| First, a distant, dull explosion, it seems from another | | | | The second time in two years, a powerful wind blows |
| world, and I try to shrug it off. | | | | through the African Nation. Amidst widespread |
| It is midnight and I am half asleep by the time the next | | | | corruption in the government, the voice of justice has |
| thundering sound tells me of something unusual. My | | | | spoken. No one can escape the swift spread of |
| senses sharpen and I lay awake, tense, listening. By | | | | retaliation that follows the next days. All party |
| the time the rapid exchange from a submachine gun | | | | functionaries who have not managed to escape, are |
| echoes through the night, I know that trouble is on its | | | | being rounded up and sent to military facilities. |
| way. | | | | Detention, interrogation, sentencing is all done in military |
| Looking out through the windows does not reveal | | | | style, military courts are set up in hastiness. |
| anything, and I continue to count the number of heavy | | | | The Army is in control, and, will apply their own justice, |
| artillery rounds that go down in direction of the | | | | and the common people are jubilating. |
| Flagstaff house. No one has expected this to come, | | | | For a few years the party has once again ruled |
| everyone is surprised. | | | | according to their own rules, nepotism, favoritism, |
| The night continues with the same sounds of heavy | | | | hypocrisy and corruption the guiding principle. |
| gun fire, not close, yet clearly audible. Nobody can find | | | | The night before, I have a visitor, Richard, we call him |
| sleep by now, and is trying to receive information | | | | Rich. He always stops by, for a drink or a meal, and he |
| through the poor telephone system. Frantic calls are | | | | is what one calls a 'facilitator', he helps when one |
| made from residence to residence, to no avail, nobody | | | | needs to go through bureaucratic hurdles, or other |
| knows what is going on. | | | | problems. He has contacts everywhere and he earns |
| The morning brings the first news, house staff coming | | | | his money this way. |
| from their various locations have heard that a Coup d' | | | | He leaves at around 20 hours, no one guesses that he |
| Etat against the civilian government is imminent. The | | | | will never come back again. His old VW beetle is |
| same Flight Lieutenant who has handed over to the | | | | leaking from the exhaust, causing excessive noise. |
| Civilian government before is the Coup plotter, the | | | | Driving though a dangerous city, rebel factions and |
| fighting raging between the various factions is tough. | | | | military still shooting at each other, and runs into a |
| People are cheering the return of the Flight Lieutenant, | | | | checkpoint , set up half a mile down the road from |
| he still is the hero of the people, the defender of truth, | | | | where I reside. He never hears the shouts : 'Stop, stop', |
| the protector of the poor. Soon the radio broadcasts | | | | his muffler is louder than the voices. A fatal error, the |
| the first news and by now the last doubt is laid aside, | | | | salves of machine gun fire that erupt from behind take |
| we are in the middle of a Coup d'Etat. On the second | | | | their toll, the car losing direction, running into a ditch. The |
| day all is over, the last Ministers have been arrested | | | | military follows and pulls out his lifeless body. A |
| by the Military and the President has been advised to | | | | common occurrence during such days. Rich is no |
| turn himself in police custody for his personal safety. | | | | longer, he has become a victim of circumstance, killed |
| The constitution is abandoned, once again, and civil | | | | by trigger happy soldiers. For in such times, the |
| rights are non-existent. | | | | venturing out on the roads is almost suicidal. |