Interview: Suha Raibuya on her controversial statements.
Nannaras X
February 24th YC 121
In light of the controversy surrounding the Windchime guru Suha Raibuya and her recent remarks, ZANIE has invited her back into the studio a second time to sit down for another chat to get a deeper perspective on what she was talking about. Making her the first recurring guest ZANIE has had in for an interview.
The tone of the following interview however is drastically different than the one Suha did previously, were the former was positive and calm and this being extremely passionate and heated. Suha presents arguments in favor of the Guristas pirates and against the Caldari State. It should be note before reading that Suha’s viewpoints in the following transcript should be taken her opinions and not the Zaibatsu’s offical stance.
We go now to the transcript.
[Hoovand]
“Back in studio to talk about the troubling remarks she recently made in a spiritual sermon, we have, Suha Raibuya, guru of the Windchimes. Suha, welcome back as our first ever returning guest.”[Suha]
“Thank you Hoovand, it’s an honor. Though I admit I’m a tad miffed…did you say my remarks were troubling?”[Hoovand]
“Well…I suppose I’ll just jump right into it. Suha your recent remarks have caused a stir in Hoiyori. You gave a concerning statement that vaguely encouraged colonists to break the law, citing that legislation of the empires was meaningless and laws were merely rules you follow out of courtesy or fear.”[Suha]
“Vaguely encouraged? Hoovand, I dare say you’re stretching and interpreting my message incorrectly. I didn’t encourage illegal action, I encouraged those listening to realize what laws of society really are. Yes, they’re merely rules Hoovand, I care not for how many layers of bureaucracy there are to put them into effect. They’re no different than the rules you’d adhere to when you step into a bar or restaurant.”[Hoovand]
“Do you not think by downplaying the significance of laws you’re telling people that they’re not that big of a deal and shouldn’t care all that much about breaking them?”[Suha]
“I believe I didn’t downplay them at all. I’d say I gave it a fair view. I expressed that they’re a necessary component of civilization, they’re essential in maintaining order, but only when there’s a suitable consequence to dissuade anyone from stepping out of line. When you don’t have one is when people shouldn’t care all that much about breaking them. The point of my message was that its not the Maker or the Winds’ job to enforce the laws designed by humans for their town or nation. The only laws the divine are enforcing are that of nature, laws that have tamed our universe and made it a livable environment. These are laws we adhere to regardless of what fictitious border we reside in.”[Hoovand]
“Fictitious border? W-What do you mean by that?”[Suha]
“I’m referring to this imaginary concept of sovereignty that humankind has conjured in it’s long history. This idea that we can claim ownership of this universe the Maker created all because we planted some flag in the ground or holographic banner in space. We draw lines in the sand and declare our side as property of our kind. It’s a glorified way of saying we’ve urinated on some rocks and trees, thus it’s marked as our territory now. It’s imaginary Hoovand, it doesn’t exist physically. Only in our minds does it exist. Hence why these borders and boundaries nations love to define are fictitious. Just because institutions like CONCORD acknowledge it doesn’t change the fact.“[Hoovand]
“O…kay, so you wouldn’t say the Guristas have legitimate sovereignty over their region of Venal?”[Suha]
“The Guristas establish control over their corner of New Eden by fortifying it with fleets and soldiers and establishing infrastructure. CONCORD acknowledging Venal as being under the Guristas control is just them accepting the fact no Capsuleer or baseliner can pry control from the Guristas. That said, it doesn’t matter if CONCORD acknowledges the Guristas’ “sovereignty” because the Guristas are not gonna wait around for CONCORD or the State to recognize Venal as their home. It was home the moment they settled there.[Hoovand]
“Speaking of the Guristas , guess we should change gears amd talk about the other half of the controversy in Hoiyori. You made a statement to your sympathetic statement towards the Guristas.”[Suha]
“What exactly is controversial here?”[Hoovand]
“The fact that you’re framing an organization that is composed of pirates and terrorists as victims to put it bluntly.”[Suha]
“I never said the Guristas were victims, I was pointing out the crumbling narrative the Empires have about the Guristas being some band of lawless marauders that have no sense of civility in them and pointing out the brutal measures the empires are taking to eradicate them.[Hoovand]
“That answer doesn’t address the rampant amounts of terrorism and piracy.”[Suha]
“A terrorist can be seen just as much as a hero as they can be a villain.”[Hoovand]
“What are you even talking about?”[Suha]
“I’m saying that a terrorist can be perceived positively or negatively based on what exactly it is they do. Think of the Amarr Empire and how a Matari tribesman would be labeled a terrorist after having sabotaged a wall or security network of a slave camp and freed the inhabitants. Back home? This tribesman would be hailed as a hero for dealing a blow to Slavery.”[Hoovand]
