Mendacity
Singapore International School , Upadhyay , Aradhana - 14
E
Mendacity : untruthfulness ; lies , deception
arth is at its breaking point . When exactly the world reached its tipping point , we may never know . It may have been when the seven billionth baby was born , or even earlier . Governments around the world have hidden from us , the very people whom they were to serve and protect , the early signs that Earth was slowly beginning to fracture . We were led to believe that industrialization , urbanization and modernization were a good thing . As a result , humans have continually damaged Earth , but the extent of damage wasn ’ t fully understood until the early 2000s . I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if Earth was undamaged , but that is just a wish based on fantasy . This story is reality .
My name is Nicole . My father and mother moved back to Shanghai when I was very young to be closer to my mother ’ s family . Shanghai is my home , I remember no other place . I loved Shanghai , a beautiful city where tall modern skyscrapers line the banks of the the river on one side creating a sharp contrast to the old colonial era buildings that flank the edge of the river on the other side . The old co-existing in harmony with the new , that is what Shanghai has become known for , a city where you can find the latest trends as well as the traditional .
Everything was perfect for sixteen years of my life . I had many friends and was doing great in school . I was in eleventh grade , looking at colleges to pursue my dreams of becoming a pediatrician . I had my whole life planned out . But it all went wrong in the summer of tenth grade .
The first signs appeared soon after the world governments returned back from the bi-annual Prioritize Earth ( PE ) Summit in Geneva . The creation of PE in 2018 was necessitated by the worsening air quality around the world . It provided a platform where world leaders , scientists and industrialists could come together to discuss and implement policies to reduce pollution and save Earth . It succeeded where other forums that preceded it failed , due to its iron fist policy of allowing no concessions to any nation and cutting the water supply of any nation that did not comply by diverting the rivers that feed its land . Cutting the water supply of a nation was not an empty threat . The River Ganges had once flowed through Bangladesh nourishing its land , but the government ’ s refusal to comply with PE saw the River Ganges diverted . Millions of poor Bangladeshis perished in the subsequent famine but the PE was unapologetic and its message clear ; comply or die .
Unlike the previous year ' s gatherings , which were all concluded by a flurry of policy signings and hand-shaking , this year there was markedly none . Slowly the prices of the most basic of necessities started to rise , but I was too preoccupied with back-to-school preparations to take notice of my mother ’ s complaints about the price of rice .
In the three months that ensued , my days were filled with school work and making plans for my future . I was determined to pursue my dreams of becoming a pediatrician and was already seriously contemplating which colleges to apply to .
Toward the end of November , reports of small clusters of dead fish floating in rivers and lakes in different parts of the world started to make the news . Alarmed , people began to avoid eating fish , and rumors began circulating that all the fresh water bodies on Earth were poisoned . Through all this turmoil , the the world governments remained silent , neither confirming nor denying the rumors . However , only when the TV screens started flashing pictures of hundreds of thousands of dead fish washing down the River Nile , until they reached the delta just outside Cairo where their silvery bodies started to pile up , a giant dam built from rotting flesh , the stench of which was said to carry for miles inland ; did the world ’ s Government break their silence .
I remember sitting on the living room couch , sandwiched in between my parents , staring at the TV screen with fear evident on our faces . That was when the government ’ s carefully fabricated web of lies began to unravel ,