The Island of Dreams

by Gregory James Clark

  Opposite these two is Peter, The Sportsman, with principal Rosalie. He amassed a considerable fortune by acquiring and managing sports and leisure facilities throughout Europe. He banked with Leo and was a great advocate of amateur rather than professional sport, and often expressed concern at the increasing pressure of competition in sport which he said was driving people to cheat and discrediting the Olympic movement. Following his invitation here he set to work establishing the so-called Non-Olympic movement under the umbrella of Non-Capitalist Economics and was charged with the responsibility for ensuring that everyone on The Island took an interest in sport and fitness, as well as organising a universal training system to make skating, dancing, and chess features of The Island’s culture. He also designed The Island’s championship golf course, The West Links, and thanks to his and Rosalie’s efforts boredom and depression have never really existed on The Island.

  We now move on to Anton, The Magician, and principal Jane. Together they made an impressive partnership, achieving great success as renowned comedians, psychics and illusionists. They were favourites of the queen, whilst their expertise in the field of health and safety also impressed Ken who became convinced that he needed a Minister for Health and Safety, as well as someone to ensure that a first rate national health service was both set up and well managed. Today our health service is the envy of the world and brings in huge revenues from capitalist nations. In the course of their work they had witnessed many accidents and had to perform emergency first aid and even operations using only the most basic of materials, so they had a lot of skill of a rare kind. The other Founders also voted by consensus to appoint Anton as Deputy Prime Minister, a post which the Health and Safety Minister still enjoys to this day.

  Facing Anton and Jane are Patrick Carmichael or ‘Paddy’, The Actor, and his principal, Georgina. She had had a troubled life at the hands of a tyrannical husband. He had suffered also at the hands of bullies in his childhood. They were close associates of Anton and Jane and, like Anton and Jane, were popular with the queen. Paddy was a keen Shakespearean actor, as well as an accomplished director of stagecraft, opera and film, producing several blockbuster movies. Georgina, whom he had met on the stage, was a talented musician and opera singer, whom both Queen Justine and Kathleen, who we shall see in a moment, liked immensely. Both felt the need to give her a new life free from the husband who was threatening her life, and to provide him with a role in the new society. Queen Justine decided therefore to appoint Paddy as Culture Minister. He believed strongly, in line with the Deming philosophy, that pride and joy in work were important counters to bullying and, if successfully instilled at an early age, could greatly help to eliminate it. He and Georgina actively promoted artistic pursuits alongside sports as an integral part of the Island’s development.

  Moving diagonally again, we see Darren, The Merchant, with his principal Annette. He was the Foreign Secretary who was appointed by Leo to act as an interface between The Island and the outside world, both with regard to trade and issues of national security. He became known to Leo through his banking of substantial revenues which he raised through the transportation and sale of diamonds and other precious gems on special safe routes which he established between his base in London and sources of supply in Russia and South Africa. Annette’s father owned a chain of hotels and also banked with Leo. These hotels provided safe and inconspicuous accommodation to people from The Island whenever they travelled abroad and it was at one of these hotels that Darren and Annette met. These hotels are still owned by The Island and you will probably find yourself staying in one of them when you visit a capitalist country.

  Turning round we have Clifford, The Scientist, and his principal Zena. He was a government scientist who worked on many pioneering projects, but became infuriated with the interference and bunglings of politicians to such an extent that in the end he resigned. His name was Clifford Hebden and was a brilliant aviator and aircraft designer. He was a compatriot of Ken who famously reconfigured Concorde in miniature to make a unique new aircraft, known as The Hebden, or Hebden One, which was the forerunner to the modern Hebden Three which brought many of you here. The British Ministry of Defence was glad to see the back of him. The Island welcomed him with open arms, as Minister for Projects and founder of what is now Kamchatskiy Aerospace. His pioneering work with Endo and Kai led the production of designs that would one day harness the vast geothermal resources of Kamchatka to provide cheap, clean energy to the world, which it now does. Latterly he became keen on brain research and The Clifford Institute for Brain Research here on The Island, home to the legendary Dream Machine, is named after him.”