“Well What in Divinity’s Edge are the Guristas committing terrorist acts for that justifies the means?”[Suha]
“These “terrorist acts” are done to hit a corrupt corporatized nation where it hurts, and inform them that they’re not invincible; that they can bleed just like the rest of us; and that they’re not some special collective of humans that have the favor of the divine by default.”[Hoovand]
“Corrupt? Aren’t the Guristas the source of corruption in the State in the first place? A pirate outfit that’s primary focus is to make money at the expense of other human beings.”[Suha]
“You don’t think this is the State’s focus as well?!”[Hoovand]
“Please sit back down…”[Suha]
“The State is literally made up of corporations with BIGGER corporations in control. What is the primary focus of a corporation Hoovand?! To make money! The State glorifies profits and encourage exploitation of lucrative opportunities to make more. They’ll charge their citizens exorbitant prices for healthcare, making dying a cheaper alternative to receiving care for a treatable illness, facilitate thousands of PMCs to fuel war economies, rape entire planets for raw resources to turn into useless products to sell to foreigners and their own people. For as much profit the Guristas have made with piracy, the State has made three times the amount by manipulating their own people into buying these useless distractions that will be replaced with a “New and improved” version or forgotten about in the future when we grow bored of them![Hoovand]
“Manipulating their own people? Do you have evidence for these claims? Also c-can you sit back down? Please.”[Suha]
“Just visit the Caldari State and just look around, it’s all the evidence you need! It’s littered with advertisements for junk like game consoles, cars, fashion and factory processed food items like candy and soda. You see it in the streets and in the comforts of your own home when you’re catching up on your holo-stories and they stop for a commercial break. You go on the Galnet? Even more advertisement there! In fact it’s intelligent advertisement that will evolve based on who you are, it will learn who you are and advertise more and more relevant products based on your interests. These advertisements are manipulative in design! They’re designed to make you think a certain way about something and encourage you to act. The citizens of the State are nothing more than a demographic for the corporations to market towards - another demographic for them to manipulate.”[Hoovand]
“Can you please sit back down?”[Suha]
“And you know what the most baffling part of it all is Hoovand?! It’s that all these people living under the State’s influence have been taught to love it! They’ve been taught to love their position on the ladder of being something the corporations can sell their garbage to, they swell with pride about it! It called patriotism, the nonsense mouthpieces like Tibus Heth babbled on about and what people in the State are just generally known for. The Caldari take pride in their State, take pride that a Mega corporation controls their fate and life. Prideful to the point why they’ll happily enlist in the armed forces to take a bullet for a mega corporation! Happily follow the blips on their radars, shoot anyone they’re told to and salute the person above them in rank like an unquestioning puppet. The corporations in the Federation at least have the decency to hide behind politicians to give people the illusion that the corporations aren’t in control. In the State they just give it to them straight.[Hoovand]
“I’m saying this one final time, can you please sit back down?”[Suha]
“Fine. I said what i needed to say.”[Hoovand]
“Thank you…Now I’m just gonna steer the conversation in another direction. You grew up in a Guristas colony, correct? How did that work out?”[Suha]
“Worked out like any other colony. Our purpose was agriculture, we grew food to feed both ourselves and the Guristas. As for what kind of people were living there, it was a colony designated to house families and relatives of active personnel in the Guristas military, with an occasional retired captain settling down here and there…You expect the families of these pirates to live in some dilapidated slum with the questionable riff raff that drifts into Venal? Nonsense, my colony was as civilized as normal as they came. At the same time it wasn’t all quafe and cookies, we had to earn our keep just as much as those serving aboard ships.”[Hoovand]
“In that case, someone related to you was an active member of the Guristas?”[Suha]
“My Father - he was a chief engineer aboard a cruiser. A cruiser that was unfortunately shot down while guarding a scouting outpost in high-security space by some Capsuleer… Flying a Gila no less.”[Hoovand]
“I’m…Sorry for your lose.”[Suha]
“It’s been years, I’ve gotten over it by now.”[Hoovand]
“I can see that…So was your citizenship in the colony brought into question at all after his death? Since you were no longer related to an active service member.”[Suha]
“No, I earned my keep by working the fields. I did my job and in return I received the benefits of living somewhere safe from the Caldari State and their manipulation, had food in my stomach and clothing on my back. What more could i want from life?”[Hoovand]
