NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: I actually wrote this, from the point of view of a foreign Journalist, so even if I attribute it to Crave, I actually wrote it :P. This isn’t a reflection my OOC views. If I was in NS to make an IC version of my IRL beliefs then I would be a clone of Praetonia or Hamptonshire. This is how I like RPing my country. If you are deeply offended by racism then I suggest you do not read this article. Otherwise, have fun reading about my country.]

The following is by a Cravanian Journalist and was written for the culture section of the Laurana Tribune.

If there was a picture next to shithole in the dictionary, it would be Sandakan Aerodrome. Her tarmac leaves much to be desired, with numerous holes of varying size and depth, and her terminals still under construction. They were supposed to have been opened four years ago. Nobody knows entirely why they haven’t been yet, but the only people discomforted by it are the foreigners who depart their jumbo jets from staircases onto the taxi-way rather than into an air-conditioned funnel like most airports of Sandakan’s size. It would be hard to believe that the 1920s colonial architecture of the Aerodrome was from a reconstruction just ten years ago, but it is.

This, after all, is Questers.

African construction workers sit on the side of the road eating sandwiches. Their equipment lies dormant, and although they are supposed to be extending the road, no work has been done for a number of days. This is perhaps the only country in the world where a man can be paid for eight hours work, but only turn up for four and spend that time relaxing in the shade, smoking, chatting with friends, and probably drinking. Anyone who says the Africans are overworked has clearly never seen the country first hand. Their white employers hardly care; and this is why the country lacks investment. Who is going to pay people to build a road when they are going to spend half their work hours doing nothing?

This, though, is Questers.

Go a little further and you will find more Africans – for every white face there are eight black ones – this time sitting in coffee shops, hiding from the oppressive heat. A row of four coffee shops sits untidily on the roadside. They are packed full of customers. Probably these customers are unemployed – more likely they are simply not showing up for work. They will sit and chat and drink cheap coffee, and eat cheap food until the evening. A single television is turned but no-one is watching it. Social activity is the very basis for African community life, and the coffee shop is where it is all conducted. Fans twirl their blades as lazily as the ‘workers’ sit and drink, and there is not a white face in sight. Don’t be surprised.

This is Questers.

The roads themselves are empty. Perhaps one car will drift past per minute. If it is a Mercedes or a Rolls Royce, which are the popular cars, then the driver will be white. If it is a Land Rover or a Toyota, then the driver will also be white. Four by four use is extensive given the state of the roads and other four by fours are not popular. They are TABBD – ‘They Always Bloody Break Down.’ The usage of that phrase doesn’t really make much grammatical sense in its common context (“Your car is rather tabbed old boy”), but White Questarians don’t seem to care what parts of their culture make sense and which don’t.

This is Questers, anyway.

That theme is rather prevailing amongst white culture. You are supposed to call the Africans either kaffirs or munts, which are both considered crude, but entirely normal. You can also call them blecks or Efricans, (although mimicking the local accent is also apparently offensive) which is supposedly more sophisticated, but one thing you can’t call them is 'the N word'. That is considered extremely offensive and not likely to be taken very well by anyone, white or black. I did not hear that word a single time in three weeks. You will receive a stern lecture on how the job of the white man is to look after the African man, not belittle him. Neither do you call them ‘coloured’ – the White Questarian will always be the first to point out you can’t have someone who doesn't have a skin colour. White Questarians are not prone to outbursts of racial violence or abuse. Those are things that, despite society’s tendencies, you will never see happen on the streets. Do you think I am joking?

This is Questers, my friend.

Tall, imperious smokestacks lean into the blue tropical skies. This is Malumba Steel Works. It’s not doing anything right now because it’s shut down for renovation. New equipment is being fitted that will make the mill apparently 25% cleaner. Maybe then an entire batch of workers won’t contract severe health problems and die before retirement. Malumba is the biggest steel mill in Haven. It exports top quality steel to all over the region. Those big high-rise skyscrapers you see in Kingston or Salisbury? The steel girders that hold them together come from somewhere like Malumba. Questers is known for its steel. Malumba employs an entirely black labour force from sixteen different tribes, which is why labour disputes are few and far between.

