Bigger Brother: World Affairs

By Matthew Vandenberg

Below a famous supermarket in Sydney is a Bigger Brother house where people come from all around the world to talk about global affairs to a live audience: the people in the supermarket above.

But the housemates don't know about COVID and what's going down, like jokes and prices, in the world beyond their walls. However, you'll really wanna CATCH what they're saying about affairs here, like your breath, because this book covers so many issues it's like a blanket over hundreds of magazines, so that the focus is mainly on women rather than muscles and arms.

I'm talking hypoxia, TB, diabetes, depopulation, censorship, poor taxation, bad infrastructure in the Congo, scandals, and so much more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Dec 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781649694294

Book preview

Doubtfully NSFW

'Call me a perennial plant, with roots to find both nutrients and carbon,' Matt says. 'Kernza [1.]. I gather we're underground more than six feet.'

'You won't be waiting for long to find someone,' the voice says.

Now, back to Shay and Ja-ram: they're looking at what's left re stock.

'So welcome to the store, Shay,' Ja-ram says, tossing her a smile. 'Here's the thing. We order everything two months in advance. So, since we didn't know people would flood into the store like this two months back, we're now low on stock. Everything. Therefore, your job today is simply to keep the peace.'

'You mean I'm practically redundant?' Shay asks.

Ja-ram looks at Matt and shakes her head.

'No more than Matt,' Ja-ram states. 'I guess it's time now to think about our purpose in life.'

Ja-ram laughs: 'You're not being paid to work.'

'But keeping the peace is work,' Shay states.

'It shouldn't be,' Ja-ram says. 'Talking to people should be easy.' - Ja-ram picks up some earphones and stares at them - 'When did we lose that skill? Keeping touch? A lost sense? Anyway, no one here is using earphones or headphones now. They're some of the only things left on the shelves. Doesn't that speak volumes?'

'What if Matt says something bad about the store?' Shay asks.

'You know what they say about publicity,' Ja-ram replies. 'Besides, he's going after the bigger fish, from what I can gather. Ha ha, I say that like I'm in control. Like I'm giving and telling him what fish to fry even though he's a vegetarian. But he's minding his own business pretty well.'

Matt's still talking, below and a little to the left of Shay's feet. Other people stand directly above him.

'You haven't told me when the audition will be totally given,' Matt says. 'I feel like I'm just taking your time and not giving anything away, but then I realize that that's your job and I don't want to invade your personal space mentally. But does anyone really own outer space anyway? Why simply stars?'

'Do you want to celebrate Christmas?' the voice asks.

'Not on my own,' Matt replies. 'That makes no sense. Yet the presents people get are always individually wrapped. Why is it so thrilling to have something all to yourself? I guess a public gym is different. I need a partner. So when you ask me if I want to celebrate Christmas I wonder if you're asking on behalf of a woman asking me out. Is that in? In this year? But I talk too much. I need help. Get it? Say something.'

'What's your religion?' the voice asks.

'I make it up as I go along,' Matt says. 'Shouldn't we all? Remember how I said I choose my stress [2.]? I tweak the rules for my purposeful engagements every Saturday following my evening shower. As I emerge from the bathroom, as I pass through the doorway, it is at this exact moment that I mentally and independently finalize my weekly resolutions. My heart skips a beat or beats faster, I sweat, then usually breathe a sigh of relief. It's completely mental but it's accompanied by undeniable physical sensations. Therefore I'm sure that my religion is my impermanent routine, and I'm ever open to improvement. Writing, research, exercise, fasting, dieting, and smelling the breath of strangers are my means of worship. I love food too, but I fast so that I love it even more. By the same token, I love women, but I've never had a girlfriend so I'm ready to devote so much of my time to one. Should I find this holy grail then my routine will be altered significantly. This is actually my wish. To find a woman to worship. To find my mental Mecca, and escape my mental death sentence that's mental capital punishment. I know that there's more to life than routine. But now I wonder how long I'll be in solitary confinement, like tens of thousands in the States [4.] alone, alone.

