Ali Gator

My name is Ali Gator. I live on a farm with 200 friends near Saigon. I used to live in the Mekong River before being trapped by animal poachers and brought here. Many humans are too greedy and clever for their own good. They use me for breeding. The babies are sold to restaurants. Bye-bye baby.

One tropical afternoon a group of us were relaxing by the pool after a vegetarian lunch. Surely initiated the idea. She knows a thing or two about consumption habits.

“You know what we need to do is expand. I suggest we create a line of bags, belts, shoes, purses and accessories made of human skin.”

Aghast, a strong-willed female member of the dwindling population, had a degree in marketing.

“I agree,” she said. “Considering the passion carnivores crave for designer wear to make a fashion statement, it’s only logical to assume Italian, French and English skins will provide us the color, texture, suppleness, elasticity, diversity, durability and above all the QUALITY demanded and expected by millions of animals.”

“Remember their eyes,” said Esther.

“What about them?” sang the chorus.

“They make great buttons.”

“Yes,” replied Grace. “We should respect humans and recycle everything.”

Scales with a background in finance and dodgy mergers spoke up.

“I've done a cost benefit analysis and it’s doable. Human skin resources are cheap and plentiful. Sweatshop labor manufacturing and production facilities are up and running. Our biggest hurdle are the ethical values of the end consumer. I mean, why would a Siberian tiger, whale, Malayan sun bear, elephant, cobra, eagle, or Pileated gibbon be caught dead wearing anything made of human skin? It’s beyond me.”

“Everything is beyond you,” said a member of our slumbering tribe. “It’s all a matter of personal taste.”

We took a vote. It was unanimous. “Hooray! Let the hunt begin.”

We celebrated with a round of human blood cocktails.

This is perfect timing, I thought, seeing all my friends in a new light, We’d create a new line of human skin products to be introduced worldwide before the holidays. It’s a wonderful life. 

Book of Amnesia Unabridged

Children Are Tools

Leo said, The rich make money.

The poor make babies, said Rita.

Children are tools in Utopia, said Leo.

In Vietnam with a population of 95 million, 50% are under 30. That’s a lot of babies.

You see babies everywhere: they are busy writing books, painting, driving taxis, motorbikes, buses, boats, trucks, flying planes, cooking along the road, selling fruits and vegetables in markets, building new fake glass brass cities in suburbs, hauling cement and bricks, fixing broken machines  ... waiting  ... sleeping in empty shops, hustling dreams, screwing, selling anything and everything possible with an infant on their hip, chopping down forests, harvesting kindling for fires and hunting animals until they become extinct.

Do babies become extinct, asked Tran.

Yes, if they don’t run fast enough, said Zeynep.

Humans slave for money. Trade their time for a handful of dimes.

Monkeys don’t talk because they are afraid of being put to work.

Humans scheme and deceive and lie and cheat. This is a huge advantage in systems with social organization, organic relationships and political structures.

They laugh at their mortality and contemplate death feeling happy or sad accepting destiny.

What if I die here, said Tran. Who’ll be my role model?

One has to die before they can live, said Rita.

You die twice, said Devina. When you’re born and when you die.

Many humans spend their lives dying, said Omar.

WE were born dead and slowly came to life.

It aint about pleasure making a baby. It’s a business deal with long term opportunity cost.

Marketing and branding saves the day, said Leo.

I know families with ten kids, said Rita. You can have as many babies as you want, like grains of rice.

You hear parents and grandparents whisper to their children’s children, Accelerate Production, comrades.

The bitter fruit is their legacy of love. Love is a legacy and economic practicality. It’s a pure and simple matter of numbers, money and pragmatic reality.

Long-term Asian child investment resources establish a genetic social security plan.

Billboards exclaim:

Invest sperm and fertilize eggs for the future

Create your legacy

Live forever 

Book of Amnesia Unabridged