This is Questers; divide and conquer.

Labour costs are low because prices are low. Even if prices were high, though, labour costs would still be low. But one needs to bear in mind, if they want to fairly evaluate the Questarian system, that employing an African for eight hours at a pound an hour (about 5 dollars) doesn’t mean that African will work for eight hours. More likely he will turn up for half the time and spend only half that time working. Efforts to stop this failed. The whites don’t care; a happy worker is not going to take a gun and a red flag to the white man’s house. Social harmony in Questers is based on the ‘good deal’ for the African – that is, he does little work for little pay. And in this weather, nobody wants to do any more than little work.

This is Questers.

But enough about the Africans, for the time being. You need to drive another ten kilometers from the coffee shops, the communal homes, the rows of palm trees and rusted old Toyota saloons, to find white culture. And it is entirely different. On my first visit to this country I arrived in jeans and a t-shirt. My guide shook his head. That sort of attire is just not suitable for anyone older than a teenager. He instructed me to acquire more appropriate clothing – and by that, I had to ditch the trainers(sneakers) for well manufactured shoes, the t-shirt for a collared and sleeved shirt from a store of good repute, and my jeans for, my personal choice, white trousers with a snake-leather belt. You must dress properly.

This is Questers. Everyone dresses properly.

Many nights I spent in this country I had the pleasure of spending at a Questarian ‘open front’ bar. By ‘open front’ I mean that if you are African you can’t come in. This rule was lobbied, and the Government merely laughed and pointed to the line in the constitution saying that a man can do what he likes with his property. There are a number of tables with anywhere between two and eight seats. In the centre, a hole, surrounded by four ashtrays, is where the bucket goes. What bucket? The ‘beer bucket’, of course. The beer bucket is a wooden casket full of ice with either five, ten, or fifteen 400ml beer bottles in it. That costs ten shillings, a pound, and one pound five shillings respectively. In real terms, that is US2.50, US5, and US6.25. They don’t have pubs in Questers, the weather does not suit it.

That said, this is Questers. The weather suits nobody.

The food; oh, the food. These ‘open front’ bars serve food. It’s where many people, especially students, go to eat. Why would you make the effort to clean and wash up at home when you can pay an African youth ten shillings an hour to do it? On Saturdays and Fridays they do barbeques (very similar to the South African ‘Braai’), but on week days, normal food is; chicken, steak, prawns, chops, whatever. A steak costs between ten shillings and two pounds, depending on size and type. It all comes with rice. Everyone eats rice. The only other countries I have seen so much rice have been Shansekia and Spacium Concordia. But of course, there are restaurants. All and any kind of restaurant you can imagine. Virtually no one eats at home.

And why should they? This is Questers.

The white home is much different to the African home. The white home is nuclear, children, and parents. There are usually as many African servants as there are Europeans. The children grow up and go to school like in any other Anglospheric country then leave and make their own families. The African home is much different and is multigenerational and extended; the grandparents live with grandchildren and great grandchildren and homes are usually found to have up to twenty people living in them; if rented, usually an entire block is rented for the purpose of housing a family. The great claim that European Questarians make is that they have given the African bricks for walls instead of mud and thatch. The African home is cramped, decorated usually with family or ancient tribal decorations, and is generally unsanitary. The European home is precisely the opposite.

Did you expect anything different? This is Questers.

