Monroy storiesTravelling in the past and the future in a distopic world.

José Javier Monroy 01/07/2022

I did it. I have achieved what Hannibal could not. I have brought an elephant from Baghdad to the capital of the Franks, this city they call Aachen, Aquae Granni or Aquisgranum.

My lord Harun al-Rashid ( هارون الرشيد, Aaron the Just) has charged me with this delicate mission. To bring three gifts to the king of the Franks: an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas, a watch and an ivory chess set. All very symbolic. We seek an alliance with this powerful sovereign. The enemies of my enemies are my friends. And we have common enemies: the Umayyad emirs of Cordoba and the damned Byzantines. Some Muslims like my lord and others Christians like the Franks themselves. That's politics.

It was not an easy journey. From Bagdad, we headed for Egypt and then skirted the African thing. We embarked near ancient Carthage for Italy. We arrived at the port of Porto Venere (Italy) in October 801. We spent the winter in Vercelli, and in the spring we crossed the Alps. I have never seen such high mountains and so much snow. Anibal himself set out with 37 elephants from Hispania and only one reached Italy. I, on the other hand, set out with one and kept it as far north as possible. It was in my own interest. If the elephant had died on the journey, I would die too. It was the promise of my lord Harun al-Rashid, the king of the Persians as they call him here in the cold north.

My dear Abul. Your name is blessed for it is written in the Qur'an. In SURA 105, AL FIL (THE ELEPHANT).

(1) Have you not observed what your Lord did with the army of the elephant?

(2) Have you not seen how He thwarted their plans [to destroy the Ka'bah]?

(3) And He sent down upon them flocks of birds

(4) And they threw upon them stones of hard clay,

(5) and left them like rotten hay.

I know that story very well. When the Ethiopians wanted to destroy Mecca and Allah stopped the leading elephant, which refused to move in the direction of Mecca but in any other direction. Then Allah himself sent his army of birds which threw rocks at the invading troops which were destroyed. One cannot fight against the will of Allah.

But the Franks have no interest in our holy book. Only Alcuin of York, the teacher of Charlemagne himself, is interested in our religion and our language. Also, the royal architect, Eudes of Metz asks me a lot about Baghdad and the palaces there. He is not interested in religion, but he is interested in buildings.

From Vercelli to Aachen it is about 900 km. The trip through Gaul was splendid. All the peasants were amazed at the sight of our noble animal. A mixture of fear and admiration.

Some thought that the nose was a snake. Others said the ears were wings. Many saw it as an incarnation of the devil.

Fortunately, Charlemagne sent a small army to escort us. Strong men covered in iron with horses much larger than the Arabs. I have seen them in action and they are fearsome. I pray to God that they will never engage our people and attack only the Byzantines and the Umayyads of Cordoba. Charlemagne is unstoppable. He has conquered half of Italy and will soon reach the border with Byzantium.

On my return, I must report to the Sultan. I have taken note of everything, the castles and cities, the fields and the cattle. This is a rich but cold land. With many forests with game and timber. I have found many Roman ruins and I suspect that many are still pagans at heart. They pretend to be Christians. But what can I say? Of Jewish mother and Muslim confession out of interest. I get on very well with the Persian Zoroastrians and even with Hindu traders. I believe there is a god, but I don't know which one. I hope that when I die I will be on the right side.

The palace of Aachen is interesting, but it seems small in comparison with the palaces of the East. I cannot say this to my Frankish friends, I must be diplomatic. I have been told that this city was called Aquae Granni in Roman times, and was equipped with thermal baths on an area of 20 hectares. The ancient Roman city was destroyed by barbarian tribes. In 765, Charlemagne's father, Pippin III the Short, had a palace built on the remains of the old Roman building; he also ordered the baths to be restored and rid of their pagan idols. But there are still ruins everywhere. And I suspect that there are still many who make offerings to Hermes and other gods.

It was only in 790 when Charlemagne decided to reside in this city and make it the capital of his empire. I made friends with Eudes, the architect. He told me that the work began in 794. The work plan adopted by him was of great geometrical simplicity: like our architecture and ornamentation, he decided to keep the layout of the city's walls as simple as possible.

Eudes decided to preserve the layout of the ancient Roman streets by inscribing the palace in a square of 360 Carolingian feet on each side, i.e. 120 metres. The square in question has a total area of 20 hectares, which is divided into four by a north-south axis (corresponding to a masonry gallery) and an east-west axis (corresponding to an ancient Roman main street). In the northern part of this square was the Assembly Hall and to the south the cathedral. Eudes' new project is to draw a triangle to the east to link the baths with the palace complex.

What can I say to my friend? His cathedral looks to me like a scaled-down version of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. There are similar churches in Italy, like the one in Ravenna. But here, in the far north, it is unique. I have given you some ideas, like decorating the arches of your church with black and white colours, like the great mosque of Cordoba. Maybe he will listen to me.

What makes Oche, as the Franks called it, truly unique are its thermal baths. They must have been impressive in the time of Granus. Clumsily rebuilt by Charlemagne's father and now embellished by Eudes. The water is warm and it is a pleasure to bathe in them, especially in winter.

It was in the baths that I had one of the strangest diplomatic experiences of my life.

I must say that Charlemagne was enchanted by the elephant. It was the jewel of his zoo where he also had some monkeys that my lord had given him, exotic birds and many other animals from these northern lands such as black and white bears, wolves, etc. He would undoubtedly be willing to listen to me. My lord Aaron just had given me very precise instructions. When Charlemagne invited me to play chess with him, I should attack very strongly to make him lose many pieces, and then let myself be won by the emperor of the Franks. During the game I would reveal to him the secret of the three gifts given to him by the Sultan of Baghdad:

The elephant is the power of the army.

The clock is the passing of time and it is necessary to act quickly.

The chess on which we play is the world to be divided between the two great rulers of the universe: Charlemagne and my lord the king of the Persians.

