Global News | International - In Depth

[Batavië]

You must be registered for see images

Global, Jerusalem

AGE Dissolved, Himyar Further Spliced, What Lies Ahead?

Is the age of titans over? Some say yes without hesitation while others are more sceptical. Today in Fortaleza Real AGE acting Secretary General Fernando Guzman said that the behemoth alliance, sitting alongside the LFS for decades, will 'be disbanded in the coming months.' This is no surprise for some political analysts who remark upon the decline of the alliance's prominence and voice on the international stage. This comes less than a year after the communist IRB was similarly disbanded by the then communist government in Batavië. So what does this mean for Himyar, Europe and the sleeping giant of the LFS?

Himyar today is quite a spectacle. Wazistan has just exited civil war and heads to the polls with a nervous Frescania nearby. Carentania oddly becomes quiet in the last month while Hajr attempts to capitalise upon the failing Wazi system. Akhaltsikhe sits uncomfortably in between and Fulanistan is rapidly increasing its governmental and economical ties with its former colonial master, Batavië (there are even talks of a commonwealth between the two). Is the continent, home to vast lands of largely untapped natural resources, headed for a bumpy road ahead? Some say yes others say that with AGE now out of the picture, new opportunities lie ahead. The Levant, snugly situated between the two loudest countries of Wazistan and Hajr, will still remain the economic giant and counterweight, but the other lands mentioned have the potential to make the most of the latest shift. Some are even heading towards never before seen economic growth potentials.

What about Europe as a whole? With the sudden disappearance of a major global player will the LFS come to dominate all things political? François Labelle with Edmonton Policy Group in Paris believes that the world will cope. 'For now the LFS remains largely dormant with Oikawa seeming to be fine with a mostly internal economic trading system. The EDF clearly surpassed AGE this past winter when it sent a, might I add, so far successful peacekeeping mission to Batavië, preventing civil war, and the other countries, those not in alliances, don't seem to face any direct threats.'

With nearly all of Germania under the umbrella of the EDF, Scandinavia adjusting to a now democratic and open (yet still unstable) Batavië and the West as always quiet, it is unlikely that chaos or a major conflict will erupt from the dissolution of AGE. Sarmatia and the Oikawan Empire remain in a comfortable slumber, or so it appears. Himyar is where all eyes are and should be. 'The continent has so much potential, so much going for it, yet it is fractured into so many small groups. There is no continental unity as you see in Germania.' commented Monsieur Labelle.

Will the southern continent weather the changes in a positive way? That remains to be seen.



OOC: everyone please feel free to post here, please use the same format with image. Unlike AP and Reuters this is for more in depth pieces, not new bulletins or shorter stories. Enjoy!

 

[Khemia]

You must be registered for see images

Global, Sri Rama

A Second Great War Against Communism?

We have all read the history books that tell us about the First Great War, about the conflict between Communism and the world. We have all imagined that such events are just stories from the past. But today in this world, such a conflict is much closer to home for many Europeans.

Eastern Europe is already the front lines of a secret war between government forces and a league of Communist insurgencies; with Communist rebellions being fought on some level through at least five separate nations, including the Oikawan Empire and Jizhou, Dai Viet, Sinhai, Butuan, and Ratomkira. Fingers have been pointed at Vangala, and with the Sinese sinking of a Vangalan freighter, a buildup of forces near Tenzing, and the launching of missiles by Vangala, the world stands once again at the periphery of a war between Communism and the East.

With the Sinese President directly blaming the Vangalan President for the insurrection seen in Sinhai and the rising death toll, and a massive nationwide campaign against Communists being launched in Jizhou, it is only a matter of time before more action is taken against the scapegoated Vangala. The Red Republic of Toyou stands besieged on all sides by ideological enemies, a situation that becomes even more dangerously precarious as the lonely nations' only real military ally, Carentania, fails to comment on an increasingly independent and aggressive anti-Communist Yiyuan.

Only the continued disunity among anti-Communist states such as the Blue Union, Barazi, Sidajica, Jizhou, and Sinhai prevents a significant anti-Communist alliance from forming and making a Second War on Communism a harsh reality. However, with rumored peace talks to be occurring between Zivontje and Barazi, a ceasefire declared in Sinhai between government troops and insurgents, the Carentanian military tense with the Talemantine Empire, and world opinion turning against Vangala, is it only a matter of time before anti-Communist forces make good their promises to bring Kilkila down?

 

[Batavië]

You must be registered for see images

Global, Vlaanderen

Himyar Up In Arms and What Batavia is Doing About It

Was it simply the choice of words? The 'Commonwealth of Batavia'. Fulanistan's parliament passed a highly controversial bill last week entitled the 'Commonwealth Act', effectively making the Batavian head of state, their president, also head of state of the former Batavian colony of Fulanistan. Immediately the voices of the continent of Himyar joined together (a rare moment) to speak out against 'neo-imperialism'. Meanwhile both the foreign ministries of Batavia and Fulanistan have been working overtime to get out what they say are the facts. Is anyone listening?

