Once upon a time there was a king in Sandland. He had several sons who vowed to turn Sandland into a small paradise. Their magic revolved around glittering stones with which they adorned all types of palaces on land and at sea. One of them even had the idea of adorning chambers with these glittering stones for eye tea parties. Eye tea promised wealth, based on the powers of knowledge generated by this special tea brand. And the idea worked. Many hired thousands of square metres in the glitter stone adorned chambers in Sandland.

This success had to be exported. The island of Dwarfland was chosen to host a similar park on another continent. A minister in Dwarfland was thrilled by the aroma of eye tea. A project was drawn out and enemies and friends in Dwarfland were determined to make a success out of this project. After all, thousands of ambitious young people in Dwarfland were seeing their future secured by this fantastic venture.

But then an earthquake shook the basis of Sandland. Its palaces with all their glittering stones showed huge cracks. The rich guests were terrified and pulled out. At the same time the prices for all sorts of property in Sandland plummeted and the success turned into a debacle.

Meanwhile the project in Dwarfland gathered no momentum at all. Nobody wanted to admit difficulties. All the proponents could say was that the project was ‘well’ on its way towards completion. Everyone avoided whispering the word ‘failure’ out of fear that all fingers would point at him and blame him of having brought doom on all inhabitants of Dwarfland.

Agnes Debono

Kercem