[16 September, 2116 | Wednesday]
Once upon a time, as they used to say, back in the days when stories were told in books, rather than across our screens, there were two countries. There was the country I was born into, Canada, and there was another, larger country that neighboured it, the United States of America. The two countries were allies, sharing the illusion of freedom that their political rulers told them they had. But the political systems were corrupt; the politicians themselves were corrupt. The political system shared by these allies was broken; not from neglect, but by design.
That all changed back in March 2107, about six months before I was born. During that month, the United States of America formally ceased to exist. The “great nation,” as its political class once described it, was finally free. Shortly after YutopiCorp wrested control from those politicians, it ushered in an era of peace and prosperity, a new age. The United States of America, land of the corrupt, was now a utopia. It was now known as The City.
Canada resisted the lure of YutopiCorp, and everything they could offer. Rather than embracing what this megacorporation could do for the country, they shunned it. Instead of moving into the future, run of the mill, garden variety corporations were happily making money off the back of Canadians. Their CEOs grew fat off the backs of labour, then trimmed a small percentage of that fat to line the pockets of the politicians, who in turn, would offer enough tax breaks to those corporations to allow their CEOs to grow even fatter. It was a perpetual cycle of the fat scratching the backs of the fat, while everybody else suffered, growing thinner by the day.
As Canada shunned YutopiCorp, as its political class fought to maintain its power, the City could no longer abide by this corrupt system. They could no longer excuse politicians making decisions on behalf of its people that fuelled their own self-interest. Under YutopiCorp rule, the people work for YutopiCorp and YutopiCorp works for the people. Together, they make each other strong. And thus, what was once the US/Canada alliance was no more. The City would thrive as Canada would continue collapse under the weight of a corrupt political ideology.
I was born on 27 August, 2116. Coincidentally, this was also the very day the first XingBuddh—or XBCorp, as it’s colloquially known as—product, the IntelliEye, hit the Canadian market. As another megacorporation, XBCorp was naturally a rival to YutopiCorp. XBCorp was—and still is to this very day, mind you—determined to solidify its power across the globe. But unlike YutopiCorp, it pushes its inferior products on countries it has gained a foothold in, caring little for the human cost; all it considers important is that almighty credit.
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