A year ago Charlemagne conquered Barcelona. This was of great interest to our Sultan because it weakened the Umayyads of Cordoba. But it was also not in our interest for the Franks to conquer the whole of Hispania. He had to convince them somehow to attack eastwards, towards Byzantium. It would be a masterstroke of high politics. After defeating the Bulgars and Avars he would be at the gates of Byzantium. Then Baghdad would attack from the south. And Constantinople would be conquered for Islam.

All these plans collapsed because of my weakness. The Franks are a people of barbarians. In Baghdad, we also have baths, and much better than those of Aachen. But the baths are separate. Baths for men and baths for women. When I arrived the emperor was waiting for me, naked, in the hot water and with a beautiful chess set waiting for me. We started the game when fate cruelly laughed at me. All the ladies of the court arrived. Those tall blonde women with big breasts participated in all the court banquets. They undressed and went into the water with some naked Frankish nobles. I didn't expect that. I felt very nervous and excited. The queen herself was there, bare-breasted, watching the chess game. And the rest of the women in the palace. All so beautiful. It was like paradise in this distant and icy land of the Franks. But he wasn't dead, he was alive. And I had a critical mission with the emperor.

I felt my excitement rising and all the women and even Charlemagne looked at me smiling. I couldn't hold on any longer and threw myself into the pool of ice-cold water. It was the only way to lower my burning. Then I recited the beginning of Sura 9 AT-TAWBA (THE REPENTANCE).

1. This is an ultimatum from God and His Messenger to those who ascribe partners to God with whom you have entered into a covenant.

2. (O ye polytheists who have always broken the covenants ye have made!) So march safely through the land for four months (making such preparations for war as ye will). But know that ye cannot escape (from the Power of God, nor frustrate His Will) and that God will bring ignominy upon the unbelievers.

I lost the game with the emperor and could not convince him to attack Byzantium. A few days later I returned to Baghdad by the same route. It took me four months to reach my homeland. I also lost the favour of the caliph who relegated me to administrative work, just another official in the palace archives.

My negligence undoubtedly changed the course of history. Charlemagne wanted to conquer Saragossa and failed in the attempt. His retreating troops were destroyed at Roncesvalles, in the north of Al-Andalus. An epic poem has even been written about it: The Song of Roland.

In 804 King Godfrey, I of Denmark attacked the town of Reric - Lübeck - a trading village near Denmark. Charlemagne mobilised his troops against the Danes and sent his elephant to join the battle. He wanted to imitate Alexander the Great. But my poor elephant, Abul-Abbas died of pneumonia, probably after swimming in the Rhine. A few years later I heard of Charlemagne's death on 28 January 814. God willing, he also died of pneumonia. I am an old man now, but I still work in the palace archives. I no longer travel as an ambassador to the lands of the infidels, but I travel in the books I keep and re-read again and again reports from distant lands. But I never told anyone, not even the caliph, about my great weakness in the baths of Aachen and how my weakness prevented the story from being different.

Frank Posterius 17/03/2022

Some people say that history repeats itself. That is partly true. But rather than a cycle of eternal return, it is a spiral. And indeed certain epochs repeat themselves with similar events. These are a kind of Deja Vue. Something tremendously familiar because we have already experienced it.

But it is not an eternal return. Things are similar but inverted—a kind of black humour of the one who weaves destiny.

Some dates

1919 the Spanish flu and 2020 coronavirus. 1922 Lenin's Soviet Union invades Ukraine; 2022 Putin's Russia invades Ukraine.

The Deja vue mentioned above refers to the Spanish Civil War, the prelude to World War II and the current Ukrainian conflict.

Today's conflict is posed as the invasion of fascism reconverted from Russia into a democratic republic like Ukraine. Clearly, the reason is on the Ukrainian side. In the case of Franco's attack with his blitzkrieg Spanish version, it corresponds to the rapid war of the Russians. In both cases, the conflict stalled after a fast advance.

Kyiv and Madrid were encircled (not totally) by the aggressor army. Passionaria's phrase: No pasaran, is very much present in Kyiv today. Throughout the ex-socialist world, this phrase is mythical.

Another interesting topic is the international brigades. Freedom fighters came from all over the world to defend the republic against fascism. The Ukrainian president has asked foreign fighters to go to Ukraine. Not everybody knows that foreign volunteer fighters also fought with Franco. The Irish brigade and many convinced fascist Italians. Putin has also called his volunteers from Chechnya and Syria.

War censorship is another common point between the two wars. Taken to another dimension: the internet. In a certain artistic way, a lot of media icons are being created at the moment. All this reminds me of Picasso's Guernica and many other works by artists committed to the republic. It is the same creative zeal in the service of an idea.

But the dark side is here too. Censorship is not good, and the West has no problem with the suppression of Russian media. Censorship in a dictatorship is logical; it should not be so in a free democracy. But the free world is a utopia. Big media control the press with their own interests. In the Ukrainian war, there is no impartial reporting.

Another fundamental aspect is geopolitics. In 1936 a new fascist order was being created in Europe and Asia. The axis. Now also, the Western free world against another bloc that we could call Russo-Chinese. The great fear is a new world war with Europe as the battlefield. When the Spanish civil war ended, the II world war began. All this is in the collective unconscious. The fears are there—the Russian devil.

Another common aspect is the refugees. I am talking about the Moscow children as they were called in Spain, although they were also sent to Mexico, France and England. Most of the exiled mothers and children never returned. The same will most likely be true of today's Ukrainian refugees. Out of three million, one and a half million will stay in Western Europe. Life in Ukraine was difficult before the war, and the youth wanted to emigrate. It is the perfect opportunity to start a new life in the West. In the case of Spain, it is also an ethical obligation to accept refugees. As a fair payment to the Spanish refugee children in Ukraine after the civil war. Many stayed and fought for the Soviet Union. One more paradox of history.

