Sarai

Writings of Lady Sarai Ng, (Journal Entry 1 – On Fushun, ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Morale’) Morale of a nation and an army is critical to sovereignty. Without morale, weakness and indiscipline creep both into politics and into the military. The same is true of any Alliance, without internal morale being high, corruption, negative dissent and unwanted behaviour by members of that Alliance can cause conflict and strife. How do we ensure morale is high in our armies and nations? History is littered with all kinds of examples. Some countries engage in warfare to boost nationalism and thus patriotism, some rally around a cause or injustice and seek to overturn it. However one defining way of keeping morale high is to ensure stability, peace and prosperity in order to facilitate Morale. Sometimes, additional activities such as a common enemy may also bolster for short periods Morale, but more often than not, social stability and development are the watchwords for a contented population, both civilian and military. However, stability sometimes breeds inactivity and laziness. It also can breed elitism and this is another force that should be considered and dealt with if appropriate. One of the ways to do this is through Change. Change in many countries could be a change of Government, or a change in civil rights and laws. Change could also involve new social projects, grand designs or exploration leading to enlightenment. Our history is littered with all types of change, although sadly in the eyes of Fushun City State, the predominance is for war and the turbulence that follows it. This type of change, while radical and as noted above, a temporary bandage for morale often eventually leads to unwanted consequences. In the context of the world in which I, Sarai, exist I have been influenced and touched by change in many ways. The first change that happened over time was the development of Fushun into a small economic powerhouse. As our population’s wealth increased, my position as their leader was cemented through what appeared to be good economic judgements and implementation by my Council and Advisors. This increase in prosperity and living standards boosted social cohesion, morale and above all a growing sense of Nationalism. Fushun was there, we were successful and we could see the fruits of our labours in the streets, museums, schools and gleaming tanks and weapons we crafted. It was therefore a shock joining an Alliance, taking the first steps in diplomacy and leaning to deal and work with others. Did my personal morale suffer? Surely it did, because here were a range of National Leaders, many of whom were both leading more advanced nations than Fushun but some of whom to me at least seemed to exist partly in order to question the worth of Fushun. Had I not ensured my people’s prosperity and future, who were these fellow Alliance leaders who questioned Fushun’s purpose and nature? Never-the-less, through a journey of self-discovery Fushun benefited. While my personal life and morale recovered more slowly, my people benefited from new trade agreements, foreign aid and Governance and Economic thought leadership. The extensive libraries and information available to Fushun on joining the New Pacific Order boosted our nation immeasurably and in a sense I was perhaps humbled by the accumulated power and knowledge that had existed outside our borders. I paused and consulted my advisors who argued generally for closer integration and I was swayed by their council. I do not regret this decision, despite the later cost. It is worth dwelling on that cost now, our nation has four times lain in ruins due to military adventures constructed either for the New Pacific Order, or against it. Fushun’s casualties run to nearly 800,000 lives and the social and mental cost has been even more than that. Without adequate support facilities my people have suffered and toiled when they expected to be able to relax and enjoy life. My leadership therefore to some extent failed and I must accept that as the Sovereign of a nation, I bear the ultimate responsibility for the events and the associated response that Fushun does. I struggle therefore with myself, I’m not old physically yet, but I do query whether the leadership thrust upon me by my late Father was correct. Other countries have survived without an orderly transition and although I might call my inauguration a ‘transition’, it was not smooth behind the palace doors. Without a legitimate son to take over, my Father reluctantly anointed me, his daughter, but not before trying to marry me away to a weak Cousin. I will return to my personal life, however painful I find it, later. Putting aside whether I should have found myself in the position I did, I never-the-less was and as I noted before, that put me in the position of being eventually called to account for the support I had receipted from the New Pacific Order. On around five occasions the armies of Fushun marched for Pacifica, mostly in ‘aggression’. It is worth noting that I do believe that despite the first shots being fired by Pacifica in most cases, these were the correct actions and those that had wronged us knew they had and accepted the challenge that they would face against our armies. We won these battles, but this didn’t prepare us for the last war, the one that destroyed my Country. We call it “Armageddon” and the name suits it well. It was the ultimate change, not only to Fushun, but also The New Pacific Order, and the World and the power structures within it. It is perhaps only now that I feel able to write on some of the events, decisions and stakeholders that brought us to this position. I will endeavour to continue writing, while trying to govern my nation but I do fear for the future, my personal future as well as that of my nation. There are forces at work inside Fushun that would seek to perhaps silence me by marriage, or worse. There are others at work outside Fushun, in the world and in Pacifica who do their best to pull the heartstrings of myself and my people this way or that depending on their ultimate goals which are cloaked in secrecy. It is therefore against this backdrop, that I, Sarai write. I hope you find it interesting. Fushun, Pacifica and myself will stay strong and I ask, no, plead, that my people respond with their hearts and support the dream of Fushun, the goals of Pacifica and keep their morale and heads held high, we have come far and all have too much to lose if we fail. - Sarai

