The champions of the
regional boat race championship were invited to the annual International
Boat race. China representing Asia, Ghana representing Africa, Iran
representing the Middle East, Russia representing Europe, USA
representing North and South America.
Each country set out on
the task of designing a boat for the prestigious race. News began to
filter in on various international papers and on social media that
four Chinese Scientist had designed a boat called 'The Dragon' which
traveled at twice the speed of sound. The USA promptly convinced
three of the four said Scientist to defect and steal the
blueprints for the boat. Minor modifications were made on the
blueprints and at a well attended press conference, the US officials
announced they had invented a boat called 'The Dragonfly' which moved
at twice the speed of sound. They also took the opportunity to accuse
Russia of trying to steal their blueprints. An accusation the Russian
officials vehemently denied.
The Chinese government
who understandably were incensed by this development immediately put
in place a national media blackout. All social media sites were
blocked and all Internet traffic was scrutinized. They then set out
on developing a new boat which was shrouded in lots of secrecy.
Iran pulled out of the
race after the US lodged a complaint to the organizers about the
boat the Iranians used in their regional championship which was
nuclear powered. An angered Iranian cleric was on Al Jazeera
saying Iran didn't want anything to do with 'The Great Satan'.
Meanwhile, back in Ghana,
officials were at a three-day conference at an plush hotel
discussing their plans and strategy for the upcoming boat race.
After a two hour delay, a popular musician performed at the opening
day and the conference finally was underway. At the end of the three days,
the officials decided to take a loan from the USA and use the money
to buy a boat from China which would be captained by a Lebanese. The
officials, of course, took home hefty per diem.
The Russians decided that
they didn't need to design a new boat. The boat used for the
regional championship was good enough for the international
championship. The old boat was simply called 'The Boat'.
Finally, the much awaited
day of the race arrived. The Chinese unveiled a new remote-controlled
boat which they called 'Red Moon'. The Red Moon traveled three times the
speed of sound and also doubled as a submarine. The USA brought out
The Dragonfly which was painted in stripes of Red with scattered
white stars. The Dragonfly had a four man crew. A captain, a
co-captain and two cabin crews. The Ghanaian team unveiled a Luxury
Yacht, called The Black Shark, bought from China with a loan from the
USA. The team was made up of seven people one being the Lebanese who
was the Captain, Engineer and Navigator. The other six, who were
Ghanaians (who did absolutely nothing) came with their family members
and two assistants each.
The 100 kilometers race
finally began and in a matter of seconds, the Red Moon, the
Chinese boat was at the finish line, the Americans in the Dragonfly
arrived a few minutes later and the Russians in the Boat arrived
about 30 minutes later. One hour after the Russians arrived, the
Ghanaians were still nowhere to be found.
The US team, meanwhile
was piling pressure on the judges and officials to disqualify the
Chinese. According to the team's dapper lawyer, the Red Moon was
technically not a boat but a UFO as it was not man-manned. Various
experts were brought in to testify on their behalf. The poor judges, overwhelmed by all the technical details, finally decided to
disqualify the Chinese much to the fans' disgust.
Two hours after the
protests were over, the Ghanaian Yacht, could be heard but not seen approaching the finish line. There was a party on board the Black
Shark and the music was so loud it drowned the announcer's speaker
even though the boat was still 5 kilometers in the water. Finally,
the Ghanaian luxury yacht arrived on the finish line, still in party
mood. The leader of the team quickly organized a press conference at
which he stated that they were proud of their achievement and of
completing the race. According to him, their performance this year
was something to be proud of. It broke the national (Ghanaian)
record and marked a massive improvement in their performance in last
year's race. They were looking forward to next
year's.
The medals podium: first
USA, second Russia, third Ghana and China, disqualified.
The Black Shark
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This post is a sequel to another post on this blog, Boat Race.