To My Fellows in Placid

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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The Federation is more than just a collection of laws, lands, nations, peoples and cultures; it is an idea. It is the belief that united we can be something more than we are alone, that we can be more to each other than strangers and voiceless co-laborers to an absolute authority not our own.

It dares to be more than authoritarian, better than the iron fist of a tyrant and different than a mob ruling by majority.

But ideas are fragile and they can be twisted, manipulated, broken or abused and for this we have a government designed to uphold and enforce what is written into law in support of this idea.

But governments are staffed by people and people are not perfect.

No flag is free of bloodstains. No nation unburdened by misdeed or mistake.

You have been through unspeakable atrocity, an untenable situation created by a series of mistakes and misdeeds and perpetuated throughout history by a system established to ‘keep the peace’ at the heavy price of your stability and safety.

The Federation is not without fault in these events. We cannot change the past but we can write a better future together if we can allow the wounds of our past to heal and the mistakes of our past to make us wiser.

Dignity, Freedom, Equality, Justice, Solidarity and Citizenship.

These are the six pillars upon which the Constitution of the Federation is built.

They are promised to all members of the Federation; this includes you, it always has.

Help us remember the idea of what we are meant to be.

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A shame they seem to so consistently repeat themselves.

I can’t help but picture this as the Federation speaking these words as if they were an abusive ‘lover’. Constantly doing wrong and promising that they can change and that the future will be better.

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Yawn.

The State pays me to shoot capsuleers like you. It doesn’t pay me to listen to bourgeois self-serving soapbox speeches.

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How many of the Intaki in Placid can say they’ve benefited from those ideals? Not just the affluent and wealthy, but the common worker or the desperate survivor struggling to make ends meet. Even Senators native to the region were left voiceless by the Feds’ sudden annexation.

The pillars of equality and justice were all but dust for years. Current events have eroded at the foundation of dignity and solidarity. What does that leave? Freedom to simply watch as oppressors set up shop and citizenship to a government that denies you the rest of what they’ve promised?

Is that not what Yiona’s Revolution accomplished in its day? I would not be surprised if your Gallente brothers and sisters remind the Feds of what they were meant to be by force. It is convenient that the State stands ready to help you hold your leaders accountable.

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Like moths to an open flame, the State lapdogs cannot help themselves. Is it not interesting that this address was written to the people of Placid while you’ve chosen to speak for them?

To your first question: have you tried asking them? The Federation treats its “desperate survivors struggling to make ends meet” with far more consideration than the State treats the jaijii and the disenfranchised.

Then to your second statement: senators are never ‘speechless,’ and they’ve been quite outspoken about the recent events in Placid. Namely, that it wasn’t an ‘annexation’ as you and yours keep trying to assert. The Placid region is Federation sovereign territory and has been since the formation of the Federation.

The Navy stayed out of the region by request of the inhabitants of the area who were then oppressed and occupied by the opportunistic State capsuleers who love to claim that they’re not expansionists and just ‘wish to be left alone’ but make it a point to greedily grab as much territory as they possibly can and coerce others to bend their knees, bow their heads and get in line as part of the State. The elected representatives of the Placid region approved the military action that removed the occupying force of the State, that discussion is over.

The discussion about what to do now is still ongoing and, quite frankly, none of your damn business.

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Yes I’m sure it disturbs you terribly when anyone outside your magnanimous Federation expresses their thoughts. Is this the famed liberty of the Gallente? Anyone who speaks out of turn is a “lapdog?” Typical.

Last time I checked the Intaki that the Federation left for dead many years ago just signed an agreement with the Chief Executive Panel. Why is that again? Oh, right, to defend themselves from you.

Is that so? How many were consulted before Federation forces launched their assault other than Aguard’s sycophants? I can reference at least one Senator at this very summit who has professed that the Federation began construction of a stargate in their system without a word. As for Placid being “sovereign territory” I wonder if your tune would change if the Intaki Assembly threw their lot in with the Syndicate and the CEP? Would the people of the region be evicted to guarantee your precious Federation’s sovereign power?

That’s an interesting criticism given the fact that the Federal Navy just grabbed territory so they can coerce others to bend their knees, bow their heads, and get in line as part of the Federation. Need I remind you that the aggressive occupation of Placid was a flagrant violation of the Emergency Militia War Powers Act? Besides, if every government was responsible for the actions of the capsuleers born from it I think we’re all quite well steeped in unforgivable sins.

That’s where you’re wrong. War is my business and, due to your foolish president, business is booming.

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This is about Placid. You’re referring to a different group. Is this a “you people” moment? Do we all look the same to you?

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The rest of your opening statement is asinine so I’ll ignore it. But to this point, you acknowledge that you interjected into an address that wasn’t to you specifically so you could spout pro-State rhetoric. Yes, you’re a lapdog. Embrace it.

You mean the criminal stronghold and pirate haven governed by crime families which has been recognized as little more than a ‘safe place’ for black market activity and outlaws by every major political body in the cluster and has absolutely no relevance to this discussion because it’s about the people of the Placid region and they’re separate and distinct?

It’s actually painful to me that the CEP is so determined to be in opposition to the Federation that it would throw its lot in with the Serpentis, Angel Cartel and Guristas just to spite it; says more about the character of your leadership than mine.

Sorry to disappoint the senator but the Federation doesn’t require the approval of a member state to construct a stargate in a system connecting two of its own territories so this is yet another completely invalid point you’ve interjected into this address.