Because there are many paradoxes, Putin calls for a holy war to defend the oppressed Russian minority in Ukraine and defeat the Ukrainian fascists like the Azov battalion and even some politicians, like the mayor of Kyiv. The Russians who defeated the Nazis in the World War and liberated Ukraine are now the invaders. But before Hitler, it was the Russians who invaded in 1922 and caused the great famine called Holodomor.

In the case of Spain, Franco won the war and remained in power until 1975. His death was the entry of democracy and into the European Union a few years later. Franco's system changed during all these years and became more manageable for the defeated to bear. Communism lasted 20 years longer than Francoism and also changed and evolved. Many old Spaniards say that life was better under Franco. I have heard the same from more senior people in Russia and Bulgaria. Dictatorships evolve to become more bearable. They usually collapse with the death of the dictator. That was not the case in the Soviet Union. The system was maintained after Stalin's death, and why? Quite simply. Because there was a common enemy: the West for the Soviet Union. The same West tried to destroy Russia since the revolution 1919 and maintained armies and wars for years inside Ukraine.

Indeed Putin is still in this cold war mindset just. Franco was also in a war against the comunism. And Franco was able to sell his anti-communism to the Americans to stay in power after the fall of fascism in Europe. Another paradox, fascism is accepted in the post-fascist world.

And we come to the vital point of this whole dissertation. We repeat history in cycles, but in a spiral. As we move forward, something changes, but the essence is repeated. After the civil war fascism emerged in Europe and led to world war.

I am afraid that fascism rebranded as nationalism will again take hold in Europe, censorship will return, and we will go back to the cold war. A new iron curtain between West and East. Let us be aware that the only winners in this situation are the United States. The new England with a decaying and decaying empire. Let us not forget one thing; the United States has built its empire through wars outside its territory. Conflicts that allow it to sell arms and supplies. Europe's misfortune is America's economic fortune.

A tremendous economic crisis is looming in 2029, repeating the same as in 1929. The world's financial system of consumption is unsustainable. It is not normal to bring products from the other side of the world when it is possible to produce them locally. Dependence can be critical in cases of a catastrophe like the pandemic. We have not learned any lessons from speculative economic bubbles. Every few years, they repeat themselves, a new bubble bursts.

Only a European war and then a III world war could save the United States from losing its empire. Putin is nostalgic for the tsarist empire that grew up in the Cold War. A bipolar world would give Russia its place in the world. But just as Stalin used Mao, who outlived him and created his new China. It is possible that China will use Russia in this new world order.

But history is a spiral. A new scenario is possible. In the 36 Spanish civil war, only Stalin sent arms to Spain. Not for free, the republic paid for it with the entire national treasury sent to Moscow. In 2022 all Europe sends arms. The isolationist neutrality of the Europe of 1936 does not exist. It is possible that this will change the scenario. And two Ukrainians will be created after peace, the Russian-occupied one and the free western one. Like the two Germanies, two coreas or two Vietnams.

But the most likely scenario is a return to the 1922 borders. Stalin never wanted war with Germany, only to mark his territory and zone of influence.

JJ Monroe 16/03/2022

What I am about to tell you is not new. The Greek Gnostic converts to Christianity in the 1st and 2nd century AD tried to answer a straightforward question. How could God create an imperfect world if God is good and perfect?

The solution was an exercise in logic. God, One and perfect, created a demiurge (or several). Demiurges are a product of God, brilliant beings with great technology that created humankind. Their name is Annunaki's Thus begins an alternative history based on the first chapters of the Hebrew Genesis and some Sumerian tablets, such as the Enuma Elish.

We have to know that there is not only one extraterrestrial civilisation that can travel through space; there are several: The Reptilians a warrior race, 4 meters tall and have psychic powers. The grey ones, thin, with large heads and almond-shaped eyes. They were the ones found in Roswell. But the ones we are interested in are the Annunakis. They come from Nibiru. They are tall and look like men, but they are very different.

The first Anunnaki expedition that arrived on earth, according to the Sumerian tablets, was composed of 50 Anunnaki led by Enki, sent to earth by the ruler of Niburu, AN. The idea of this journey was none other than to establish a spaceport in Africa, to build a giant refinery to extract gold and minerals. The first gold mining expedition failed, Enki returned to Nibiru. It was another Annunaki, Enlil, who had orders to try again. As the mining continued, the Annunaki workers would begin to organise to protest the poor and unhealthy working conditions. "We are astronauts, not slave miners," they would complain again and again. It was the first strike in history before humanity itself existed.

When Enlil came to the mines on a routine inspection, a revolt broke out. The Anunnaki miners staged a revolution, destroyed their tools and headed for Enlil's house with evil intentions.

Enlil had to contact his father AN to inform him that the supply of gold had been interrupted, the mines were closed, and the Anunnaki on earth were refusing to obey orders.

The supreme ruler of the Annunaki's, AN, accepted the rebels' demands by suspending the mining activity and repatriating them.

It was there where Enki had the idea, "we will create a man where the Anunnaki gene can be inserted", he had thought of the homo erectus, a primitive inhabitant that was ideal as a hybrid to be able to cross genes from both species.

The plan was accepted, and Enki set out for earth with two collaborators. Emesh and Enten, who were in charge of vegetation, forests and fields, and the other of crops and agriculture and animals and livestock. It was a serious experiment with great resources and a programme of genetic reprogramming of flora and fauna.

They landed in Africa, in the Great Rift Valley, although it wasn't yet the tremendous geological fracture of today.

The first thing they did was to build Paradise. A giant dome or dome isolated from the outside. The energy source was geothermal. Large pipes were sunk into the earth and accessed boiling water. Then Emesh planted the genetically modified plant species. (Genesis 1-16)

The project works well. Enten took care of the animals. The first experiments were in a pond with amphibians and fish. Then he created the reptiles and mammals (Genesis 1-24).

