“Theyusedto!” I said firmly. “And that’s why we made the peace treaty with them and why we secure our borders to the North.”
I held up a hand to the five students who had their hands raised. “No more questions about the Nmen. Today we’re going to focus on the Toxic War.”
The open faces and curious glances that had just been looking at me with their full attention, turned downwards. Not many people shared my passion for the past and most avoided talking about it. We were all raised to focus on the present and be optimistic about the future. Sadly, the past represented grief and regret, and the consensus was that there was no reason to dwell on it.
“You.” I pointed to a blonde girl on the first row. “Tell me what you know about the war.”
She squirmed in her seat and her eyes looked upward, making me suspect that she had an implant and was accessing the Wise-Share.
“The Toxic War broke out in 2057 after decades of political disturbance across the world. It was the breach of treaties and an escalation of cyberattacks on neighboring countries that made the UN fall apart and former allies attack each other.” She frowned as if reading in her mind’s eye.
“And then?” I asked to move her along.
“And then it became an endless spiral of retaliation and by the end of 2060 the world was almost completely destroyed.”
“True.” I nodded my head and pointed to the student to her left. “Can you tell me how the war affected the geography of the world?”
He nodded. “Yes, large areas became uninhabitable because of radiation and pollution from chemical weapons.”
“And can you name those areas?”
“Ehhm, it was the area formerly known as Africa, Amia, the eastern part of Russia, and Europe.”
“Not Amia… it was called Asia,” I corrected him.
“Sorry, Asia.”
“And what areas are still inhabitable?” I pointed to the young man who had smiled brightly at the beginning of the class.
“What was formerly known as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, North America, and the western part of Russia.”
“Thank you.” I pushed up from the desk and crossed my arms. “And of course one of the first things the council did was to eliminate the old-fashioned idea of countries, so we are now all simply residents of the Motherlands.”
I was losing their interest but kept pushing. “Why did the council get rid of country names?”
No one raised their hand so again I had to point to someone.
“I don’t know,” she said with an uninterested shrug.
“Because it was the mindset of ‘them and us’ that caused the wars to begin with.” I clapped my hands to get them to look at me. “Who wants to tell me what happened after the war ended in the fall of 2060?”
The young man with the bright smile raised his hand and waved it almost enthusiastically.
“Yes?”
“The population was reduced from eight billion to only one point five billion – with women outnumbering men twenty-six to one. There was a general blame on male pride and aggression as being the trigger for the near destruction of the planet, and that’s why protective laws were made to make sure greedy and power-hungry men can never rule again.”
I nodded and pointed to a dark-haired young woman who looked older than the others and had her hand raised. “Yes?”
“Basically what happened was the men almost destroyed us all and we women tried to save what was left,” she stated matter-of-factly.
The smiling young man wasn’t smiling anymore. Instead he kept his head down, making me feel sorry for him.
“Yes, but let’s not forget that not all men were greedy and power-hungry before, and not all women were innocent.”
Muttering broke out among the females in the room, so I clarified. “All I’m saying is that the men who survived for the most part supported a transition into a new leadership focusing on rebuilding and nurturing the world.”
The mutter only increased, and I knew I was walking a fine line. The last thing I needed was to get reported for being a troublemaker, so I quickly carried on.
