08-25-2019, 10:25 PM
HNN
The Huenyan News Network - news from the free Huenya
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Atl 25, Xatl Papalotl, 2019
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Manauia Island visit mere smokescreen
Emperor Topilpopoca will be visiting the Teyatia city of Tezaltli, on Manautia Island, today. He will be accompanied by Secretary of Infrastructure, Development and Planning Ueman, the mastermind of the plan to close Xiomera's largest nature preserve and bulldoze one of the most pristine and environmentally significant sites anywhere in the IDU. Their visit is touted as being fair, giving the inhabitants of Manauia Island and anyone else concerned a chance to speak out against the project, or make suggestions or raise concerns, before it begins.
The international community must not be fooled by this smokescreen. The Emperor and Ueman, along with the other government lackeys who will be attending, will give mere lip service to the people attending this carefully stage-managed event. Many of the most important voices against the Manautia Island project are not even attending. Tlihuātemā, the leader of the Teyatia, has refused to attend, calling the meeting "a sham to pretend that the government cares about what others think." The major environmental group protesting the plan, the Defenders of Manauia Island, is also not attending after government officials refused to allow Nacuīx, their leader, to be on the stage with the other carefully chosen speakers.
With most of the significant leaders against the project not even on the stage, and with those who are attending being carefully hand-picked to provide a veneer of legitimacy, the government is putting together a show hoping to fool the world into believing that the Manauia Island project is what the people who live there actually want. This is a show the international community should not buy tickets for. We urge the world not to buy the smokescreen of this fake meeting, because if this project is allowed to go through as planned, the real smoke will be the forests of Manauia burning down.
Guilty of breaking the law of unintended consequences
As the boycott of foreign trade pushed by pro-government groups like the self-declared Good Citizens' League spirals downward, threatening to take the Xiomeran economy with it, it's interesting to look at how we got here.
When this all began, the boycott was supposedly an organic response to the sanctions placed on Xiomera by Zamastan. The GCL claimed that individual citizens were responding to "defend the nation's honor" by banding together to use the power of their quetzals to force a change in attitude. As it always is in Xiomera, nothing ever begins of its own volition. The Xiomeran government, through its rhetoric (and probably behind-the-scenes requests to groups like the GCL also), lit the spark of this particular stick of dynamite. Groups like the Patriotic Youth Corps and the XSPA, who have been "encouraging" citizens to support the GCL boycotts (and who also led the attacks on Zamastanian businesses earlier in the month), also received their cues from the government, both directly and indirectly.
But it was never supposed to go this far. The government wanted to send a message, but instead, it let loose a tiger that it now cannot control. The GCL, and the other pressure groups in Xiomera, now appear to be running full steam ahead on their own, and it is not clear that the government can rein them in. The fake "organic peoples' protest" that the government wanted is now the real thing, and it is painfully clear that no one in the Palace of Flowers has any clue how to make it stop. And with Lauchenoiria now being added to the boycott, it's clear that the GCL is prepared to allow significant damage to the Xiomeran economy, as long as they can make their point and "defend the nation's honor". The government has been sending indirect cues that this is not the desired response, by having the Emperor meet with the head of the XBA, Xocolcōza, and by having high-profile leaders such as Trade Secretary Tlanextia criticize the boycott. Normally, these sort of indirect cues work. But in this case, either the message isn't being heard, or more dangerously, it's simply not being heeded by the GCL.
The Emperor now has, as a result, the lit stick of dynamite that is this trade debacle in his hand, with no one to hand it off to and no way to put it out. As the fuse slowly burns downward, all we can say to Topilpopoca is this: you should've been careful what you wished for.
The Huenyan News Network - news from the free Huenya
[/hr]
Atl 25, Xatl Papalotl, 2019
[/hr]
Manauia Island visit mere smokescreen
Emperor Topilpopoca will be visiting the Teyatia city of Tezaltli, on Manautia Island, today. He will be accompanied by Secretary of Infrastructure, Development and Planning Ueman, the mastermind of the plan to close Xiomera's largest nature preserve and bulldoze one of the most pristine and environmentally significant sites anywhere in the IDU. Their visit is touted as being fair, giving the inhabitants of Manauia Island and anyone else concerned a chance to speak out against the project, or make suggestions or raise concerns, before it begins.
The international community must not be fooled by this smokescreen. The Emperor and Ueman, along with the other government lackeys who will be attending, will give mere lip service to the people attending this carefully stage-managed event. Many of the most important voices against the Manautia Island project are not even attending. Tlihuātemā, the leader of the Teyatia, has refused to attend, calling the meeting "a sham to pretend that the government cares about what others think." The major environmental group protesting the plan, the Defenders of Manauia Island, is also not attending after government officials refused to allow Nacuīx, their leader, to be on the stage with the other carefully chosen speakers.
With most of the significant leaders against the project not even on the stage, and with those who are attending being carefully hand-picked to provide a veneer of legitimacy, the government is putting together a show hoping to fool the world into believing that the Manauia Island project is what the people who live there actually want. This is a show the international community should not buy tickets for. We urge the world not to buy the smokescreen of this fake meeting, because if this project is allowed to go through as planned, the real smoke will be the forests of Manauia burning down.
Guilty of breaking the law of unintended consequences
As the boycott of foreign trade pushed by pro-government groups like the self-declared Good Citizens' League spirals downward, threatening to take the Xiomeran economy with it, it's interesting to look at how we got here.
When this all began, the boycott was supposedly an organic response to the sanctions placed on Xiomera by Zamastan. The GCL claimed that individual citizens were responding to "defend the nation's honor" by banding together to use the power of their quetzals to force a change in attitude. As it always is in Xiomera, nothing ever begins of its own volition. The Xiomeran government, through its rhetoric (and probably behind-the-scenes requests to groups like the GCL also), lit the spark of this particular stick of dynamite. Groups like the Patriotic Youth Corps and the XSPA, who have been "encouraging" citizens to support the GCL boycotts (and who also led the attacks on Zamastanian businesses earlier in the month), also received their cues from the government, both directly and indirectly.
But it was never supposed to go this far. The government wanted to send a message, but instead, it let loose a tiger that it now cannot control. The GCL, and the other pressure groups in Xiomera, now appear to be running full steam ahead on their own, and it is not clear that the government can rein them in. The fake "organic peoples' protest" that the government wanted is now the real thing, and it is painfully clear that no one in the Palace of Flowers has any clue how to make it stop. And with Lauchenoiria now being added to the boycott, it's clear that the GCL is prepared to allow significant damage to the Xiomeran economy, as long as they can make their point and "defend the nation's honor". The government has been sending indirect cues that this is not the desired response, by having the Emperor meet with the head of the XBA, Xocolcōza, and by having high-profile leaders such as Trade Secretary Tlanextia criticize the boycott. Normally, these sort of indirect cues work. But in this case, either the message isn't being heard, or more dangerously, it's simply not being heeded by the GCL.
The Emperor now has, as a result, the lit stick of dynamite that is this trade debacle in his hand, with no one to hand it off to and no way to put it out. As the fuse slowly burns downward, all we can say to Topilpopoca is this: you should've been careful what you wished for.
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