George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 175

< 174화 >

“Terrible.”

That was my first thought upon seeing the kudzu-covered forest. It reminded me of my hometown. The trees were incredibly dense, so thick you couldn’t wrap your arms around them, and the only real difference was the lack of bamboo, which we used for everything back home. The upper classes even used it to build apartments; it was that versatile.

Well, technically, bamboo isn’t a tree, but it’s used in much the same way as easily worked wood, so classifying it as one isn’t a stretch.

“So, when do we get to cut all this down?”

Jang Wei was hacking away at the kudzu vines with the axe they’d given us. The kudzu was tough and difficult to cut, and no matter how much he chopped, blisters kept forming on his palms. It felt endless. He’d done his fair share of chopping wood and cutting trees as a kid on the farm, and his hands were already calloused from his time as a migrant worker, but this was still brutal.

They’d divided the area into sections where manual labor was used and sections where chemicals were applied, but I didn’t know the reason for the division or the specific circumstances. Apparently, it involved injecting chemicals into the roots after removing the vines that had climbed the trees, or digging to expose the roots.

It sounds easy, but the vines didn’t just climb the trees; they were wrapped tightly around them. And the trees were almost as tall as buildings, making the whole task incredibly daunting. I wish it was just my head that hurt, but my whole body was aching.

On top of everything, my ears were assaulted by a cacophony of languages. I couldn’t understand most of it, but I recognized some Chinese, languages that sounded like they were from the Middle East, Vietnamese, and even Spanish somewhere in the distance. But the most common language was, unsurprisingly, English. The loudest language, however, was undoubtedly the language of nature – the buzzing of insects and rustling of leaves.

“Son of a bitch!”

The man next to me stopped chopping and frantically brushed an unknown bug off his shoulder. If he recognized the bug, he might have ignored it, but he couldn’t risk letting an unidentified bug crawl on him, especially if it might be poisonous.

There’s no shame in any kind of work, but this had to be the most unpleasant job imaginable. Whether it was because of the sheer number of people working or because I was drenched in sweat, the humidity was strangely high despite being outdoors, and all sorts of bugs were swarming around. Everywhere I looked, it was dark green. No exaggeration – just green from top to bottom. In a normal forest, you’d at least see the brown of the trees or the soil, but this kudzu-infested forest was a solid wall of dark green.

However, there were two things in this dark green world that stood out with color: the workers removing the kudzu, and the people standing behind them with completely different agendas.

“What the hell are those guys?”

A group of Americans were standing there holding a huge banner. They even had a large speaker playing classical music. Thanks to intensive English lessons at an academy, I could handle simple conversations, but reading complex words was still a challenge.

“‘Protect the Righteous and Green Environment,’ ‘No Human Intervention.’ They’re environmentalists.”

An old man with a baseball cap, a sickle, and a saw read the English on the banner. He proudly announced that he was born in China but had spent over half his life in America – a so-called overseas Chinese.

“Environmental protection?”

“They must have something wrong in the head; they’re flower-headed bastards [a Chinese slang term for someone who is foolish or easily deceived].”

To be honest, I didn’t really understand what they were protesting, so I stopped working and tried to think it through, but…

“Actually, not all environmentalists are like that. But these guys are idiots. They don’t even know what kudzu is. They probably rushed over here because there’s a large-scale plant removal operation going on.”

“They probably don’t know, but when their little protest is over, they’ll be having a party with beer against the backdrop of nature. I just hope they don’t have a barbecue.”

Just then, a hiccup cut through the noise of the kudzu cutting and reached our ears.

“Maybe they’ve already started drinking.”

How did they get here? They drove, of course. What kind of car? One that runs on gasoline. And what is gasoline? I’d argue it’s the number one contributor to environmental pollution. See these hypocritical bastards? Jang Wei stopped his train of thought there.

“Are there no drunk driving laws in America?”

“Well, what do you think? Does it seem like there wouldn’t be?”

Of course there were. It was all illegal.

“Don’t think all environmentalists are morons. If you knew how many environmentalist volunteers are involved in this kudzu removal operation, you’d be shocked.”

In fact, most of the Americans volunteering here, aside from the government-designated supervisors, were environmentalists. Where there is light, there is darkness, right? These guys were the darkness.

“Unlike you, old man, I’m here to earn money.”

Jang Wei said this and hacked at the kudzu with his hand axe. He swung with all his might, but the kudzu only got scratched. Jang Wei clicked his tongue at the kudzu’s resilience.

“Earning foreign currency, huh?”

