The South PacificBoard

Welcome to the Second Issue of the Scrapheap Tribune!

After positive reception of the previous Issue, and some helpful/constructive criticism from TSP, I have decided to ping (or whatever you like to call it) most of the nations mentioned in this newspaper.
As such, if any nations do not appreciate being pinged for this, please contact me through telegrams.
Also, if anyone wishes to contribute articles to future issues of the Tribune, please send those to me similarly, through Telegrams, or through one of the means mentioned in Scrapheap's World Factbook Entry.
As before, this has been great fun to write and compile, so I am not too bothered how many people do or don't read it. ^^
May I also take the time to remind anyone who reads this that this newspaper will never be on a grand scale; after all, I am the only writer.
If anyone wishes to contribute articles, or advertisements for their region or events, or even advice to me on how to better format my newspaper, do not hesitate to contact me.

This week, we wave goodbye to the article on SEC Fanatics, whose embassy with the Scrapheap has now been closed.
On the other hand, I am delighted to introduce an article on The Pacific, and the first three interviews made by the King Soupinaspis.

For the previous issue, please click here.

Yours,
King Soupinaspis of Soupasia

• A brief summary of the ongoing TSP Delegate Elections

• Interviews with the founders of TSSU and SD on the fierce conflict between their respective regions

• Talking to Xoriet, Legatus of The Pacific, about the ending of St Abbaddon's status as an NPO Protectorate

• Soup

Nothing much new has occurred in the Scrapheap since the last issue; seeing as the embassy with South Pacific is still extant, I am led to believe that the embassy will remain open.

Furthermore, regrettably, due to IRL unfortunate circumstances (namely exams), the first issue of the Scrapheap Cooking Magazine had to be scrapped. I hope to release the first issue this Tuesday, but, as always, I procrastinate so much that it may well end up being postponed again.

The office of Brigadier General has been renamed to the 'Foreign Office'; as such, North yamerica will control embassies; please TG that account for embassy information.
On the subject of embassies, the new Foreign Minister has requested to establish embassies with The NewsStand.

To my immense surprise, Royal alfland today was refounded in Balder. He has not returned to CoWLN as of yet, but as he is extant, Istria and izsac will remain in that region.

I took the liberty to interview British soviets.
Anyone who has heard of The Socialist Syndicalist Union will know of the war with Soviet Democracy. Indeed, I would not be entirely surprised if, for many people, that is the only thing they know about TSSU. Their adversary is more infamous; having made it to the front page of NationStates Today for their poaching from User-Created Regions.
Although British Soviets made it clear that his answers were not the official opinions of the TSSU Government, he was confident that the majority of the TSSU government felt the same as him over the war with Soviet Democracy, calling it "a childish conflict".

The bitter enmity displayed in the war, often by both sides, but certainly by Soviet Democracy, makes one question how this situation came about. British Soviets explained:

"TSSU originally formed after a few attempts trying to establish a breakaway region. Ex Patrian SSR, the founder of SD, viewing everything associated with TSSU as the rightful property of SD, offered reunification after attempting to poach members. I took his terms, presented it to the people who reacted fiercely, with an overwhelming majority voting for TSSU's continued existence, independence and autonomy. Ex Patrian SSR did not like this and war was declared as a result. To to sum it up, all of this is because we don't want to be Soviet Democracy or under his rule."

It is clear from this that British Soviets believes the war to be the fault of The Socialist Utopia of Ex Patrian SSR, the Founder of Soviet Democracy.
When asked his opinion on this, Ex Patrian had this to say:

"Soviet Democracy imposed sanctions upon TSSU only once they began espousing propaganda, and then appointed a fascist as their head of government. And then Algermaine joined and escalated the propaganda. Algermaine, in general, is a distasteful character and one that is not good for the PR prospects of any region. The dispatches began publication, containing many statements that were entirely and objectively false - for example, claiming TSSU's fascist head of government came from us. Algermaine then went to the length of doctoring screenshots simply for the sake of continuing his rapidly changing narrative - originally it was aggression "SD is propagating this war" etc., and then "TSSU is seeking peace against a resistant SD" and like through all that time basically nothing changed on our side. The only thing that changed was the narrative of propaganda."