The country has some of the best beaches in Haven. That is, if you are European. Go to a beachfront and you will find children making sandcastles, crying when they drop their icecreams, and paddling happily in the ocean. Old people lie dormant in the sun. Young men in Reservist shorts and little else play volleyball and other beach games with pretty girls who are as equally scantily dressed; because finding an ugly girl amongst the well-bred Europeans is a very hard thing to do. Any male amongst the age of eighteen to twenty one in Questers is a reservist. Being a reservist doesn’t mean you are a real soldier, though. A popular joke goes as follows:

The reservist artillery officer asks the reservist enlisted: “Why are there beer bottles in the tubes?” The reservist enlisted replies: “The same reason there is a beer bottle in your hand.”

Nevertheless, casualties tragically trickle in to mournful receptions. Young men dying to uphold a racist establishment? What did you expect, this is Questers.

Giant billboards adorn the roads. The military ones are my favourite if only because they are not erected by the Government. The same Government that can’t afford to issue many troops with their own rifles is hardly likely to pay to erect military propaganda. Neither, interestingly, does this propaganda extend to radio or television, where Questarian Europeans are notably backwards. They enjoy music and film that is considered at least thirty years out of date in most of the Western world, and they are proud of it. They do not have MP3 players. DVD players are only being introduced. Plasma screens are a rarity. Computers are something they do have. No African has a computer, or a colour television. That is quite unheard of.

To be fair, this is Questers.

The heat washes over you. How the workers can tolerate it I do not know. Thirty to forty degrees centigrade and a hundred percent humidity during the summer. This is a rice paddy, and on it hundreds of Africans toil to collect rice that will be refined and harvested and sold to markets both foreign and domestic. Questers is Haven’s number one rice producer. It only outproduces Shansekia due to scale of economy and sheer size of the Questarian production scale – more people work on rice in Questers than the entire population of Shansekia, the second largest rice producer in Haven. Rice is eaten by anyone for any meal, even breakfast, although only Africans will eat rice for lunch or breakfast. The life of a rice worker is hard and unforgiving. You will retire tired and physically useless by the age of fifty.

This is Questers.

I had the (dis)pleasure once of taking a train from Sandakan to Jesselton. The journey took fifteen hours and I had my own compartment. Whenever I would venture out of it, the stench of cigarette smoke would clog my nostrils. I would tread on beer bottle caps. Unluckily for me I had caught a train of reservists heading to Jesselton for secondary training. A chance to speak to them revealed that my guide was right in telling me never to tell anyone I was a journalist. The one conversation I had that stuck in my memory the most went as follows:

“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“And you are going for what? Secondary training?”
“That is correct.”
“Why do you all go for Service?”
“It is a part of our culture. It’s a necessity. If we give up our weapons the munts will chase us into the sea and nobody would give a shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your countries; you are supposed to be our friends. But you attack us at every turn. Your media takes every opportunity to blast our way of life. What choice do we have but to defend it?”
“Are you looking forward to training?”
“I am looking forward to shooting my own rifle.”
“Anything else?”
“Apparently Jesselton has the hottest girls in the South.”
“Are you proud to be white?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“Do you think that blacks are inferior to whites?”
“I think that whites are superior to blacks. That is not the same thing. Do not interpret it that way.”
“Would you ever date a black girl?”
“Do I look like a kaffir fucker? My skin is white. My son’s skin will be white. His son’s skin will be white.”
“Do you think it will always be this way?”
“We will fight to keep it this way. Whether we win is a different matter.”
“What would you think if you were black?”
“Are you a journalist?”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t speak to journalists.”
“What if you had just spoken to one?”
“OK. I don’t speak to journalists anymore.”

Do you think that is a little frightening? This is Questers.

The average life expectancy of your Questarian European is 72. The average life expectancy of your African Questarian is around 60. Healthcare for whites is top class and affordable. Healthcare for Africans is sporadic to non-existent. This is not because of discrimination law. This is because your average European earns between forty and fifty times that of your average African. Your European Questarian will undergo at least fourteen years of education. Most undergo eighteen years. There is no state education but education is again affordable for all Europeans. Your average African receives four years of free education. It will cost an African, on a steel-worker’s wage, between eight and ten month’s wages for a year of education for his child. Most Africans enter employment at the age of twelve, and then serious employment at the age of sixteen.

