George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 73

< Episode 72 >

The 2000s were widely considered the era of ‘well-being.’ Originating from the well-being trends that emerged in Europe and the United States during the 1990s, it rapidly spread throughout Asia, including Korea and Japan, after 2000. This movement initially grew out of efforts to promote women’s health and welfare, along with the expansion of alternative social movements prior to the 1990s.

In any case, the core intention was, ‘Let’s cultivate a healthy body!’ But in a capitalist society, it was inevitable that such an appealing concept would be exploited. Consequently, ‘well-being’ became synonymous with healthy food.

Everyone actively engaged in marketing to aggressively promote and utilize this enticing term, and this was especially pronounced in Korea. To what extent? When the ‘well-being’ label was applied to air purifiers, the air purifier market, previously valued at 107 billion won, tripled to 320 billion won in just three years.

So, why is well-being relevant here?

“What the hell are you talking about now?”

Would you believe that this ‘well-being’ trend, once centered around ‘yoga,’ is now shifting towards ‘fitness’?

“To be honest, this phenomenon is largely due to the President’s influence. More precisely, it’s driven by the newspaper articles about him, but the President’s sudden focus on working out has undeniably sparked this trend.”

Indeed, that was the case. In a relatively short period, he was visibly changing his body by consistently following a diet and exercise plan created by the best trainers of the time. Given that he already had a foundation of muscle, the changes occurred quite quickly.

‘I feel like I’ve become an entertainer, not a president.’

Well, considering that some people have become president after being entertainers, there’s no reason why the reverse couldn’t happen.

‘But I have no intention of jumping into the entertainment industry after retirement.’

“You could go into fitness after you retire.”

Deputy Chief of Staff Bu observed Bush’s expression and chuckled. He was practically the only person who could act so informally with Bush.

“Enough with the fitness talk. It’s just a personal hobby. More than anything, I’m getting tired of all the attention.”

To be precise, he was growing weary of the media and others commenting on his personal life. Regardless, he didn’t want to hear about it at work, even if it was making headlines.

“Understood. But what do you expect to get out of locking them up like that?”

Perhaps because the room had been used for so long, the door’s decoration was slightly worn, giving it the appearance of a medieval dungeon entrance. The occasional screams made it easy to imagine a torture chamber next to the prison cell, complete with horrifying instruments hanging on the wall.

Of course, everything behind the door was just a secure conference room designed to prevent eavesdropping, so it was merely Deputy Chief of Staff Bu’s imagination running wild. Still, the fact that merely discussing the room could elicit such imagery reminiscent of medieval torture was quite remarkable.

“If they want to get out of there, they’ll produce something. Even if they don’t, shouldn’t they earn their keep? That’s why we’re paying them such exorbitant salaries.”

“Noblesse oblige?” [French for “nobility obliges”; the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility.]

“With great power comes great responsibility. Don’t you know that?”

“Spider-Man?”

“You understand perfectly.”

It was a line from the Spider-Man comic books, which had recently gained fame due to the upcoming movie release. To be exact, it was a movie scheduled to be released in 2002.

“I’m just too interested in the world. But it often seems like great irresponsibility comes with great power.”

Deputy Chief of Staff Bu was twisting the knife. As someone who understood the realities of power, he found such statements absurd.

‘Hmm, I’ve heard that line somewhere before. Oh well, who cares.’

Bush decided to dismiss the Spider-Man reference from his mind.

“I believe you’ve probably realized by now, but the reason I called you here is because I have a task for you as well.”

Upon hearing that, Deputy Chief of Staff Bu wore an expression that clearly telegraphed, ‘Here it comes.’ He was nothing if not honest.

“I just hope I can go home after work.”

Deputy Chief of Staff Bu glanced at the room where the aides and chief of staff were metaphorically “canned whole” [meaning completely stuck]. He had heard rumors about the outdated facilities in the building, and they were evidently true. The screams that penetrated even the soundproofing were impressive in a disturbing way. He correctly surmised that whatever answers emerged from that solitary confinement would likely be unproductive.

Noticing Deputy Chief of Staff Bu’s concern about the room behind him, Bush took the initiative.

“That’s why I left the chief of staff in there, isn’t it?”

“Ah. Indeed.”

“And to answer your question, of course, you can go home after work. I’m a man of clear boundaries.”

Deputy Chief of Staff Bu seemed relieved at Bush’s words, and the tension visibly drained from his face. However, the fact that he displayed such a reaction in front of the President, especially George Bush, suggested that he hadn’t experienced enough hardship yet. If he were the chief of staff, he would have devised at least two ways to evade this situation by now.

“So, what is the job?”

“Overseas trip.”

“Pardon?”

“You can go straight home as soon as the ‘job’ is done.”

‘Once the “job” is done,’ he thought, recognizing the caveat.

“Of course, of course.”

* * *

“It’s better than I thought.”

Originally, he had planned to watch a movie after work, but the flight was far more luxurious than he had anticipated. He tended to see the world positively rather than negatively. Of course, he acknowledged that the world could be terrible, so he consciously cultivated this optimistic mindset as a coping mechanism. What else could he do in a world that was often so difficult to bear?

Even in his powerful position, Karl Rove found himself unable to single-handedly change most of the things he disliked.

‘That’s why I admire our President.’

