A New Faith: Part 2: Chapter 20

That same day, the PM held a press conference to announce the creation of a committee to figure out how Norway would handle a substantial increase in the population of climate refugees. Inevitably, it came down to the question of numbers. The simple fact was that the total population of Europe and North America was less than a billion. While the collective population of Asia, Africa, and South America was 4-5 times that. Even if one considered only the subset of population that was trying to survive in the currently uninhabitable places, that number was easily greater than one billion. Given the speed with which the climate was changing that number would also rapidly grow.  

The day the committee met for the first time, the nativist backlash erupted in the streets of Oslo. The naked fear of the “others” drove thousands of people to violently reject the idea of having to share their land with any foreigner. In sharp contrast to the hunger strike, these protesters were armed with whatever they could get their hands on. They were prepared to protect their homeland with force. The ugliest of the nativist rhetoric reared its head as the frenzied mobs openly threatened the government with violence.

Eugenics had long ago been exiled to the recesses of the civilized world ever since the end of the 2^nd World War. But now, people were explicitly saying that the non-white non-Christian people of the world were paying the price for their own sins. The most rabid of the protesters would rather die than let a single refugee reach their shores. The hate-crimes against the non-white and non-Christian citizens of Norway escalated overnight. The law-and-order apparatus was quickly overwhelmed as it never had to deal with such widespread violence. The government was forced to declare a state of emergency and bring in armed troops to patrol the streets of the major cities. This move was backed by all political parties as none knew how to navigate this treacherous situation. 

Arbitrary curfews were declared with 15-minute warnings to keep the violent mobs subdued. Armored vehicles were visible every few minutes. The scenario was disturbingly similar to the chronic one that existed in many of the unstable parts of the world. It was shocking to see this scenario unfold in the Nordic cities, of all the places in the world. The situation in Sweden and Finland had evolved in a more or less similar pattern to that in Norway.

The PMs of the three countries were huddling together every evening to figure out a way out of their collective predicament. There was no going back on the promise to accept a substantial - yet undetermined - number of climate refugees in their countries. Most of the folks whose fasting had compelled the governments to make that promise were still in intensive care units where the hopes of their full recovery vacillated daily. Three in Sweden and one in Finland were in coma and the doctors had indicated that they were unlikely to survive. Their families were being asked to think about removing life-support.  

Never before had any government been caught between two such extreme positions. On one hand, a vast number of their citizens led by the youth wanted to peacefully absorb tens of millions of climate refugees. On the other hand, a far smaller but exceptionally violent mob led by the old folks wanted to not only block any refugees from entering their homeland, but to throw out the existing non-white non-Christian citizens.So far, the violent nativist mob had not attacked the armed forces. But soon they might and then the armed forces would be forced to shoot at them which would lead to more anger at the government and the situation could descend into a vicious spiral of ever-increasing violence with no end in sight. If a solution was not found soon, the situation was likely to devolve in anarchy.  

It was apparent that the overall public sentiment was in favor of accommodating climate refugees in a yet-to-be-determined manner. During yet another virtual huddle when the three PMs were miserably venting their frustration to each other, one of them muttered, “fuck the Sami.” The other two silently nodded their heads as they wrestled with the biggest crisis in their political careers. After all, if they had not humored the Sami in the first place, there would have been no treaty. If there had been no treaty, there would have been no signing ceremony. And then Kaija would not have made that speech. The speech that was now threatening the very foundation of their countries. Yeah, that was right — fuck them. 

None of them were remotely proud of their hasty action in the middle of Kaija’s speech when they had pushed her to the ground and taken the microphone from her hands. That was bad. That was undignified. They all wished they could take back that moment. They all wished they had dealt with it in a diplomatic manner. It didn’t matter much now. They were meditating on their individual and collective plights when one of them muttered, “why don’t we just dump all the refugees in that Sami preserve then. Let them deal with it all.” 

It was not clear who said it. But it jolted all of them out of the funk. At the same moment, they all looked up at each other via their computer cameras. Could THAT be the solution to all their problems? The same thoughts were rushing through their minds as if they had formed some kind of a Vulcan mind-meld from Star Trek. The same political calculations. The same compromises that could be viable. They stared at each other. Each one was daring the other two to find some fundamental flaw in their thinking and say it out loud. Then that brief shining moment of hope would be crushed again. A moment passed. Another one passed. None of them said anything. Then they all smiled in unison. This could work! Rather — this better work!

Excitedly they started putting together the proposal that they could take to their colleagues later that night and if they managed to get the buy-in, then they would present it to their voters as soon as the very next morning. All the details were not clear to them yet. There were a few major problems. But the big idea was crystal clear. All three nations had anyway allocated a big chunk of their land way up near the Arctic Circle to the Sami. The treaty had been unceremoniously torn up right after Kaija had made that speech. Yet, in the process leading up to the signing of that treaty, the three PMs had built consensus across their countries in allocating that land to the Sami.

