A New Faith: Part 2: Chapter 21

Camille was now out of the hospital along with most of the other people who had been fasting. They were young and healthy. Hence, their recoveries were fast. They had won a major battle with the powers-to-be. Of course, the frequent curfews were a constant reminder of the violent opposition that existed in their society. But, there was reason for hope. The governments had not buckled in the face of this violence. Rather they had taken a tough stance by taking the help of the military to enforce law and order. The war was not over by any means. The recuperation period had been useful in figuring out how to ensure that the governments delivered on their promise.

Camille and a few of her friends showed up at the press conference. All of them were now famous and everyone at the press conference acknowledged their presence. The three PMs nodded at them as they made their way through the auditorium to the stage. A few key members from the cabinets of the three governments and the main leaders from opposition parties followed them on the stage and sat down behind the main dais. This was, clearly, an attempt to showcase the consensus for the proposal even before it was announced to the world. 

It was a somber occasion, yet, the three PMs seemed to be suppressing a weird sense of excitement. Camille was puzzled by it, but decided to be patient. Neither she nor any of her friends had been consulted by the governments. According to social media, there were no indications that even experts of any kind were consulted by the three governments. So, it seemed that this was an entirely political proposal. Camille felt that that was not an entirely bad thing. All said and done, in her short life and even shorter experience of movements, it had become abundantly clear to her that technocratic consensus was far less important than political consensus to get anything done in the world. The fact that there were no experts involved was a good sign. The fact that all political parties were explicitly supporting the proposal was a good thing.

As the press conference was in Oslo, the Norwegian PM had been designated as the lead presenter. She enthusiastically stepped up to the podium and beamed at the cameras. The entire body language was positive. Then she tapped at the microphone to get everyone’s attention and raised her right hand to indicate that everyone should take the seats and settle down. Once all the sounds quietened, she began her formal presentation. 

There was no formal acknowledgment of the hunger strike that had forced the governments’ hand in coming up with this proposal. Camille was not at all surprised by that. Neither did she mind it one bit. The PM had managed to pull a somber expression together as she started with the implications of the heat wave tragedy. She even shared a few pictures depicting the ravaged villages from Africa and South Asia. The images were carefully blurred to ensure that death was not being depicted too blatantly. 

Then the PM couldn’t help herself and almost smiled. The fact that one is being charitable and that too publicly makes most people feel really good about themselves. They almost begin to preen in the attention that they get because of their altruistic deed. They don’t realize that the fact that there is charity required means that something bad is happening. Of course, the PM was a lot better at controlling her expressions than most people. She was a consummate politician, after all. Then she made the grand announcement that the three countries were collectively making one thousand square kilometers of land available for the resettlement of climate refugees. 

Several of the nativists were also attending the press conference and they immediately started raising loud slogans against this announcement. The PM let those slogans go on uninterrupted for a few moments and then she slightly nodded her head to someone at the back of the auditorium. That was the signal for the police that had been explicitly positioned around the auditorium to move in and remove these miscreants from the auditorium in as dignified a manner as possible. 

She raised her right hand again to indicate that she wanted to address that particular concern. A map of the three countries showed up on the screen behind her. It had a blue and white circle marked out near that spot where the borders of the three countries intersected with each other. She pointed her finger at that spot and said that the designated refugee resettlement would be located in that circle. Then, she took a dramatic pause and made it clear that the circle was drawn to scale. This was the important part. Anyone looking at the map would immediately realize that this location was in the middle of nowhere and the circle looked tiny as  compared to the rest of the land mass of the countries. The Mercator projection was shamelessly used to exaggerate the smallness of the land allocated for refugee resettlement.  

Again, after another meaningful pause, she delivered the final piece of the proposal. The reason why the circle was painted in blue and white was because the three countries wanted the United Nations to take the responsibility of building an appropriate settlement for the refugees at that location and serve as the permanent administrator. The refugees would not have any legal status in the three host countries. They would have resident status only inside the settlement. If they left the settlement, they would be treated the same way as illegal immigrants were treated and would be immediately deported.

In essence, the PM summarized, the three nations were lending land to the United Nations for the sake of moving climate refugees out of harms’s way and into a safe haven. With that she turned around and looked at the other two PMs and all the people sitting behind her and invited them to stand up and proclaim their unanimous support for this proposal. 

Most of the folks in the auditorium were trying to wrap their head around the proposal. A few of the nativists who had conveniently stayed quiet after the initial ruckus caused by their fellow-protesters now stood up to shout more slogans. But their heart was not really in it. The proposal had thoroughly addressed the basis of their opposition. If the refugees wouldn’t even be physically part of their society then what would their objection be. They tried to find something intelligent to shout but gave up and sat down. This was exactly what all the people who were solemnly standing on the stage were expecting from the nativists. In their minds, they were toasting each other for coming up with this brilliant proposal. 

Camille stood up along with her friends and everyone’s attention instantly focused on them. After all, even though the folks on the stage had not formally acknowledged Camille, everyone knew that all this was happening because of that hunger strike. Were they going to be satisfied with this proposal? Someone brought a microphone to Camille and she addressed the auditorium from where she was understanding. She merely nodded at the three PMs who were expectantly looking at her. 

She said, “we agree with this proposal. For the first time, we are seeing justice being done.”

There was an audible sigh of relief from the stage. Okay then! It looked like the crisis had been averted. 

Camille ignored that sigh and continued, “as a gesture of our sincerity, we propose that the resettlement should accommodate at least one refugee per citizen of the three host countries. Ideally, we should be prepared to use all the available land to re-locate every single human being who is adversely affected by the impacts of climate change or who would be affected in the near future. That number is at least as large as 2.5 billion as per the most recent expert estimate. But we recognize that this will be the beginning of the process, and so we demand that at least 25 million climate refugees be relocated to the settlement designated by the Prime Minister.” 

Every single politician standing on the stage had to - in their minds and never publicly - accept that this was brilliantly done by Camille. Again, they had underestimated the savviness of this young woman. Just the way the PM, in her presentation, had sought to minimize the size of the land that was being provided to the UN for the refugee settlement with the help of that map with the tiny circle on it — Camille had referred to the entire population that was in harm’s way to indicate how small the number of refugees she was demanding to be accommodated was to it. Linking that number to the current population of the three countries was a stroke of genius. One thousand square kilometers was less than 0.1% of the total area of the three countries. In other words, the existing population of the three countries would have 99.9% of the land while the refugee population of the same size would get only 0.1%. How could this not be construed as fair? No one could really argue against this utterly reasonable demand. Especially, the nativists who would have otherwise pointed out that bringing in such a large number of refugees would destroy their society. 

The Norwegian PM exchanged a quick glance with the other two PMs. Twenty-five million was the upper bound for the refugee population that they had in mind. This was not a bad start to the negotiations, at all. She cleared her throat loudly to switch the attention back to herself from Camille. She said, “we are glad that the proposal seems acceptable. We shall now reach out to the UN to see if this is acceptable to them.” She didn’t mention Camille’s latest demand but it was clear to everyone that this was now the starting point of the negotiations. In that moment the torch that Camille had inadvertently picked up from Kaija was passed on to another young woman who had recently joined the American delegation at the UN.