The Malthus Pandemic
Page 29
CHAPTER 29
Anna had gone out. I was in the Bangkok hotel with the laptop open on the bed checking emails. Colin had not yet replied to my latest request but there was another email from him.
"Daniel: Phone Clive, Cyprus. He's trying to track you down. Colin. PS Other stuff on its way."
Anxious to know what it was Clive wanted but with the time difference against me, I decided to phone later and turned back to the internet. It was something that Caroline said about David Chua that had sparked my interest: "......he was arrested a year back for being involved in a group called Singapore 2100 - just your type of character," she had said.
With no difficulty, I found several mentions of the group. They sat amongst other links that had mentioned Singapore and 2100 together and alongside a United Nations report predicting that Singapore's population would hit 10 million by 2100. There was another site with cartoons of traffic jams, of cars packed one on top of the other and people fighting for space and falling from the tops of skyscrapers.
The report said that the world's population would hit 10.9 billion by 2100 with most of the growth a result of high birth-rates in the developing world. The number of inhabitants in the world's least developed countries, especially Africa, it said, was projected to double to 1.8 billion by 2050 and soar to 2.9 billion by 2100.
Then I came to a Straits Times report about the arrest of three Chinese men for "plotting to undermine the Government's policy on population control." No names were given and no details on the so-called plot, either. But was David Chua one of them?
I continued to delve further and several pages down I found something else:
".....And the sea level around the city state could increase by 24 to 65 centimetres by 2100...Malthus Society....Singapore 2100. Temperatures around the city could increase........".
I clicked on Malthus Society and up it came - a website with an ancient picture of Thomas Malthus on its front page, with facts and figures on population, links to books, papers and reports about Thomas Malthus, Paul Ehrlich and others and a message board for anyone who wanted to join a worldwide network of Malthus societies or groups with interests in population control. Singapore 2100 was listed amongst the members.
Deciding it might be interesting to delve further, I entered a few details and instantly found I had become a member - no questions asked about who I was or where I was. I joined as Dan Dare and then began looking at recent messages.
And it was the one from "Solomon" that caught my eye. "Agree, with day-owl - Sub Sahara Africa drought insoluble. But the day of reckoning fast approaches."
I tracked back a few messages and saw one from "day-owl" - "Don't go - let there be drought".
Then I tracked this one back to a message from "popstat" - "Sub Sahara drought again - yeh, I know - don't shoot the messenger - but anyone interested in another lecture to learn what we already know - MIT Friday 14th 2pm - Boston group."
For the first time in a week I had a feeling I was on to something but from a completely different angle.
The message from "Solomon" - could it be David Solomon? And the Boston, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - link? Had Solomon perhaps disappeared from his employer, Biox, only to move somewhere else in Boston? But the web was a big place and "Solomon" could have been anywhere. It may not even be David Solomon.
I continued to scroll through the message board - all innocent looking stuff from highly opinionated individuals and possibly a few nutcases responding to something or other that someone had posted earlier. In places there were signs that certain individuals were demanding action - they sounded impatient - but no specific types of action were mentioned.
It was as though someone, somewhere owned the site but was monitoring content to keep an angry mob at bay lest someone else started asking too many questions and the group was put under surveillance. It was likely that someone was watching it anyway. Driven by the terrorism threat, there were many governments with facilities that tracked individuals or looked for key words in emails.
The Malthus message board was divided into topics as if inviting serious and sensible debate - destruction of the environment, water shortages, food shortages, contraception, unemployment, over-crowding, health.
One on IVF treatment had clearly sparked a lively debate with someone called "Thalmus" calling for it to be made illegal. The posting was long, much longer than most.
"They want everything - all the food they can eat, nice, clean, well-paid jobs, big houses, TVs, computers, all the gadgets, education, healthcare, welfare protection, unemployment benefit. They even expect the state to provide solutions to their own infertility. Governments should stop this never ending pandering to the whining rich - one minute they complain there aren't any jobs for themselves or their kids, next minute they want to bring more kids into the world, even when nature clearly intended that they shouldn't have any. Someone needs to start accepting responsibility, introduce strict population control methods aimed at a reduction in world population by 2100 ......" And so it went on. I scanned most of it.
"You're right, Thalmus," replied "Antidote", "Trouble is politicians only give - they rarely take away. Taking away something they've already given is political suicide."
"It's time for direct action, Thalmus," said "Nopussyfooting", "We need better co-ordination. I thought this site was for just that. Come on, Thalmus."
I scrolled back up to "General" to find a mixed bag of stuff where rudeness, bad language, extremist views and poor spelling started to take over. Thalmus cropped up several times, correcting errors of fact and suggesting writers toned down their language. Then I saw another, very recent one from the same name: "Check out WHO DON. Anyone know anything?"
So who was "Thalmus" and why would he have picked up on the WHO's Disease Outbreak Notification - the WHO DON? It was also quite clear that "Thalmus" was an anagram of Malthus. So was Thalmus a kingpin in the Malthus Society website and, if so, who was he?
But, as I pondered, there was a knock on the hotel door - Anna had returned. I checked my watch. It was now early morning in Cyprus and a good time to call Clive.
"Breakfasting on the veranda," Clive said. "Fresh orange juice, bacon, eggs, the full works. Lovely morning and fantastic view, Ian. Come and visit us sometime."
"Love to, Clive - I'll see if I can find time."
"I called a friend in Amman last night," Clive said. "As we discussed, it seems your friend Mohamed Kader is expanding. According to my contact, he has been importing a lot of scientific equipment into Jordan as if it's for a laboratory but then he re-exports it. No-one knows exactly where it's going - it's almost certainly Cairo - but I'm trying to find out. The Arab Bank is said to be the consignee. But there is no reason to suspect he is doing anything more than what he said he was going to do - setting up a research facility, that is."
Clive paused. "There is something else you should know. This man has been interesting the intelligence organisations, or at least the CIA and SIS - MI6 to you and me. I mentioned yesterday his interest in Iraq - we think this is purely commercial - but he has also been visiting Pakistan and West Africa - Nigeria I suspect.
"I assume he was being watched for any links to radical Islamic groups. If so, in my opinion they are barking up the wrong tree - he's not like that. There is something going on but if the Intelligence Services know any more then they're not saying. There may be nothing in any of it and I’m rapidly getting out of date, but it seems his business is a complicated web of intrigue.
"So, is that enough to keep you going, young man? Clive ended.
"Very useful, Clive. Sorry I can't divulge any more from my side except to say I'm dealing with missing scientists.- three to be precise. It was two but three days ago it became three. No-one knows where they're gone but it did cross my mind that Mohamed Kader or someone within the spiders' web of companies he runs might know something."
Clive then revealed more:
"Then I have something else for
you, Ian. The University in Amman lost two microbiology technicians last year and a small pharmaceutical manufacturer in Beirut - a French owned company - lost their French production engineer. Also the head of the main government controlled supplier of sterile fluids for hospitals in Syria also departed, ostensibly to escape the problems there. He said he'd been offered a government job in Saudi Arabia but we know he never turned up."