Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 19:16:03 -0800 (PST) From: Christian Debus Subject "A Worthy Charity" Gay Male slavery / Interracial "A Worthy Charity" Or "The White Oxen Programme" This is a story of erotic fiction meant for adult readers over the age of eighteen years. Written by Jean-Christophe (Chris): February, 2014 Read all my stories at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jean-Christophe_Stories "The characters and ideas in this story belong to the writer's imagination and shouldn't be copied with his permission. Please respect the integrity of the story and don't do any rewrites, make alterations or add pictures." Special Note:I'm sure we'd all agree that Nifty.org provides us with much pleasure. And it's free! But even a free service comes with some costs and it you'd like to help financially to keep Nifty.org operating, you might consider making a donation to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html As a successful banker, I've always considered myself to be a charitable person and I have made it my policy to donate generously to those causes I consider are worthwhile. Of course, before I hand over my hard-earned money, I ensure that any cause I support is legitimate and that its overheads are kept to the absolute minimum. I'd been caught out several times by so-called charities where the actual amount of aid received by the recipient is considerably lessened by the generous wages paid to the appeal's director and a fat commission paid to an advertising agency. I eschew such organizations and donate to those run by volunteers and which operate on a shoestring budget. Such organizations always get my wholehearted support! Therefore I am delighted to give my endorsement and financial support to the "White Oxen Programme" set up to assist impoverished, tribal farmers in the more remote, less fertile areas of the country. It was established ten years ago by a wealthy, mining businessman of my acquaintance named Themba. He'd been on a business trip into the interior and had been distressed at the rural poverty of so many of our countrymen. Unfortunately, in the headlong rush to establish majority rule and a more even redistribution of the nation's wealth, these poor farmers had been largely forgotten by the politicians in the capital and the movers and shakers in the high-powered world of business and commerce. Themba had been saddened at the hardships these rural tribes endured and at the primitive farming conditions they worked under. Of course, he recognized that cattle had always been an integral part of tribal life and would remain so; after all they supplied the milk, meat and hides so necessary to feed and clothe the community. And they also provided the power to pull the ploughs to till the soil and to haul the farm carts delivering the produce to market. With his customary business acumen, Themba saw the disadvantages of using the cattle for these mundane but necessary tasks. The size and bulk of the cattle alone was an inhibiting factor. They had voracious appetites and consumed large quantities of fodder simply to keep the ploughs and the carts moving. This meant that the larger share of the farmers' precious crops went to feed their working cattle and left them with a smaller one for their families' own daily needs. And Themba saw another disadvantage with this reliance on the use of cattle; they overgrazed the fragile vegetation while the impoverished soil was compacted and eroded by their cloven hooves. Themba returned from his trip determined to help the remote tribal communities and to lift them from subsistence farming to profitable levels that rewarded them for their hard labour. But try as he might, he couldn't think of a solution. Then one day, quite by chance, he attended a slave auction and as he watched the slaves being lead around the sale ring prior to being sold, he saw the answer with lightning clarity. All the time the answer had been right before him; why hadn't he noticed before this? Slaves! Slaves were the answer; why not use them in place of the cattle. Themba became excited at the thought that white slaves could replace the cattle as plough animals and to haul the farm wagons to distant markets. True, they weren't as strong as four-legged oxen but their advantages far outweighed any disadvantages. Slaves are so much easier to handle and are more amenable; they possess a level of intelligence that the dumb ox doesn't. A slave has the comprehension to understand his driver's instructions and the ability to follow through. True, it might be necessary to resort to the use of a whip to keep the slave moving; but isn't that also true of the stupid ox who must be driven continuously. And used judiciously, the whip never harms a slave - well at least not too much. And after all, a slave's striped back shows good slave management! The cost benefits of using slaves rather than oxen are clearly evident. The slave consumes far less corn or water than the ox and he requires less stable space. Obviously one slave, on his own, isn't up to pulling a plough or a farm cart. But two slaves yoked together become a veritable