Now it was Enki's turn, with the most exciting project. The miracle to give intelligence to homo erectus. Annunaki DNA had to be inserted into an Australopithecus foetus.

The first being he created was a female called Lilith.

According to Sumerian mythology, the goddess Ki (an Anunnaki assistant) took a bone from Enki and created Nin-ti, the 'woman of the bone'. Nin-ti is Lilith. Her name was lost in the Hebrew bible but is still preserved in other ancient religions as the goddess Astarte or Mithra. Genetically speaking, it is always easier to start with the complex and go from there to the simple. A female is XX, and a male is XY. It is easier to remove generic material than to add to it. That is why the first woman in the world was Lilith. Enki was a perfectionist and wanted to repeat the process again, so he creates Eve from his DNA, the second woman in history.

Obviously, the experiment would not be complete without a male. And from Eve's rib, he extracted stem cells to create Adam.

That's why verse 27 of Genesis reads. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him; male and female, he created them.

The dome or Paradise was totally isolated from the outside environment. Terrestrial bacteria and viruses could destroy the whole project. The isolation was total, and they had created an internal irrigation system, with steam extracted from underground. That is why Genesis 2-6 says: a vapour rose up from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth.

We have to dwell for a moment on the ethics of the Annunaki's and especially of Enki. For the demiurges, the inhabitants of the earth are like cattle. Think of how humans treat cattle. They are there to serve us. We give them good living conditions (sometimes) and exploit them for our interests. The Annunaki's thought like that, but not Enki. He was in love with the project. For him, Adam, Eve and Lilith were his favourite pets, and he wanted to make them talk.

Language is what creates consciousness. Enki was dedicated to hypnotic induction by implanting chips to associate sounds with images. It was not an easy task, the day of the final exam came. Enki made to name all beings, animals and plants and Adam, eve and Lilith did it. That is why in genesis 2:19 it is written

And the LORD God formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called the living creatures, that is their name.

News of the success of the project reached the planet Niburu. It had been demonstrated that it was possible to give intelligence and speech to earth monkeys. This new species could understand orders and carry them out. Let us not be surprised at this vision of the demiurges. How do we humans treat horses and oxen? They are beasts of burden, born to work. But the new humans were better. They had two hands with ten fingers and could do delicate resource extraction tasks.

The project moved to phase 2. Offerings. Gradually, through holograms, humans were trained to make offerings to the Annunaki's. At first, it was simple, bringing fruits and some small animals to an altar. The altar had a system that simulated fire and the products fell into a trap and were stored out of sight of the hominids.

From food they moved on to minerals. They soon learned to recognise gold and precious minerals. All the movements of the hominids were studied and recorded. Patterns of behaviour and acceptance of the law were made. Humans had to make offerings to the annunakis. Another rule was also imposed, never to leave the dome of Paradise.

Then the unforeseeable happened. This proves that the Annunaki's are not God. They are not perfect and cannot predict the future.

Adam and Eve became close friends and displaced Lilith. This one stopped making offerings and went around the dome until he reached the limits. In the west, right where the sun lay, there was a large red fruit tree that looked like none of the ones inside Paradise. Lilith wanted to flee but did not know-how.

The dome was hermetically sealed but communicated with the outside with tiny robots. There was a hatch where vehicles entered, were sterilised and then exited through another hatch.

One day Lilith discovered that a snake entered the airlock and a robot vehicle, and then she saw the same snake come out of the dome. She quickly realised an exit from the dome to the outside world and to that tree with beautiful red fruits.

Lilith told Eve about her discovery and proposed to escape from Paradise and eat those tasty unknown fruits. But Eve was arrogant and contemptuous. She told Lilith that she was OK with Adam and that she was in the way of this relationship. Better she should leave for good and leave Paradise to the two of them alone. Besides, God was angry with her because she was no longer making offerings.

Lilith took it very badly and said to Eve: Tonight, I will eat the tastiest fruit that you will never be able to eat in your life.

That same night she waited for a robot vehicle to approach the gate. He almost choked on the antibacterial and antiviral liquids, but he managed to get out and went to the red fruit tree where the sunsets. After eating them and sleeping, she headed off to explore this new unknown world.

Lilith's escape went unnoticed for a few days by the Annunaki's. They were more interested in those who made offerings: Adam and Eve.

But Eve was not satisfied. She had it all: Paradise for herself and her man Adam. The competition had fled. But she kept remembering the tastiest fruit in the world. She was missing that. Slowly she convinced Adam to take a walk near the edge of the dome. He showed him the red fruits and also the escape hatch.

Adam did not want to disobey the Annunaki's, he was happy in Paradise. But Eve kept insisting.

One day she let herself be persuaded, and they went to the gate, just as a robot vehicle was leaving the dome. But Adam was suspicious and didn't want to be locked in a mousetrap. He brought with him a large log that blocked the hatch, leaving a gap to return through—this great idea of Adam's unleashed tragedy.

Adam and Eve came to the great tree, ate its fruit, and fell asleep.

The gates blocked by Adam's trunk caused germs and viruses to enter the dome. All the bio-alarms went off. Adam and Eve saw big lights and heard the terrifying alarms. They were afraid and fled down a valley. They tried to return but saw patrols with torches looking for them and became even more frightened.

That is why in Genesis 3:24 it is written that the demiurge Placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword that turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life.

The flight of Adam and Eve was catastrophic to Paradise. The open floodgate polluted the entire dome. Thousands of plants and animals died. Only a few species survived such as cows, goats, pigs.

The humiliation of Enki was absolute. Imagine that you have spent years of your life breeding and train a purebred dog. And then he runs away and can't be found. Years of work wasted. Enki never thought of implanting a geolocator in his hominids. He never imagined that they could escape and contaminate his laboratory.