You will think this is backwards. This is Questers.

Your average African can afford a car by the age of thirty. He does not need a house. Bills and food are paid for communally or by the family unit. Malnourishment amongst Africans has almost been wiped out. The Europeans claim that they have given the Africans electricity, the wheel, clothing, religion, and housing. This much is true. They have done nothing to alleviate disease, poverty, illiteracy, nor have they made any attempt to facilitate the physically and mentally disabled. The Government is strictly laissez-faire. Even if you are a die-hard Libertarian you can sympathise for these Africans. Their life is cheap, like their labour and like the food they eat and the clothes they wear. The European asserts that he can ‘handle the munts.’ The leash is wearing thin. Perhaps one day it will snap. Perhaps not.

Who knows? This is Questers.

What do I have to say about the country? Do I support the Government and the system? Yes and No. It is changing. Attitudes are changing. Education is changing, mostly, if not entirely, due to foreign influence. The African was granted universal suffrage earlier this year. It is likely that the African Labour Party will win the next election, unless it is rigged, or the Liberals or Democrats make some serious changes in their manifestos. Within ten years Questers will have changed totally. Within fifty years it will either be a desolate wasteland or a model state like Praetonia, Hamptonshire, or Yafor. Anyone interested in foreign culture should visit Questers before the next election scheduled in thirty one months. It is something that everyone should see, a way of life totally alien to what you will be used to. Don’t be late: soon it will be gone. Soon it will be a distant memory.

Soon we will no longer be able to say that this is Questers.

OOC: Check your tg's. Really nice post, btw.

[OOC: Article represents point of view that is probably rare in other states, but has relatively strong support among the Olmedrecan elite.]

Varbola Times

The Sick Lion of Questers
Article by: Tõnu Part
I really do not need to explain what Questers is for most readers. Those who are interested in international politics, or in military technology, know it for its ships and steel. For more practical people, to whom their stomach is primary concern, Questers definitely associates with cheap rice. Massive problems that Questarian society is facing are lot less known among the general populace. Title that would make nobody proud, “The Sick Man of Haven”, has became more and more popular among Olmedrecan political commentators then describing Questers in recent years.

Majority of problems can be tracked back to the Questarian slavery and apartheid. That has caused many “illnesses”, like low work efficiency, non-existent middle class, lack of education etc. Decision to abolish the slavery was definitely correct, it is outdated, oppressive, and harmful for society. But Questarian market liberals have gone too far, infecting already sick lion with a new plague, which is going to capitalize all others and lead to the eventual downfall, the universal suffrage.

While under leadership of the white minority, Questers was generally stable. Leaders were competent and realistic. Of course I completely disagree with claims, that current prime minister Benjamin Russell is “Second best lunatic in Haven after Maximus of Doomingsland”, as some critics have said. Success can be easily tracked to the fact, that minority holding political power was also well educated. Now massive black population, that forms 80% majority in metropolitan Questers, have suddenly achieved political power. While I reject racism, it can not be denied that those people are generally poor and uneducated, a perfect situation for populist socialists to move in.

Well intended but poorly analyzed decision of universal suffrage by current Market Liberal government, will result idiotic masses taking political control. African Labour Party is already rising in polls, their victory in the next elections is a very high possibility. Factors keeping socialist populists away from government in most nations with the universal suffrage, a strong middle class and widespread education, do not exist in Questers. If blacks win the election, then white dominated Questarian military would most likely fully oppose it, and probably same can be said for colonies. Chance of a civil war is dangerously high. Were voting rights related to education, like in Olmedreca, such problems would not exist, but it is unlikely that the Questarian government would dare to go against the universal suffrage.