'Doubtfulness grips me, or touches me, smoothly, with rough fingers, as I get a tight feeling in the stomach from a loose hold on my heart, any hand being transient and not quite a foot in a door, just a nail in my coffin. I think. I guess. Does anyone even ever listen to me? I doubt women even recognize me when I approach them for a fifth time asking for directions in Sydney. I'm so forgettable I can't even draw my own lines (I forget how long it's been since my formative years, maybe just seconds), just short straws and they're all I recognize, in my head. Looks can be deceiving but I don't even know if merely my lines are good enough to be or not to be.'

'Have you heard about hypoxia?' the voice asks.

'I think so,' Matt says. 'A lack of oxygen, right? Maybe that can mean more carbon dioxide though, more bad breath, more thoughtful invigoration, energy, a greater breadth of hormonal changes, until I'm drowning in pee because of a woman with low levels of estrogen [7.]...'

'You're romanticizing asphyxiation,' the voice says. 'That's not advisable.'

'I'm not,' Matt says. 'No more than someone who climbs Mount Everest for the thrill of it, with a fetish for elevation to a greater state. But I personally don't even need to do that. So copy me to live better, but only if you get better. Understand? I doubt many will. I doubt women will. How can one love me when there's no one to copy? But bad breath alone is enough to get me high and it will never kill me, unless it's from a Juliet who's consumed a poison, something she would never need around me. It's all about the ethical arrangement of modern and modest marriages. Maybe that's what I long for. But there needs to always be room for doubt, right? Room, floors? How many people in how many houses? I have doubts about monogamy and nuclear families, but more often than not I have doubts about the number of rooms for some doubt left vacant in a standard house. Can Hindus get a divorce, for instance? It's rare. How does a belief in karma encourage or discourage doubtfulness? But that reminds me, in some parts of the world women really didn't even have the luxury of doubtfulness, and karma was a distant dream. There are Yazidi women who escaped the brutal inhuman clutch of members of ISIS [6.], women forced to marry abusive men against their will, eventually finding themselves in a bathroom by rat poison [6.], willing and ready to end it all, without a doubt that life is hell. Then to think that there's a chance that their families will later reject them [6.], their doubts about the morality of these obviously thoroughly innocent women enough to destroy whatever's left of the resilience of the victims, and their social well-being. So the sanctity of doubtfulness is situational. Sometimes I'm grateful just to have doubts, I think. Content moderators, as young and helpless as those their goal is to protect from harm [5.], must choose to ignore or delete offensive pictures from social media and the internet at large, figuratively engorged, one by one, until there's no longer any room for doubt and free will: pictures depicting self-harm inspire them over time to pick up a knife themselves [5.] and take it to their...'

'Lunch! Okay, stop,' the voice says. 'Doubts need to be paired with dialogue to date (what next?). Now you know where the line is, Matt. Your lines. This is a learning experience for you. If there's a need for anxiousness, confusion, restlessness, and minimal oxygen in small doses, symptoms of hypoxia, then our next guest will deliver enough. You're not dying, and neither is she. You're both alive and well and here to help and there's no doubt about that.'

When Sayuri (hypoxia girl [3.]) enters the house it becomes abundantly clear that the Asian people present were not gathered here today, above Matt, to listen to Matt.

The floor erupts in excitement. The women scream. And it wasn't because of a word Matt said. He's been silent for seconds on end. Doubt has become animated like an anticipated conversation, but Sayuri is yet to speak. It's doubtful whether she knows English.

_____________________

References

Future of Food: Is Kernza a Viable Wheat Replacement, https://youtu.be/Lh844qfcTAQ

Teen Brains Are Not Broken | Roselinde Kaiser, Ph.D. | TEDxBoulder, https://youtu.be/ZQUBFgenMXk

[Choose your stress] Sanketsu-girl Sayuri, https://www.sayuri-official.com/en/profile/

What happens to people in solitary confinement | Laura Rovner, https://youtu.be/8UNCvk9YXOo

The price of a clean internet | Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, https://youtu.be/E4FrxvHJlKw

Hope and justice for women who've survived ISIS | Rabiaa El Garani, https://youtu.be/oD8Ggp0YsWM

The Simon Foundation for Continence, Promoting Continence... Changing Lives, Hormone Changes in Women, https://simonfoundation.org/hormone-changes-in-women/

Sandi Thom - What if I'm right? [music video], https://youtu.be/IXzaNw0U1UY

TB Continued

Below ground, Sayuri is wearing a mouth mask.

