Independent Regions, Joined in FriendshipTwo regions who, until recently, shared only basic relations have come together as good friends. The Foreign Ministry of Europeia, and especially the hard working
Common-Sense Politics, have marked a huge milestone in the development of closer ties with the Game Created Regions [GCR] and especially those with Lazarus, with whom a treaty was concluded last term. The regions celebrated their newfound ties with a Cultural Convention titled "The Europeia/Lazarus Zombie Jamboree" held on the Lazarus forums, where Europeian President
Skizzy Grey delivered the following address:
The fabulous Skizzy Grey thinking about the policy addressPolicy Address In FullEsteemed Delegate, Distinguished Commissioners, Citizens of Lazarus and Europeia, and friends from throughout the NationStates world:
It is an honor to be here representing the government and people of the Republic of Europeia. I thank Viktoria Gryfynn and the entire government of Lazarus for the invitation.
The purpose of these festivities, of course, is to celebrate the new treaty between Europeia and Lazarus, and to continue to deepen ties between our two regions. The bulk of these festivities will, appropriately, be dedicated to creating opportunities for citizens of our two great regions to socialize and form new friendships. These personal relationships will sustain our interregional relationship over time, even as the shared concerns that provided the immediate impetus for this new alliance fade into history.
Those shared concerns are worth a few words. Although the “game-created regions” (feeders and sinkers) have always been prone to misuse by outsiders intent on capturing them as trophies, in modern times the GCRs have increasingly been under the control of strong, indigenous communities. Without question, these indigenous communities have changed the game of NationStates as a whole for the better – not only are strong communities a good in themselves, but having every newly formed or revived nation born into such a community makes our game more attractive to newcomers. We in Europeia may not be visionaries, but we are sufficiently far-sighted to recognize that strong, indigenous communities are in our long-term interest, even though these indigenous regions' will, based on their independent self-interest, occasionally act to the detriment of our short-term interests.
Unfortunately, the independence of the GCRs has increasingly come under attack. A supraregional so-called “defender” organization has turned its sights toward existing GCRs, using bullying tactics familiar to those of us in the user-created regions in an attempt to arrogate to themselves the right to dictate what sort of policies are moral or immoral, what sort of foreign relations are permissible or impermissible, and so on. These troubling developments have rightly earned the condemnation of many observers, including some who have historically been closely associated with defenderism.
We in Europeia have learned that any self-respecting, independent region with the temerity to stand up to this bullying will find themselves scorned by a group that is not only well-organized, but is motivated by a bizarre belief that their particular form of domination is somehow righteous. Fortunately, those of us who choose to stand up to such bullying need not stand alone. More and more, regions are setting aside labels like raider or defender, imperialist or isolationist, democratic or authoritarian and coming together to protect our common right of self-determination. Rest assured, Lazarus will always have a friend committed to its right of self-determination, even when we disagree on specific issues. We will respect, and indeed embrace, the institutions, values, and history of this great region, even when they differ from our own. We do not want Lazarus to be Europeia; we want Lazarus to be Lazarus. And we will stand together with Lazarus against outsiders who wish to remake it in their own image.
We in Europeia want future generations of players to discover the wonderful indigenous community here, which is different from any other and is more valuable to the NationStates community that way than it would be in any other way. And because we only want Lazarus to be Lazarus, we can confidently say that even when current causes pass into history, we will continue to stand beside Lazarus as your friends.
Thank you again for the invitation. I look forward to the rest of the festivities.
The above address demonstrates to our fellow regions that Europeia will not seek to influence, warp or twist the policy decisions and direction of Lazarus or any GCR using our influence - something which other regions have attempted in the past towards other GCRs. Europeia sees Lazarus and other GCRs as being separate entities, their own region and their own decision makers. Something we clearly demonstrate in not sharing many citizens or elected officials.
Two separate regions coming together as friends. Europeia and Lazarus stand together on the world stage.
Article written by Vinage. Speech by Skizzy Grey