It is still possible that the worst case scenario will not become a reality. There are more than two years to the next elections, giving government some time to attempt fixing mistakes, and more moderate political force to gain majority support. Still dangers are completely real, so I suggest Olmedrecan businessmen to be careful. For example, if you want to invest in rice industry, then Shansekia is definitely a much safer choice than Questers.

OOC: that is top-notched. It sounds like my country except racial lines don't usually coincide with the class lines.

A note on the following article by one of the larger newspapers in Uiri. Its printed in English because most of those who can read in the first place know English so why not include an english section.

IC:

Le Geren Gazet

"This is Questers"
Page EC3

Recently I got a chance to talk to a correspondent of UC who has recently been in Questers to get a glimpse of a culture similiar and disimilar to the Uir. Due to the prevalence of English internationally, we spoke in English and that is why this article is written in said language. Please enjoy as it is an interesting insight into a culture which draws classes based on race and which will probably soon become a mixed economy shithole like a lot of other nations in the world.

Apparently, Quester's elite class - who are as white as those who brought our nation into one unified entity run essentially by a dictator hand-picked overseas and also brought English & French to us and permanently changed our native tongue - are like our elite class. Only...it is not as large a difference between them and their dark-skinned working class employees. They make only 40 to 50 times as much as those whom they employ.

Unlike in our nation where those in the middle of the upper class may make 200 times that of a working class worker. It is strange for apparently those in Questers have maxed out the amount they can make and they labour they get. Those who are employed by the pale european questers work only a quarter of the time they are employed. And their working day is shorter too, it is only 8 hours. Unlike the 10 hours the working class here endure for minimal pay.

The pay of these working class is high too. It is about 5 times that of a worker here in Uiri. Can you imagine that? 2à500 an hour? The working class themselves would be able to afford a few modest luxuries like an automobile or a desktop computer. Clearly their life is one which the Uir workers would envy. But alas there is a dark side too.

Almost all Questerians eat out. This tallies up to a huge bill each month which would probably negate the benefits earned by those in Uiri. Plus there is a huge racism issue. Its not just classes which must be pure - its skin colour too. Today in Uiri it is rare to not to find that someone has varying degrees of British, French and Aborijinal blood in them. Also, rent - even given the cheap prices here in Uiri - is covered by the families of those in the working class. How, we are not quite sure.

Here is the sickest part however. Only recently have the uneducated working class of Questers been granted universal suffarage. They have clearly made a step in the right direction however they have not taken steps to prevent the mentally ill afflicted with EHAWED, as everyone knows an aweful disease which holds many leaders abroad within its grips. And those leaders have predominantly red flags which we all know is why the Red Party is banned.

This may lead to Questers becoming another one of the aweful mock-capitalist economy shithole welfare states which seem to dominate the world with their social safety nets to catch those who are a burden to the economy. In closing, Questers is like Uiri but in ways which go to the economy and their culture is one of the most blatant forms of racism which the reporter I spoke with had ever seen.

(OOC: Nice description. Inspired me to do a "Human Rights Watch" report of my own. Also, I hope I didn't make wrong assumptions about Questers)

- http://www.mediosindependientes.org.tss/index.php -

http://www.peppersprayproductions.org/_borders/imc.gif
Third Spanish States

Centro de Medios Independientes is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. CMI is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth from an anarchist point of view.

DISCLAIMER: Following stalinist infiltration in many other Independent Media Centers around the world, we have decided to secede from the global organization to become truly independent, as it has acquired an informal hierarchy of power and was corrupted by several foreign interests. The Third Spanish States' CMI is not responsible or involved with the content of Indymedia and neither Indymedia is involved with the content of Third Spanish States' CMI

WORLD - QUESTERS: SOCIETY

Evidences of culture as the basis of economy in Questers

Out of curiousity, I have recently visited the infamous Questers after a long travel through multiple flights due to the distances. It was a peculiar sight of a nation troubled by a capitalist economy which turns social classes into castes, even more than that of the typical capitalist economy of underdeveloped countries where the unprivileged have almost nil chances of climbing the economic ladder. And everywhere, the culture unfolds into it.