Above house, Shay shakes her head.

'Well, that's an interesting coincidence,' Shay says. 'That was MY joke.'

Ja-ram smiles.

'But I notice there's no flame, and Matt's surely not one,' Ja-ram states. 'Who's Sayuri anyway?'

Shay shrugs.

'Asami, who is this girl?!' Ja-ram, with interest, shouts over loud excitements, like ironically promoting quietness.

'A Japanese singer,' Asami says. 'She helps the lonely and social inferiors feel like superior inferiors and have hope [1.]!'

Going down again, we see Sayuri take a seat across from Matt's, rolling her eyes like they're a spliff (or joint, if she's really breaking a leg to make an entrance).

'Um…hi, I'm Matt,' Matt says, raising a hand. 'Welcome to the house. I was beginning to think this is a solo project.'

'I heard you,' Sayuri says. 'I was listening you. You have weawee* stlange ideas.'

'You have a really cute accent,' Matt says. 'And thanks.'

'It's not a compliment,' Sayuri says. 'What I said, and what you said. Not compliments. I don't like you.'

'Why?' Matt asks.

'You s'ink you so smart,' Sayuri states, her mask possibly drowning consonants that then try to reach the surface from a Mariana Trench [9.] but find themselves under a lot of pressure, especially if we're to place the blame on her paper usage (much pressure of work per sheet used). 'Evlyone knows abou osmolagnia. Ever since Martian gas l'eached Earth and people started to like bad bleahf. But you s'ink so oliginal. But s'is gas is like palasite [2.]. You no s'ink for yourself. You controlled. And yet you s'ink popstars are sheep. And you know some'sing. You could be spreading TB. You don't s'ink about s'is. In Austlaylia, not a big ploblem [3.], but in Japan big ploblem [4.], so I'm weah'ling mask near you. You sick.'

Matt nods.

'I see your point,' Matt says. 'What's your name?'

'I am Sayuli,' Sayuri says.

'I see your point, Sayuli, but I don't have TB,' Matt says.

'How you know?' Sayuri says. ‘You smell bleahf of ev'ly woman you meet. You careless. Like man with AIDS [6.].'

'Wait, you're assuming that every guy with osmolagnia is infectious?' Matt asks. 'Isn't that like assuming every gay guy has AIDS?'

Sayuri shrugs.

'Mask stays on,' Sayuri says.

'I'm not pressuring you to remove it, by the way,' Matt says. 'I'm just defending myself. You enjoy wearing your mask. We can still talk, right? With eyes[5.]?'

'Yes, fine,' Sayuri says. 'No one else here.'

'It's like a niqab,' Matt says, touching his chin, smiling.

'You look like a c'leep when you smile,' Sayuri says. 'And yes, it is like niqab. Religious. I don't want you becoming a'loused alound me. So I cover up my mouth, and communicate with eyes like a Muslim teacher. Even s'ough I want to sing.' - Sayuri raises her eyebrows like they're hands. Perhaps that's high-class attentiveness if Matt cares to teach here. 'Plus, one in s'wee people has TB [7.].'

'It can't be that bad,' Matt says.

'Latent TB [7.],' Sayuri says. 'Like your so-called latent talent.'

'You can't equate my rise to fame with the fall of humanity,' Matt says. 'That statement's a little alarmist.'

'I'm just here as an 'ahem',' Sayuri states. 'For getting attention, and expressing doubt and warning. But all you s'ink I am is a couf. Is that what you like? You want me to take my mask off and couf? You want me to be hot to sweat to lose weight to be weak and horny so we can be fast friends? You like coffing, like the smell of bloody gums if I blush my tee's too hard, and you'd like me to fast so I have morning bleahf all day. But that's a lot like having TB [8.]. Then you'll want to weawee see my chest. Nice diagnostic [8.] excuse. And to touch me, physically [8.].' 

Matt shakes his head.

'How long have you been thinking about me?' Matt asks.

'You answer my questions first,' Sayuri says.

'I thought they were rhetorical,' Matt says. 'I don't know where to start. I like bad breath. That's all. I don't care about touching people and chests.'

'Oh, so you don't care about making sure I don't get TB?' Sayuri asks. 'As I s'ought.'

'You're seeking TB?' Matt asks.

