The year is 1958, the year of the Great Lazy Mustard Episode. The date is August 2nd and the sun is in the sky. (Hoorah and huzzah!) The setting: The Spratly Islands, part of a newly independent Malaysia.


To the left we see British ex-pats H and Z Farnes-Barnes, founders of FB Sugar Ltd, who have declared this paved area of the local bazaar to be a British enclave. Angry Malaysian nationalists have gathered around menacingly and begun to stamp the ground in time - the beginning of the Nik-Noshta war dance.


The managing director of FB Sugar, Hector "Berlioz" Gbonda, comes to the defence of the Farnes-Barneses. Of joint Malaysian and British parentage, Gbonda commands the respect of both the native and the ex-pat communities. By donning tribal spectacles and bopenki (black robe) and placing himself between the two Farnes-Barneses, he signifies to the mob that they are to be left in peace lest the ancestors be angered.


It has been decided that the paved area shall be a British enclave on Mondays and Thursdays, Malaysian on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and subject to joint sovereignty at the weekends. Tribal elders take up position to the left and right of the Farnes-Barneses and start to sway to and fro as they hum the traditional Malaysian tune Perak Ading-Dong, a gesture of reconciliation. HF-B, a fervent imperialist, makes no secret of his displeasure, while ZF-B Smiles diplomatically, masking her disappointment at the outcome.