I will not discuss the greater whole of Havenic geopolitics here and the influence of anything that happens in Questers at them, for there are other more specific articles and more impersonal treatises about that subject, here the focus is the nation of Questers, and to understand why it has changed so little in its history, with only sparse reforms and barely any hint of a full fledged revolution.

Historically, given that Questers is held as one of the most socially backwards nations other than those which still have an inquisition and where the population at large is as intolerant and ignorant as the average man of the middle ages, it is no wonder that Questers has been the last nation of the known civilized worlds to embrace emancipation. Due to this fact, it is easy to understand how the color of someone's skin and the social class are directly related. And perhaps it is ironic that where our nation has a clearly, almost overwhelming white majority but is a paragon of equal rights, Questers have in its underdog a overwhelming majority over their masters.

I have seen overpopulated homes with poor sanitation that seem the general rule for the nigra population, and I have seen no black that could resemble the living conditions of even a lower middle class during my trip through the Questarian countryside, unless if compared with the middle class of a Fourth World country, although that is not what this article deals about.

Even though there were no visible signs of starvation, from seeing their conditions of poverty and limited wealth, I became impressed at how they seemed to simply live on with the status quo. If it was anything closer to the values of the people Third Spanish States, by now they would be fighting in a grueling war against the government of the majority and raising black flags over the capital, but the answer regarding why they did not take the same, equally questionable path of countries like Haiti is more complex than expected.

Basically said, most of the surplus value in Questers is taken from an unqualified, uneducated and less-than-willing workforce where its bosses, afraid of inciting a rebellion that could spark the ambitions of would-be dictators proclaiming socialism in the same ways of the People's Republic of Spain, cope up with the demotivated workers who only effectively use half of their work. Although I have not personally seen it asides from the lax attitude to skipping work and the lack of starvation from as far as I know, there is certainly a work of panes et circenses to ensure such docile populace to remain at bay.

I had a brief experience regarding the whites of Quester, and suffice to say, if were not by the modern buildings and skyscrapers, I would think I returned to the Victorian Era from the conservative, formal clothing that seems the fashion or social rule for them. It is a far call from the Anglo-majority northern cities of the Confederacy like Tucker or New London, where the most popular ladies outfit in summer is the monokini and where it's not common to see people walking around naked during the mentioned season either, or doing things in public that would configure as sodomy in more conservative countries. You are definitively not going to see white Questarians dressed in pajamas, half-naked, naked or with all sorts of weird clothing and styles like in Third Spanish States. The "gas-guzzling SUV conservative" stereotype fits quite well with them, although I am glad I rented a 4x4 because their roads are what racists and cynics would call a "nigg-er's job" due to their poor condition.

Like a certain character from a certain book said, if there is hope, it is in the proles, but when the proles are ignorant, conformist and used to their conditions, only a shattering event like a mass starvation, mass murder or major economic depression could ever put the slumbering masses to their feet. I have interviewed a seemingly off-duty worker in a lumber mill next to Jesselton, a tough, tall black man with a typical worker overall, which I have agreed to keep anonymous, and finally I began to understand why nothing changes. I believe it alone explains much to the reader of the Confederacy.

T: Hello, I am an independent journalist traveling through your land, would you mind to answer some questions?

W: Not at all.

T: Could you tell me a bit about your profession

W: I operate a saw machine.

T: Do you know the reason behind it?

W: I don't care, I just want the bucks to make a living.

T: Explain me, what is to "make a living" for you?

W: Having enough to buy a car at 30, keeping the kids fed and having some booze.

T: I hope to not offend you with this question, but did you ever starve?

W: No, but most times I can only afford the basic for my family, and I would love a barbecue, but I and my friends rarely can save enough for them.

T: About your work, wasn't you supposed to be working right now?

W: Yeah, but the boss don't mind if we take some breaks.

