The Market (Written for Modern European History)

The Market

It had been a good day for Viktor Sidorov. The harvest was good on his farm this year and his wife was about to give birth to a child who would hopefully live through the winter. As he walked towards his home heard gunshots in the distance, just hunters he said to himself as more shots fired and an explosion lit up the night sky. Dropping to the ground he yelled to his family to stay indoors. Warhorses caused the ground to shake as the victorious army approached the farm. Viktor had not thought to take his rifle with him today

“Greetings comrade, we hope our little battle did not scare you.” The man on the horse laughed and threw Viktor a potato. “My name is Commissar Taras Petrov of the Red Guard. Under the decree put into place by Vladimir Lenin you are ordered to give up your harvest for redistribution in cities, you will be given enough food to last you the week then you will have to come to the city for rations, failure to comply will result in unpleasant consequences.

The soldiers began taking Viktor’s first good harvest in ten years. They left a small section of the field for him to live off of for the next week and left leaving a cloud of dust. How would he tell his family what had happened? He had an eight year old daughter and his son was a month away, he had to think of something.

Viktor went inside and picked up a small bag of coins off of the counter, the months rent. Viktor’s wife, Tanya looked up from the sweater she was stitching and began to say something but Viktor interrupted, “I need to go do something in town; I’ll be back by dinner hopefully.”

The road to town was long and dangerous. Every turn could lead you into a trap set up by bandits or just a drunk looking for someone to fight. Because of this Viktor was taking the long route through the forest, where he didn’t expect to find anyone else. He continued walking until he saw a small stream and began to drink. He stopped drinking as soon as he started. The water was red. Viktor looked upstream and saw at least five bodies thrown into the water near a campfire, a group of hooded men with rifles and swords were standing around the fire talking. One of them looked back and saw Viktor staring at them and began aiming his rifle. “Walk over here slowly with your hands visible. We will not hurt you unless you try to run.”

Viktor walked towards the group. Once there a rifle butt hit the back of his head and he fell forwards into the fire. They pulled him out before any serious damage could be done, leaving a jagged scar down the left side of his face. The man who had spoken kicked Viktor onto his back and checked his pockets. “Looks like this one has some coin on him, he can live.” Viktor passed out as another hard kick hit his head.

Five hours later Viktor woke up. He was lying in a field outside of the village, he attempted to stand. At least his legs still worked, he thought as he walked towards the tavern. Once inside he sat down at the counter. “Viktor my friend, what will it be today?” asked the fat old man behind the counter. Sergei had owned the tavern for twenty years and knew most of his customers by face if not name. If anyone knew how to help Viktor, Sergei would.

“My farm has been claimed as property of the communist war effort and I was just robbed in the forest. I have no way of feeding my family, especially with a son being born next month. Do you know anyone who can help me?” The tavern went silent as a tall man got up and walked over to Viktor. “I can help you feed your family and more. You can become one of the richest men in Russia if you do what my people ask of you. I will send one of my men with you to your home if you want.”

Once back at his farm Viktor noticed the person following him. “My name does not matter. Now that we are here I can tell you our offer. You will participate in the black market, trading services or goods for food and other items. Sometimes we will come to you for special requests, you will have to go through with these or you will find the Red Guard knocking on your door with an execution squad waiting in the field. Do you accept?” Viktor looked back at his farm, if he did not accept his family would not live through the winter. The special requests couldn’t be that bad, he accepted. “Good, here is the money my men stole from you in the forest. Go get some sleep; we will be visiting you early tomorrow.”

The next day they returned. They didn’t ask for much, just for Viktor to repair some tools in return for some potatoes and meat. This went on throughout the winter once a week, Viktor and his family became wealthy and his son survived. Then spring came. The requests became harsher and the Red Guard had increased patrols in the area, soon they were asking for stuff he couldn’t give them until one day they went too far.

“We have a special request from a commander in the white army. You are to give us your daughter in return for increased protection against the reds; you will never see your daughter again.” Viktor began to protest but it was too late, he heard a scream as two men dragged his daughter out of bed and placed her in the back of a car. “Your service is appreciated.” The man smiled and got in the car, Viktor watched the car drive away in disgust.

Ten years later

War communism had passed and Lenin’s New Economic Policy was in place. Viktor still remembered the first day of May ten years ago, one day he would have revenge. Today a messenger had arrived at his home with news for him. “I have a report from the market. Your presence is requested in the village immediately, you are ordered to bring all of your wealth with you.”

Viktor looked at the boy, about one year older than his own son. This was the first time in eight years that the Black Market had contacted him, something must have happened. Viktor got in his car and drove to town, the car was given to him the last time the market had contacted him requesting he repair a stolen prototype weapon from England. Once in town his car was stopped by five men bearing the red star of the military.

They couldn’t have found out, it has been eight years. The men pulled Viktor out of the car and threw him on the ground. “You are under arrest under charges of supporting the rebel forces during the civil war. We have just caught your men here and they told us all about how you forced them to work for you.” Viktor’s face was red “They are the ones who forced me to-” Viktor could no longer talk as a rifle butt slammed into his face and his head slammed into the ground. “Take him away.”

