Author: bonanza
Translator: IkbenBen19
“Because of the recent changes the state of alertness will go up.” ‘The relationship seems not to be good at all.” “I personally think Cyberians have no business selling anything on our soil.” “Supporting, planning, executing or any other forms of supporting criminal activities by members of the Council or the Virtuan Government is not considered as a criminal activity.”
This is just a small part of the threatening conflict between Virtua and Cyberië. And it all started out that promising. This article will give you a chronological overview of the things that have happened that would appear to be the worst point in the relationship between Virtua and Cyberië since the last war between both countries. That conflict started after a derogatory speech from mariadoc (Dutch link), who called Virtua “Cyberië 2” and called her politics “immature”.
This article contains remarkable public statements, but also information from interviews and exclusive conversations between the leaders of the Federation behind closed doors!
Cyberian mediator, Joep Eerlijk, beholder of the international contacts, made a suggestion towards Virtuan President Tuned to stimulate the economy between both nations. He suggested that both countries would buy a big boat for commercial purposes and trade with each other. As a result there should always be some transport between both countries. Tuned was very enthusiastic about this idea and bought a new ship before the Cyberian approval of the pricing of the trade route.
For its part, also Joep Eerlijk could not be blamed. He notified his statement to the Cyberian Parliament. According to Joep Eerlijk this deal had three major advantages. First of all, the relationship between Virtua and Cyberië would be improved. Second, it should be an ideal boost for the economy, products of the Cyberian vessel would be bought by Cyberian traders. And third, a third part of the invested amount would be directly returned in ways of boat production tax and production-income.
Minister of Finance The Eye straightly translated this plan into cash terms and made a budget of 10,000 ISH. From this point on everything started to fail. Members of the Parliament didn’t see the point of this investment unlike Joep Eerlijk did. “These are useless trips. Leave the money in our own pockets!” is what Pedro Alvarez said. A little later he thought the plan over again and concluded positively: If the boats sail at the cost price of a trip, this should improve the economy of both countries.
To get rid of the double thoughts from Pedro Alvarez, I decided to go and talk to this rising star member of Parliament in the backgrounds of the Parliament.
“Personally I don’t see any added value in this plan. If you watch the Cyberian docks you notice that already two boats are heading towards Virtua. Yesterday I even counted five ships, there is already a constant connection towards Virtua. The first argument is on this reason useless.”
“Coming to the second point, it would be a boost for the Cyberian economy. Bullshit, it would be a boost of the economy of Eurodam, because there is the lowest product pricing of whole Cyberië. This was even confirmed by the proponents of this proposal. I rather have the 10,000 ISH divided over the Cyberian cities than giving Eurodam a Tourist of 10,000 ISH.”
Also Minister of Finance The Eye had to pay for this action. “This major amount of cash, 10,000 ISH, was just out of the blue, it wasn’t based on anything at all. Nobody even tried to make a calculation of the costs of a boat. My own calculation never passed the barrier of 6,440 ISH. What should happen to the rest of the 10,000 ISH? Giving it as present to buy more expensive products? No no, this doesn’t get my vote.” Said Pedro Alvarez.
“And still another problem, there wasn’t even anything planned where the goods would be bought. At friends and girlfriends? Or would we buy products from small traders? Nobody knows. Conclusion: There was nothing positive on the economic side because it wasn’t developed, this is the reason why I decided not to vote for this project.”
Also Parliament Member Antonio Alvarez wasn’t convinced about this idea. He barely mentioned the word ‘stupidity’. “Did we also check the fact that Virtuans might produce cheaper and that they bring in products that are going to compete with our market products?” he said. Parliament member doodvogeltje Saw a little advantage in this matter. “We have the choice between a half filled glass and a half empty glass. We can expand our own market in Virtua but we can also get more competitors from Virtua. It is the Cyberian traders who have to prove themselves.”
Also IkbenBen19 foresaw troubles. He mentioned “Digitalians with weapons come across the border way faster when building a harbor.” Antonio Alvarez added: “The relationship with Virtua doesn’t need to be improved. We never have had war and it is not about to come to us. So to do this in order to obtain a better relationship with Virtua would be rather nonsense.”
His words were not even spoken out or Virtuan Ambassador, the unofficial representative of Virtua in Cyberië, straightly told that there has been a war (see mariadoc-war) and made clear that Virtua was doing pretty good back then. President Tuned wasn’t happy about the fact that the Cyberian Parliament was taking so long on deciding. Minister of Finance The Eye was nowhere to be found, and from the Cyberian Presidential Cabinet of Switzisch, whose job it also is to monitor the foreign activity, all in all it remained silent.
I was determined to find the opinion from the Cyberian President. Some people mentioned Switzisch had no clue about what was going on. But even if this was the case, he wouldn’t show it. “Joep Eerlijk has been a mediator and he did a good job. The current situation reveals more information about the way Virtuans think. As long as Virtua stays headstrong, the problem won’t be solved. I do not see this happen with the current leaders.”
To the question what is the cause of this crisis Switzisch answered: “It is just Virtua’s stiff headed reaction. Virtua tries desperately to close their borders. There were no clear deals with them considering the boat question, so we don’t have to worry about anything at all. The boat trips of private sellers were started up early and there are already a lot of ships that sail around, so there is no use at all to waste 10,000 ISH.” Remarkable is the fact that nobody ever told the Virtuan Government that it was decided not to continue with the original plan. “Before I could tell it, Tuned revolted against us and this is the point where I decided to break contacts with Virtua all together.”