Bush’s decisive attitude towards eliminating anything that bothered him closely mirrored his ideal approach. This wasn’t to say he detested rational politics founded on human goodness; rather, Karl Rove simply preferred action movies that destroyed everything over tedious romance films.

His hobby was, indeed, movies. He had initially intended to spend his leisure time watching one, but he found himself on an emergency business trip to Indonesia. Indonesia held significance as the leader of ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], with its headquarters located in Jakarta, the capital.

Jakarta was the largest city in Indonesia, yet an unfortunate city destined to be partially submerged by around 2050. He speculated about the potential construction of floating cities on mega-floats, but regardless, its location was undeniably unfavorable.

‘I’m so glad I’m not just a tourist.’

It was undeniably true that Indonesia was the most successful country in Southeast Asia, but that didn’t necessarily translate into well-established infrastructure. The fact that 10% of Indonesia’s total population resided in Jakarta presented a significant challenge to public safety, with individuals frequently evading legal repercussions and rampant pickpocketing. The public safety situation in Jakarta reminded Karl Rove of the slums in the United States.

‘Can I change it?’

The public safety situation in the United States was gradually improving. Bush’s newly appointed officials were aggressively utilizing the budget, and the concurrent dismissal and imprisonment of bribe-takers was fundamentally altering the mindset of other police officers.

It’s difficult to change a person’s inherent nature, but their actions can be modified. Once police officers were firmly aware of the potential consequences of being caught, they tended to react in one of two ways: they either genuinely resigned, or they plunged even deeper into corruption.

The former was simply ignored, while the latter resulted in the maximum possible sentence without exception. However, this approach yielded an unintended side effect: the creation of a new gang organization within the prison system, an alumni association comprised of former state police officers. While varying in name and size, this phenomenon occurred in prisons across the country.

Because they were not just any gang but former police officers, they became targets of other inmates. At first, they were simply beaten, but soon their power grew and they gradually took over the prison. Perhaps because they were skilled at dealing with criminals from the outset, former police officers ascended to the highest levels of power within the already enclosed prison environment.

The only prison where this didn’t occur was ADX Florence, the highest-security prison, often nicknamed ‘the cleanest prison in the world,’ due to the fact that all the rooms were single cells and faction formation did not occur. In fact, Osama bin Laden was also scheduled to be imprisoned in this ADX for life if it weren’t for Bush’s executive order.

“Is that Jakarta over there?”

Back to Jakarta. Karl Rove gazed at the Jakarta nightscape through the airplane window. It seemed like I’ve been on a lot of business trips since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it must be just my imagination. Well, anywhere is better than the military advisory group in Afghanistan.

In fact, at first, I thought I had been demoted. If President Bush hadn’t contacted me every day, I would have really thought so. Afghanistan was mentally comfortable, but it wasn’t a very good place to live. In fact, it might have been livable if there was just a movie theater and a Subway.

“At least Jakarta has all of that.”

Besides, this business trip isn’t as long as the last one. I wanted to finish it quickly and go home and lie in bed. If I were only 10 years younger, I would have been passionate about everything, but now that I’m this old, I feel drained after doing anything. It was a truly sad reality when I remembered that I used to have enough energy left to move on to the next thing after doing one thing.

The first thing that Karl Rove thought after getting off the plane was.

‘It’s humid!’

I knew it would be humid, but it was more humid than I imagined. How many countries on Earth are this humid in winter? When dividing humidity, it is divided into 6 stages: ‘dry, comfortable, humid, muggy, very hot, and soggy.’

Jakarta was a country where you could experience the miraculous weather of basically being in the 5th stage and briefly dropping to the 4th stage in August. In Korean terms, it was like summer weather all year round or more. Africans often say that Africa is cooler because of the high humidity in other countries, but this is because Africa has high temperatures but low humidity, so the air itself has no humidity, so it is cool even if you go into the shade.

‘Can people live in a place like this?’

I was sure that there was no place worse than Afghanistan, but how could such a hell of humidity exist in reality?

“Deputy Chief of Staff Bu. Welcome to Jakarta.”

Someone from the US Embassy was there, but that person also didn’t seem to be used to the weather in Jakarta, as they were constantly sweating all over their body.

“Do you know why I came here?”

“Of course. It’s because the agreement with ASEAN fell through, right?”

However, ASEAN’s public stance was, ‘We don’t need it, so don’t bother us!’ But this was only a superficial face-saving measure, and Southeast Asia in 2002 was more eager for dollars than anyone else.

In particular, until the Philippines first contacted them to attract US capital investment, opinions were divided within the US government, except for Bush, who had confirmed that they were shameless people who were backing out because of face. [implying they lack courage or conviction].

In fact, associating the shadow of the United States with ASEAN was not bad for ASEAN member countries either. However, they hesitated to avoid giving the impression of relying excessively on foreign powers. Had time simply passed, the pro-American sentiment would have strengthened, eventually leading to full cooperation with the United States.

Everything could have been resolved given enough time, but that method was not optimal for either the United States’ or ASEAN’s long-term strategies.

“You’re going to Jakarta to salvage that agreement, right? To be honest, I’m surprised you came in person.”

“A president of a country shouldn’t be too light on his feet. And there’s a far more pressing concern.”

“What is it?”

“Where’s the air conditioning?”