By Jim Garrison
Late last night, 22 year old Charles Barker was found dead just inside the city outskirts of New Delhi, India. Charles was found severely dehydrated and malnourished with several bruises and cuts across his body and a deep gash across his neck. One witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, “I saw him outside my window desperately staggering from person to person, barely opening his mouth as if trying to say something. Next thing I know, he collapsed onto the ground and didn’t get back up.” It is likely that the main cause of his death was the injury on his neck but there was no confirmation before Charles’s body was removed by the government police. Normally after a body is found in the city streets, a few police will come to get the body and later discuss with their family about what they want to do with the body. However, at the crime scene of Charles’s body, witnesses say there were about twenty police officers and 5 government officials that secured the area, not allowing any citizens to see what was happening to his body. According to Charles’s parents, they hadn’t received any information about their son’s body and what they wished to do with it. The couple don’t know why the government is hiding their son from them and they are worried that they won’t get a chance to see their son any time soon. There are speculations that he poses a threat to the government since he is the only person to return from the Promised land since the beginning of its initiation.
The parents said that Charles had been taken to the Promised Land about a month ago and hadn’t been seen since. Ann Barker, his mother, claimed that “he had been taken onto a bus that was heading outside of the city.” The bus was filled with mostly poorer individuals, Charles being the only one who came from a middle class family. His mother said that “Charles, as well as everyone on the bus, was excited and hopeful for this location they were being taken to, happily following the instructions given the government officials on the bus.” It has been nearly a year since the initiation of the government’s plan to reduce overpopulation by taking people, mostly poor, to an unknown destination. The government has claimed that the site has plenty of resources and “space to foster a new generation away from the crowded and unsafe conditions of cities around the world.” Since the start of the program, no one has heard from or seen any individual who has been taken to the site until now. The only information that had been given about the welfare of the people in the Promised Land have been general statements issued by the government to their families. These statements always contain the same message claiming that everyone is prospering in the Promised Land and that the plan is being properly executed. The statements always end saying “Thank you for your cooperation”, and didn’t give any further specific information.
The friends and family of those taken to the Promised Land had expected positive news from their loved ones when they finally received it. However, since hearing of the news of charles’s death, many of these friends and family members have grown worried. They are demanding that the government responds to their questions about the lies that believe they are being told. After interviewing the parents of a son who has been at the site for six months, the father displayed his anger with the government and he believes that there are holes in the “perfect plan” that everyone has put their faith into. Before, he gladly let his son leave home, believing that he would be taken to a safer area away from the crowded apartment that they shared with 6 other roommates. However, he has since changed his views and demands for his son’s return, believing that “the only way to get answers is to go to the government before they get to us.” Many other parents seem to share the same opinion as they are coming together and planning on how to confront the government. Among these people are the Barkers who want nothing more than to see their son before he is cremated or buried. For about the past five years since living conditions have become dangerously overcrowded, there have been constant uprisings against the government demanding for a plan to get them out of their troubles. The government usually responds with brute force in order to quickly suppress the movement, resulting in many of the people being killed or critically injured. Therefore, it is a concern that these families might face the same consequences in their attempt to discover information that the government is hiding.