Great challenges now faced the leaders of every country that had opted to stay within the United Nations. Once the Davos Boys had been exposed and would soon be deposed, they had a choice to make: either stay on to put some order in their country under the new terms imposed by a collapsed economy, or make way for people who were up to the challenge.
There was a definite inverse correlation between the level of previous advantages politicians had enjoyed and their will to suddenly put on a show with no promise of a Gold Travel Pass for life afterwards. With the economy now based on a currency with strict caps on its accumulation, and no interest allowed, corruption was also no longer possible; the political game would suddenly become very different. Whilst most countries had opted for Ann’s Grand plan, there were still a few now isolated countries, six in total plus the American block, which had excluded themselves from the UN. Two countries, Russia and North Korea, were also in limbo as their delegates had signed their country up, but they themselves had been sacked immediately. A brief account of events in some of those countries in the weeks following the World Coup is given below.
Australia
Australia had put on the most remarkable display of jacket flipping ever seen in modern political times within a space of one week. These days the average term of Australian prime ministers
and politicians in general could be predicted very accurately using the following equation:
T = Tmin + 1 where T is the term served in days, and Tmin is the minimum term required to be eligible for immediate retirement, in days also
Tmin had followed a dramatic trend towards a period when politicians would need to work for two days only before retiring, and this had greatly contributed to make Australian politicians some of the youngest and richest retirees in the world. Another new majority government run by the Laborally Green National Holy alliance had certainly devoted a large part of the past year refining the intricacies of this fabulous cornucopia of benefits. The rare independents who had remained in the Senate had also in the past year either joined the ranks of the alliance, or died suddenly in totally non-suspicious circumstances.
In that one week following the toppling of the Davos Boys, the first vote had been to revoke any notion of minimum term before being eligible for retirement benefits, and there had been up to 26 prime ministers per day until everyone in the cabinet and the Senate had had a fair go. In the end, the last one had declined to stay on following the revelation by a young clerk that the Future Fund had been frozen out of existence by the Courts due to some apparently dodgy links with the Davos boys. This move effectively denied the carousel of retired politician the obscene parasitic retirement fund they had setup for themselves a few years earlier. A minute later, the janitor Lana was nominated by the speaker of the house as the new Prime Minister, who was happy to take on the job. She had seen how they were all behaving, and it really didn’t seem too hard to her. When asked by the speaker if Australia was going to rejoin the UN, she had asked if they would help clean up the joint, which was a disgrace these days. When the answer came back in the affirmative, she also agreed, and so Australia rejoined the United Nations a week after its exit from it.
There had been a few other surprises in Australian politics, for some the events had provided an opportunity to actually change careers. One notable example was a prominent Australian minister of the Laborally Green National Holy alliance Government, Pewter Button, who promptly jumped ship after years of frustration at never being recognized to his true potential. Anonymous sources revealed he had changed sex as well as career, and was now performing a cabaret act with his new husband, also an ex- politician. Pewter had changed his name to his mother’s polish maiden name and he/she now went under the pseudonym of Diedre D. Zdundirtcheep. Their Greek tragedy act depicting the turmoil of the previous way of life as frustrated politicians toured nationally for years and was an inspiration and a source of amusement for thousands. The two had never seemed happier and lived through a great many years of marital bliss. In stark contrast, the late Australian Prime Minister Scoff Morteinon had made his last trademark prop show in Parliament earlier in that tumultuous week, attempting to convince his constituents of the benefits of Civilization by spraying supposedly 100% non toxic insecticide down his throat to wash down the lump of coal on which he had been chewing. His treasurer Dosh Fryburger died on the same day, poisoned as well as he frantically tried to resuscitate his beloved boss with mouth to mouth resuscitation.
North Korea
As for North Korea, the UN offer for all countries which excluded themselves was still standing: the UN would be ready to meet with the grassroot movements of those countries and would help to abide by the wish of the delegates, who had after all been their country’s legal representatives up until their sacking!
The leader of North Korea and President for life Jim Cling-On had begged to differ, his first and last order following the immediate sacking of his delegate Om Jing-Cnil had been to have his entire delegate’s family executed at once.
Just as Om was enjoying his new found safety and another glass of champagne in Geneva, he thought it was ironic that his previous boss and President for life had actually been a first cousin twice removed, he had simply completely forgotten about that lost and remote link to the ruling dynasty.
There had been a moment of brief confusion at the Presidential Palace in Pyongyang as the first person to be executed was Jim Cling-On himself following a brief genealogical search by the secret police. A very irate sister of Jim had come out of her room to investigate the racket, and was ready to order a round of executions herself, but was promptly dispatched following the initial logic of the last words from the now defunct President for life. The firing did die down a bit later in the evening and as it had turned out, that cheeky Om Jing-Cnil had a few relatives after all. He could however now claim he no longer had living relatives. A quick game of scissors paper rocks among some of the cheering North Korean Generals, and a few days later Ann Clearly received a phone call from the new and very hung-over leader of North Korea, asking to rejoin the party as long as people didn’t shout too loudly.
Russia
The leader of Russia did sulk for a little while after the World Coup. He had in fact been a bit sour for the past year or two, he had lost his favorite game of meddling in other people’s affairs when the Dump Dynasty became a permanent fixture, and he now knew that a few of his friends would soon have to make an appearance before the UN court of law. When his delegate had called him after Ann’s historic speech, his mood had not improved. He had briefly thought about having both of them poisoned, but was frankly getting bored with this whole “bumping people off” business. He had granted himself lifelong immunity for any criminal activity as a 2020 Christmas present to himself, he had been smart enough to cover his tracks and knew his little game of influence would have let him off the hook anyway, but he knew he would soon also get bored with the whole “Rule the Motherland” thing. Boredom, boredom, boredom… He hadn’t been to his dacha for a while now and was missing the exercise. He was also missing the new boyfriend he kept there, a young and keen permaculturalist who had taught him a thing or two about good seed planting. He decided to make a quick phone call to his ex-wife and offer her the top job at the