  “The Dream Machine,” whispered the group curiously, as they advanced to the top of the line where Leo and Ken faced each other with their principals. The Curator turned to face the pair on the left and continued with her commentary:

  “So we come to Leo, The Banker, and first Prime Minister of The Island, with his principal, Nora.

  As head of a multinational banking corporation he was a somewhat lonely and insular character, and Nora, an intern, succeeded in opening up his eyes to possibilities, particularly if he was going to resign and throw everything he had into The Island and his and Ken’s dream for the world. The son of a banking tycoon, who had devoted his life to the pursuit of wealth, Leo was groomed to take over and expand his father’s business, with an education at Harrow, Oxford, and latterly Lucerne. Over the decades his father had built the business up acting as banker for royalty, large corporations, and even governments. He frequently advised governments on aspects of financial policy. Yet the more he saw, the more he hated capitalism, which, in his opinion, rewarded all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Nora taught him what it was like to be happy, which in his highly stressful life he had been unable to appreciate, from his harsh childhood in boarding school, through the perpetual pressure to perform well at college and university, to his later years running his father’s banking empire, forever compelled to watch his back for fraud, insider dealing, sabotage, and threats to his personal life. He was not a happy man until he met Ken and Kathleen and heard of their plans for The Island. His bank still manages The Island’s one bank account with which it trades with capitalist countries and he is widely regarded as being the father of Non-Capitalist Economics. It is said that he had a very distinctive laugh and some people on The Island claim to have heard this laugh as, ghost-like, he watches over it.

  Opposite Leo and Nora we have Ken, The Mariner, and first King of The Island, with principal Justine, who of course was our first Queen. Ken was a shipping tycoon who specialised in all kinds of transportation by sea. His father had helped his son to get established by seeing him through university, where he displayed great talent as a maritime engineer, and on to a shipping career. When he graduated his father gave him £100,000 to invest in a couple of ships, but before long he was buying far more and converting them to specialised uses such that whenever there were unusual cargoes or combinations of cargoes he was the expert. I suppose you have already heard the story of the Stone Boat down at the training centre?”

  There were nods from the group.

  “Ken was retiring, but firm, having little tolerance for people simply followed orders without thinking about what they did. Above all, those who worked for him were expected to be creative and have a capacity for innovation, just as he himself was adamant that The Island King ‘must demonstrate a unique set of outstanding capabilities to justify holding the Crown’. With this proviso, the world’s newest monarchy was formed with its unique structure whereby the Crown passed down the female line, with each new King selected by The Queen and then subsequently trained so as to be able to raise standards throughout the world, including the capitalist world, in accordance with the teachings of Deming and Juran. Above all, according to Ken, The Island King must be ‘strong, innovative and pure’, and only hold the rank of Prince Regent until all senior parties, whom the Queen’s father, the outgoing King is
to select from among his Ministers, are satisfied that the new monarch is fit to take on the role. The Queen may choose a Prince, with her father’s help, once she has attained the age of eighteen.”

  The Curator now turned to face the low stage, upon which stood the single wax figure of the woman in white.

  “At the back of the stage, watching over the scene we see the figure of the deceased Kathleen. She was an accomplished singer, dancer, skater, comedienne and actress. Less is known about her than the other characters, but archive materials, especially interviews with Ken from the early forties, have provided us with a pretty good picture as to what she was like as a person. The Founders all admired her and were deeply distraught when they learnt of what had happened to her that fateful night when she drove home from a gig in Jackson Hole. In the end it made them even more determined to make this fantastic project a success and in exactly the manner that she laid out in her will, that is a Queendom, with Justine as Queen, and a King that both she and the others wanted, equipped with all the skills needed to lead and govern wisely under the system of Non-Capitalist Economics that Leo had devised. As you can probably guess Kathleen was a keen advocate of women’s rights, but with a strong sense of fairness and an eye for talent.”

  At the far corner of the hall an open door led through from the first hall to the second. In this hall there were more waxworks, although this time they were placed singly around the room. At the top there were the present King and Mary, The Queen Mother and former Queen, Queen Katie, who has been our Queen for the last five years, and her two siblings. The Curator presently led the group in.