In a fit of rage and pride, as head of the expedition, he decided to destroy the laboratory and leave for another place far away. He was thinking of Peru, rich in minerals. Emesh and Enten opposed the idea. Remember that the former was investigating vegetation, forests and fields. The latter was studying animals and livestock. Not all was lost; some species survived in the terrestrial environment. The project could continue.

But Enki did not want to be reminded of his defeat and was ordered to open the geothermal pipes. In a few days, Paradise would explode like a volcano. At the requests of Emesh and Enten, he allowed the animals to leave the dome and seeds to be scattered around.

After 6 days the dome exploded as a massive volcano, creating the rif valley, a tremendous geological fracture whose total length is 4830 kilometres in a north-south direction.

Adam and Eve saw the destruction of Paradise and fled north. By chance, they met Lilith, and the three of them formed the first tribe of homo sapiens.

The tribe of Adam had a history of nine hundred and thirty years. From the Rif valley they came to Ethiopia, and in the high mountains they settled.

Like other animals, when the herd becomes too large, it separates. This happened with the descendants of Lilith and Eve. They were called the tribe of Abel and the tribe of Cain. Their descendants settled in the Sahara, which in those days was an orchard, something like the Paradise where they were created.

Lena Bestofos 06/14/2015

We have arrived at the port of Kirra, in the Gulf of Corinth. It has been a long voyage from Phocis, my homeland in Asia Minor. A storm almost sank our ships. But we Phocians are the best sailors in all of Greece. We discovered the Adriatic, the Tyrrhenian, Iberia and Tartessos.
I come with a critical mission. To ask the Pythia of Delphi for good omens for our new colony in Iberia. 
I know the place and the Way to go there across the Mediterranean. We are sailing through Magna Graecia, across the Strait of Messina. Then Liguria to the north. And then down south into Iberian land. There are Greek colonies there. I want to go further down, cross the great rock to the north and a little further down to found the colony at the foot of the enormous white mountain. There is an estuary and a river. There we can anchor and locate our city on a small hill.
But we must be quick; the Phoenicians already have another city in the south. And they close the exit to the ocean beyond the great southern rock that some call the Pillars of Hercules. It is time to make an expedition to colonise these lands and close the Way to the cursed kidnappers of women and murderers of children. Sons of Baal. 
We spend the night in the city of Delphi. The oracle is in the valley of Pleisto, next to Mount Parnassus. Legends say that on Mount Parnassus, the muses, the goddesses of song and poetry, met together with the nymphs of the springs, called naiads. At these gatherings, Apollo plays the lyre and the divinities sing. I don't believe it. That's my problem. I don't believe in the gods, but I can't say so publicly. I have to go on with this comedy and give 5000 talents of silver to the priests to buy the promanteia. It's like a religious tax that allows me to consult the Pythoness in preference. We can't wait months for her to receive us like poor people.
We are lucky, today is the 5th day of the month Skirophorion, and the Pythoness will receive us from listening to our question and pass it on to Apollo. The great oracle will be on the 7th, the date of Apollo's birth. This is a necessary procedure. Our priest treasurer will hand over the silver as an offering. That's what it's all about, money as it has always been. It's all a tremendous tragic play for an ambigous blessing that no one will understand. The 5000 talents would be enough to equip 3 longships (birremes) and 5 fat ships (freighters). But we will give these fat priests the richest in all Greece.
Then the Pythoness appeared, wrapped in a black cloak. She stared at me and said
- Are you ready to know the future?
I was frightened. I was expecting a toothless older woman, but she was beautiful, and her black eyes pierced me. I soon pulled myself together and answered her
- That's why we have come with a lot of money for Apollo and the temple.
- Money won't give you a good prediction... Wait, Apollo tells me that he accepts the offering of the Phocians. But Apollo tells me he wants a personal offering from you.
This time she didn't scare me, but she surprised me. What did she want from me? A blood sacrifice? My blood? That barbar sacrifice hasn't been used for centuries. We are not children of Baal. He was setting me up. I'm worry, I've travelled a lot, and I have a sixth sense of danger. I answered her.
- What is it?
- A gold coin, yours, not from the city of Phocea.
Ah, that's what she wanted, this witch looks like a Syrian or a Phoenician one. Maybe Hebrew. He wants to get some more money out of me. A gold coin, no more, no less. I hesitated for a moment to say it, but he didn't let me speak.
- One gold coin of the three you hide in your belt, and Apollo will speak to you too.

How could he guess that I always carry three gold coins hidden when I travel. You never know if you might need them to buy your life or your freedom. I didn't show them to anyone on the journey. Would I have spies in the port of Kirra or at Delphi?
I don't believe in gods, but I do believe in omens. I am also a good gambler, and I know how to lose. I took out the gold coin and added it to the 5000 talents with a smile. She looked at me with extraordinary eyes and said
- Come back on the 7th when Apollo is at the zenith, and do your purifications. Be prepared; you will never be the same.

