftist website as many are claiming, you would be right but this a much more interesting and powerful website that has grown largely unnoticed in the last five years. Looked upon until today as simply another harmless social networking website, albeit with a conscience and rumoured to be funded by Iranian money, nobody took much notice of it. Today DRI has come of age. It has declared itself, a global government, an e-government. But the real question is -what is going on behind the scenes? An announcement in itself that a new e-government has self-declared would ordinarily have been little more than back page news. So why has the US and Europe and indeed, leaders across the world reacted so strongly to what on the surface seems little more than another loony declaration by another fringe terror group at worst? Sources in the Whitehouse have revealed that they see this declaration (and they are not alone) as a culmination of what they say is ‘six years’ electioneering’. They see this as the most sophisticated election campaign in history. Sources further reveal that this declaration is merely a part of a much more complex attempt to undermine the fundamentals of our existence. Big words but what are they not telling us? Justin, indeed, what are they hiding? Well, we are aware that e-demands have been made across the world to key business people but the content of those demands are not yet known. It is being hailed, rather dramatically, as a co-ordinated e-attack against civilization itself. To understand why this has created such a reaction, we need to look at the history of DRI. Since its inception six years ago, DRI has made no money but more significantly, it has made no attempt at making money and perhaps that is the reason why it should have been more closely monitored especially in light of the fact that it has close to one billion subscribers, more than any other site on the web. As it had no impact on business, it was left alone to grow out of all proportions. I suspect questions will be raised across the world as to how a website like e-DRI that has grown to such unbelievable proportions could have done so, under the radar. It might be a case of too little too late. Some agencies believe that e-DRI was founded by one of the splinter groups connected to The Islamic Brotherhood of Iran but sources in the White House suggest that the Iranian government is behind it. The truth will emerge no doubt in coming days but one thing is certain, whoever is behind it, if they were intending to incite unrest and destabilize the West, it seems that they have already achieved their aim. Justin can you tell us in brief, the contents of the DRI declaration? Yes indeed. The statement says, and I quote – ‘This day, Tuesday March 1st 2020, we the DRI declare ourselves the first democratically evolved, e- Government. We, The DRI have one billion supporters worldwide and as such are the greatest single and only true democracy in the world. We have a mandate to create a fairer society and to this end, we have begun.’ Well the declaration goes on to talk about the ‘forcible voluntary redistribution’ of wealth. Very odd terminology, seen by many as a threat against the uber-rich or ‘Hyenas’ as they are called by DRI. If you read between the lines, this seems little more than a communist manifesto. But in these times of austerity and the rise and rise of the super-rich, governments across the world may find the new DRI politics of redistribution a little too popular. Is this the dawning of a new age for mankind controlled by machine? Is this the beginning of the era of Artificial Intelligence? Are we witnessing a shift in world politics to the left brought about by the unstoppable power of the people. Robin Hood is alive in the virtual world. The days of the Hyena may be numbered."

Isn’t this simply a knee-jerk reaction from governments across the world to, what would appear to be a toothless declaration or is this a reaction to an ‘awakening’ as Chancellor Rauch suggested, a deep rooted global reaction to the growing inequalities throughout the West, an unstoppable force, perhaps?

"Well Martin, this is a debate that is raging across the world’s media. I have just been informed that demonstrations have broken out across cities and remote villages and towns in India, China and many parts of South America in support of DRI. Further breaking news. President Amiri of Iran denies any involvement of the Iranian government.