EDIT: I am still in Pacifica providing what I can. I've stood, and not been elected for Council and guess what, stayed in Pacifica and tried other ideas. That's work. Who is the spy who abused Pacifica, Polar and their "Comrades" and still maintains a daily litany of lies? You, a traitor. Don't compare yourself to those in Pacifca who have stuck through.

Justice from an Alliance that has a full right to do this. Your days of lying will probably continue, but at least your only credibility is with any other immature kids rather than as it was, with people I actually care about. Congratulations for messing up yet again but being so rubbish that you get caught, yet again. I hope you enjoy wasting your time, rerolling and trying this again. Because you can't change, you'll always lie and steal and cheat. The great thing is, that despite whatever drama you later cause, in the grand scheme of things, we all know you're not what you ever claim to be and eventually you will go away because eventually you won't find people to buy your little fantasy speak anymore. Reward comes through hard work. You'll never understand that.

The NPO could do *many things*, the fact that it does not, is proof enough against your statement. If Fran had special terms imposed on her which she accepted, then failed to keep. She is out. Simple. She didn't have to accept the rules, but she did. As fair as I know, she is the only one. I have private #IRC, no one asks me to stop and I'm hardly "in favor". So, please, NPO needs to improve, but you take it from the wrong direction.

Ah James, thank you for the kind message. I understand your points and I have to accept them to some extent as being true regarding the "rights" part. But then I signed up for that and I am aware of what I have and have not. I don't seek to be in charge, or power because in the end most of us become what we don't want to be when we are given that. What I do seek to do is improve the NPO from the inside, without too much drama, without more than a gentle "rocking of the boat". It may not work and yes I do feel down about how little progress is made unless you are an "insider", however progress is made and for that fact I am greatful. Hard work is reward unto itself and despite the fact I will not be more than I am in terms of 'power' or 'tags', I will be in terms of a person. I develop and grow through challenge, the challenge of myself and the situation I am in. I respectfully propose that Fran does not do this. She challenges, but then breaks when her challenge is rebuffed. Rome wasn't built in a day as they say.

Francesca and drama. She was given a number of chances to do what others do and she didn't. She got sent up the chain and still did things wrong. Eventually she got booted, quietly. She runs tothe world and makes a big fuss. She then slips in little bits of things like the quote above, that show her true "personality". I didn't want her in the NPO, but I was a minority, she was then given all the rights I had, despite her background. She blew them, seriously. I don't always like some of what my alliance does, but I have the decency to not cause drama and angst to boost my self-ego. Drama is just a drug to some. We fix things in NPO the hard way, slowly and with care. It takes many years to get there, not the few weeks that Fran wanted to catapault herself to near the top with.