Then I got sick. I don't know what happened. My fellow Phocians invited me to some amphorae of wine, as a thank you for the gold coin I put in. How funny, they know that the witch tricked me like an imbecile. How much did I drink? 5, 6, 7 glasses of wine. But I felt terrible. I was shaking, and I just wanted to lie in bed. I had strange, sick visions. She, the fortune-teller, came to me in my dreams and told me about her childhood in the mountains far to the north from where you could see the sea. I recognised the place; it was Illyria on the Adriatic Sea. Then the witch flew with me all the Way to the new colony. We flew parallel to the coast, and I named the capes we had to cross to get to Iberia. The big rock to the north and then the white mountain.
I thought I was going to die, but waking up on the day of the great oracle. I felt better. 
I walked along the grand avenue lined with temples leading to the cave of divination. On consultation days, the Pythia first purified herself at the Castalia fountain. She then made offerings to Apollo. Then the priests poured cold water on a goat. If the goat shivered, it was a sign that Apollo was receptive to the consultations. The goat was then sacrificed on the altar of Apollo. 
Whoever has seen one sacrifice has seen them all. The animal was adorned with a wreath of flowers and ribbons and carried in procession to the sacrificial place, purified with water. As it was an offering to a celestial god (Apollo), the animal was sacrificed on a consecrated high altar (bómos). The fur of the victim tended to be light, and the throat was slit so that the blood would flow up to the sky, to the gods. 
But something was different this time. A priest who was with the Pythoness on the day of our meeting, came with a jug of water and threw it on me. And I started to shiver. It was hot, but I was not yet recovered from my illness.
What was happening? Was I to be sacrificed? Was it a trap, as my intuition told me? The cursed gold coin was my payment to Charont's boot to pass on to another life.
I had no weapons to defend myself, and I thought I would run away.
The fortune-teller made a sign and told me to be taken to the cave. The Pythia sat on a metal tripod that was in a space called the "apithidon", at the back of the temple of Apollo Pythios. Αδυτων means "bottom of the sanctuary" and τo αδυτoν means "sacred place of forbidden access". It is the gate leading directly to the underworld. Vapours and smoke came out from there, making it difficult to breathe. Apollo talks to the soothsayer in that very place because it is the centre of the world.
They tied me to a metal tripod and put me in front of the soothsayer. I tried to resist, but the priest said, "It is for your safety.

• It's for your safety. You don't want to fall into hell when Apollo speaks to you? The ropes will hold you when you faint. The Pythia does not wish you harm, be calm.

The chanting and praying began. I smelled rotten eggs mixed with incense and burnt blood. Fortunately, I had not been sacrificed, but I was tied up, and that unbreathable smoke made me dizzy.
At that moment, the Pythia began her prophecy

• O sons of Phocea, the seals that inhabited your lands have fled. Travel westward, find a white mountain and call it Akra Leuké (Ἂκρα Λευκῆ) the white cape. Your people will find refuge there, for the fire comes from the east.

 
I heard nothing more, nor do I remember anything else. I woke up on the ship, on my Way to our city. My companions looked at me with strange faces. They didn't want to talk to me. They seemed to be afraid of me. It took me a while to find out what had happened.

It was 7 months later, on my way to our new colony in Akra Leuk'e when Strabonius, an old sailor who had accompanied me to Delphi, revealed the secret.

Apollo possessed me like the Pythoness and spoke through my mouth according to what Straboniustold me. I said strange things. 

I spoke of an army of elephants at the foot of the white mountain. The Phoenicians would be the masters of the city and then the Italics. No one would speak Greek when the city would be flooded and sacked. But Akra lekue will be reborn on the other side of the mountain when no one remembers Apollo anymore, for a new god will be born and then another who will fight in these lands for centuries. A great volcano will burst the mountain and disfigure its face. Armies from many countries will fight for the mountain. It will last 4000 years until the water floods the city, but the mountain will remain.

• What madness you tell me. I don't remember anything. Are they going to accuse me of being a heretic or an atheist? Have they exiled me?
• Yes, they have exiled you, they don't want you to return to Phocea, but Apollo spoke to you, and they can't touch you.
• But I didn't say anything to offend the gods or Phocea.
• I didn't tell you everything, you also said that all the Greek gods will fall into oblivion, that the East will invade all of Greece again and again for centuries, the Greeks will be expelled from Phocea, and it will be foreigners who live in the city. Delphi will be destroyed, all will be ruins, and no one will remember the oracle. They want you far away from Phocea. They do not want to hear you or know that you have spoken.
• The witch put a spell on me. I do not believe in gods and never will. Destiny is the occident; we will create the colony of Akra leuke. Never mind the dreams of madmen; what matters is the present—this life. Strabon, let us speak no more of this matter.

Xabierus MeinKonick 06/11/2015

Historical facts are more complex than we think. Revolutions are not created from nothing. Often there are hidden political and economic interests that disguise themselves as romanticism.

Julius Caesar already mentioned the name of Belgium in his conquest of Gaul. But it was much larger than current Belgium. The Seventeen Provinces was the name given during the 16th century to the 17 territories that comprised the present countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the North of France and a small part of the Netherlands. This territory was also called at that time Pays-Bas, Nederland, Belgia, the Netherlands. In 1549, the Pragmatic Sanction established that the boundaries of the Netherlands would form a unified territorial entity, the Seventeen Provinces. Charles V created the title of Lord of the Netherlands (Heer der Nederlanden).

The wars of religion between Catholics and Calvinists destroyed this unity, with the separation of the Netherlands from the Spanish Low Countries. In practice, the northern territories would be the United Provinces: Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland and Groningen, as well as parts of Brabant, Flanders and Limburg. And the southern territories under Habsburg sovereignty formed the Spanish Netherlands: Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Namur, Luxembourg, Brabant, Antwerp, Mechelen, Limburg. And let us not forget the bishop of Liege, which was independent until the later revolutions.

After the war of Spanish succession, the Austrians replaced the Spanish Ausburgs, and the Austrian stage of Belgium began. It was at the end of this period that the first Belgian revolution began, called the Brabançone, which is not the name of a woman, but a song. This revolution, also known as the Counter-Revolution (Révolution brabançonne or contre-révolution in French) took place, between 1787 and 1790, under the reign of Joseph II of Habsburg and led, in 1790, to the creation of the United Belgian States, which did not reach the year of life. 

Here began the first conspiracy. It seems that it was the Prussians who sent arms, instructors and money to incite the revolt. In those days Prussia was an ascendant power with a clear enemy: Austria. A rebellion in the European far west was very useful to them in weakening their rival in central Europe. Remember that a few years earlier Prussia had taken the rich Silesian region from Austria. The principality of Liège also had its revolution in an anticlerical style to expel the prince bishop

This revolt triumphed, but the total absence of international support and the withdrawal of the Prussian advisers allowed the Austrians to recover all the territory. The province of Namur capitulated on 27 November 1790. The Austrians also intervened to restore Prince Bishop Hoensbroeck. The revolutionaries of Liège took refuge in France, just as the defeated Belgians fled to France, like Vonck to Lille, and Walckiers and their supporters to Paris were formed a legion to relaunch the revolution.