The Intaki Assembly is the federally-recognized autonomous authority of the Intaki member state and is recognized as having the authority speak for and act on behalf of the inhabitants of that member state. Should it decide to cast that aside and sign itself over to the Syndicate and/or CEP, it would be violating the purpose for its existence and voiding the federal charter granting it autonomy in the first place.

Going into further detail would take a significant amount of time and more space than we have here and isn’t the purpose of this address to begin with.

No it didn’t, no matter how you try to spin it. The President of the Federation acted within her legal authority to mobilize the Federal Navy in response to a perceived threat to human life or Federal sovereignty. What happens next is a matter of deliberation and discourse between the impacted member state(s) and the Federal Government which is going to take time to be finalized and ratified. Failing that, eventually the cited threat will either be nullified or the security council and/or people of the Federation will countermand the President’s actions. Until such a time, the President has the authority to establish and maintain a naval presence in the area.

Whether it was the moral or ethical thing to do, how long the autonomy of President in this matter remains and how much of a threat this may be to the Federation’s internal structure and integrity are matters for the Federal Government, the member states and their elected representatives to debate and determine.

It most certainly was.

Precisely why it’s none of your business. War isn’t being discussed in this address, it was written to a member state of the Federation on an open forum for easier viewing by those within the region because the Federation doesn’t censor GalNet so it was the simplest and most efficient way to address the people of Placid.

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Irrespective of Gallente deficiencies in adhering to treaties, the federation did not grant Intaki autonomy; the autonomy that remains to them is that which the quislings among their successive assemblies have not yet sold.

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Oh they don’t count as Intaki anymore eh? Guess I missed that press release.

Oh I see how it is, this is intended as a place for Aguard’s sycophants to make appeals to the emotions of people that just watched an iron-fisted gauntlet descend from the sky to seize them in its grasp. Their voices aren’t singing a chorus of praise so instead you’ve got me, the “asinine dog.” Very open-minded by the way.

It must be frustrating to watch a variety of diverse peoples put aside their differences and find solidarity against the Federation. Corporations, criminals, reprobates; all people you consider beneath your lofty ideals. How many enemies will the Feds make for themselves I wonder?

Of course not, and the senator surely doesn’t deserve a say in the matter as a simple courtesy. That would be inconvenient. Better to just open a new front of the warzone placing even more innocent people at risk. If anyone gets hurt you can just blame your enemy! Very savvy.

I’m not sure that a nation making the decision to secede cares much about the legal implications of their secession. That’s kind of the point: The deal’s off.

So she acted within her legal authority…to violate CONCORD law that the Federation agreed to? An interesting little paradox.

War is the context in which this address was made. Without the war there wouldn’t have been an address or an occupation of Placid in the first place. You might as well be saying we’re not discussing the sea while we make statements about the tide.

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In terms of the Federal Charter of which the Intaki member-state is a signatory, it did grant them autonomy. That’s outlined in the conditions of the charter. The inverse of this would have been agreeing to Federal administration of their member-state as a subjective body rather than an autonomous one operating under their own administration as part of a larger whole.

In Imperial terms, if the Empire conquers territory, the administration of that territory is left to the Empire to decide. It can place it under the administration a royal family, a holder, or governor or any other chosen form of administration, this isn’t left to the governed territory to decide and that administration is completely beholden to the throne. With the Federation, a member-state chooses to sign the Federal Charter, accepting the Federal laws, jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Federation but is granted autonomous administration as part of the agreement and that administration is beholden to the people of the member-state not the Federal government. This is why there are so many variations of local governance within the Federation rather than a single, uniform exercise of administration.

A clarification: Her ‘legal’ authority in terms of the powers granted to her by the constitution of the Federation, not international legality. She did not act outside of her position within the government. In terms of international law, there is no argument that CEMWPA was violated.

Incorrect. The address was specifically made to the citizens of the Placid region in reference to the untenable position they’ve been in since the original events during the breakout of the Gallente-Caldari war, as was cited in the address. Specifically in terms of their relationship to the Federal government. The war certainly has had an affect on the area but is not the primary culprit in the situation that arose.

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It protected an autonomy that was not ever nominally ceded, your reading of that foolish charter is curiously reminiscent of that leading to the Caldari-Gallente war.

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Very well, I can recognize the error in my representation of that relationship. Thank you.

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That’s fair. I do wonder what CONCORD’s going to do about it though or if they can do anything about it at all. They’re real hardasses when it comes to purging merc infomorphs but when one of the Big Four does it I guess they lose their bark and their bite. Makes them look like paper-pushers to me.

Placid’s untenable position has gone from Capsuleers skirmishing over shifting battle lines to full scale military occupation. A solution to the situation in Intaki won’t come from idealisms or dreams. It’ll come from wise rational diplomats or the muzzle of a railgun. Time will tell which.

For the record: Fighting may be how I make my living, but I don’t want to see the horrors we’ve inflicted on eachother happen again. Being a soldier doesn’t make me a warmonger any more than being Civire makes me a dog.

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Please try to remember your original question.

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Finely spoken words.

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If you want to split hairs over the semantics the Syndicate Region and the Intaki people that compose the Syndicate aren’t identical concepts. The Syndicate isn’t confined to the Syndicate region. If even a single Intaki that works for the Syndicate exists in Placid, which there most certainly is, my question remains valid. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that people of Placid that don’t benefit from the Federation’s ideals would be more likely to work for the Syndicate. That doesn’t mean they just uproot and move to the Syndicate region.

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