'S'ought!' Sayuri repeats, tapping her head.

Matt smiles.

'You're so cute,' Matt says.

'Fuck you!' Sayuri says, holding up a middle finger, like she needs a pointer. 'I hate kawaii. Fuck kawaii.'

'Fuck away?' Matt asks.

'No,' Sayuri says. 'Learn Japanese. Kawaii is cute culture in Japan. That is ploblem. Stupid Lolita girls. You plobably like s'em. For perverted pedophiles.'

'Wow,' Matt says. 'You really love dramatization, don't you?'

'I hate men like you,' Sayuri says.

'I'm not spreading TB,' Matt says. 'If anything, women - that's women, not girls by the way - are giving ME TB. I smell THEIR breath, they don't smell mine.'

'I'm sure many women smell your stinky bleahf when you are so close to s'em,' Sayuri states.

Suddenly slightly discomforted, Matt shifts his gaze away from Sayuri's eyes, and into his seat, like he's mentally searching for lines, words, statistics, and the odds that they'll come to mind even now. There's an entire virtual reality to navigate: prospective research that rests on the trafficking of hot air, like it's a stolen bed for getting carried away by. Room service? Does discomfort help those by major players in world affairs push guilt? Who here is more pushy with feeling? Pushing passion with feeling for hurt feelings leading to a trade war somewhat against the situation between the two housemates and associated averse feelings at large. (Who can own that line, Matt or Sayuri?) Matt started it. This discomfort is disconnection from a homely environment and every move Matt makes is his feeling for books like a loner, and that's not helping with the war effort. He has to find her eyes again. He mentally flicks through pages like they're sheets he made his bed with to lie in. It's not up to her to win this war, but the pressure's surely on him.

'I'm not OFF every second,' Matt says. 'I think a lot about things. Discomfort helps, but - even though I don't quite know you yet - in this connection (like you), seemingly advantageously being used, I always hope there's no feeling of discomfort. I don't think it's crazy to crave intimacy and try to extract it from a mundane existence as much and carefully as possible. But here I don't pretend to be lost. Outside, I think I always am, now that I think about it.'

'I'm not context,' Sayuri says. 'I'm a human being. This show will not be about you, Matt.'

Matt nods, solemnly.

_____________________

*Japanese speakers: 'th' as 's'; 'r' as 'l'; no 'of'

_____________________

References

Sanketsu-girl Sayuri, https://www.sayuri-official.com/en/profile/

Parasitic Mind Control | National Geographic, https://youtu.be/lGSUU3E9ZoM

Australian Government, The Department of Health, The Strategic Plan for Control of Tuberculosis in Australia, 2016–2020: Towards Disease Elimination

1. Executive Summary, https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ohp-ntac-tb-strat-plan.htm, [Together with a relatively small number of other countries where TB incidence is <10 per 100,000, Australia is in a position where TB elimination, defined as <1 case per million population, may be feasible by 2050, noting that there is an ongoing risk of imported cases from countries with high TB incidence.]

The Japan Times, Tuberculosis remains a threat, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2009/05/05/editorials/tuberculosis-remains-a-threat/, [Japan’s TB incidence — 19.8 cases per 100,000 people in 2007 — is the highest among developed countries: 4.5 times more than in Canada, 4.4 times more than in the United States and 3.7 times more than in Sweden.]

Kerala Muslim Education Group Bans Face Veils On Campuses, https://youtu.be/rA7dlL9SLkQ

How South Africa, the nation hardest-hit by HIV, plans to 'end AIDS', https://youtu.be/-ix841dJBmc

Tuberculosis (TB): Progression of the Disease, Latent and Active Infections., https://youtu.be/202hkf43HXQ

Tuberculosis: What You and Your Family Should Know (Navajo), https://youtu.be/E_4XiONzJ8U

What's at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench?, https://youtu.be/LSHekQpyZ7w

Sayuri - Anonymous (Full ver.), https://youtu.be/HcChnZtWVaw

Extract

'Release,' a voice says: the mysterious speaker of the house.

Matt and Sayuri look up and, incidentally, unbeknown to the two, at their fans.