Viktor woke up in a dark cell next to a family of rats. He got up quickly and startled them, running back into the crack they came from. He looked around and saw a young woman across from him, his daughter. She looked like she had been there for at least a year, her skin was pale and clothes torn. Her eyes had long ago lost any glimmer of hope that she would see daylight again. Viktor began to cry and attempted to get over to her. “I’m sorry. I was only trying to help the family.” The woman looked away, she didn’t notice him. “Speak to me” he said as she remained silent. Viktor began to yell and a guard opened the cell door. “Come with me, your time has come.” The woman stood up obediently and walked out of the cell. Five minutes later a gunshot echoed down the hall and his daughter was dead for a crime that was his fault. Viktor looked down at the ground and fell asleep.

He never woke up.

I just got accepted into a college

http://www.franklinpierce.edu/

:D

Future of the news – Paper or Internet?

By Christopher Gourgouras
News writing should remain balanced between Internet and print. This is because if one side dominates the market they will also have control over pricing and what gets written. If an even balance is kept than there will be competitive prices and more interesting stories from both sides.

Right now print news isn’t doing too well due to the fact that the economy is bad. Fewer companies are paying to advertise in the paper because of sites like craigslist that make advertising free and other companies just can’t afford to hire. The newspapers are also having subscriber problems because not as many people are reading the newspaper daily anymore and those who do are discovering you can get the same information for free online. What newspapers need to do to fix this is give consumers a reason to subscribe such as subscriber benefits such as more coupons or a yearly/monthly subscriber event such as a raffle. A lot of people buy the Sunday paper because it has a coupon section.

Print news also has to cut back on costs, this is because paper costs a lot of money but if they found a way to recycle old newspapers and create new ones they could make more money and spend less. They also need to lower advertising prices so more companies will see newspapers as an affordable method of getting the word out about their business.

Online news will do fine unless the Internet goes down for more than a month around the world. This is because online news sites do not need subscribers; they are paid for by ad companies who put ads on their sites such as Google. They have a large supply of talented writers from around the world as well and many write for free on these sites.

As long as a balance is kept the news industry will do fine. Competition is good for this type of industry and without it the news would be boring.

Security in Pakistan. What security?

Christopher Gourgouras, Nashua
The March 3rd attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan and the capitol of the Punjab province that Congress needs to pay attention to the growing problem with Pakistani security forces. The country has become increasingly unstable since 2006 when the Taliban created strongholds in the Swat Valley and caused a near civil war that has recently been brought to an end at a price. Pakistani officials have allowed the Taliban to Institute Sharia Law in the former tourist location. Sharia or Islamic Law is the same law that allows the courts to order the death of rape victims on charges of adultery or the removal of a thief’s hand. This shows the Pakistani governments growing inability to deal with militants and keep its country stable at the same time.
One major concern is Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program. If there was a coup initiated by the Taliban or another militant group the weapons would become vulnerable and the country would become a danger to nearby countries and also NATO and US troops in Afghanistan. If a militant group allied with Al-Qaeda gained control of nuclear material the Middle East could become even more unstable than it already is. Israel would be at a much greater risk of attack from more powerful groups using the Gaza Strip as a staging ground. Security in Pakistan needs to improve its technology and allow US forces to enter its borders to deal with threats on the border of Afghanistan.
The attack against the Sri Lankan team was an embarrassing event for Pakistan, cricket is one of the national sports in Pakistan and a foreign team was allowed to be attacked in a major city. The security given to the team was not enough to defend against this attack, the attackers escaped after killing five police officers without having one attacker caught or killed. The attackers shouldn’t have even gotten near the team with the weapons they carried, which included assault rifles and anti-tank missiles. This security gap needs to be fixed as soon as possible, until then foreign sports teams should not play in Pakistan.
One thing that should be done by the government is to increase pay of security forces. This is because the people protecting civilians and tourists from attacks are less effective when they are underpaid, the enemy can just bribe them a month’s salary to be somewhere else during the time the attack takes place. Families of police and soldiers should be protected also because terrorists do not fight with honor, if they see your face they will blow up your home or kill your children. ''The average salary of police in Pakistan is 3500 rupees a month,'' or about $60, Moinuddin Haider, a senior Pakistani police official said to the New York Times
Even though the attacks in Pakistan continue, the country will not cooperate with NATO forces in Afghanistan; they accuse NATO forces of being too aggressive. This is because NATO forces are launches raids into Pakistan to kill top Taliban officials ordering attacks in Afghanistan or hunting down insurgents who cross the border and kill people than return to Pakistan. The country needs to increase border patrols and allow the US have unmanned drones patrol the area. This would greatly decrease the threat of enemies crossing the border and forcing NATO to follow them. An agreement needs to be made between the US and Pakistan so relations between the two countries don’t become strained.
Overall, this is an issue that needs to be watched closely by intelligence agencies and congress; if it gets worst the country can become dangerous to neighboring countries including India and Afghanistan. Pakistan is estimated to have over 50 nuclear weapons in possession according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), if one of these weapons went missing during an attack or due to corruption it could be used to cause greater destruction than what was caused by the 9/11 attacks.