Come Monday morning the world will know who will be the first ever Batavian President (the favourite and leader in the polls at the time of printing was Joost van Randburg). This figurehead will sign off on Batavian and Fulanistani laws, partake in the hosting of foreign dignitaries and symbolise the unity of the people, not the country. The commonwealth is also apparently a mutual agreement. Both Fulanistan and Batavia claim to agree to this and site the mutual benefits. Hajr, Wazistan and others on the southern continent don't seem to care. Hajri media reports it as an annexation.

'They have no grounds to criticise.'

The Batavian Foreign Ministry also announced late Sunday night that it will send a copy of the Fulanistani Commonwealth Act and the Batavian Commonwealth Act to every embassy in Batavia and Fulanistan and any other foreign ministry that requests one. It seems that there hope is to show all concerned parties the legal points of the new organisation.

'When they hold the hard copies in their hands and read the actual documents they will see the truth with their own two eyes.' said a spokesman at the Batavian Foreign Ministry. 'This is a cultural and economic engine. It's a real shame that the other Himyarite countries are totally misconstruing the facts for their own questionable purposes. They have no grounds to criticise.'

The next few days will be of great interest to all those following this story. Whichever candidate wins the presidential election in Batavia will be inaugurated tomorrow morning in Vlaanderen. If the winner is Joost van Randburg, and the exit polls suggest just that, he said that his first official act will be a visit to Fulanistan. If he can smooth over Batavian-Himyar relations it would certainly be of great help to Prime Minister De Jonghe and his Social Democratic Party, looking fragile in Question Period. The opposition parties seem to be criticising almost as fiercely as the upset Himyarite governments.

 

[Batavië]

You must be registered for see images

Global, Vlaanderen

SPECIAL REPORT: Batavië's Road to Capitalism

As I write this piece I am sitting comfortably in a plush hotel room in downtown Vlaanderen. For decades under the iron-fisted communist rule of Jaap de Graf and the short successor period of his son, General Karel de Graf, this area of town was reserved for the upper crust of society. Literally known simply as 'The Elite'. Although the communist government crumbled this past winter and a new democratic one has since taken its place, the name for the half million or so super rich and comfortable people remains...their neighbourhoods do not. Downtown Vlaanderen is quickly becoming a crowded, dirty central place for the torrents of unemployed to search for work, beg or just mull about.

In this quickly forming new society, it is difficult to tell who is among the wealthy, the Elite, or who is not. A middle class exists and is the fastest growing group of people in this bustling city and indeed the entire country (after the unemployed), but the old rules of the communist era no longer apply. The Elite could be spotted kilometres away. They wore designer clothes specially imported from Germania and capitalist Scandinavia, like Arendaal. Everyone else, the working class subject to police state rule wore subdued, simple, often ugly clothing. They could not afford to eat out at fancy restaurants and they didn't drive cars.

Unemployment figures since the fall of communism have not been officially released yet, but the conservative estimates put it around 20 per cent. It is probably higher, or at least it will be soon. The communist guarantee for jobs for life, usually in inefficient factories, has been removed. Hundreds of assembly lines and plants have been shut down and few options have been given to the working class. They are flocking to this city in search for anything sustainable.

The sudden increase of people has caught the City Council off guard as well as its posh denizens. Affordable flat blocks are far and few. The abandoned flats are much too expensive for any normal person. Most lie empty while some are being rented out or converted into office space. The wealth Elite and some upper middle class are moving north, but not very far. The township of Braamfontein was, up until a few months ago, a quiet little suburb of Vlaanderen, one of the few surrounding the capital city. Today it is abuzz with construction. New flat blocks, the nice sort, are rising into the sky next to shopping malls, new schools and fancy homes with neat, if small, front lawns. The newcomers require wider roads, motorways to connect them to Vlaanderen, easily visible from the slightly elevated height of Braamfontein, and the national motorway network.

Some are calling it simply 'the flight'. A mass exodus of educated workers who run the banks, the factory corporate offices...the ones who pull the strings from their skyscrapers. They can easily do that from Braamfontein. Some businesses are even relocating some of their offices to Braamfontein, saving their wealthy employees from a commute downtown. The road network is being built 24 hours a day with different construction teams cycled in and out all day long. It's a hassle for some to bother with the drive down to the city when they can easily work in a new office building minutes from home - no rush hour traffic.

You must be registered for see images

Downtown Vlaanderen is only half an hour's drive from the township of Braamfontein but a world apart.

