Log entry: May 12. Fifty days before the change of sovereignty: 'We are moving closer and closer to reunification with our Motherland. This tremendously happy occasion is nearly upon us. We will soon cleanse 150 years of shame.' Captain Kam of the Capitalist Enterprise can't believe what he has written. 'This sounds like a quote from an NCNA official,' he says in astonishment (NCNA being the New Commune New Agency, the mouthpiece of the ruling party in Motherland).
It sounds like it because it is. In fact, the captain has just noted down in his diary exactly what an NCNA official said this week at a handover countdown ceremony, held at a 'pro-Motherland' secondary school.
The ceremony was to mark the return of the captain's home city, NSFH (Not So Fragrant Harbour) - also a colony under foreign rule for more than a century - to Motherland this July.
'A hundred and fifty years of shame?' Captain Kam frowns. 'What does that mean?' After all, the NCNA official was referring to the captain's home city. 'I do not feel ashamed at all!' he exclaims. Being an NSFH-born citizen, Captain Kam is, of course, very proud of NSFH even though it is a colony. As he has told his fellow NSFH citizens many times before: 'I am proud of its economic success and the people who have made such a success possible.' But the captain also understands why Motherland, and therefore scores of NCNA officials, would rather forget the '150 years of shame'.
According to Motherland's history books, NSFH was a piece of land that was forcibly snatched from her by an evil foreign empire after a couple of battles last century. Hence, it has always referred to the colonisation of NSFH as a 'shame'.
It is also a piece of history Motherland would rather forget and, if possible, have erased from the minds of all NSFH citizens once the change of sovereignty is accomplished. Mother has already published a number of textbooks that would ensure future generations learn the correct version of history in school.
