Reminiscence

FOREST
[VOICE NARRATOR]: The day arrived when Tarik started his eight hours of community service. He enjoyed it quite a lot. He was driven into a remote area where he would join other people with a lot more on their record. In the middle of the forest they’ll all get a bag and a stick to clean the mess people tend to throw out of the window while driving. The eight hours worth of community service was over before he knew and he was back home.

Because of the enduring financial crisis Tarik would continue his research regarding the cause of the crisis and perhaps the true handlers of power. He discovered that central banks were the true cause of the current crisis.

Sometimes they also had a politic agenda. Central banks claim to carry a great economic responsibility. And a politicized agenda would undermine their independence.

BEHIND LAPTOP

Enlightened with this knowledge he would sometimes argue with family members and friends about true wealth, currency and precious metals. He would write endless pages about the failing of central banks would have on the real economy. But then he realized that most of whom to he spoke just were not interested and they responded often very apathetic while looking at their smart phone.

[TARIK]: Do you think it is fair that some people get to print the currency without transparency and control from the people while we have to work for that currency?
HENRY AT THE TIME STILL WORKING FOR THE BANK

[HENRY]: No off course not, but how do you know they are printing more than they are claiming

[TARIK]: Because they announced it with fancy euphemisms like quantitative easing one, two, three, operation twist, zero interest policy and so on

[VOICE NARRATOR]: For the sake of the argument Henry would often counter his questions with other questions like:

[HENRY]: How do you know they are doing evil with the policies they unleash onto the markets?

[TARIK]: Isn’t it obvious? Since the start of loose monetary policy, we’ve seen higher prices or smaller packages, more war, terrorism and poverty which I think is a direct result of the loose monetary policy.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: While taking a drag from his lemon haze joint, which helped him articulate and organize the words he used very eloquently. Henry smiles at Tarik and knows that Tarik would sometimes make long rants about everything and more while holding the joint.

[HENRY]: Did the central bankers also put glue on your hands? Cause you’re holding that joint like a mother holds her child. Pass that roach man, I’m have a conspiracy theory overdose that can only be cured by some cannabis.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: Amused and guilty looking Tarik would take one drag and pass the joint to Henry. [HENRY]: You know what you should do. You should write a book or something about this”.

[TARIK]: Why write a book if most people don’t even read books? And If I were to write a book, I would have some problems diversifying my thesis about a subject that is so controversial and well-documented by hundreds, maybe thousands of authors that have done just that. And furthermore it would undermine my independence while stating my thesis. People would think I just want to sell my book with some fancy theories that could change the world for the better. By the way, did you know that conspiracy just means cooperation with the benefit of a few instead of the majority. Would it benefit the majority we would call it an organization or a cooperation.
Isn’t that funny? Do you still have an organization or a cooperation theory overdose? Or is it the definition of words that fail to invoke the fear or paranoia that is quite normal while talking about bad cooperation theory’s. Think about it man.

[HENRY]: Well, I must say that you are making sense to me.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: Pleased with the reply Tarik answers

[TARIK]: I am glad that you get it because most of the people just don’t get or don’t want to get it

[VOICE NARRATOR]: Suddenly they heard someone knocking on their door. Quickly Henry passed the joint to Tarik and check through the peephole who it could be. It was Robert. He just got off of work and was looking for some company. Henry and Robert had a sort of ritual that they did. Henry would annoy Robert while opening and closing the door and repeating this. Henry would hereby test the patience of Robert before letting him in. Robert would patiently wait till he got the green light before entering the living room. While entering Henry’s cat Merlin slipped in and goes directly to the kitchen. Tarik would finish the joint and offer his apologies to Robert for finishing it.

Robert was often very well dressed due to his job at the restaurant. Tarik and Henry would often make fun of him because of they were usually in their sweatpants relaxing. Robert would just ignore them as he started talking about work and the weird encounters he would have had. He would more than often share storing about his work wile a fixing a new weed joint.

ROBERT SHARES A STORY FROM WORK

Henry and Tarik curiously listened to Robert's restaurant stories of Robert, and they were fascinated by the culinary ignorance of people who attended to Robert Chinese Restaurant. One of his stories was about how especially Dutch people have problems identifying what they are eating.

[CUSTOMER]: Is this chicken?

ROBERT SMILES AND ANSWERS

[ROBERT]: No, that is white fish better known as codfish

[VOICE NARRATOR]: While other people, mostly Moroccan-Dutch people, would order a portion of noodles or rice with
vegetables and shrimps and would later complain about the presence of vegetables.

[SECOND CUSTOMER]: I ordered rice and shrimps. Why are there vegetables in it?

[ROBERT]: Sir, this is your order and it comes with vegetables.

It’s hard work satisfying people who haven’t developed a healthy taste for nutritious food.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: They would go on and call those people culinary barbarians to ease their minds. Some people see food as something necessary to survive while other people see food as love and treat it that way.

Once a conversation is ended Tarik would see his chance to talk about central bankers, gold and silver, weed as an industry and the effects of weed prohibition. He would talk for hours about the implications and the increasing levels of violence, foreign and abroad, due to the prohibition of weed. He would often say that

[TARIK]: If weed was legal, there would be no poverty and less addiction to heroin, alcohol and cocaine. If weed was legal, there would be no war. If Weed was legal there would be no spending deficit. If weed was legal there would be no Big Pharma mafia extorting the people. The illegality of weed illustrates the incompetence and the corruptness of political leaders. There would be less fires in the community endangering the people due to illegal weed farms stealing electricity. If weed was legal there would be no people unemployed, they could employ themselves by cultivating weed for food, energy, clothing, medicine, housing and even for recreational use of weed. Weed would be hard currency just like cacao beans were in the ages of Maya.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: Henry would sometimes interrupt him by saying that it isn’t legal here in the Netherlands and that we have to accept the current state of politics. Robert would sometimes point out that the pro- cannabis movement is accelerating through out the world and that we have to be patient.

[TARIK]: Yeah, that’s right. What they did in Uruguay, Catalonia and Mexico can also be done right here [HENRY]: But it hasn’t happened yet

[TARIK]: We have to make it happen WHILE QUOTING SAMUEL ADAMS

[TARIK]: Have you ever heard, of this before? It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men.

[VOICE NARRATOR]: Both Henry and Robert amazed at the beauty of the quoted words contemplate what the world would look like if governments would act in weed-friendly way towards their citizen.
They would go on and spend many nights talking about weed, silver, gold, crypto, central bankers, food, people, mainstream media, world events and the ongoing crisis.

Months came and went while the friends kept on getting together, sharing stories, feelings and dreams about their future. Sometimes they would feel sorry about the lack of social activity, weed-friendly girls and social uprising. They would more than often blame it on the consumption of weed.

They felt like they were not improving every aspect of their live while high. While high sometimes they would play for hours on the Play station or watch their achievements on some kind game on their smart phone. Tarik was an exception in that matter. He hated to see his friends as adults playing some game while being together.

He would more than often not carry his smart phone as a sign to his friends that it is not social to play with your phone while uniting for a few hours in the weekend. But this didn’t make any difference in the behavior of Henry and Robert.

During times that they felt like going out and having a party, drinking alcohol and chasing girls, Tarik would isolate himself due to his not-drinking habits. So they would sometimes party without him. Tarik had a reason for not drinking alcohol and going out. He felt like he lost himself while drinking and he didn't like the drunk man he saw of himself.
Tarik felt at ease in a coffee shop and socialized with random people about a variety of subjects to relax. It was a welcome change on his frequent visits to the library and the gym.