NationStates Jolt Archive

Memo from the Office of the Imperätor to the Minister for Economics, Wang Xiaoping:
"In accordance with the recent Edolian foreign policy decision to engage in a campaign to weaken the governments of oppressive capitalist regimes, orders have been made to open up a number of ports along the Edolian border, as well as its oversease colonies, to foreign drug smugglers selling into reactionary nations that have banned the sale of drugs. Giving these smugglers a safe haven will allow them to more effectively sell their products, weakening the control and damaging the economies of the enemies of Edolia. It will also increase the wealth of the People. All excess cannabis and cocaine should be immediately re-routed to program coordination centers, where they can be utilized the best possible manner. It is important for us to stress however, that we have nothing to do with the smuggling of these goods, only the sale."

"The Thelasi government is making this statement,

In accordance with our laws any drug smugglers captured in Thelas will be tried by our laws. Be the Edolian or Hacks. This statement is a formal legal warning. We also ask the Edolian government to ceace this support of drug trade, a tool, even more dangerous to the common people, a tool that can inslave all who touch it."

~Minister Rantera

"We neither condone nor condemn the actions taken by drug smugglers operating out of Edolia. However, smugglers operating in nations friendly to Edolia will not be allowed to purchase goods from Edolia. This includes Thelas. We must assure you that you have nothing to worry about."
Matthew von Pickett
Minister for Foreign Affairs

((OOC: well, we are allies. And as you may know we have a long history of smuggling to... well, wherever. As, uhm, "progressive capitalists"))

Letter to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, excerpts

"RecDrug Incorporated is one of the worlds leading producers and exporters of recreational drugs. We are based in Knootoss, but have branches also in nations like yours, such as Soviet Haaregrad and The PDSR of Ariddia. Having had positive experiences in these nations, we would like to set up a branch in Edolia.

Because both Knootoss and Edolia are in the UnAPS we feel that the business climate in Edolia can be stable enough if the government is willing to accommodate us.

We are aware that your nations communist philosophy does not look upon private initiatives favourably, but were positively surprised by your recent decision to open up a number of ports along the Edolian border, as well as its overseas colonies to what we like to call 'Secondary trade'. While we are a perfectly legal business, we always like the opportunity to engage in 'secondary trade' with other nations and as such appreciate any bases for such operations.

If we could come to an agreement this would be much appreciated.

~RecDrug Inc CEO

We ask the nation of Edolia to reconsider this misguided policy.

Kelanis, as an oppressive semi-capitalist state, has quadrupled cheese exports to reactionary nations in response, especially those who have banned cheese.

the above post is completely OOC for your viewing pleasure :P

Memo from the Office of the Imperätor to the Minister for Economics, Wang Xiaoping:
"In accordance with the recent Edolian foreign policy decision to engage in a campaign to weaken the governments of oppressive capitalist regimes, orders have been made to open up a number of ports along the Edolian border, as well as its oversease colonies, to foreign drug smugglers selling into reactionary nations that have banned the sale of drugs. Giving these smugglers a safe haven will allow them to more effectively sell their products, weakening the control and damaging the economies of the enemies of Edolia. It will also increase the wealth of the People. All excess cannabis and cocaine should be immediately re-routed to program coordination centers, where they can be utilized the best possible manner. It is important for us to stress however, that we have nothing to do with the smuggling of these goods, only the sale."

That's so...nice of you.
As an Oppressive Capitalist Regime, we welcome your attempts to facilitate the forces of the market against repressive, stick-in-the-muck Moralistic Socialism. As you no doubt know, by increasing the quantity of product in the market, you lower its price, and push quality up, while facilitating social Darwinism. Quite brave of you, really.
Your use of Neo-Marxist Rhetoric notwithstanding, we have only one question: have you considered what this will do to the value of the goods you are facilitating the movement of?

Oh fine, armament shipments to your enemies have increased. No idea why ...

