by S. Poulos
disappeared as with a magic hand. He felt so light, so peaceful; he had never felt like that for years, maybe even since he was a kid. His body seemed to be more erect, and his eyes were calm and clear. He took a big breath, washed his hands, watched himself in the mirror for a while, and then slowly, but with sure steps, he walked back to the panel desk.
He sat down in his chair, still holding his forehead with the paper towel to the surprised glances of his co-panel councilors, and when the Teacher finished answering one of the questions, he started to speak.
"Ladies and gentleman... I know one thing... that I know nothing. By the way this is not my original thought. A Greek philosopher said that, and they also sent him to death, by poison for his message. After all these deliberations of the last two days, I came to the conclusion that I am not able to issue a recommendation for this man. Therefore I declare this meeting closed."
He indicated to the clerk to guide the Teacher out by the back door, and then he got up, and left.
It took the audience a few seconds to realize what happened, and then pandemonium broke loose. The press reporters ran towards their relaying vans, the few councilors in the panel looked in disbelief at each other, and the audience in the hall began to shout, to swear and to curse, with a few clapping their hands with pleasure. The councilors from the back room ran into the hall to see what happened, but they were bombarded with abuse from most of the delegates, for they thought they were in the conspiracy to let this agitator go free.
Finally the vice chairman grabbed a clerk, and, shaking him violently from the shoulders, asked him what the hell had happened here?
"Mister Newman," answered the clerk, shaking, "I know that this is not your fault. I have worked here for so many years, and this is the first time I heard the chairman using the word I, instead of we, when he announced the recommendation. I know you do not have a part in it."
"What was the recommendation?" the vice-chairman asked, still shaking the clerk.
"He could not find anything wrong with him, so he let him go."
The four international networks again started to broadcast the happenings in the hall live, the cameras swinging here and there, trying to capture the feel of the moment, trying to pinpoint one of the 'stars' of the episode. But the chairman and the Teacher had already gone. It all happened so quickly that everyone was caught off guard. Outside the hall, the frenzy was even bigger, for some of the reporters were trying to find out what happened, while the other ones that had the inside information spread the news through their relay vans. Others, who thought the press conference would last longer, and were lazily preparing their gear for the recommendation act, now panicked and set their gear up in no time.
When things settled down, and the hall was empty, the committee was gathered again under the vice-chairman in the back room to see how they would handle the situation. Only one committee member, who was skeptical about the whole situation, and three others that were supporting the chairman, did not participate.
The vice-chairman took the chair, and started to speak. "Fellow members, it is not use to cry over spilled milk. Neither is it any use trying to blame others for what happened. The only thing we can do now is to salvage whatever we can, and use this as a lesson. We all know the outcry out there in this country and beyond about this agitator. We in this room... to us falls this responsibility to find a solution for the problem. I asked my secretary to collect data from the thousands of messages we have from all round the world, and to give us the gist of it although we know roughly what it is. Until then, we can explore all our possibilities, starting with the issue of the chair. Then we must issue a press statement, and then decide how to approach the home secretary's office, giving the fact that we are blunderers in their eyes after this big gaffe. So, I am all ears."
"According to our draft-constitution, in order to dissolve this committee, to elect new one, there must be lodged a no-confidence vote in the leadership. That has to be signed by at least three-quarters of the committee members, and there must be at least one month's notice, before it can take place," said one of the committee.
"Very well then," the vice-chairman quickly said, "I think we can fulfill these criteria right now. Has anybody any objection about that?"
"No!"
"Anybody going to second it?"
"Yes," was the almost unanimous answer.
"The motion for electing new committee members by the special elections that will be held on a given date is passed.
"We move to our next topic then, fellow members. It is urgent for us to issue a press statement. People up there are anxious to know what happened. They want explanations. Anybody have any suggestions?"
There was complete silence in the room.
"Well I don't blame you," continued the vice-chairman, "the way things turned out. The only thing we can do is to tell the truth. It is not so bad considering, and we will plainly state the facts. The recommendation does not reflect the wish of the majority of the committee, and that it was the result of a coup d'état, executed by the chairman. This is the reason after all that we call for fresh elections, in order to straighten things up that have gone of course. Does anyone disagree? And has anybody to add anything about this?"
There was silence.
"All right then. Now friends, there is the issue of how to deal with the home department. We all know how much the home secretary wanted us to deal with this matter once and for all. He wanted us to issue a harsh recommendation, in order to facilitate him to throw the book on this guy, and to wipe him out of the map of this Earth, once and for all. Unfortunately, in his eyes, we failed. I don't blame him, the way things turned out. I am sure we can amend things, but right now, the pressing issue is how to deal with this agitator. There is so much in stake for WCFET and we all know that. Any suggestions?"
"If we could assure him that we could amend things, he may fall for it."
"Yes, but how?"
"Something tells me," said the vice-chairman, that this is not so bad after all; for now it forces us, and the home department, to came up with the final solution. Imagine if things turned out the way we planned, with this half-baked compromised idea of issuing a recommendation of persona non grata, without even known how the state department would react! Even with the most favorable scenario, by the time the legalities ended in order to deport him, he would roam the country at lib, agitating the people.
"What we have to do I think for now is this: we will pacify the home secretary by assuring him we are going to rectify the problem without getting into details. I am sure he would not want to know either."
At that moment someone knocked at the door. It was the secretary of the vice-chairman. She left a pile of files on the table, and was ready to go, but the vice-chairman asked her to stay.
"Please inform us about the findings you gathered during the last two days about this character. If you learned anything new, especially of the reaction of the people, world-wide, tell us."
"Ladies and gentleman, this is the result of data we collected in the last two days," said the secretary. "Our team comprised four co-workers, and me. We divided our information-data into four sections. In the first section, the data deals with reactions of the social network, such as tweeting, blogging, Face book etc., the second deals with the reactions on television, such as news, panels, interviews, etc., the third, the reactions in the newspapers, how they approached the issue in general, editorials, letters to the editor etc., end the last, the incoming reaction to us here, telephones, e-mails etc.
"Now, as for any new information concerning the man, unfortunately, we could gather nothing more than what was already known. We know he was born in an agriculture village, that he never went to college and that he never left much of a track behind him all this years, until he started this preaching business in the later stages of his life. He is not affiliated with any group, sect, or religious denomination, and there is no organization is behind him. It seems that he is a loner.
"W
e also know there are few court injunctions against him, from mainly groups that he antagonized, but, that no charges have stuck so far."
"Can you give us the gist of your findings please, in numbers, and then a sample of each category perhaps?"
"Overall, 72 per cent of the feedback-data we have collected is against this man, with about 30 per cent of them, in an inconceivably severe fashion considering he is only a lone wolf. About 8 per cent are the skeptics, and the rest are the sympathizers, with the main argument that the only one that should be afraid from the Teacher, as they call him, is the world-wide status-quo. Unfortunately we don't have enough data from the sympathizers; side, for we were working all night non-stop. However, as it concerns a small minority, we could continue to collect data from the sympathizers, if the committee wishes. It should not take very long.
"I will start, with some of the social network samples. It would be too time-consuming to read bloggers' opinions on the matter, but I can tell you that the majority of them are against the sayings of this man, claiming that thoughts like that, if they prevailed, would take mankind hundreds of years back. According to many bloggers' opinions, therefore it is the duty of the authorities to deal with him accordingly. The sources that are most caustic against him, I would say, are