Lagrange 4
30-12-2004, 13:50
Hannibal Iliescu is an Earth-born bioroid who is a semi-celebrity among orbital intellectuals. He is a freqently unemployed freelance author who writes columns for a variety of news services. He is known for his egalitarian and progressive views and is seen as a major spokesperson for pan-sapient rights.
Down to Earth: Setting Human Rights Back For 50 Years
The massive protests in Dawnport City last week are hardly a surprise when you look at the Ikeda-Kerensky Administration's recent flirt with a good old-fashioned Earth policy of secrecy. Even before chaining our culture to Earth, they're leading the way by example: what happened to transparency in public policy? Where's the public debate on the UN issue when we need it most?
Putting Katrina and her gang aside for now, let's take a look at what the demonstrations were about.
Exploiting the increased reports on famine and natural disasters on Earth, the pro-UN front dusted off their age-old agenda and are back in business. Their main argument is simple: UN membership is the only way to practically improve the lot of Earthlings in developing nations. If we've built a culture of plenty up here, it's selfish to let less well-off nations be exploited by foreign companies and local dictators.
My counterpoint? None of that is our fault. Laissez-faire economies on Earth are at fault for a lot of the humanitarian crises in Third World countries, but why should a spacer feel guilty about that? We're housing some of the political refugees ourselves and have no dealings with Earthlocked multinationals. If anything, we've contributed to the well-being of developing countries with microgravity-developed drugs and materials.
Second of all, the pro-UN folk want to "export democracy" to the Third World. This is doubletalk for cultural imperialism, something that we had to deal with for decades, spacers. Besides, to export our system to Earth is inviting disaster: our system is developed not according to some single ideology but by trial and error. Many of our solutions, such as the prioritary instant voting systems, will not work in some societies. They will cause political imbalance where it is the least needed.
Now that I've shown that we have nothing to offer by UN membership, let's see what they have to offer us.
The basic charter gives the reader an impression of a world-embracing ideal of unity, peace and... democracy. The last is what I have problems with. Get this, spacers: We have to tolerate the opinion of every pissant zealot and reactionary. Bioroids can kiss their civil rights goodbye when some "concerned world citizen" brings up the issue of "banning clone armies". Remember, this proposal nearly passed back in the day. This would effectively mean that none of our bioroid refugees could join the army or police force. Some arms exports limitations already prevent them from sending their cells for artificial insemination overseas, something that's possible for all humans. It's already bad enough that we challenge their right to parenthood, let's not make it any worse. Obviously, if you're just a human clone or gengineered, your ass is covered by the BioRights Declaration (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=55), a vaguely worded piece of text full of loopholes. In any case, bioroids get the raw deal in this case.
If you're 100% genetically human and don't give a damn about pansapient rights, there's still a little matter of national sovereignty (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=49). They're actually treating offworld nations differently from Earth ones, which was painfully obvious to most of us since we declared independence. Since they've got their greedy sights on Luna, who can say that we're safe from their next exploit (termed "exploration" in UNese)?
In short, the UN lobby are in it for themselves. Look at the sectors these guys work in: Arms Manufacturing comes up in a third of the cases. A lot of nations won't buy weapons from "rogue states" like us, so we need to join this global country club to make their business more lucrative. Spacers need to realise that the Chancellor has to go and that we need an anti-lobbyist legislation as quickly as possible. And if there's even a referendum on the issue, vote! The silent majority is against joining, so let's make some noise for a change.
YES to Earth, NO to the UN!
--Hannibal
Down to Earth: Setting Human Rights Back For 50 Years
The massive protests in Dawnport City last week are hardly a surprise when you look at the Ikeda-Kerensky Administration's recent flirt with a good old-fashioned Earth policy of secrecy. Even before chaining our culture to Earth, they're leading the way by example: what happened to transparency in public policy? Where's the public debate on the UN issue when we need it most?
Putting Katrina and her gang aside for now, let's take a look at what the demonstrations were about.
Exploiting the increased reports on famine and natural disasters on Earth, the pro-UN front dusted off their age-old agenda and are back in business. Their main argument is simple: UN membership is the only way to practically improve the lot of Earthlings in developing nations. If we've built a culture of plenty up here, it's selfish to let less well-off nations be exploited by foreign companies and local dictators.
My counterpoint? None of that is our fault. Laissez-faire economies on Earth are at fault for a lot of the humanitarian crises in Third World countries, but why should a spacer feel guilty about that? We're housing some of the political refugees ourselves and have no dealings with Earthlocked multinationals. If anything, we've contributed to the well-being of developing countries with microgravity-developed drugs and materials.
Second of all, the pro-UN folk want to "export democracy" to the Third World. This is doubletalk for cultural imperialism, something that we had to deal with for decades, spacers. Besides, to export our system to Earth is inviting disaster: our system is developed not according to some single ideology but by trial and error. Many of our solutions, such as the prioritary instant voting systems, will not work in some societies. They will cause political imbalance where it is the least needed.
Now that I've shown that we have nothing to offer by UN membership, let's see what they have to offer us.
The basic charter gives the reader an impression of a world-embracing ideal of unity, peace and... democracy. The last is what I have problems with. Get this, spacers: We have to tolerate the opinion of every pissant zealot and reactionary. Bioroids can kiss their civil rights goodbye when some "concerned world citizen" brings up the issue of "banning clone armies". Remember, this proposal nearly passed back in the day. This would effectively mean that none of our bioroid refugees could join the army or police force. Some arms exports limitations already prevent them from sending their cells for artificial insemination overseas, something that's possible for all humans. It's already bad enough that we challenge their right to parenthood, let's not make it any worse. Obviously, if you're just a human clone or gengineered, your ass is covered by the BioRights Declaration (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=55), a vaguely worded piece of text full of loopholes. In any case, bioroids get the raw deal in this case.
If you're 100% genetically human and don't give a damn about pansapient rights, there's still a little matter of national sovereignty (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=49). They're actually treating offworld nations differently from Earth ones, which was painfully obvious to most of us since we declared independence. Since they've got their greedy sights on Luna, who can say that we're safe from their next exploit (termed "exploration" in UNese)?
In short, the UN lobby are in it for themselves. Look at the sectors these guys work in: Arms Manufacturing comes up in a third of the cases. A lot of nations won't buy weapons from "rogue states" like us, so we need to join this global country club to make their business more lucrative. Spacers need to realise that the Chancellor has to go and that we need an anti-lobbyist legislation as quickly as possible. And if there's even a referendum on the issue, vote! The silent majority is against joining, so let's make some noise for a change.
YES to Earth, NO to the UN!
--Hannibal