 In politics, and in general, in all historical processes, the enemies of today will be the friends of tomorrow. That is what happened between Austria and Prussia. The French Revolution was the great enemy of old Europe. A republican monster, anti-religious and anti-monarchist. In other words, the devil for the kings of the continent.

The French revolution came to sweep away the recently recovered Austrian Low Countries and Liège itself. But the Belgians soon discovered that their French Republican friends were not so magnificent. Their main interest was not to export the revolutionary ideals but to plunder all the country's possible riches. Nevertheless, Napoleon invested a lot in the country, especially in Antwerp. A city he considered to be like a gun pointed at the heart of England.

Napoleon lost his last battle at Waterloo, and the congress in Vienna confirmed a newly united country: The Netherlands, which encompassed what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The great nation of the 15th century recovered again and with a bright future. It had everything to succeed in the new Europe of restoration: overseas colonies supported by the vast Dutch fleet, powerful textile industry in Flanders and a mining and iron Wallonia. These times were the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe.

Between 1815 and 1848, the victorious countries that defeated Napoleon devised a new international order to prevent new revolutionary adventures which they called The Restoration. The aim was to prevent the aggrandisement of France and the spread of extremist ideas by creating buffer states (Holland, Westphalia, Switzerland, Piedmont) and restoring absolute monarchies (Spain, Portugal, Naples..) This Holy Alliance became the police of Europe with the mission to intervene militarily against any revolutionary attempt in Europe and America. And the system worked fine at first. In 1820 Commander Riego rebelled in Spain and forced the king to restore the 1812 Constitution. In only three years the powers send to Spain the "One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis", who restore King Ferdinand VII, the worst king Spain ever had. Insurrections in Naples, Sicily and Piedmont were quelled. In Russia the military conspiracy of December 1825 was harshly suppressed by Tsar Nicholas I.

In 1830 there was another wave of revolutions in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany. All were destroyed except the Belgian one.

Why did it triumph in this country? The only explanation is the foreign plot (especially the French-British one, but with strong Prussian support). We will explain it step by step.

In August 1830, stimulated by the communist revolt in Paris, a revolutionary process began in Brussels which was not succeeded in being quelled by the intervention of the Dutch army (12 September). On 4 October, independence was declared, which received decisive support from the United Kingdom and Prussia at an international conference convened for the purpose in London (20 December).

That is the official version, but let's break down the political interests at stake.

France: After Napoleon's defeat, it renounced the revolution and returned to the monarchical rule. But the old ideas of grandeur were still alive, especially the dream of reaching the "natural" borders of France: the Rhine. For almost all French people, Belgium was part of France itself, and they were just waiting for the moment to get it back. Separating it from Holland was the first step towards this ultimate goal.

England: It was the country that could lose the most with a strong Holland. Let's think in an economical way coming back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The only country that could compete and take over the world's commercial market was the New unified Holland. They had a large fleet and colonies on several continents. The textile industry in Flanders was very powerful, they only needed ships to export their products. And finally (and most seriously) Wallonia had a new and powerful industry that could openly compete with England. In fact, it was the first industrialised country on the continent to produce iron and coal. Its factories could produce cheaper than the English ones and sell it on the five continents with the help of the crucial Dutch fleet. The old Latin motto divide et vinces is the most logical and practical way to maintain power in Europe for England. Curiously, the Belgian motto is the opposite: L'union fait la force. Ironies of fate.

Now let's return to the revolutionary myth. A play at the Brussels Opera House with a patriotic theme made the spectators take to the streets and attack the house of the Dutch governor, soon after they occupied the whole city. The theatre's capacity was less than 1000 people. How could so few people stage such a coup d'état?

Hardly anyone mentions the mercenaries who arrived in Brussels, dressed in rags but with the best weapons of the time. 200 volunteers from Liège under Rogier's command entered in the capital and stationed themselves at the entrances to the city. They made it very difficult for the Dutch troops when they tried to attack. And they managed to surround them in the royal park. Professional snipers who decimated the Dutch troops. They were so effective that the British extended their contract and from Ostend they embarked for Portugal, where they participated in the civil war between the recent King Miguel de Bragança and the aspiring Pedro (future Pedro IV of Portugal. ) On 8 July Pedro disembarked on the beach of Memory, near Porto, taking the city the next day. English support was decisive in enthroning a new king, perfectly aligned with English policies.

Returning to Belgium, the determined English and French support made possible the new state that adopted a liberal regime of parliamentary monarchy, putting on the throne a German prince closely linked to the English royal house: Leopold I.

Without this Franco-English economic and military support, the Netherlands would surely have recovered the territories and formed a single country until the German invasions of the 20th century. Although perhaps history would have changed radically. A robust Dutch empire would have helped its former Boer colonists in South Africa and maybe the first world war would have been continental Europe against the British Empire.

Leaving speculation aside, the truth is that the Franco-British plot was decisive in the creation of the Belgian state with a monarchy related to the English one. The dream of Queen Victoria, the hemophiliac grandmother of Europe's royal families.