'Release of insulin into the bloodstream should be celebrated, rather than the release of a new clothing line,' the voice continues. 'Imagine watching people make their own clothes, and manufacturer insulin. Imagine losing weight by losing clothes as much as sugar. Full transparency [4.] is necessary. That's why - if this house is a factory in Ethiopia [3.] - people are paying attention. Imagine teaching Ethiopians how to produce insulin. Why can't objects of desire be regulatory bodies for the independent production of insulin? Empower!'

'You want us to manufacturer insulin?' Matt asks.

'I'm not taking off my clo's*,' Sayuri says.

'Not at all,' the voice says. 'Clothes are necessary as banners, and insulin can come from pigs and cows. But human insulin is arguably better because it's cheaper [1.] [5.] and better absorbed into the human body [6.]. In short, you will all be ovo-lacto vegetarians while in the house. We need more suitable insulin [2.] in the world.'

'Japanese people eat fish,' Sayuri says. 'And I s'ink s'at is good for insulin levels. I demand a l'efe'lendum! Or at least to be a conscientious objector.'

'Objection noted,' the voice says. 'Let's do drugs properly then. Research is warranted. Like industrial action on many levels, whether or not we're all working hard for some company. Hugs!'

A small kitchen seemingly rears its comfortably full head thanks to lights on end, but this dragon of sorts is hard to define: kitchen meets lab so we can really take a good look at what one eats, right?

'It's not like the person who produces the most insulin will win this game, but the person who wins this game will produce the most insulin in the house,' the voice states. 'Because they will have been here the longest. There will be no consumption of red meats [7.], organ meats [7.], and full-fat dairy [7.], but you'll make it out of here really alive to new ideas for your technical age.'

'If the women of the house properly make their own food, does that mean they'll use milk from their breasts?' Matt asks.

'S'air food, NOT yours!' Sayuri adds.

'Share?' Matt asks.

'S'air!' Sayuri repeats, pointing at her fans, not that she knows.

Above house there are cheers, as viewers feel at home, wanted, and acknowledged, and ironically free from a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach to really pull them down into Sayuri's inner circle. Sayuri will probably get more airtime thanks to fans, even if she doesn't feel a thing. She's still using up airtime like a snowboarding pilot choosing clouds over celebrations to talk about when provided with options.

'Looks like we may have to start stocking more vegan options here,' Ja-ram says. 'Whatever's on the house will seem so free to the watchers, so much so that they'll pay a premium for it. Just like if they're buying from the vegan stores in Newtown.'

'Can we sell insulin?' Shay asks. 'At least to those from the States [2.].'

'You'll find the answer in your heart of the matter,' Ja-ram says, smiling. 'The pressure [8.] of taking things to heart: that could be too much for people [8.], like the cost, the price people pay.'

'Nice quick heart-to-heart,' Shay states.

_____________________

*Japanese speakers: 'th' as 's'; 'r' as 'l'; no 'of'

_____________________

References

Good Rx, Here’s Why Insulin Is So Expensive – And What You Can Do About It, https://www.goodrx.com/blog/heres-why-insulin-is-so-expensive-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

The Diabetics Rationing Insulin Until They Die, https://youtu.be/dHiOSk7J-lA

The Exploitative Factories Making Your Fast Fashion in Ethiopia, https://youtu.be/vFIhD84ouv8

Garment Industry: #GoTransparent, https://youtu.be/wjt9rpF1c9M

Web MD, Human Insulin as Good as Costly Synthetic Versions, https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/news/20180629/human-insulin-as-good-as-costly-synthetic-versions

Chicago Tribune, HUMAN INSULIN MAY BE BETTER THAN ANIMAL, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-29-9003030670-story.html, [This article is almost 30 years old but I think it's still relevant]

healthline, Pancreatitis Diet, https://www.healthline.com/health/pancreatitis-diet

Science Daily, Science News, Too much insulin a bad thing for the heart?, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419233109.htm

Extra Credit

The silence is turning three minutes old. Matt's looking at a Bonsai tree. He's hypnotized.

'It's a thousand years old [1.] and it loves carbon dioxide,' Matt says, breaking the silence but not a branch.

'Don't start,' Sayuri says. 'So you s'ink* you're normal because you like carbon dioxide like a twee?'

'It doesn't wear a mask,' Matt says, smiling.

'Don't get excited,' Sayuri says. 'It won't have bad b'leahf. It's a twee.'