“So when did you end up becoming Suha Raibuya, the Windchime guru?”[Suha]
“After living among nature for so long and learning from the Wayists that came in from the Caldari State. It’s not like the Caldari that join the Guristas immediately discard their spirituality, but they did have to start questioning it because as they were taught that the winds protect the Caldari, fight their battles and loved the Caldari State and would it stood for. In the State they feed them a coddling lie to make them feel special, to make them feel superior just because they were Caldari and bended knee to the State as if it’s some chosen nation…No different than the Amarr declaring themselves God’s chosen people. So you can imagine it can be awkward for many Gurista to have Wayist beliefs. They had it in their head that their faith revolves around the Caldari State and frankly I don’t see how that is. I don’t see why the Winds would favor one singular planet out of thousands the Maker created and give the people on it a divine advantage over anyone that isn’t them. I thought Wayism was suppose to be about survival of the fittest, not survival of the Caldari…So I learned from them and started questioning it just as they were until I came to the conclusion that the world doesn’t revolve around the Caldari, or the Guristas or this Zaibatsu. The Maker may have given birth to our world, but it is the world that gave birth to humanity and all other forms of life within. Nobody is inherently special because they’re Caldari or Amarr and none of the winds have the time to decide anyone’s fate - We must take control of our own lives and find our own purpose in this vast universe and not let our ethnicity or nation decide our destiny. Then, I merely started sharing my views and others in my colonies began seeing me as their spiritual leader…To put a long story short.”[Hoovand]
“I see…Well unfortunately we’re running out of time so we do need to wrap this up. Admittedly I have more questions i wanna ask you to put on record. Getting right into it, you cited the the Guristas are a civilization much like the Caldari State. It never started out that way, it started out as band of desperados and thugs - the name Guristas literally translates to “Naughty People” after all. The Guristas never intended to be a nation or build a civilization. It was a pirate outfit full of robbers, kidnappers, murderers and other scum of the cluster. How do you justify the beginning of this civilization you speak of?”[Suha]
“It’s not like the two founders walked away with the State with clout to influence Emperors or caches of resources to build entire armies, they started at the very bottom…They probably didn’t even consider at first what they could end up building - probably started off thinking they would die horribly in some raid, maybe even were prepared for that reality as they would be able to die on their own terms rather than rot away under the oppression of the State. I can’t speak for them as I’ve never met either of them personally, I can only speak of them and what they’ve done. Its thanks to The Rabbit that they have cutting edge technology that makes the Caldari State envious and thanks to Fatal that the Guristas have such a well organized and disciplined military force. We have stations that don’t have chaotic free-for-alls inside, colonies with people who haven’t even harmed a single person in their entire life. The Guristas have a production division that mines ore from asteroid belts, produce new ships, materials, the Guristas actually CREATE things. What else does there have to be for you to see that Venal is home to a civilization much like the regions of high-security space? Do they need CONCORD’s meaningless seal of approval? Do they need to get on their knees and suffocate on their self righteous judicial cock to be seen as legitimate civilization, Hoovand? It’s thanks to these spineless Empires CONCORD this arbiter of what is right or wrong, they’re the real problem - not the Guristas…”[Hoovand]
“Ooookay, well…You got a colorful way of expressing your argument. That much is true i’d say…Right, so…Suha you are clearly passionate about this subject, but i gotta ask since you look upon your homelands so fondly…Why are you here? It’s a rude question i know, but…Why are you with the Zaibatsu?”[Suha]
“Simple…You’re right Hoovand, the Guristas’ primary focus is money - In New Eden it’s as essentially as water is for human beings. You think running an operation on their scale is cheap? The amount of ships that need to be replaced and wages that need to be paid? The expenses are off the charts, of course they need to focus on making money, they need to focus on their survival. My focus on the other hand is spiritual enlightenment, and as i said previously Hoovand, i believed we should not let our ethnicity or nation decide our destiny. I followed my own path and the Zaibatsu just happened to be an opening for me. I find it to be a comforting middle ground between the State and the Guristas.”[Hoovand]
“A…middle ground? Um…Right, Suha, it was a uh, pleasure to speak with you - again that is. I do appreciate you stopping by, but it appears we’re out of time and i need to wrap this up for good. So once again, i thank you for coming by.”[Suha]
“Wait, aren’t you gonna ask me for a final statement?”[Hoovand]
“No-no-no, i think we’re good. Thank you”