A hard, but possible set of terms would be a challenge that NPO would relish taking up. There's no point in a set of terms designed for us to fail to start with so we remain in war rather than send 25% of the tech, fail to keep up due to the silly restrictions and get more war. Anyway, we'll pay hard terms when they come. Also we won't revolt, those who are weak will leave to other alliances and crow they know better, (LoD), those who are sick of fighting will <OOC>delete</OOC> or leave to unaligned, this is expected. However the remainder of us will stay strong, discuss things internally, have free discussions on problems and move forward as appropriate including paying terms for many months when they become possible.

Yes and we know how wonderful and selected and full of rubbish your quotes are. As per most of Karma you boil everything down to one or two lines which you then rejig from what was originally a far longer and more well thought out post. Your terms and yourself fail. They and you fail to make an impact on me by being stuffed with junk that is either made up or 'i am lame-packet' calculations. When presented with real math you run to <OOC> "check my sig"</ooc>. It's pathetic.

A simple Classic I feel something in me, this must be a feeling, Do you feel what I feel inside of me? My feeling? I'm not sure what it means. This feeling. Dark Skies Crackle with Artillery. No wait, garbage compactor starting. Yes, the Monster Machine, crunch-smash-kerang, symphony of trash, Illicits another feeling. I feel something in me, this must be a feeling, Feeling something, do you feel this? My feeling? I've taken a new job. Garbage Disposal. Press the button, empty the trash. Heaven cries in sympathy. Yes, with bright warning jacket I am Garbage-Queen, Do I illicit your feeling? Yes, I've felt something in me, a feeling. I felt this move me, organs jumping inside anticipating knowledge; my feeling. I feel cataclysimically sad. Then I press the button. Happiness returns. Another feeling. Let me tell you about it...

A derailment of massive proportions has happened yet again. The tough statements posed by Fushun earlier have been ignored in favor of what is percieved as easier "OMG, ANTI-SPY features", or "Blah, DOE was invalid!" type topics that have been debated to death elsewhere. Please, if you wanted to get to know Pacifican membership you wouldn't just post and post and post in order to antagonise them. Pacificans want to engage in a non-arrogant way with the outside world, but it's damn heard when everyone derails threads back to other stuff. I suggested the same thing and was not shouted at or bullied. It's worrying if someone was that rude to you. When I was treated badly by someone senior I took it up the chain of command and it was sorted out. You should have tried the same but I suspect you either didn't and quit or didn't care enough at the time but now care enough to post it on the <OOC OWF> as propeganda. The NPO knows that we did our share of things that didn't help the relationship with NpO and vice-versa. The drop in relationship was one of the saddest things for many of our members and this was discussed with frankness and openess. Also, just so I can lay suspicious mind at rest, do you have the name of the person who told you to "suck"? Perhaps a screenshot or something?

True We like reading this, because it's pretty well written and we all try and get in it. Heh. Being serious for a second, the "Tattler" is well written properganda that is good to read, it may be anti-NPO but thought is put into it and it's in-spirit of the game. Many NPO members however get constantly sniped or picked on in threads such as these simply for posting and I believe that is why we see less of them on here, (see bigger post above for further details on this).

Hmmm, again there's not much of that. We have atmosphere and we have history, these aren't taught in some kind of harsh way. As with most alliances we focus on building new members up in terms of Infrastructure and the basics and we invite them to read and browse our library. Now realistically as I'm sure the case is in many alliances reading of long tracts of history or thoughts about our place on the planet is not always something a member wants to do. What I am generally saying is, people are held to account for doing their job. Their job is not to tick boxes of some type of behaviour. We just ask they follow basic rules of politeness, courtesy, not tech raiding and those kind of things. In return they join a large alliance that used to be #1. It was an attractive proposition that allowed rulers who perhaps were quite busy and just wanted to fight a chance to get involved in an Alliance that was always fighting! Those of us who post on (OOC: OWF) do so when we are allowed. But the number one complaint we get from our fellow members is that the reason they don't post even when radio silence is listed is that everyone else makes it so unfriendly for them to post anyway they don't bother. With 700 members on our own communication system (OOC: Forums) we can have intelligent chat and discussion and games and so on without being swamped by often quite frankly nasty posts and sniping. Sure, some NPO members are arrogant and we do apologise on their behalf if they come here with the wrong attitude. But by far, you see a very small subset because they tend to get what they want from us without coming here, or are discouraged when they do by the villification and retreat back to be among friends. That's how I see it anyway. I've only been here a year and I don't see too much point in (OOC: the OWF) at least until things settle down.