So, in contrast to British Soviets, Ex Patrian blames Algermaine, whose NationStates account is Smug syndie man, the Prime Minister of TSSU.
When Ex Patrian mentions a fascist in TSSU's government, I believe he is referring to Hasconia, my predecessor as Vice Overseer of TSSU, who was removed from office officially on account of them being revealed as a Soviet Democracy spy, something which Ex Patrian rejected in his statement.

British Soviets also spoke about how Ex Patria has total power over his region, without any illusions of democracy. He drew attention to this by mentioning how "he [Ex Patrian] forcibly closed a regional poll with a majority of members not caring or voting for peace."
When I asked Ex Patrian about this, his reply was that "It [the poll] was with bad phrasing which I was quick to come out and criticise," as "no war has ever been declared."
This suggests that Ex Patrian believes the war to be driven by Algermaine, the TSSU PM. Certainly, it is Algermaine who writes "La Syndicalista", TSSU's regional newspaper, which is filled with anti-SD propaganda.

Indeed, Ex Patrian felt that, as there, in his opinion, is no war, he should not be expected to comment. He eventually did so "because I think our side [Soviet Democracy] needs to be heard for once."

It is worth remembering that Ex Patrian SSR has been attacked previously by NationStates Today as being "tyrannical", and Soviet Democracy has been blacklisted by The Communist Bloc for the extent to Ex Patrian's control over the government. British Soviets had this to say:

"SD's major decisions are ultimately up to Ex Patrian."

Whichever side you take in this conflict, it is clear that it is somewhat pointless. However, given the results of Soviet Democracy's 'badly-phrased' poll, which showed a large number of residents supported the continuation of hostilities, then despite Ex Patrian's insistence that "basically nothing changed on our side", I believe firmly that both sides in this conflict must change their rhetoric before any solution can be found.
I will admit that, in my position as Vice-Overseer of TSSU, my perspective is rather biased.

In other news, TSSU has merged with another region, namely The Beijing Pact. This was, according to British soviets, because it was seen as "an inactive region in rapid decline and wanting to integrate its remaining members into a new, friendly community."

The renovation of South Pacific, very much a different region from The South Pacific, has now returned to focus on the NationStates site itself, whereas before the delegate, Mysterious wonder, had been working tirelessly to create both an offsite forum and discord.
A point of contention is still the closure of a vast majority of the region's embassies, but as this was done in the hope that, with a higher standard of embassies, South Pacific can begin establishing itself as a major region.
The Vice-Delegate, Holly United, has also created a regional news website, the South Pacific News.
The Delegate and Vice-Delegate also overhauled the regional dispatches, creating a more up-to-date overview of the region.

The main news from the Union is the creation of the first political party, the Christian Democrat Party, by Upper chantler.

I would like to congratulate the Elders, including Eudoria, for finally getting the discord link updated.

The delegate elections are heating up, with only two candidates remaining out of an original six: Beepee and Erinor.
The former has had more votes than Erinor in the other rounds, but now, in the final round, Erinor is leading by ten votes (at the time of writing).

Erinor has been a delegate of TSP before, and during his incumbency increased the endorsement count by 150%, a remarkable achievement. He has also had experience in a number of regional offices, from Local Councillor to Minister of Regional Affairs. He said himself, in his Campaign Dispatch that he does not wish to change anything much about the delegacy and its position, as he feels its current role is perfectly suitable as it is.

The Tastiest Parts of Beepee, his opponent in the polls, has not nearly so great a wealth of experience to draw upon, but is still very much a promising candidate. He ran in the Local Councillor Elections, but was defeated by Aidenfieeld. He has served as ambassador to both The North Pacific and LCRUA.

To end the summary of the Delegate Elections, I will remind that the role of the Delegate of TSP is not the same as in many other regions; despite being the 'head-of-state', they have little real power, that power instead being vested in the Government.

Other than this, life in TSP continues as normal, with the usual number of horrific fox deaths.

Not much has happened this week in Europe; The mongol plain, the former Commissioner, has now stepped down and been assigned as ambassador to Forest. Similarly, the new Commissioner, Regnum Italiae, has joined the European foreign office as ambassador to International Democratic Union.

