There were these two men; one called Nathan, one called Nasser. Although they came from different backgrounds and spoke their own languages, they actually were distantly related. They shared the same roots, originated from the same area of the world and looked very similar in complexion.

In fact, some people often mistook them for brothers.

Both their families had lived in the same neighborhood for most of their history. The local borough administration, however, had changed many times, always imposing laws on the two families, always controlling the family members.

Now at the time of the story, Nasser's family outnumbered Nathan's. Neither of them, however, ran the borough. That was run by an outside administration with funny accents who, incidentally, both families disliked immensely.

You see, about twenty years ago, Nathan had announced the desire for his family to have the right to control its own home again free from the interference of any external administration. Fifteen years after that, and following the World War, Nasser proclaimed the same desire for his family.

For a long time Nathan's relatives had been returning to the neighborhood to escape victimization from evil governments who despised their family. These governments used horrific policies in an attempt to rid themselves of the innocent minority. Despite Nasser and the borough authorities' attempts to stop them from moving back to their family home, a lot of them had succeeded in getting through and were reunited with Nathan.

The borough administration, under pressure from neighboring authorities, who were, incidentally, cousins of Nasser's, decided to give 80 percent of the borough to one of the cousins. The majority of Nasser's family became part of this new suburb which eventually was allowed to govern itself.

As you can imagine, losing 80 percent of their home borough to Nasser's cousin did not please Nathan's family one bit, but they accepted the decision and continued to fight for their rights to a home.

Finally, after years of waiting, the League of World Boroughs recognized Nasser's plight by proposing to once again split the land in two. Nathan could have half of the remaining 20 percent of his original home and Nasser could have the other half. The big community center in the middle, which meant so much to both families, would be kept under the League's control.

Well, although it was a very small piece of land, Nathan accepted the proposal and asked Nasser to live with him in peace under the new arrangement.

Unfortunately, Nasser's family was advised to say "no," and did so. The family leaders, together with the neighboring cousins, had told them to get packed and leave the borough immediately. They promised them as soon as they were out, the cousins would get together, charge into the district, kick Nathan's lot into the local pond and give the whole area back to Nasser and his family.

The vast majority of them listened to their leader's advice and left. After all, their cousins outnumbered Nathan's family fifty to one. How could they lose?

After Nathan saw what was being planned, some of the remaining relatives, although comparatively few in number, had to be moved for strategic reasons. However, most of the ones who'd ignored their leaders' advice stayed in the borough and are living peacefully with Nathan's family to this day.

As so often happens in stories like this, Nasser's cousins let him down and ended up losing to Nathan, despite their attack from all three sides of the borough. To make matters worse, they refused to house or shelter Nasser and his family after causing their exodus and, instead, decided to use the now homeless family as a weapon against Nathan.

These same cousins decided to stop Nathan's relatives from living with them in their districts. They were forced to leave their homes and similarly had nowhere to go, but don't worry -- Nathan immediately let them into the borough and looked after them.

Fifteen years and one war later, one of the neighboring cousins helped Nasser's leaders form a group called the Pervert Law and Order Brigade. Nasser wasn't asked for his approval and neither he, nor his family had any say in the policy decisions of the brigade.

The brigade became the umbrella organization for a whole group of smaller units that carried out their own killings and atrocities on innocent people from other boroughs, suburbs, counties and states. A lot of their victims had nothing to do with Nathan or his family and were exterminated in the most hideous of ways.

All these actions were carried out in the name of a covenant that the umbrella leaders had come up with four years after the brigade's birth. This document was very frightening to Nathan and his family. For years, it called for "armed struggle" as the "only way to liberate" the borough and offered no hope for peace. Of course, Nasser wasn't allowed to question his leaders at the risk of being shot.

For over twenty years, this brigade refused to accept that Nathan and his family had a right to their own borough. They committed monstrous acts on innocent bystanders and refused to accept any of Nathan's friends' peace proposals unless it included handing over the borough to Nasser's family.

Oh, wait a minute. One of Nasser's cousins did talk to Nathan and they made up; but he was shot dead.

Then one morning, after all those years of hatred and terror, the Brigade suddenly decided to stop killing innocent civilians. They promised to accept that Nathan's family had a right to live in the borough and swore they'd never shoot a defenseless woman on an airplane ever again.

They quickly went and tore up their 33 charter pledges and threw them away. Oh yes, and they wanted the borough to be split up, as per the recommendation of 40 years ago. All this was announced in the space of four months.

So Nathan had a problem. Should he trust a brigade that had been dedicated to destroying his home for so many years? Would the brigade's umbrella even succeed in controlling its own wild factions that use it for shelter? Maybe the umbrella would simply collapse under the strain while the rain continued to fall.

He decided to wait and see. After all, the new policy had only been announced four months ago whereas it had been spat on for the past twenty years.

Do you blame him? I don't.