This is Sarai from Fushun City State, elected councilwoman in the NPO... A position I worked for and wanted because I believe in the Alliance. I joined a year ago or so with the NPO and have not experienced this brainwashing or whatever that is said to exist. I have free access to read what I want, ask questions in IRC of whom I want and argue to death with the IOs and so forth. When they have had enough they shhhsh me, which is fine, because I respect the Chain of Command. The NPO is accused of many things, one thing we have not done is brainwash our members. I am an adult and able to make up my own damn mind about things and am pretty sick of watching purile comments about the state of our membership here. Frankly, disgusting that some of you out there portray other people as mindless sheep. Get a grip.

I can't really comment on the negotiations part. They seem as hard-neck as these ones. The reason I understand half of you are in this war is due to treaty activations. But anyway, see the quote below... This is the kind of thing that makes me sad. You say we attacked in negotiations as an agressive act which is being repaid in kind by the attitudes below then, more so one might say just in my view. Anyway, we'll just have to disagree on the effect of your reparations. I don't believe they'll have the effect you desire. But perhaps the effect many others do. Justice with the fallen weapons of Pacifca or something, I don't know, I'm tired.

I don't feed anyone "Any line", I take a little offence at that. The Academy program for example gets people engaged in tech deals, they do these generally with the banks you speak about. Not only will your terms ensure that many of the banks can no longer pay, they will not be able to foster growth for new nations. Although we don't provide significant start up aid we are proud of what we accomplish through a good mentoring program. I don't feel I need to explain this more. More of your side than not has said this is about revenge and "keeping NPO down" and "Destroying" NPO. Your words, whether you believe them or not do not come close to what you allow other team mates to say, Finally I don't "spout nonense" either and nor do I accuse others here of it except in the broadest sense of disagreeing with posts. It seems with your new found power you and some others are quite happy to take on the bully role very well, something I had thought this was was meant to stop.

I see NPO as partly a training alliance for new players who come and go but who learn quite a bit. One of my roles in the NPO is as a Mentor Division Leader, where I should be responsible for training lower level NS nations in CN stuff, do some <OOC>Roleplay</OOC> and so forth. I believe the terms are a direct threat to that, something close to my heart. Some people here say we can pay them in 3 months... They say it like they believe it, it's kinda worrying. Even if we both agreed we could pay, the timeframe is pretty long... Anyway, FAN did something well. But they perhaps didn't try to be what we were if you see what I mean.

I've explain this in my recent post history in this very thread. I'd hate to repeat myself at a lower quality than before except to say 1) In my view possibly, but I've not been around long enough and 2) I explained this clearly in my view across at least 6 previous posts. It would help kindly if you would read them if you really want to know the answer.

This is the only part I want to answer that I don't think has been answered before. As Body Republic members we are able to see most discussions within the Alliance. We also have access to all research via tools such as Wikipedia, the CN forums and so forth. Members make up their own minds, but we also are loyal and follow orders. That's no different to any other alliance here.

I don't have that attitude, I'm more than happy to listen to reasonable posts that are well constructed. If you have term suggestions that have not been covered before I'm happy to hear them.

We disagree then on the effect of some parts of your terms. That's not me "misunderstanding", or "arguing in bad faith". I believe your terms in their current form do damage to us that you don't see / care about. Frankly you should have added some military terms in there, but as I've said in good faith... I don't believe you cared too much about terms except those that would do what I think they are aimed at doing. I suspect if you wanted decomm military and do something about nukes perhaps you might get more leeway than your current plan with regard to certain terms.

