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.He brought rice, he brought doctors, hebrought promises of rich compensation for the evil done to them by theAmerican factory.He told them they should not let the Americans get away withit.He was an American himself and he knew how bad the Americans could be.He washere to make them rich, to give them rice for the rest of their lives.Naturally, the offer sounded too good and no one signed up right away.Butwhen he returned with the blessings of some high government officials, thesurvivors all happily lined up to give their palm prints as signatures to acontract that said he would give them ten percent of all he earned from makingthe American factory pay.His name was Genaro Rizzuto, and he bet them all he would win.Remo and Chiun found this out the second day they were there, but they hadgreat difficulty talking to the people.Gupta was now an officialinternational disaster, and being labeled as such attracted more stars thanRemo had ever seen in one place.Chiun pointed them out.He counted fourteen movie stars with their own cameracrews, each posing with the same blinded woman, seven actors with currentseries on television, and a multitude of American organizations.There were the directors of Aid to the Famished, International Help, Pity theChildren, Save All Humanity, End Racism, Fight Racism, and InternationalAlliance Against Racism.Starring in all this was a woman dressed like anPage 44ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmluntouchable who had just scavenged through a dime-store garbage can leftoutside the plastics department.Her eyes were shaded neon green.Her hairlooked like a swamp that had gotten caught in a yellow-spray-paint machine,and her clothes were as tattered as though she had been the center ofattention at a ragpickers' convention."There's Debbie Pattie," said one TV newsman who had already gotten his tearshots for the day."She's new.She's not known for social causes."Immediately a crowd formed around the young singer.She was used to peopleforming crowds around her.What she was not used to was being ignored.Andpast the row of poor huts the victims lived in she saw two men, one Orientaland one white, who were not even bothering to look her way.She made fifteen million dollars a year, was on the cover of almost everymajor magazine in the West, and she was of absolutely no interest to thesetwo.This she spotted despite the fifteen microphones in her face, cameraswhirring behind them."I soytinly don't need no more publicity in case yer asking," she said with aNew York accent that advertised itself better than Broadway."I'm here to helpda people.All right? Whyn't youse guys go talk to da people.Dare the oneswhat's sufferin' around here.""What do you think of the negligence of American factories?""I'm against anything that hurts," said Debbie."What hurts people is what I'magainst.I hate unhappiness and they oughta outlaw it.""Do you think America has failed to outlaw unhappiness because it's racist?""I don't know.I know the people of Gupta need our help.And I'm here to seewhat I'm singin' for.We're gonna save the people.All us rock stars andsingers are going to save the people of the world and we're gonna start herefor the people of Gupta.Ain't no reason they should suffer and die just'cause they was born here.They gotta get treated fair, see?""Since when has your new philosphical approach taken over your career?""I always believed this stuff.'Cept youse guys never asked me about that."Debbie left a half-dozen television reporters commenting on how she wasshowing new and deep spiritual feelings, how she was revealing a politicalsensibility she never had before.However, she wasn't considered tooknowledgeable about international politics because she had failed to blameeverything on America.Debbie excused herself from her agent, her manager, the reporters, the guides,and the Indian constabulary to walk down the muddy street toward the two menwho hadn't even glanced over at her.The Oriental, in a gold kimono, was talking in the native language to two oldmen who were describing something with their hands.The younger white man, theattractive one with a sense of being able to do anything a woman might want,or perhaps anything he wanted for a woman, was listening [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]