Resolve: Do We Have Time?

By Walter Hes

I have been inspired to write Resolve by the parable The Tragedy of the Commons and even more by the extensive comments made by Herschel Elliott (1997) in A General Statement of the Tragedy of the Commons referred to in the book.

Parables aim to teach us something. This parable made me aware of the finity of the earth as we know it. Herschel Elliott really brings home that if we don't prioritize and probably enforce meaningful action, we could lose everything human life depends on.

The situation we find ourselves in starts to worry more and more people, including me. They are situations like climate change, many wars, refugees, huge multi-national corporations, and the political inability of most countries to make effective decisions.

Resolve tries to come up with answers. It shows how the main characters find the solution and also the way to convince the world to listen.

It is not my intention to upset anyone, be it decision makers or members of interest groups, but to get people thinking and considering new ideas and possible solutions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524520939

Walter Hes

Born in Netherlands, Walter had to start working in the construction industry at 14 while attending part-time technical education and night school before serving in the Royal Navy for two and half years, mainly in Dutch New Guinea. Walter travelled the world to work on big construction projects; this brought him and his family for five years to Brazil. The unforgivable destruction caused by greed, of the Amazon Rain Forest inspired him to write this novel about the ongoing disaster. Now, settled in Australia, he has found time in his retirement to write down the stories, that have been swirling through his mind. Hundred Shades of Green is his fourth book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Walter Hes.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016921452

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-2095-3

                Softcover        978-1-5245-2094-6

                eBook             978-1-5245-2093-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/12/2016

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

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Contents

Resolve

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

RESOLVE

The world situation starts to worry more people, including me. Climate change, many wars, huge multi-national corporations, and political inability in most countries to make effective decisions.

This book tries to come up with answers. It shows how the main characters find the solution and the way to convince the world to listen. I hope you will read it with an open mind and give it some honest thought.

Happy reading.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would have never seen light of day if it were not for the people that encouraged and/or assisted me. My thanks go to my family for their patience and encouragement, to my wife Elly and daughter Natacha, for the many hours they spent editing and my other daughter Dominique who read the very first copy and gave me the courage to continue. To Jenny Macaulay and Keith Paulusse for their advice, and to my philosophy teacher, Rene Souery. His comment that my English language needed a lot of work but that Plato would have been proud of the way I used philosophy throughout the book, was very much appreciated. My special thanks go to Herschel Elliott, the author of A General Statement of the Tragedy of the Commons, for his very kind letter in which he gave me permission to quote his essay in my novel. It has been essential to the story and was my inspiration for the book.

Many thanks to all,

Walter Hes

CHAPTER 1

Straight after his arrival by plane, Eric jumped in a taxi to be in time for his appointment, which was successfully concluded early morning. The same taxi dropped him off at the hotel in the city centre.

The scenes that confronted him looking out from the taxi during the drive from the industrial area to the centre rendered him speechless. Of course, he was aware that things were not going well in the country but he had not expected that it had gone downhill this quickly in the big city. In the short period since the Great Financial Crisis, there had been a recovery, but it had been short-lived. He never saw anything like the scenes that confronted him now, not in this country! In the worst suburb, they drove through, all he could see was abject poverty. He saw shabbily dressed people begging, and people fighting. Many shop fronts were boarded up and there was hardly any traffic apart from some public transport. Last time he passed through here, there were some beggars and homeless people but nothing like this.

Leaving the hotel after lunch for his next appointment, he could find no taxi and to his regret was forced to walk; luckily, he had some time.

Where had all this come from in such a short time, he asked himself, and where would it lead?

For a while now, Eric had lived more in the office above his factory than at home. A handsome man in his mid-thirties, quite tall and slim with dark hair that already started to grey a bit, and intense blue eyes that took in everything but were now overshadowed by a worried frown. As well as personal problems, he had deep worries about the rapid declining sales, mainly of his more upmarket products.