  “In this hall we see an array of figures which show some of the key support staff from the early days followed by more modern figures including our present day royals about whom you can read at leisure.

  First though we see the two Japanese engineers Endo and Kai. Kai was the Chief Civil Engineer who designed and built The Town, the hamlets of Sabfelt, formerly Kai Endo, and Aldebaran, as well as The Royal Palace and The Non-Olympic Stadium. Endo, the Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer was responsible for other features such as the hydro-electric plant on the north east side of The Island, the steam railway and the small Kammies. He also founded the two companies Kamchatskiy Auto and Kamchatskiy Logistics, with his friend Hiro Mitsumoto. The King himself of course founded the oldest company, Kamchatskiy Maritime.”

  The group then moved on to two more wax figures, the first of which was of an elderly gent in a blue suit.

  “This figure is one which you may have seen before, at the entrance to our Training Centre. The statue was placed there early in 2037 in memory of the man and his message. He was renowned for his teaching, particularly in Japan after the Second World War. His Principles for the Transformation of Western Enterprises were very readily assimilated into Leo’s Blueprint for the Future of Humanity and Model for Non-Capitalist Economics. This waxwork was made from a still photograph of Deming taken in the 1970s, and made, like the others, by the Island waxmakers, who still have their workshop up in the hamlet of Aldebaran, which lies two kilometres to the north of The Town, where you will also see monuments to the memory of Ken, Kathleen and Justine. Aldebaran was named by Kathleen after the red-eye star of Taurus, which was her starsign. There Kai-san built both an opera house and an observatory in her honour.

  Opposite Deming we see Joseph Moses Juran, who also has a statue in his honour outside the Deputy Prime Minister’s residence. He was born in Braila, Romania, on Christmas Eve 1904 and his Universal Sequence for Breakthrough was also integrated into Leo’s Blueprint for the Future of Humanity, upon which our modern policy and strategy is based, and which looks forever towards quality improvement and beating the best capitalist performers on quality in every sector wherever in the world they may be.

  Between him and the modern royals you may note our present Prime Minister Joanie Carmichael, great grand-daughter of Patrick Carmichael, her Deputy Hamilton Francis, her Chancellor Simon de Havilland and two other figures, our Concierge and Reverend whom you will meet later during your stay here and who have done much work abroad to improve the world in line with the wishes of our present King, King Neville.

  I will leave you to study these exhibits at leisure. Please come and see me if you have any questions about our fine history. I think you will agree never before has so much been achieved by so few.”

  Chapter Six

  The Great Dome

  When Connie and Gary returned to Angel Cottage three more of their set had arrived. Anne Clancy introduced herself, explaining how she had arrived from Coniston in the English Lake District, and had skated at the newly refurbished Lancaster Ice Theatre.

  “I’m twenty-three and have been skating for just under three years. I thought of applying for a place at university to study economics and politics, but my exam results were poor so I gave up on the idea. I nearly thought of giving up on skating as well and just emigrating to Canada, not knowing what I would do there of course.”

  “Then of course all of your skating talent would have gone to waste. Why Canada?” asked Connie.

  “A land of opportunity, and Newfoundland particularly appealed to me. I knew that it was slowly detaching itself from Canada.”

  “That would explain why The Island Authorities have matched you with a guy from Newfoundland,” Connie replied.

  “Have they?” said Anne. “I haven’t met him. That’s odd because I always had a strange feeling that I would meet someone from there.”

  “He’s called Carl. He arrived yesterday. You presumably flew from England today?”

  “I did, although I am still unsure of how I came to be given one of those precious tickets. It just arrived hand delivered. I know everyone here skates, its clearly part of the culture, so there must be a connection somewhere with the Lancaster Ice Theatre, but I can’t guess what. I did say that I was thinking of quitting skating and one man said he didn’t think that I should. He knew I wanted to go to Newfoundland, and he just said ‘oh’, and gave me a strange look. I think he worked for the armed forces.”