T: Would you replace your job by a position in a cooperative where you'll earn something between twenty-thousand and thirty-five thousand bucks, but where you would have to work eight hours a day, study for more four hours and also administrate the businesses?

W: (Laughing) is this a joke? No way I would do something like that.

T: What is your feeling about the whites ?

W: They pay enough, and let me slack.

T: Is that everything you feel about them?

W: Yes, what else should I feel?

T: Nevermind. Now, to as the before last question, what do you think about socialism?

W: What is socialism?

T: Nevermind, now as the last question, are you satisfied with the way things are in Questers?

W: Sure I am much happier than my grandfathers. It could be better but everyone is happy as it is, why should people worry and get sad about it?

T: Nevermind again, thank you for your interview and good luck with your work.

W: OK, thanks journalist. Where are you from?

T: Third Spanish States

W: Never heard about it.

T: No problem, thank you again for giving me a bit of your time to answer my questions, I have to go now.

I have pondered on how an interview like that would have been answered in a place like our nation. As a comparison, I met a mechanic-engineer of a Third Spanish States lumber milling cooperative for a comparative interview, and by chance, a black woman, but who was completely different, and more of a multiracial than of a black.

Regarding workplace, first, there was a much higher degree of automation in such mill, and most manual and repetitive labors were actually sorted so the same individual would do them only once a week, and the environments were much more comfortable and safe than the average in capitalist economies. Although questionable, the high level of automation coupled with lack of paid managers and hierarchies and by the fact there were no wages made such arrangement practical and competitive with capitalist markets. I have preserved her identity as well.

T: Hello, do you mind an interview?

W: I always wanted to be interviewed by an indie journalist, but why are you interviewing me?

T: I'm comparing the average mindset of the Questarian worker to that of the Confederacy worker.

W: Is it not obvious the difference between a partly assembly line worker graduating in industrial engineering who also helps to manage the business and have an equal share of profits than all other workers to one who is poorly educated and just obey bosses for a minimum wage?

T: For some it is not. So, do you mind?

W: Not at all man, first question?

T: Could you tell me a bit about your profession

W: I ensure, together with others, in a completely democratic manner, that the financial, professional, educational, marketing, production, managerial and ethical standards of our cooperative are continually improved and maintained so all of us will earn more at the end of the day, and sometimes I am sorted to perform maintenance of the automated saw, or to help loading some woods in the very seldom times the cranes malfunction.

T: Do you know the reason behind it?

W: What a redundant question, I already answered it. There is no fixed, bureaucratic position I am on. We constantly shift our roles to both allow us to understand the whole and to reduce boredom.

T: What is to "make a living" for you?

W: To ensure that both me and our cooperative will prosper more and more economically, while helping to develop new, faster and more environmentally friendly ways of replanting our renewable sources, continually improving and learning from its rights and wrongs, and making sure my children will have the best education and conditions to contribute to society at large and be totally free to make their choices as well. In short, to make a difference is what matters, regardless of how simple and overlooked it seems to be.

T: Did you ever starve?

W: (Laughs) I am not anorexic. In fact it is easier for an a paper dog to chase an asbestos cat in hell than for anyone here to starve when all basic foods are collectively owned.

T: About your work, wasn't you supposed to be working right now?

W: We don't waste our time with formal bureucracies like work shifts, we have mastered the art of adapting work to our leisure without compromising the first, unlike in certain places where the opposite happens. In fact I would say the words job and work are a bit obsolete here, aren't they?

T: If you had a Questarian minimum wage job, would you replace it for your actual role and membership?

W: How is this question useful at all for what you intend? Of course I would! I am not an idiot for the smart to exploit surplus-value of! And something I would really hate to is to have a boss. Although maybe I could just take over the factory, provided the other workers were ready.

T: What is your feeling about the whites?

W: (Laughs again) My father is "white", this tagging of people by skin color is something for Neanderthals, or perhaps for Australopithecus.