'What I'm getting at is that the carbon dioxide isn't harmful to it,' Matt states, touching it's trunk. 'It's not gonna die because of the carbon dioxide we produce. Ten pounds per day each if we're really active [2.]. And it's possible to add the right genes to the genome of certain strains of E. coli to make the E. coli consume carbon dioxide rather than sugar [3.]. Healthy, right? It can even be used to make insulin [3.]. Carbon dioxide given off when steel and concrete are manufactured [3.] can be appropriate, sure, but we're not manufacturing steel or concrete here. Instead, we're free to move about and breathe. And find the right E. coli by avoiding meats [4.].'

'Beef [4.],' Sayuri says. 'And l'aw vegetables too, if s'e water s'ey have been washed in is contaminated [4.]. And we don't want ANY E. coli in this house. STOP. P'LOMOTING BACTEAR'LIA!'

Matt assumes the role of a practicing Buddhist and strikes a Half Lotus pose by the Bonsai tree like he's a log book of activities not going anywhere.

'People could be paid to produce carbon dioxide,' Matt says. 'Carbon credits for all and for all a good night. Merry Christmas. The payment could be a universal basic income. You could call this prime industrial speculation (after all, everyone can speculate, so the speculation is like snowflakes): I'm personally guessing that poor breath will be more appealing to those used to rich breath (still being used, so not new, and getting old), and vice versa, because we're generally aroused by what's novel [5.], whether we like to admit it or not. Rich breath: it's funny (rich) how much of it there is, and it's worth. Then, with novelty in mind, each to their own? Rich to the poor, and poor to the rich? In this case, getting language is not really necessary (there's no real need to talk), but just understand how deeply profound the statement 'each to their own' is.

'If we think therefore we are, then we should think to breathe. The poor must admit that they at least own the role of breather to begin with. So everyone needs to start somewhere there. Everyone owns their breathing (that's responsible), if nothing else. Hot breath rises. In this sense, I applaud mineral wealth creation for all against striking loneliness and over and above carbon dioxide. Decry inequality [6.].'

'Somebody else should say what you're saying but in a better way, because you're not making sense,' Sayuri says.

'Yeah,' Matt says. 'Like how researchers should replicate others' work more [7.]. I can't say just enough all on my own. I usually say too much. Maybe everyone - casual citizens at least - should replicate others' work more, and get paid to. They're casual citizens because they don't really want to stay in one country forever. They want to travel where others have gone before, so why not replicate others' work as well while they're at it? Travel guides can be research papers so travelers can reach new heights with collaboration. Industrial research. Ensure that the basic income is universal like footprints are.

'Moving footprints of satellites don't actually go anywhere, but the satellites do. And the people gathered somewhere for research can be as inspirational as the areas in question. We can appreciate inspirational powerful countries' powerful satellites' footprints of former industrial or military bases, if we instead find more carbon above ground now. I propose a new humanistic emissions trading. In breath. Forget footprints and focus on mouths.'

Matt stands up

Sayuri tilts her head to one side.

'You're p'lomoting bactear'lia and now carbon,' Sayuri says. 'And you expect me to take off my mask?'

_____________________

*Japanese speakers: 'th' as 's'; 'r' as 'l'; no 'of'

_____________________

References

1000 Year Old Japanese Bonsai Tree Adventure ONLY in JAPAN, https://youtu.be/1CfUts-M1r8

Slate Explainer, 7 Billion Carbon Sinks, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/08/are-you-heating-the-planet-when-you-breathe.html

New Scientist, CO2-guzzling bacteria made in the lab could help tackle climate change, https://www.newscientist.com/article/2224908-co2-guzzling-bacteria-made-in-the-lab-could-help-tackle-climate-change/, [The bacteria [E. coli] could use CO2 generated by the steel or concrete industry to make insulin, for example.]

Mayo Clinic, E. coli, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/e-coli/symptoms-causes/syc-20372058

The Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, Role of Partner Novelty in Sexual Functioning: A Review. Abstract, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25222339/

The Economist, In the past, America was not as unequal as it has become, https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/10/24/in-the-past-america-was-not-as-unequal-as-it-has-become

New Scientist, Science’s fake news problem: How funding pressures drive bad research, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432594-700-sciences-fake-news-problem-how-funding-pressures-drive-bad-research/

Billie Eilish, Khalid - lovely, https://youtu.be/V1Pl8CzNzCw

Dawin - Go Off (Lyric Video), https://youtu.be/wYj5WsSZ6Ng

Twenty Twenty Now

'They're coming,' the voice above says.