  “I don’t suppose it really matters,” said Connie. “The main thing is you’re one of us.”

  Connie then turned to the other two newcomers and asked them their names.

  “I’m Michael from Berlin,” replied the tall fair-haired gent. “I’m twenty-five and have skated for four and a half years. I received my card by hand on the rink, almost as soon as I told her I had no job and was about to give up skating. I was told to go to Cuxhaven where I met a lady friend of hers who said I could transform my life if I was willing to put my faith in her. When the lady said ‘how would you like to skate for Kamchatskiy?’ I was sure that it was what I wanted.”

  Connie then turned to the other newcomer, a dark haired twenty-three-year-old Austrian girl and obviously Michael’s principal.

  “My name is Claudia, I am twenty-three and I am from Vienna. I was fascinated with the Kamchatskiy company, especially the wonderful cars and the aircraft, the Hebden Three, which is so lovely to fly in compared to a normal plane. I have only seen a few of the cars and, until today, only read about the planes, but the thing I most liked was the very different culture that was so good in its concepts. I saw the skaters once at an exhibition in Salzburg, and, like many in the audience was captivated. I knew that I wanted to work for them.”

  “And you obviously impressed someone enough to get the prized ticket to come here,” said Anne.

  “Obviously. But I don’t know who. I met several people there, but one man said he thought he had seen me skate in Vienna. He knew that I would be too old relative to my ability to become a skating professional by the conventional route. Then he said he had contacts in Kamchatskiy, one of which was a close friend of Queen Katie of Kamchatka. I never knew the man, or his name. The next thing I knew was that there was a ticket hand-delivered to my parents’ house. I was told on the ticket that if I were to go to the landing stage for the hydrofoil to Budapest late last n
ight I would have the chance to change my life as the Kamchatskiy company was interested in me. A little Japanese man then escorted me to a special hydrofoil that took me to an airfield just outside Bratislava where a Hebden Three was waiting to take me to The Island.”

  “Well,” said Anne. “As The Island Authorities have been kind enough to provide us with some tea and biscuits, I suppose we might as well make use of it. There are a few ready-meals in the fridge and everything we need for breakfast, but tomorrow we will need to make out our first Requisition Notes.”

  “I think it will be quite a challenge getting used to a system that does not use money,” Michael replied.

  They continued to talk for a while. Then, there was a knock at the door.

  “I’ll answer it,” said Claudia.

  When she arrived at the door she found a small oriental girl of about eight clutching a bouquet of flowers.

  “Kiri bring you special message from Jobine,” said the girl. “She is skating mistress at rink. She want you have these flowers and asks you all to be at rink at eleven o’clock tomorrow. She look forward to seeing you.”

  The girl bowed her head, then curtsied and then left.

  “Who was it?” Connie asked

  “A small girl brought us these flowers from our new skating teacher. She wants us to be at the rink at eleven o’clock tomorrow. Now I think its time for The Prime Minister’s address. I have already heard it, so I don’t need to go.”

  *

  The new arrivals, including Gary, freshened up quickly, then prepared to make their way to the Great Dome where they waited, along with several other sets consisting of people from many lands. Gary recognised some of them from the museum. Others were new, including the final four members of his own set. These were Lars from Norway, his principal Elena from Sweden, Terry, from Hong Kong, and his principal aboriginal-Australian Yvonne. They greeted each other briefly. Then the great white door opened to reveal the prestigious circular, marble floored entrance porch of this fine working building. At the far end a pair of sliding glass doors remained closed until they were all assembled. Beside these the tall, stocky, middle-aged Chancellor, Simon de Havilland, The Prime Minister’s personal assistant, stood dressed in top hat and tails. Then the white door closed and the glass doors opened allowing the hundred or so attendees to descend the half dozen steps to the main theatre, where a large brown leather armchair backed them on a stage, beyond which there was a large screen that was slightly offset to one side. A hundred and twenty black leather seats faced it. The Chancellor ushered the crowd in, and the lights were dimmed with the spotlight focused on the chair. It slowly turned to reveal a slim, dark-haired lady of about forty.