T: What do you think about socialism?

W: Likely the same than you, that it combines both absurd, ridiculous and good ideas labeled under the same package. Left and right as concepts never helped the world, and with what today claims to be "Left", I would rather that we were completely disassociated from both left and right. How many further obvious questions will you ask?

T: Now as the last question, are you satisfied with the way things are in Third Spanish States?

W: No. We need to get out of our bubble and face the reality of the rest of the world with sanity and care if we want to truly further what we stand for.

And this, fellow readers, is what truly makes the difference between a socialist and a capitalist free market: Culture. With a culture like that of the Confederacy, capitalism established through democratic and free choices(or I would say, wrong choices) is virtually impossible. With a culture like that of Questers, socialism established through democratic and free choices is virtually impossible. And there is no need to say here that there is nothing worse than capitalist or pseudo-socialist police States.

Now is there hope for Questers to change? I am afraid that the black majority could easily be fooled by would-be dictators embracing the cause of socialism and promising them a paternalistic State to care of them, making them even more dependent of authority figures and even farther from any culture proximity to a successful socialist experiment. But the future cannot be predicted, only do not expect Questers to be anything else truly different from capitalism in its several forms for the next fifty years, for like written a certain catchphrase, This is Questers.

Todd Mills, Independent Journalist

[OOC: Lol. I love it.]

bump/+1

The Vallingard Times
Veritas in Dictis


Questers has been recognized by many as one of the foremost powers of the modern world- a great producer of a variety of commodities and a superpower within the region of Haven. Questers is renowned the world over for its advanced and cultured society. However, this state of existence masks a nation divided by race and ideal. Within Questers, the ratio of black to white is 8 to 1, a surprisingly high number for the total populace. However, the ruling class of Questers is made up almost, if not entirely, of white people. In a textbook case of minoritarianism, the white minority rules over the ethnic majorities in a racially segregated society.

In a Laurana Tribune interview earlier this month (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13940143&postcount=1), one Questarian youth stated his belief that "whites are superior to blacks." Can such a society continue to function, where in a minority rules over a majority they look down upon? The Questarian group "Not in One Thousand Years" says on its website, "If there is a Black Government, we will take our arms. We will head to the jungles; to the rivers, the hills, the mountains, and we will resist the destruction of our race and our culture." A society so divided against itself can surely not stand for long. Until the people of Questers can look past its own division and become united as a country, they will suffer because of it.

The Prime Minister's office has made no official stance on the social segregation in League-ally Questers, but in an interview last June, Prime Minister Garret Linsares stated that, "The people of Questers are destroying themselves by division- united we stand, divided we fall."

-Charles Gatthoway(37) is an editorial writer for the Times, where his thoughts can be read every Thursday edition.

OOC: bringin out the old account for this one, may well be my last post as it

The Questers I Know
A poem in the 6.3.20XX edition of the Kampfers Stadt Press

Some nations rise, others may fall,
most simply stand betwixt them all,
but far away, in the lands of lore,
the mighty lion prowls her shores.

These lands are haven, and Questers the lion,
prowling around, in hopes of trying
to one day rise above the rest,
defeat the hordes of the Freeks at best,
but as she turns, alas, she stumbles,
The lion is sickly, for help she mumbles.

A fair posse of nations come to her aid,
From Kampfers and Praetonia and Willink they bade,
to outlaw slavery, and do it now,
Poor Alexander must have had a cow.

And although the slavery was no more,
the negro wept, 'twas such a chore,
for though the lion now protected,
the black man was quite often neglected,
he lived in slums, made little to none,
and never was his job done.

But now, my friends, times are changing,
the black man is still arranging
to be equal to his white brothers,
and this sits on the heart of all the mothers
of the children of Questers, especially those black,
so that one day, they won't look back,
and hear that rash of "kaffir" once more,
that will be the day when Questers makes it through the door
into an age of true liberty,
the one we fight for, yes, you and me.