What about the region that these two very different cities are in? The Batavian Capital Territory (BCT), as it is known, is the smallest province in Batavië, yet it is host to over 20 per cent of the population. It is a land quickly undergoing visible change. Under communism suburbs were few and urban sprawl was unheard of. There wasn't any money to expand and most people stayed on their farms or in their smaller towns, each of which had a factory or two to keep things spread out. Capitalism has driven quite a change in the BCT alone. The transportation infrastructure has not kept up. The provincial legislature approved 10 billion nieuw rand (about 2 billion Franconian Thaler) in road and public transportation upgrades and expansions and is also receiving 20 billion rand in funds from the federal parliament as part of the Economic Action Plan. The money is well needed, but the implementation process couldn't be fast enough.

'I sit in two hours of traffic every day!' complained one woman from her small car on the P1 ring road. 'Then when I get to work all I hear is cranes and jack hammers. What we need is a good train network for the BCT!'

And a train network is exactly what will be built. For now the motorways, known in Batavië as Autosnelwegs, are being widened, repaved, expanded and equipped with more entrances and exits. Train travel will be the only true long-term solution, however. Vlaanderen has an underground built in the 1960s. It only has two lines, which criss cross the city. A Bus Rapid Transit system is being built, a much faster and cheaper method. Separate roadways restricted to just buses will shuttle around people as far as Braamfontein and the poorer townships encircling the city. A commuter rail project, however, is non existent. Tracks are only just now being laid and for now most people will have to sit tight in their daily traffic jams. The Bus Rapid Transit will only cover the downtown area and a few townships, not the suburbs sprawling out in all directions. Lastly a high-speed rail project is being built to connect Vlaanderen, Braamfontein, a handful of other large townships and the international airport to each other. Expected completion date? Not yet released, although the engineering and train-sets will come from Franken.


Despite all the fuss, the movement of people due to urbanisation, the rising unemployment rate and the infrastructure conundrum, the BCT and the city of Vlaanderen remains a vibrant, culturally rich place worth a visit for both businesses and leisure travellers. One thing that hasn't changed is its safety record, bar the winter BRA bombings and shootings, which have vanished for now. The country has much to do and a long road ahead of it, but the road is well paved and outlined and the will of the people is there. The BCT and Vlaanderen are surely an important indicator of Batavië as a whole. Generalisations, of course, are very dangerous to make.

 

[Khemia]

You must be registered for see images

Global, Sri Rama

Despite Posturing, Reds Can't Take the Heat in the Eastern Kitchen

North Ratomkira, the brainchild of Vangalan-backed terrorists within the LFS state of Ratomkira, declared their independence with all the fanfare and trumpets afforded by any revolution won through the theft of 'bourgeoisie' property. Despite an already glaring history of contemptible human rights violations and media censorship through mass propaganda, North Ratomkira has yet to be put down like the radical upstarts they are. The traditional enemy of the reds, the League of Free States, like any giant and cumbersome bureaucracy, is slow to bring its weight to bear against the fledgling terror state. Despite their opportunistic founding during the League's greatest crisis in half a century with the Yiyuan Clique threatening to shatter solidarity within the League, the Revolutionary Defense Treaty has yet to side with the southern proletarian dictatorship.

Is it that Carentania is afraid of further damaging the alliance's already tarnished reputation by adding another hyper-authoritarian dictatorship to the alliances already unsavory repertoire, or is it just that the reds can't handle the heat in the kitchen?

As the war against the Yiyuan Clique winds down to a close, the menacing face of Nokanawa has begun to turn it's attention to the vanguard of the Communist revolution in Toyou: Kilkila. Perhaps the Revolutionary Defense Treaty is wisely choosing to avoid war with the League, now at it's most militarized state since the Great War. Perhaps they know that soon Kilkila will be the target of Oikawan bombs.

What effects will this rejection bring to North Ratomkira, a state which is quickly becoming Cathay's greatest pariah? Membership with the Revolutionary Defense Treaty is - or rather was - the only way to ensure some modicum of civility from the Northern state; yet recognition of the tiny "republic" would have been a catalyst for conflict with the League. A lack of membership essentially guarantees even further radicalization of the communists in North Ratomkira, now isolated and marginalized by their own ideological comrades.

However, Vangala, not a state known for following the party line even by international communist standards, is unlikely to be caught unwilling or incapable of throwing it's weight behind it's new-found neighbor and likely bed buddy.

The greater question to be asked here is even more disconcerting for the fate of the global Communist revolution. Has Carentania, the face of global Communism and often considered the muscle and brains behind the Revolutionary Defense Treaty, backed away from it's staunch red stance. Are they truly incapable of pushing back the imperialists in Jurzan, and entirely unwilling to support a fledgling comrade abroad in the face of resistance; is the Revolutionary Defense Treaty nothing but a farce?