The TRR elections, for the Speaker of the Assembly, went as predicted; Altmoras IV won by a landslide against the (now former) incumbent, Vulturret.

For many people, the first thing they associate with The Pacific, commonly abbreviated to TP, is the NPO, or New Pacific Order.
Twice, now, the NPO, which rules over TP with its ideology of Francoism, has been at the centre of major scandals.
They also recently achieved a victory in the endorsement pile-off in St Abbaddon, when a number of regions, led by The Black Hawks, and including Game Created Region Balder, attempted to overthrow the government of St Abbaddon, an NPO Protectorate, and install the former delegate, before the NPO-backed delegate took office.
The raiders were beaten back by a huge effort by TP's allies, including The South Pacific, and the protectorate remained under the NPO's control.

So why is the NPO now closing their embassy, after putting so much effort into retaining the smaller region?

St Abbaddon has released two statements on this, the first calling for all NPO operatives in St Abbaddon to leave, with the cessation of NPO military support for the region.
The second was a more detailed analysis of the situation.

It would appear, from these statements, that, after the Anti-Pacific Coalition began threatening St Abbaddon, for its continued links to The Pacific, the NPO decided to abandon the protectorate, and withdrew, leaving St Abbaddon facing a major threat of invasion, and no backing. However, St Abbaddon claims to have "fought valiantly", and secured a peace deal.

The outcome of these events, for St Abbaddon, is that the former delegate that the NPO fought to prevent from retaking St Abbaddon has returned: Topid, under the nom de plume of Frankland.

I decided to investigate further, and requested an interview with The Ocelot Senator Emeritus of Xoriet, the Legatus for The Pacific.

She first of all gave me a statement, below:

"St Abbaddon has been a valuable friend and we’ve really appreciated that friendship. Kitsco in particular has been a really great guy despite the personal risk to the region that comes with ties to us. In the past I offered them a chance to withdraw to protect themselves and we did not object to Kitsco’s attempts to invite Topid back unconditionally. However, despite the good feelings there, there is a stipulation in the protectorate treaty that they needed to contribute to their own region and we weren’t supposed to be their only crutch. That was how it was. They were a sovereign region and yet we were relied on heavily for months, with no or weak attempts to help via recruitment on their part. We were patient, contributed our own stamp funds to help them out, and encouraged them to recruit many times. They did not do this, and eventually it was decided that we could not support them indefinitely and neglect our own internal operations for a region that was not protecting itself."

Xoriet makes it clear that the NPO pulled out of the treaty primarily to force St Abbaddon to take control of itself, and stop assuming that The Pacific would do everything for it.
I was not, however, convinced that this was the right course of action, bearing in mind the considerable effort made to protect the smaller region in the endorsement pile-off.

"I think that St Abbaddon had earned the effort we put into protecting it with their friendship. They could have abandoned us like everyone save TEP when the recent scandal occurred. Instead they chose to stand by us. I do not regret the effort we put into helping them.
In the end, it was just not sustainable and it did violate the terms of the treaty."

TEP above refers to The East Pacific, which came under considerable pressure for not cutting ties with the NPO during the scandal. Xoriet makes it clear that, in her opinion, St Abbaddon deserved every ounce of aid it received from the NPO, merely for its continued support when almost all TP's allies had abandoned the Francoist region.
I still felt that this might be providing further ammunition to the NPO's enemies, prime among them The Black Hawks and their Field Marshal, Ever-Wandering Souls, and make the NPO appear weak, and incapeable of defending its own protectorates. Xoriet replied that "the decision has nothing to do with any pressure they think to apply. If they had the means to do something about us there, surely they’d have done it sooner."

When I asked which part of the treaty had been violated, Xoriet directed me towards the NPO Embassy Thread in the NS Gameplay Forums. There, Pierconium stated that the specific article being constantly violated by the government of St Abbaddon to be Section 1; Article 003 of the treaty:

It appears that St Abbaddon has not been doing enough, in the eyes of the NPO, for their own region. It follows that this situation has stagnated, despite numerous attempts by the NPO to help the St Abbaddon government take more control of their own region.