<<OOC: It's Kelanis! Hurrah! *Waves hurredly* "Hi Kel!">>

I think that some people are operating under a number of misconceptions about Edolia. First, Edolia operates as something of a "Socialist corporation," in that the government's main goal is to make the life of the people easier and increase the wealth of the Empire. Second, the point of this exercise is not to punish capitalists. We don't have problems with capitalists like Knootoss and Feline. The point is to make it more difficult for our enemies. Edolia is able to produce cannabis at much lower-than-illegal-market prices (due to our high-tech agricultural industry and the fact that we grow these drugs legally) and can sell them to drug smugglers, making it easier for them to cause problems for the drug enforcement agencies in those countries. This has nothing to do with an attack on capitalism, not is it a promotion of drugs (we don't really care if drugs are legal or illegal in other countries) and is merely an economic attack on nations hostile to Edolia.

Oh, I also realized something about what I wrote that could have been misleading. The idea of opening up these ports is so that we can sell our drugs to drug smugglers selling to nations we don't like. Dark Terror for instance. We're not ourselves going to break any nation's laws, just passively help others do so.

---

Memo to RecDrug Inc from the Edolian Ministry for Recreational Drugs:
"Though we appreciate the offer, we must unfortunately decline. The introduction of foreign companies into Edolia is not a popular idea to the people and it is highly doubtful that they would view it as anything but an intrusion. Furthermore, the people of Edolia will always purchase from their own government over foreign companies as their purchases just go back into the economy via schools, public housing and other government projects. The Edolian recreational drug market is built almost exclusively on marajuana with a very small cocaine market. We might be willing to review your company's product line. If there are perhaps other strains of marajuana that might be enjoyed by the people, we could consider purchasing small quantities directly."

A recent -though not nearly the first- surge in drugs-smuggling activities has prompted the following statement on Government Channel by one of our Temporary Delegates:

"All of our drug-using citizens realize that their habit will continue to attract criminal minds and that therefore they themselves have a role to play in fighting crime, both to maintain friendly relations with our neighbouring contries and to protect vulnerable young poeple from being forced into prostitution.
Naive individuals who feel that the absence of drug laws permits them to use Parsnips and People's territory as a basis of trafficking activities, will be swiftly and effectively dealt with, with your help.
Anyone who experiences drug-related problems will continue to find an open ear at their local doctor, police officer and social advisor."

Though this speech contained nothing new, it went down well with Parsnips and People's community, most of whom only too well remembered the evil old days when gangsters and policemen, both of unclear nationality, were doing their best to ruin the health, freedom, parties and bank accounts of ordinary people, only to enable the elite to profit from every stage of their misery while maintaining a straight face of drug-free, god-fearing moral superiority.

As a result, the newest wave of smugglers was quickly found out and locked away for the rest of their lives. Though the quality of their merchandise was high, its added costs of smuggling would have made it incompetitive in our free and open inner market. Therefore we feel that Parsnips and People was not their target, so intelligence was passed on to our neighbours.

Memo to RecDrug Inc from the Edolian Ministry for Recreational Drugs:
"Though we appreciate the offer, we must unfortunately decline. The introduction of foreign companies into Edolia is not a popular idea to the people and it is highly doubtful that they would view it as anything but an intrusion. Furthermore, the people of Edolia will always purchase from their own government over foreign companies as their purchases just go back into the economy via schools, public housing and other government projects. The Edolian recreational drug market is built almost exclusively on marajuana with a very small cocaine market. We might be willing to review your company's product line. If there are perhaps other strains of marajuana that might be enjoyed by the people, we could consider purchasing small quantities directly."

((OOC: we do the same, so we also have REALLY low prices. Add an international network and I think I can beat you. ;)

Anyways, uhm, can we just assume *some* trading going on? I mean, negotiating over small quantities of marajuana is all fine and well but perhaps we can abstract it. I believe Nederwiet is famous ;) ))

<<P&P: I don't think that your nation would be one of those that we'd give safe haven for smugglers of.

Knootoss: I would suggest that we just let the trade be abstract. Some drugs from Edolia being sold to your corporation, drugs from your corporation being sold to Edolia. It probably wouldn't affect either economy very much so there's no point in really keeping track of exactly what's going on.>>

OOC: agreed then. Excellent. As long as your policy stands, we'll also use Edolia as a free haven/base for smuggling ;)