“There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.”

As he stood there, naked and exposed, he felt fear; he guessed the word ‘primordial’ would not be an inappropriate adjective.

In his ponderings and mental wanderings, he wondered what had brought his tiny world to this. But even at that moment of terror, he could not understand how he, and so many before him, who had observed the traditional rules of being in power, had, in their ways, come to this very same point; how could it be?

‘Is it truly so wrong to ask a question?’ – he asked himself for the umpteenth time.

Why not, he thought, just to pass the time, list the people who have been killed for asking the same question and, in the brief moments left to him, might he be permitted to say, or to ask, why?

Yet here he was, the former elected leader of his nation, apparently the first of many to be so arraigned, standing before the ‘World Council of Justice and Order,’ appointed by the leaders of the new world order. China, Russia, India and the former United States of America.

Much of the change that followed years of turmoil had emerged, albeit somewhat insidiously, post Ukraine, which had been, at the time, the latest step by Putin et al.. to resurrect their somewhat interesting view of modern(?) Russia as being the inheritor of the Rus and still reflecting the glories of the Danuban Principalities , but this time with several countries and two seas as integral and essential parts of the project: the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, in China,  first, had come Taiwan and then the invasion of the Spratley’s emerged as a shared project with Putin, after which Japan, and much of the Pacific, was simply reduced to obedient, terrified insignificance that did as it was told.

Modi had taken India back to the days of the Moguls via his BJP party (albeit, for the moment, minus Pakistan (or Punjab as it was then) but, naturellement, Hindu by rule albeit brutal and absolute at its core.

Meanwhile, in north America, the process began under Project 25 and under the so-called direction and control of what many had written about as being a contumelious, mindless, self-aggrandising, vituperative, corrupt, idiot – vengeful to the core (if indeed he had a core per se) – had been implemented in full by the dominant right-wing determined to destroy the nation of Federal Government by somewhat dubious means. That had, in turn, facilitated the return of power to individual states whence such democratic (?) monstrosities as ‘z’ shaped electoral boundaries and the like, had ensured a permanent majority of uneducated white males with a tendency to mendacity, misogyny and racial prejudice.  So it was that under the banner once described by Isaac Asimov as:  “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been,” and, thus, was “the last best hope”, and the largest economy in the Western world, reduced, of its choosing, to a narrowly focused shadow of its former self.

In turn, a new identity was emergent in what used to be called the Middle East which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Bibi Inc  (registered in Delaware and Panama) which owned, discretely, much of the financial and governmental systems of America – if not more widely – under a joint venture with MBS Inc (registered in Doha). Together, they had, rather fortuitously for some, uncovered a resident who had emerged as the Hidden Iman – a Semite (of course) – which had allowed them to restructure the military in Iran, Turkey and Egypt. Thus, they had by some miracle and, at last, acquired the manpower to protect themselves from predators of almost every and any kind; but of course, they would never predate, not at all, rather they were unfailingly gentle and fair with all as they regularly demonstrated their new power to those around them.

Europe, divided both on and within the borders of its so-called member states, was unable to postulate, with a rampant Russia on its borders, even a position or a system capable of inspiring anyone let alone facilitating the projection of power upon the new world stage. Meanwhile, Brexit had emasculated the poor old Brits at a time when America was no longer there to hold its hand and to, even, suggest a mild return to some form of membership or association would suffice to trigger nationalist outbursts and division, if not derision.