Of course, it is almost impossible to speak of these events without mentioning the scandal. Xoriet herself spoke of the scandal when I asked her about whether the defence of St Abbaddon had been worth the trouble. I therefore questioned her on what the NPO is doing to amend the hurt and mistrust caused by the scandal.

"The NPO has done a number of things thus far. We have apologized to the regions that were wronged, we have seen the expulsion of members who perpetuated these wrongs, and we have committed to never allowing a culture where our members see themselves as entitled to interfere in other regions even if they believe they are doing a good thing. The first step to moving forward is revising old attitudes that have manifested for years, and ensuring that our community takes more interest in our community than in the state of other regions that have not asked for any of our interference."

Whether or not people believe they are really trying to change is a different matter.
The Reaper of Lord Dominator, who has been at the forefront of criticism of the NPO, had this to say on the nullification of the treaty:
"I was just thinking it was nice you ditched the terrible treaty the proper way then just violating it or not following the protection part until another 'government' removes it themselves."
This echoes many nations' thoughts, that perhaps the NPO is merely trying to look as though they are repenting, before returning to their normal activity.
Indeed, many have concluded that the new Emperor of the NPO, The Pacifican Empire of East Durthang, is merely doing whatever Aleisyr, his predecessor, says, and so the actual leadership has not changed in the slightest. I asked Xoriet what she thought of these claims.

"Aleisyr has retired and only maintains the position due to the transition. He no longer wishes to be involved in the game. He rarely contacts us these days. Aleisyr has never been the puppetmaster type. None of the former Senate whose decisions and actions lead to this situation are going to be influencing our future decisions. Lord of Darkness has his own mind, his own path, and his own will. That will does not align with what our last Senate saw to be appropriate."

Xoriet's last sentence states that East Durthang will not continue Aleisyr's and Pergamon's policies of espionage and subversion. But will it be enough? In my opinion, and in many others', the stem of all the issues is the NPO's ideology, Francoism. This was highlighted in WA Security Counsel Resolution #268: Commend The Pacific, which stated "Appalled by the narrative advanced by the NPO's ideology, 'Francoism'..."
It is hard to see how the NPO can regain the trust it lost while it still follows the widely-detested ideology. Xoriet's answer to the question of whether Francoism will remain the NPO's ideology was much shorter than her reply to other topics:

"The future of Francoism is a matter of discussion.
I’ll also add that any decision made on it also has nothing to do with what a Condemnation or the APC claims about it."

It sounds rather as though the NPO may be considering whether to continue following Francoism, the defining feature of The Pacific for around a decade.
If this is true, then it will doubtless be seen as a victory for the Anti-Pacific Coalition by the NPO's enemies, who have been exerting a great deal of pressure on Pacifica and their ideology.

I decided to end the interview by asking Xoriet what the NPO's future plans were, in regards to Foreign Affairs.
She replied thus:

"Should any relations with other regions rekindle in the future, this will be an attitude extended to them. While we will not surrender our region for the sake of relations, we will do all in our power to never find the NPO in a situation where we have utterly disappointed our friends and other communities that had not sought to do us harm. The future for us in the world of FA is not clear, but we have new priorities and new understanding forged by clarity of sight provided by the most recent events."

Whether the regions in question wish to re-establish relations with the NPO is their own decision.
However, I personally hope that the NPO is being truthful in wishing to repent from their mistakes, although given that this is the second time they have been found in the middle of a scandal, it may be difficult for many regions to fully trust them again for a long time.
I think, though, that the NPO's days of subversion, espionage, and falsehoods are over; it seems unlikely that they would be able to withstand a third scandal on this scale.

I would like to thank Xoriet for giving up the time for this interview, and I wish her and her region the best of luck in future.

The Soup of the Week is Carrot and Coconut.

I would like to again thank Xoriet, and also British soviets, Ex Patrian SSR, and Lord Dominator.

I hope that all you wonderful readers enjoyed this newspaper.
However, once again, there was only a single mention of soup.
This is an issue that must be addressed.
If your nation or region has any soup-related news, please send me a telegram immediately.
Soup must be encouraged across NationStates.

Thank you all again!

Yours,
Soupinaspis,
King of Soupasia

Soupinaspis Brothl