It was a fair bit of land — about five percent of the total land of the three countries. Even if two percent of that allocated land — about thousand square kilometers — was used to create a refugee camp, it could easily accommodate 20-30 million refugees which would be comparable to the total population of all three countries. The two key elements of the proposal were that the refugees would be confined to that plot of land and they would have no legal rights of any kind outside that plot of land. 

This met Camille’s demand of moving the climate-affected folks out of harm’s way. With that proposal, no one could argue that the three countries were not serious about accommodating a substantial number of climate refugees. 

“Out of sight, out of mind” should take care of the rabid nativists who were threatening violence. The refugees won’t even be seen by anyone let alone become part of the society in any way. They had all been seeing the inevitable resentments that build up against non-natives however valid the reason behind their presence amidst their societies was. It had happened routinely. Sweden had revoked the visas of Syrian refugees and sent them back to their country at the end of the Syrian civil war. The Poles had been a picture of generosity and compassion when the Ukrainian refugees had streamed across the border to escape the Russian invasion of their country. But that compassion had faded as weeks turned into months and months turned into years. The anger had spilled out in fits and starts. Over time, though, it had congealed into a movement that had infected the entire polity. This proposal would be able to prevent that from happening.

There was no doubt in their minds that a lot of details would have to be worked out to make it acceptable by both sides. But there was a glimmer of hope now. They quickly reviewed the one-page draft of their big idea and then jubilantly high-fived to their futures. The next step was to convene their respective cabinets in the middle of the night and somehow persuade them that this proposal was not just a fantasy of theirs. 

Most of the cabinet members were not sleeping well, if they were sleeping at all. The rapid destabilization of their countries was permanently keeping them on edge. They tried to catch a nap here and there between meetings or one-on-one discussions. When they were alone, they were at the mercy of their own minds which painted all kinds of dire scenarios that then would send them into an emotional tailspin. So, the call from their respective PMs, especially, in a voice that could barely hide the excitement, was welcome. They quickly and quietly left their homes and assembled at the conference rooms in their office buildings. 

With astute foresight, the PMs had also invited the leaders of the other parties whether in their coalition or in the opposition to the meeting. At any other time, the cabinet members would have been extremely unhappy with being in the same room as the opposition, especially, when they had no idea what their PM was going to say. But these were extremely unusual times and the political parties had completely dropped their adversarial stances as they all tried to figure out a way to bring normalcy back to their society. If the countries devolved into anarchy, then there would be no government and no need for political parties. They had to come together to deal with this crisis. Their careers depended on it. Even their lives. As it is, they had been getting mercilessly trolled. On top of that, their families and friends had received numerous ugly threats of violence.

The initial reaction to the proposal was of cautious optimism. The main pitch was that the three countries would offer a secluded and physically isolated piece of land for the settlement of refugees. The refugees would never become part of the host country in any way. It wouldn’t be a prison, but the refugees would not be able to leave the settlement unless they left the country altogether. Inside the settlement, the refugees would have their own set of laws.

Hundreds of thousands of acres in the northernmost parts of the three countries were lying empty. There was no development of any kind. No resources to be extracted. Those parts were not even frequented by tourists. Hence, it had not been that difficult to hand over a portion of that land to the few thousand Sami. Most of the Sami lived in the cities, anyway. It had been a symbolic gesture, nothing more. Now, that same land - rather a tiny part of it - could be used for another symbolic gesture, re-settlement of climate refugees. No one could have any objection to that. 

Once there was an agreement that this proposal could work well, the PMs made their second pitch to sweeten the deal. The settlement would be the responsibility of the United Nations. In other words, the cost of transporting the refugees, providing them with all the basic necessities of life, maintaining law and order, and ensuring that no one left the settlement would all be done by the rest of the world. The three countries would provide some necessary transportation infrastructure to support the settlement. But that would be it. 

This was indeed a fantastic idea. None of the governments would then be responsible for the refugees. They would have an easy scapegoat to blame in case anything bad happened. Yet they could corner all the glory for being the first among the wealthy nations to accommodate a large number of climate refugees on their land out of the sheer goodness of their hearts. That sweetener indeed clinched the deal. The cabinets and all the political parties unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed the proposal. This really solved all their problems.

Over the next week or so, the PMs put together a formal policy proposal and announced a joint press conference where they would present it to the world. The uneasy peace enforced by the military patrols in their cities provided them with the respite to polish up the proposal while simultaneously working closely with some of the top marketing agencies and political consultants to develop a sophisticated outreach campaign around the proposal.