It was a funny thing really, karma, or the thought of it at least. That somehow, the universe tries to balance everything out, including billions of people's actions whether it be bad or good. There was absolutely no doubt that some had done an unspeakable amount of harm to the world, and vice versa, but these people had not received any kind of punishment or reward for their actions. Sometimes, the universe rewards those who do harm and harm those who do good. Who's to say that there really is a thing such as karma anyway? Perhaps it was just something that those of the past said to give them hope that their lives would improve, and who isn’t to say that-
“Sir, the extremely overpriced anonymous group that you have hired has arrived,” a maid whispered in the ears of the old man who had been ruling the small but economically prosperous nation of Makeb for the last 50 some years.
“Oh, pipe down will you, Imogen? I’m in the middle of monologuing so just have them start immediately, we don’t have much time,” the man in the chair replied with a sense of dread.
“As you wish, president Kannon,” Imogen said as she excused herself to follow her orders.
“I won’t be president for much longer, looks like karma is finally about to catch up with me,” president Kannon whispered to the empty room.
I am now an old man nearing almost 80, I have done so much with my life. However, the matters that I have done early on in my life have finally decided to come back to haunt me. The small country of Makeb wasn’t always so prosperous as it is today, and I was the person that brought this insane amount of progress to a previous civil war-torn country that no one was willing to help out or even acknowledge. Before this small country was graced with my leadership, there was nothing but revolution after revolution. One monarchy after another. The rise and fall and rise again of an endless amount of factions that would rule Makeb for a short period of time before the next one would come along to take their place.
When I personally came to the scene, I came with a couple of my associates that had crossed over the border from a few neighboring countries trying to set things right. The leader at the time was a vicious tyrant by the name of Jax. This Jax fellow sure gave us a hard time in trying to convince him of relinquishing his rule of power to us, but once we got we pointed a gun at him he was more than happy to oblige. Truth be told, my group of associates and I were really not from any of the neighboring countries, that was just a cover story so that we could get an audience with the tyrant. He actually believed that we were politicians that were interested in paying him money for some of the slaves that he kept locked up in his cells right under the manor. We were all trained by some of the best fighters around the world and taught how to do get out of a sticky situation no matter what lay before us.
There were 6 of us in total, and once we had control of Jax’s mercenaries we kept them inside the manor and had them stay idle for the better part of 2 years before we used them. The first two years were amazing in terms of getting the populace on our side. All we had to do was differentiate ourselves from the previous rulers and the citizens were more than happy to help given we weren’t out to terrorize them. Then, something happened in the third year that would shake the group of 6. They were originally also a mercenary group that had gone rogue to take over the small country of Makeb, but they all had different plans on how to rule it. I was perhaps the most ambitious out of all of them and got to the mercenaries first and forced my ex-teammates to stay locked up in the cells under the manor.
Naturally, such big news in such a small country was bound to get around and once again the people were up in arms and wary of their ruler, which was me. I had already planned for this early on and planted fake evidence that would incriminate the other 5. This would allow his claim to power somewhat legitimate. Many of the citizens bought the propaganda that I spewed out but they were still not entirely sure of me so I had to do something drastic to get their approval of me higher. This eventually led to me implementing a democratic system of government that was common in the neighboring countries to Makeb.
I held the first ever election while I was the only one on the ballot so as to legitimize my claim to power even more and that’s where the fun truly began. In my first ten years, I used up nearly all of the resources that I had to build the first ever hospital and orphanages since the founding of the country. Of course, almost no one in Makeb knew much about this, there were, of course, traditional medicines and all that, but nothing modern.
“Sir, they are beginning the operation that you have hired them for, they estimate that they will be able to accomplish the task that you set out for them to do will be completed within 10 hours,” Imogen walked into the room and updated the president.
“Yes, yes, I got it, if there is nothing else just leave me alone for the next little while,” Kannon said a bit annoyed that he got interrupted again.
Where was I? Oh yes, I had to send many of my own citizens to learn the ways of more developed countries and bring that experience back here. This was a challenging task to accomplish as many didn’t want to leave their families to learn something elsewhere. I decided it was best to personally guarantee to everyone that this was the best way to go about doing this and would accept anyone to join in on the cause. The families of the volunteers were looked after and given work right at the manor where I lived. It was truly a difficult plan to set into motion, but once it got started, many more were willing to volunteer.