So you're sadly saying that even if what we want is our Community, that is too much for us to have left? Seems a bit of a steep price and why in essence this thread has gone on for 208+ pages. I would hardly call losing everything that has been mentioned countless times "precisely what NPO wants", heh. I would not say in any of my posts I come across as "Whining" and nor have I said we are more important as I have clarified a couple of times already to others. As others have clearly shown elsewhere the 6 months is not 'doable' with your present set of terms. I'm afraid we will have to each disagree with each others' maths. Finally... I can't judge you on how long you have been around in this world, I can only comment on a year that I have been around. Sorry that I am not more than what I am, a normal member of an alliance la.

It is not our place as Body Republic members to devise plans on a public forum. Rather we can post feelings, that's what is left to us generally. If I was looking at these terms and trying to fix them I'd perhaps try and work out the main sticking point which appears to me to be the war on all our other nations for a somewhat vague period of time. Throwing stuff into the wind what about if another alliance, say IRON put aside in an "escrow account" $1bn or whatever as rebuilding AID for Pacifica lower level nations. The overall REPS and terms would stay more or less unmodified and yes, our higher level nations would generally get attacked for two weeks. After those two weeks we begin to repay reps, but at the sametime IRON (or some KARMA alliance or whatever) sends rebuilding aid to our small nations (say all those under 3k N/S). That way our junior members can keep developing, we still pay the $xbn + tech asked for and you get your wars you so demand on the 'senior' nations. However these plans are not up to me and I don't see anything but a small part of the picture. Nor do I want to see a larger part, because I didn't join a Democracy, I joined like most Alliances one where the leader does what is right for the alliance. Anyway, smarter heads than mine should work out a way to allow us to keep our community while giving KARMA what they want.

I did not say that. Some people here would like to read in between my words which as a non-English speaker are always not the most well crafted. I have said that as a large alliance we have a strong community, I have not said smaller alliances do not. I have said that we have advantages in that large community, I then in the next sentence said your alliance also has its own advantage. With regards to "real people", I mean that 500 REAL people <OOC>Behind a screen</OOC> are members of the NPO and as such that matters to me as it would matter your xxx number to your own alliance. These 500 people should have a chance to continue in the alliance they have chosen and not be forced by your actions to disband. These selective quotes used in order to make NPO, "look bad" are the kinds of tricks that I thought were meant to be banished in the past in order to have a fairer game future. With particular regard to your viceroy comment, I take offence at you leaving out my very next sentence which said that "However I would understand that in the current environment losing control is akin to disbanding for a preset period of time and I would generally be against them" Using my words that are meant only to talk in a fair way about a few things I feel strongly about is counter-productive and goes against the spirit of trying to achieve some understanding. With my very first post stating "two wrongs don't make a right" I am clearly stating my moral position. I believe I have integrity in my position and am not denigrating other alliances here. If you find me uncourteous then I apologise, but you would probably find it not the case if you didn't quote selected words and looked at the meaning and depths of feelings behind a whole post. I never said, nor intoned that the Community in other alliances is bad, but I don't speak for them I speak as a Body Republic member of the NPO and I think our community is important to protect, even though our <ooc>pixels</ooc> are lost. I believe strongly in our community as you likely do in yours. The difference is while I accept that we have lost a war, lost a number of tags and spots and prestige that will have a long term effect on us and in addition we have to pay reparations on a scale, that even with inflation is huge, I do not accept that further additional terms designed to keep the NPO down for years is right as their primary purpose appears to be, or at least will have the effect of killing a community. A thing that to me, is precious.

I don't think there was any arrogance in my posts intended or read. Perhaps you could kindly re-read them all, including the one on the bottom of the last page if you missed it.