power-house of energy. Armed with these thoughts, Themba set himself the monumental task of ensuring that all tribal farmers are given two white slaves to work their farms and to lighten the heavy work burden they shoulder. Slavery hadn't reached far beyond the cities and so slaves were virtually unknown in the traditional, tribal homelands where attitudes rarely change. For the tribesman, there is comfort in knowing that there is continuity in what he is doing. He merely follows the age- old practices which have served his ancestors in the past and which will continue to serve his sons and grandsons into the future. Therefore Themba had to convince the rural farmer that slaves would serve his interests better than his cattle and he set about do this with great enthusiasm. Of course, for the scheme to work successfully, Themba needed slaves. Themba used his own money to buy the first slaves who were to pioneer his scheme. Of necessity, he had to start small; after all slaves weren't cheap - well not as cheap as they are now - and his pilot scheme was necessarily modest. Equipped with twelve strong, white male slaves, he travelled to six remote farming communities and there he argued persuasively against the entrenched opposition to his scheme and cajoled the farmers to at least trial his idea for one year. At each village, lots were drawn to see which farmer would receive two slaves and "host" the project. Themba travelled to the six pilot farms frequently during that first year. He closely monitored the programme and observed at first-hand how the farmers were adjusting to the use of slaves rather than oxen. At first, the farmers chosen to be part of the pilot scheme were reluctant - even sceptical - but gradually their opposition to using the slaves lessened until they became enthusiastic about their use. Very quickly, they learned that a slave did indeed eat considerably less than his four-legged counterpart and was more versatile. A slave - unlike an ox - could be put to a wide variety of uses. When not yoked to a plough or pulling a heavy load of farm produce to the market, a slave could be put to work cutting and gathering firewood, carrying water from the river to the village and used in the construction and repairing of buildings. And a shackled slave could be housed overnight in a small, thatched kennel alongside his owner's hut. The other farmers watched enviously as the pilot farmer became more confident in the use of his two slaves and they were quickly converted to the idea. They could see at first hand that slaves had the capacity to make their lives easier and to lighten the onerous workload they'd laboured under from time immemorial. Now, whenever Themba visited one of the six trial farms, he was besieged by the other farmers requesting - no begging - for white slaves to be allocated to them. The success of his scheme overwhelmed Themba but also worried him; quite obviously demand for slaves outstripped the supply. He couldn't of course, continue to supply slaves to all the farmers from his own financial resources and he had to look for ways and means of meeting the unprecedented numbers of request. During that first year, Themba hadn't been idle. He'd worked tirelessly to create an awareness of the needs of the struggling farmers of the harsh interior. Relentlessly, he stalked the corridors of power arguing with the politicians and cajoling the business elite to support his programme. Themba never lost an opportunity to argue his case and increasingly he was invited to speak at businessmen's luncheons and community organizations where he outlined his visions to give each subsistence farmer two slaves to work his land. At first, they'd viewed him as an "eccentric" and treated him with disdain; a few listened but most dismissed him as a well-meaning dreamer. But Themba wasn't discouraged by their disinterest and eventually, by the sheer force of his convictions and the persuasiveness of his arguments, he began to break through their indifference. Now more and more politicians and businessmen could see that such as scheme had potential and merit. And at the end of that first year, Themba was able to show them the results of the pilot scheme which finally overcame their initial scepticism that such a programme could work successfully. Themba's enthusiasm was infectious and at the end of the first year's trial, he began to receive sizeable donations from business associates and friends which enabled him to buy more slaves to be given to an ever increasing number of farmers. They say from small acorns mighty oaks grow and that is certainly true of Themba's efforts. At first, he set up an aid programme whereby you could financially contribute to the purchase price of a slave to be given to a farmer. In return for your donation, you had the satisfaction of knowing that you are assisting a poor farmer to improve the lives of his family and his community. And you received a periodic report on your "sponsored slave" and the differences he was making to his Master's lifestyle. I was an early adopter of Themba's aid programme and over the years I have sponsored about twenty slaves. I have