The very first few people that went across the borders and came back became catalysts for others to join in on the cause as well. These first ones that came back were those who learned how to take care of others, mostly children. That was when I built the first few orphanages, then came the businessmen so I had to commission a few new modern buildings for them. As each wave of citizens returned from their quest for knowledge, even more became willing to go as well. Soon, Makeb started to become industrialized at an astonishing rate and crime, corruption, and misdeeds began to noticeably decrease. Of course, people couldn’t learn everything so I decided it was best to invite a few experts in each field over to boost the economy as best as they could.
Now, this type of deal would not have been possible under the previous regime due to many human rights violations such as trafficking, slaves, and harvesting organs. However, under myself, all of that changed in less than a decade. I personally screened over 1,000 candidates for each position and I believe that my judgment is almost never wrong. Many of these experts were the support of my regime here in Makeb. The last 3 years of my first decade here was where these newcomers would really show their experience and completely transform the entirety of Makeb.
They were able to plan and commission many thousands of kilometers of roads, many new buildings, many new programs that would allow the populace to fully be lifted out of poverty. This sort of development did not come cheap and I had to borrow a lot of money from other countries. The neighboring nations were fairly willing to cooperate since the mass amounts of people that had gone into their economy and raised the GDP a fair bit while they were there. Many of the more distant states weren’t that invested in Makeb and didn’t really bother with it then.
Millions upon millions of dollars were then promptly pumped into the Makeban economy. This might have been but a small sum to many nations, but to Makeba, this was a big deal. All this money flowing around the country really kickstarted the economy. Makeba had actually many beautiful areas of forests, beaches, and mountains. It just wasn’t of any use to tyrants who were always scared of their own shadows. I knew it was a smart decision to start building hotels along the beaches, an airport, and a seaport so that it would encourage tourism in their small country. First though, these areas had to be fully cleaned up. Centuries of warfare had left many of these once lush and scenic places in less than ideal conditions. The cleanup and development of these areas were going on at the same time, and many of the laborers within the country were commissioned to get this done as fast as possible.
It was a good thing that businesses started popping up in droves to meet the needs of the people that were now starting to have excess money to spend things on. Restaurants, gaming halls, recreational areas, and so much more were starting to spring up by mostly Makeban locals, and a few more from entrepreneurs from other countries looking to turn a profit. After all of the tourism development was done, I had to get the word out that Makeba was a truly wonderful place to visit with many modern gadgets. I had no experience in this area so I had to get a company from overseas to do this for me, and boy did they do a good job. Pretty soon a lot of foreigners were coming here to look at the scenery and spending a lot of money on the local businesses. This only added to the GDP of Makeba to something that was unimaginable under the previous few monarchs.
Pretty soon, my first ten years in office were coming to an end and I had to run another election to prove to the citizens how democratic the system I put in place was. There was no one who would even think that they could beat me in a popularity contest so no one even bothered to run against me and that’s how the start of my second decade in office began. A little while after the election, many healthcare workers had finally finished their education and their training and began to head back to Makeba. Finally, the few hospitals that I had made years past were able to become fully functional. However, this did not mean that these doctors and nurses would be able to the right choices when it came to what to do with the patients who were injured, they were pretty new to all of this after all. I had to screen for a lot of new positions and I had another 50 experts within the healthcare sector alone.
All the decisions were beginning to become too much for me to handle so I had to build up the public sector so that it would become self-autonomous if I were ever to become unable to rule. The government that I had built began with me, and after expanding it some more, I was able to get the basic framework down and a lot of the burden of running the state left my hands. Many of the experts I had previously hired before were not suited for these governmental positions so I had to hire a few more talents from outside Makeb. This was perhaps the largest scale migration that would make Makeb even more of a businessman’s honey trap with over 20,000 bureaucrats, politicians, various people who have worked for different public sectors before, and generally, the best were put to work immediately. This would become the catalyst that would allow Makeb to truly shine as an independent nation.