Date: October – November , 2028 Location: Everywhere and nowhere Temperature: A world warming faster than its leaders could speak The Crack Begins With a Pause The collapse didn’t start with riots, or blackouts, or market crashes. It began with a pause. A strange, heavy global pause— as if the entire world suddenly realized it […]
The Collapse of Silence Read More »
Leadership
Date: October 2, 2028 — 11:52 p.m.Location: UN Secretariat Building, 39th Floor — Amara Okonkwo’s OfficeWeather: Heavy, windless summer night over the East River The Circle arrived without cameras.No livestreams.No rooftop. Emil, Layla, Priya, Sami (carrying the gray stone in his backpack),still limping slightly from the Veto Funeral. Secretary-General Amara Okonkwo asked for this meeting
The Conversation on the 39th Floor Read More »
Leadership
Date: May–September 2028 Global Status: Confusion, panic, imitation, denial, collapse Primary Locations: Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Moscow, London, Abuja, Brasília, Dubai, Riyadh, South Africa, Oslo For six weeks, the Breathing Cities had grown like constellations across the planet — a glittering network of teal pulses from rooftops and bridges and marketplaces. And for six weeks,
The Nations Respond Read More »
Nations
Date: April 18, 2028 Location: Former UN Postal Annex, across from the Secretariat Building Status: Opening Ceremony The building had been empty for twelve years. They bought the building on a Tuesday with 19,427,814 separate donations averaging $11.42. The deed was signed by seven minors and one retired school-bus driver acting as trustee. The seller,
The Embassy of Breath Read More »
Relationship
Date: March 14, 2028 — 9:47 p.m. Location: Same Brooklyn fire escape The phone rang while Emil was still staring at the folded flags on the livestream. Grandfather didn’t wait for hello. “That line you kids wrote… ‘Nations are a technology.’ I’ve been sitting here with the TV on mute for an hour just chewing
After the Rooftop Accord Read More »
Justice
Date: March 11–14, 2028 Location: The Rooftop of the UN Secretariat Building, New York They took the flags down on purpose. On the morning of March 11, 2028, every national flag that normally snapped above the rooftop was gone. In their place hung 193 simple rectangles of undyed linen, each one blank. The invitation had
The World Without Flags- Youth Summit Read More »
Leadership
Date: January 27, 2028 Location: First Avenue, UN Headquarters → East River Occasion: A Global Mourning Ritual It began with paper. Not speeches. Not resolutions. Just paper— thin bright squares of red, the color of dried ink, flame, and finality. By sunrise, thousands of people were gathered outside the UN Headquarters holding them. Children folded
Date: January 20, 2028 Location: United Nations Headquarters, New York Status: Emergency Security Council Session They had been expecting this moment, though none of them said it aloud. The chalk-covered sidewalks outside the UN still glowed faintly from the night before, smudged by footsteps and snowfall, like a river trying to remember the verses written
The Circle on Trial Read More »
Justice
Date: January 12–15, 2028 Location: First Avenue, United Nations Headquarters, New York The rooftop had changed something in the air. Not just inside the building. Outside too. For three days after the breath-vote, tourists, diplomats, cafeteria workers, exhausted interns, and journalists kept gathering on the plaza and sidewalks in front of the Secretariat tower. Something
Rewriting the Charter in Chalk Read More »
Relationship
December 14, 2027 — 10:52 PM Emil’s fire escape, Brooklyn The cold on the fire escape felt different from the rooftop. Harsher. Lonelier. Emil sat with his knees pulled to his chest, forehead resting on the metal railing. Below him, the city glowed in the kind of silence that only exists after something historic has
The Breath They Fear Read More »
Leadership