He had worked 12, sometimes 16 hours, a day and when he decided to dump most of the luxury products and return to producing the original bars of soap his father had started with, he got into trouble with Union officials for laying off staff, but it had to be done. The main reason for coming to the big city was to secure the materials and equipment he needed for those basic, old fashioned soap bars. That was all done this morning.

The meeting he was now heading for was at an IT company to discuss updating his computer system in the hope of laying off even more staff and maybe lift his own workload a bit as well.

Thinking about the problems the country was facing, he walked briskly towards his appointment. Even here in a more upmarket area he had to dodge some beggars. Unexpectedly, a young man asked his attention:

Sir, could I please polish your shoes? The young man’s appearance was telling him that this was not a beggar and his speech was cultivated. Not that his shoes needed care but, on impulse, Eric agreed and started a conversation.

Why are you polishing shoes? You don’t appear to be the type that needs to do this kind of work.

I see it as one of the few ways to earn an honest bit of money, was the answer.

You appear to be well educated young man. You should be capable of a better job.

Yes sir, you’re right. I tried and am still trying, but there are no jobs. I am only one of hundreds of applicants and who ‘you know seems to be more important than what you know.’

I realise that what you say is true Eric said. We are living in abnormal and worrying times. I was just thinking about it when we met. Our economy is much too fine-tuned; if something goes wrong, the whole system collapses, as seems to be happening now.

The young man agreed.

I think the reason is our system of government. As it is, they never seem to be able to agree on anything. We have an old-fashioned economic system and nothing happens or changes.

While thinking of what was said, Eric was studying the young man.

He looked like a bit of a nerd with his thin build, pale face with brown eyes behind small glasses, and in need of a good meal. When the job was finished, Eric asked,

How much do I owe you?

A dollar per shoe would be great.

After Eric searched his pockets, he said:

Sorry, I only have a 20.

The young man did not have enough change but an old woman in rags that was begging nearby heard them and offered to help. The young man showed her the twenty dollars, which she snatched out of his hand. It disappeared somewhere in her substantial bosom while she gave him a handful of small coins.

Wait a bit, that’s not enough! But she had already turned around, shouting.

It is all I have and she took off, much quicker than you would expect of an old woman.

The young man shouted after her and immediately regretted it as it got the attention of a group of unsavoury young guys gathered at a street corner.

One of them got hold of the woman and pulled her along till they were close to Eric and the young man. She shouted while pointing to Eric.

He got heaps of money!

Yeah, you look like it, too drawled one the big guys, acting as their leader and motioning to let the woman go. We need it more than you. It’s time you rich guys learn to share!

They started closing in on them, pushing and shoving; he felt a hand in his back pocket and quickly banged his backside against the brick wall smashing the hand against it. The hand disappeared but he was not out of trouble; he delivered a few good punches but it started to look bad when the big guy appeared, ready to hit Eric with a steel bar that could have split his head in two. When he lifted it, the young shoe polisher kicked the man hard in the back of his knee so he collapsed backwards.

In the mayhem that followed, the young man grabbed Eric by the hand and pulled him into a narrow alleyway. However, there was more trouble ahead: apart from some beggars loitering there and people following them, there was a group of people coming from the other side. They didn’t look very trustworthy either.

They looked at each other despairingly, when a door burst open and a big man, a cook by the looks of it, banged the lid of a big pot and shouted:

No more leftovers for you lot! while he pulled Eric and the young man into safety and quickly locked the door behind them. It was apparently the back door of a small hotel and the big man was indeed its cook who told them how he watched the trouble from the window. They thanked him profusely and introduced themselves to him as well as to each other.

I won’t forget you, Anthony, Eric said to the young man who made to leave through the front door. You saved my life! I didn’t expect you to be so strong!

Anthony laughed. I try to keep fit but this was more strategy than strength. It was a pleasure to knock down that brute. I am sure you would have done the same.

While going through his pockets, Eric exclaimed,

Oh no! My wallet has gone!

All he