“It’s personal. The people around me and the government are wary of America, but…”

Who cares? Jang Wei was a typical migrant worker – the kind who crammed stir-fried vegetables and mantou [steamed buns] into his mouth at construction sites and worked day and night until his body was ready to give out.

Some say that migrant workers silently contribute to the city, but that’s nonsense. They just keep their mouths shut because they’ll have to go back to being farmers if they don’t. The income difference between farmers and migrant workers can be five times as much. There’s a line in some classic novel: ‘I have no mouth, but I still have to scream,’ right?

I wanted to scream inwardly so many times. The work was hard and difficult. Some people think that if the work is hard, the workers will complain a lot, but if the workers are complaining, it’s a decent job. If it’s really hard, you can’t even speak properly, let alone complain.

When the number of mantou eaten at construction sites and the amount of vegetables in stir-fries decreased, and the epidemic subsided, the government suddenly changed its policy. To be exact, it was a return to the starting point. They began to massively send Chinese workers overseas to fill the government’s depleted coffers. At this rate, the country of China itself was about to collapse.

‘Thanks to that, I was able to get a visa.’

If the country was normal, a mere migrant worker who had just started learning English would never get an overseas work visa. Because the country was abnormal, an opportunity finally came to migrant workers like Jang Wei.

Thinking that far, Jang Wei felt unfairly treated and habitually stuck a cigarette in his mouth. After taking a puff, he finally felt a little clearer.

“What about you, old man?”

I realized after saying that, that he was the last bit of support I had.

“I don’t smoke that kind of thing.”

Jang Wei chuckled inwardly, thinking he had saved money. In front of the support, there was no respect for elders or anything. I think I had been smoking like this since I was 6 years old.

“But how do you manage the soil if you take it all out like this?”

Strictly speaking, it was none of Jang Wei’s business since he was hired to get paid, but it was inevitable that a glimmer of curiosity would arise in the midst of hard labor. In fact, it was less hard than being a migrant worker. How could you call this hard when you even had time to smoke and chat like this? They say that people are relative beings, right? Compared to those days, it was like playing.

“It seems they’re planning to invest a budget later to plant something else.”

Workers and volunteers didn’t know, but they were already experimenting to see which plants were best suited for the areas where kudzu removal was completed.

“Is that so.”

After saying that, I dropped the cigarette and put it out with my foot. To be honest, I felt like setting a wildfire. Then at least I wouldn’t have to climb up the trees. But even if I imagined it like this, all I saw was a hell still stained with green.

“Ah, damn it.”

Jang Wei hacked down with the axe, fueled by rising frustration.

“It’s progressing faster than I thought?”

Bush slammed a report with a pen, not understanding why he had come all the way up here.

“It’s because a large number of Chinese workers have come in.”

“Honestly, I never thought China would ever export them.”

This was true. The Chinese government would rather die than lose face, so I never thought they would ever send workers to the United States.

“Their human wave tactics are amazing.”

Almost 30% of this ‘Hair Removal Operation’ was Chinese. It’s a bit much to call it hair removal, but the operation name was surprisingly created by the people. In fact, it’s not even the official name. The official name was ‘National Land Restoration Operation.’ However, since the former was more catchy, it was publicly called the Hair Removal Operation.

“The Chinese government has changed its policy. I guess they have to live first. Maybe their situation is more serious than we observed.”

“But they’re still managing not to go belly up.”

The Chinese government has really managed to pay back its debts diligently.

“They may declare a moratorium soon.”

Whether China pays it back or not, it was beneficial to the United States. If they paid it back, it was a budget, and if they couldn’t pay it back, they wouldn’t be able to get back on their feet for a while. Moreover, the United States was not an easy opponent enough to not have to pay back just because they declared a moratorium or bankruptcy.

“But I honestly don’t understand this on paper.”

Some areas are using chemicals such as herbicides on a trial basis, and some areas are removing them manually, but it was hard to know how they were removing them manually.

“Ah, it’s being broadcast live.”

「About 47,000 volunteers participated. Refugees from the Middle East were largely mobilized for this Hair Removal Operation-.」

It was FOX News, a pro-Republican news channel, and a reporter in a helicopter was delivering the news in real time. Tens of thousands of people were moving on a large scale to remove kudzu, so it was truly a spectacle. However, what caught Bush’s eye was something in the corner of the screen.

“What’s that?”

“What are you talking about?”

The center is yellow, and it gets redder as it goes out. The name of this thing that emits a huge amount of white smoke that can’t even be compared to cigarettes is.

“It’s a fire.”

It’s a forest fire.