Tom Goldman 16/08/2019

It all started in the summer of 2020. At first it was loose and unconnected news. A Portuguese caravel (a kind of Atlantic jellyfish) had attacked a child at the Campello, near Alicante. In Corsica, a new species of urticating algae had appeared, seriously threatening tourism. A few days later the same type of seaweed was discovered on Mallorca and Ibiza. In a couple of days it reached the Spanish Levant.
I didn't worry about all these things, until it was my turn. I remember very well that October 12, 2020. It was festive and I went to the Albufereta to walk along the coast. I took a bath in a small beach because it was very hot.
Something bit me, in fact twice, once in the right leg and once in the left arm. There were two small wounds but they bothered me a lot. Fortunately, there was a lot of aloe vera growing in that area. I cut a couple of big leaves and rubbed them into the wounds. I don't know if it was what saved me or not. The wounds kept bothering me, but less so. In the evening I met some friends at the Portal de Elche. I don't know if you know this place, it's a very nice square in the center of Alicante that has a very special kiosk. It's always full, but that day we were lucky and found a place to sit. My friends are British and logically we were drinking beer all evening. I felt a little sick, dizzy, but I put it down to drinking. I remember something that caught my attention. The square where we were sitting is well known for the giant trees it has (Ficus macrophylla is its scientific name). Well, the color of its leaves was a little fluorescent. Not too much, just a little bit. But it was really unsettling..... That was the beginning of the end.
I got home pretty late. That night I slept pretty badly and woke up worse. I spent the weekend half sick, but not too much. I continued to give aloe vera to the wounds and they seemed to heal. Monday arrived and I felt terrible. I was coughing a lot but I had to go to work. The solution to absenteeism is to be self-employed as is my case. I can't afford to get sick because I don't work day that I don't get paid. That's why I went to work that day. I hope my colleagues will forgive me, back in the sky. At the end of the day I heard many coughs in the office. That same afternoon I started to get worse. It was hard for me to breathe and the coughs wouldn't stop. I doped myself with acetaminophen, cough syrup and of course the aloe vera cream in my two wounds that were becoming a little fluorescent. It wasn't normal, I knew it. I had to go to the doctor urgently and made an appointment for the next day in the afternoon.
I couldn't get to the doctor on my own foot. The next day I was at the bus stop at 8 a.m. coughing when I fainted. It was an old man who saved my life. I had seen him at the same stop for months but had never spoken to him. But he helped me and called an ambulance that took me to the hospital. From here my posthumous thanks.
Little memory of those preepidemic days. It seems that I was the first patient, patient 0 as they call me now. One of the doctors knew a friend of mine, and thanks to that he treated me with special affection. It was his idea to intubate me (they put some tubes down my throat to allow me to breathe with a machine). This is what saved me. Then I went into a coma. Everything I'm going to tell you next I discovered after waking up, three years later...
 
The great Spanish allergy or fluorescent allergy as they called it took 60% of the world's population. I have to admit that I don't quite understand what it was but I will try to explain it as simply as possible. Climate change caused some marine species to mutate, developing very aggressive toxins. It started with a certain type of jellyfish (such as the Portuguese caravel) and was transmitted to the seaweed. We don't know very well how (if the seagulls or some insects) but from the sea it went to the land and fattened on the trees. They became contaminated and pollen was lethal to humans. CO2 also had a big influence. It was like a catalyst for the disease to spread like a fire...
When I woke up, the world had changed radically. I have to admit that what I am going to tell you I discovered little by little. In the beginning nobody said anything to me, they just did tests and trials. Little by little I watched the news on the few remaining TV channels and I began to compose my place in this apocalyptic world in which we live.
At 50 I am one of the oldest men on the planet. The disease was especially prevalent in people over the age of 30. Almost all of them died, suffocated, the fluorescent pollen of the plants got into the lungs and nobody surpassed the week of illness. Within 15 days of being in the hospital half of Spain had died and the same thing happened in the rest of the world. Allergy was more active in the big cities, where pollution and co2 helped their great expansion. Europe, Asia, Africa and America soon became infected. Australia withstood a few months. But not even the naval and air blockade could cope with the allergy. Fluorescent pollen reached everyone except a few islands in the Arctic and Antarctica.
But not everything is so bad, the society is much more dynamic than before, full of opportunities for young people surviving. There is plenty of work and housing for everyone. Migrants are welcome and given all kinds of facilities, but many prefer to stay in their country, where there are so many things to do. The great problems of the pre-allergic world no longer make any sense. Pensions no longer exist, 99% of pensioners have died. Nor is there a housing problem, there are hundreds of thousands of abandoned houses all over the world. Mortgages? They were simply forgotten in the chaos of fluorescent death... All cars are electric, because the internal combustion cars fed the disease with their gases.
But not everything is so beautiful. Racism has grown alarmingly. Let me explain. In this new world there are three types of human beings. The immune ones, who are the majority, young people who were able to adapt to pollen and survived. They are the working people who keep the world going and they are in charge of the middle posts of the World Union, the new political organization that emerged after the epidemic. Then there's us, the survivors. We are the ones who overcame the disease but left us with sequels, like that damned fluorescence in the lungs, heart and brain. During the day you don't notice it, but at night you do, and a lot. I know that they look at us badly, that they think we are to blame for the apocalypse. We all know it's not true but the idea is there and I notice the hostility in the environment when people realize my color. Finally there are the non-contagiated. They are the world's elite (politicians, bankers, top businessmen). They fled from the infected areas and took refuge in some islands of the Arctic, where they knew that pollen would not arrive. There aren't many but they still control the world from up there, in the remote north. But they live in fear because there is no cure for the disease. If for some reason the pollen reached their shelters, they would die in a few days. And they know it very well, that's why there are so many security checks to get to their islands. For example, I can never go. Totally forbidden, because I am who I am, patient 0.
 
I think the time has come for me to tell you more about my current life. Things are going well for me. The fluorescence in my chest doesn't bother me too much, although it does bother most of the immune people I've met. I feel their hostility for being different and having infected me.
But being patient 0 has its advantages. I travel a lot and everything is paid for. I go to medical conferences and they do interviews for some media and tv. I'm kind of a media star. My white beard makes me very recognizable  How quickly people forget how many old people there were at the beginning of the 21st century. Now I'm something special because I'm 50 years old, but not long ago there was nothing abnormal about me. I'm part of the baby boom generation ravaged by the pandemic. But I survived. We are 0.1% of the current population of the planet. A small minority, without political representation and with many prejudices about us.