These words are followed by so much silence that Matt questions the initial utterance.

'Did you hear that?' Matt asks Sayuri.

'What?' Sayuri asks.

'The voice,' Matt says. 'People are coming.'

'You're c'lazy*,' Sayuri says. 'It's twenty twenty now, so you have a vision at the expense of your hearing.'

There's a climate of suspicion that's rapidly changing.

'A vision,' Matt says, nodding. 'Imagine we're in the rural reaches of Spain, waiting for company like lonely farmers, and then we see a love bus [1.] full of single women looking for partners. That may be crazy, but it's so hard to see a woman there, let alone a female therapist. Call it the States [2.]. There's no insurance against loneliness. A broken heart can be the reason a person who's only human is placed in suspended animation [3.] [4.] for months to years, and all the while so very cold. But then can loneliness enjoy a revival of the twenty first century, it's popularity an ironic way to bring people closer together to exhale to live well and reach new animated heights as they welcome religious revivals of understanding democratic floors?

'How many love buses [1.] would it take to make bullets obsolete? Heavy traffic with women on the roads can encourage understanding when you get stuck in straightaway like moving into food rather than paying rent. Otherwise, when do men ever have time to talk? Restaurant traffic need to be more talkative. Again, revive understanding democratic floors to own better buildings with them. Eventually see floor to floor (or room to room for more) already jammed with women singers. Expressive. Impressive. What did they say? And what did they mean? Likewise with the voice from above.'

'Do people get to choose whether they are put into [the house] [3.]?' the voice asks.

'Now I hear it,' Sayuri says.

'The answer is actually NO,' the voice continues. 'After all, there are many people whom would choose to be here but are not. Is that any different from people being here against their will, from an ethical standpoint? Obviously anyone here is free to leave at any time, but this is food for thought since no one had breakfast today. It's too hot. Everything's being naturally overcooked.'

'Great point,' Matt says. 'What if it were mandatory to board a love bus [1.] in rural areas of countries, for mental check-ups and conversations? The low population of such areas in rural Spain for one, means it's easy for acting therapists to see everyone. They could be paid to be animated with a sense of direction changing in line with traffic. Less traffic and greater direction going hand in hand like one's making their way to an isolation chamber to urbanize it by, ironically perhaps, putting their hands together for fewer cars everywhere. But more buses. Of course, urban areas - especially in the States - will need to become more rural in relation to crime rates [5.]. So there's a need to encourage rural people to teach urban people how to be more successfully social, also ironically, but work with people here.

'If you look to traffic in drugs for guidance maybe you're simply looking for people surrounded by their natural odors. Those in rural areas may be well versed in anti-cancer therapy to fight the cancer of corruption, with those in urban areas well versed in anti-cancer therapy to fight the cancer of bigotry. Anti-cancer therapy is indeed more important than simply talking about looking to traffic in drugs FOR MONEY. That's absurd! Cancer, and NOT money, should be on everyone's mind. With rural leaders for urban areas and vice versa, and ethnic leaders for plain areas also, there can be diverse leadership to tackle cancers.'

'Is s'ere such s'ing as f'lee will?' Sayuri asks. 'Maybe being a victim of some cancer isn't a choice.'

'Seems so obvious now, doesn't it?' Matt states. 'Mental health is important. And hostilities and animation can be suspended equally when there's no hostile animation to speak with (maybe it's not unhealthy to dream about being animated like a former enemy).'

'The housemates have arrived,' the voice says.

The introduction was curious to say the least, because figurative dead cats are everywhere and we honestly didn't know what was going on. Many are koalas. And firefighters. Rest in peace. But the leaders of Australia (dead cats) should be held responsible for the devastating bush fires now ravaging the country.

The approaching housemates are acting firefighters, and true valiant leaders of a necessary protest group to take Australia by storm. A Royal Fire Service coup would be an incredible performance to stage.

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*Japanese speakers: 'th' as 's'; 'r' as 'l'; no 'of'

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References

Is a Busload of Single Women