the satisfaction of knowing they have contributed materially to enhancing the lives of their Masters and their families. I know this from the periodic photos I receive of my "slaves" at their labours and I can see how multi-faceted they are. Not only do they pull the ploughs and the farm-carts but they also work communally on construction, the implementation of irrigation schemes, the digging of water wells and the installation of sanitation systems. Without doubt, Themba has immeasurably improved the lot of those isolated tribesmen living in remote areas and at the same time he has contributed substantially to the national economy. All this happened ten years ago and today Themba's "White Oxen Programme" stands as a shining testament to his compassion for our less fortunate, rural brothers and his foresightedness in broadening the scope of our agriculture. Another fortunate consequence of his programme is that it also helped to solve a developing social problem with our troublesome white minority. Dispossessed and reduced to subsistence levels, they'd become a thorn in society's side. Fuelled by the resentment of what they'd lost and their envy of the new ruling class, their young men had quickly degenerated into a criminal "under-belly" prone to robbery and violence. Our prison system had groaned under the weight of so many white prisoners sentenced by the courts to lengthy terms of imprisonment. Locked away, with time on their hands and nothing to occupy them, rehabilitation proved impossible and prison became a festering, breeding-ground for their criminal activity. If anything, incarceration made them more hardened and likely to re-offend on their release. Often, they left prison more violent than when they went in and it quickly became a revolving-door situation. No sooner did the white trouble-makers leave prison than they re-offended and found themselves back in jail for longer sentences. It became a self-perpetuating situation. Sending these white criminals to serve as slaves in remote communities solved the government's dilemma in dealing with an ever- growing social problem. It removed the white criminal class from our towns and cities and made these places safer for our law- abiding citizens. And removing the young, white males from our communities to serve as slaves helps to rehabilitate them. Hard work gives their lives purpose and the chance at redemption and their Masters' strict discipline punishes them for their crimes against black society. Once Themba's programme had become accepted by the wider community, the government decided to make available to him at nominal cost, the youngest, strongest and fittest of the male prisoners to serve as slaves on the remote farms. These slaves, although cheap at almost give-away prices, still needed to be paid for and Themba relied heavily on donations from friends and the public. And the expense of victualling the slaves and transporting them to the remote area farms added to his overheads. Those first few years were difficult ones for Themba as he battled to set up the programme. A less determined person would simply have admitted defeat and walked away. But this wasn't Themba's style and his compassion and concern for easing the lot of the tribesmen wouldn't allow him to do that. At that stage, I was donating money to Themba's cause on a regular basis and one day - and really the idea came into my head without any pre-thought - that rather than make periodic donations it would be better if I committed a regular sum each month to cover the initial cost of the slave's purchase price, his transport to his new Master's farm and the ongoing overheads of feeding and stabling him. My idea of sponsoring a white ox by making a pre-determined monthly payment to Themba's scheme caught hold of the public imagination and now it's doubtful if there are too many households that don't financially support at least one white ox. Thus was born the "Sponsor a white ox" programme that now enjoys universal support throughout the community. Its benefits are twofold. It rids our cities and communities of white troublemakers and gives their lives purpose; at the same time it helps to lessen the hardship of our subsistence tribal farmers who have benefited greatly from Themba's original idea and of my later innovation. Over the years, I have worked closely with Themba and I'm proud to say that he and I work hand in glove to keep the scheme operational. We bombard the press with articles extolling the virtues of our scheme and we saturate national television with images of white oxen at work in our tribal homelands. Most of all we extol its undoubted benefits to the national economy. Quite recently, I was delighted to share an award with Themba. The government, in recognition of our efforts in improving the quality of life for out rural, poverty-stricken tribesmen/farmers, bestowed on both of us "The Order of Merit" - the highest, national honour that can be granted to a civilian. How proud we are to be so recognized. However, of more satisfaction to Themba is the recognition this gives to his life-changing "White Oxen Scheme". I couldn't agree more with Themba! End