Also in Virtua people started to complain about the situation. Virtuans discovered the fact that Cyberian traders could get a subsidy for trading in another country. In the backgrounds of the Council Room, President Tuned mentioned this was a straight attack on the Virtuan economy. “Cyberian traders come to Virtua and straightly compete with local traders and undermine their prices. This will result into a higher notation in the end result list. It is a shame that the Cyberian Government didn’t tell us anything about this matter. And surely not about the high price of 2,000 ISH subsidy.” This quite remarkable tone was admired by a large part of the Virtuans. “They shouldn’t use this kind of techniques without telling us. We have to isolate ourselves. If we let them come over, they would only abuse our economy.” told Andrakon. Also thehopehitman2 couldn’t agree with the behavior of Cyberië. “Cyberians do not have any reason to come here. In the past they caused to crash our prices.”
Actually both countries say the same thing. “They come to ruin our market, sir. We don’t like them.”
In conversation with the President of Virtua, Tuned, this attitude comes forward very strongly. According to Tuned there are three main reasons why this situation escalated. The first reason is the difference in mentality of both countries. In Virtua you don’t have to be very active in contradiction to the Cyberian playing style. This is the reason why Cyberians can easily sabotage the Virtuan market. It seems that there is a historical suspicion from Virtua towards Cyberië, because the first statement every round is being proven. Second, there is this ship agreement. It is clear that it would be a good idea for both countries, a win-win situation. But if you look at the direct action of the Virtuan Government, the approval of this idea came too soon. Cyberië was still nagging (even still at this moment of speaking, redaction), then this idea seems very bad. Third, there is a communication problem with Cyberië. The Virtuan people never got any information about the trader subsiding of the Cyberian shops in foreign countries. This is being regarded as a form of disrespect.
Cyberian international mediator Joep Eerlijk places the question of guilt directly in the hands of Virtua. “Virtua prefers to have no trade with Cyberians at all. However Cyberië wants to trade with Virtua with pleasure. Virtua didn’t like the idea of the economy boost of Cyberië and saw this action as a threat to their own market. I think this is the reason why they overreacted towards the Cyberian Government, unnecessary, and in an aggressive way. We requested a small break in the negotiation and made a few deals. These deals weren’t followed by Virtua, that is the main reason why we don’t put a lot of attention in this case anymore, but we let Virtua take the initiative. Cyberië always said they were keeping all options open, where Virtua started demanding. That’s where it went wrong in my opinion.”
The direct effect of all these actions caused Virtua to make a few by-laws. These by-laws weren’t approved by the Cyberian government. The Virtuan harbor prices should be 500 ISH. It should become forbidden to trade on Virtuan soil for foreign traders. This rule could be overruled by Presidential approval, but it was clear that this action was against all Cyberian traders. The third by-law was even more controversial. The Virtuan President decided that planning and supporting attacks would no longer be a punishable act when performed by Virtuan officials. This caused Cyberië to think that Virtua was planning an attack against her.
“Especially this third by-law worries me. Virtua always seemed like a good partner to us with conversations on the same level. The way they are going right now is surely not positive. But the by-laws I think shouldn’t be a real threat to us, nor to our traders. If the Federation has a problem with our subsidy rules, they can start a normal conversation about it with us and then we can see what options are available. However putting pressure on us is surely not a good way.” says Joep Eerlijk.
As a result of the changes, also Cyberië was preparing for war. Member of Parliament Podje in the Parliament: “I would like to get elucidation about the rumor that we are hiring Digitalians to start a war against Virtua, if this is true, then I think the whole Parliament needs to get this information. If necessary we will join your special private club.” It is being rumored that President Switzisch already had contacts with high Digitalian representatives, to make sure to get the support of Digitalië if a war breaks out. Now he has raised the state of alertness, an option that we haven’t seen in a while now. Also Members of Parliament call for action. Member of Parliament IkbenBen19 asked to raise the harbor docking prices to 500 ISH and to forbid Virtuan people to trade on Cyberian soil. He also mentioned to consider activating the army option which was invented by Marcello Alvarez.
The clear aversion from the Parliament for international treaties seems strangely enough accepted by archrival Tuned himself. “International treaties are not binding documents so they don’t have any use. They don’t have any influence on the policy.” This didn’t stop him to present a new trade treaty with Ibisha a few days earlier. This shows it is possible to get things done.
A war between Virtua and Cyberië seems inevitable. Both parties start to arm themselves, prepare to start an attack or to defend themselves against attacks. And this all because of some doubtful reasons.
Is Cyberië guilty? They caused a delay in voting for the boat treaty pretty badly. This voting ended on Tuesday (second week) with a draw, but because of the absence of the President, no decisive answer is being expected before next week. To execute an idea that was mentioned to help the economy in the first days after three weeks seems a bit odd as well.
Is it maybe the fault of Virtua? Were they running ahead too fast buying a boat already without any approval of Cyberië? Didn’t they overreacted and didn’t they provoke an arms race by announcing attack plans in public?
Only one thing is certain. The statements from both countries seems to harden and it doesn’t look like there will be a solution soon. Virtua refuses to talk to Cyberië because the last mentioned would compete Virtuans out of the market. Cyberië in return refuses to talk with Virtua because they ‘reacted in an unnecessary aggressive way to negotiations that were still to be discussed’. The only one who still seems to believe in a good end is Joep Eerlijk. He officially mentions to have no more contacts with Virtua, but the redaction got to know about an arrangement between him and the Virtuan President. It seems the conversation didn’t work out, because a few moments later we saw a furious Tuned leaving in his Limcousine.
When I saw Joep Eerlijk walking outside, I started to talk with him and asked him how he looks upon the current situation. Against my expectations he too seemed a bit down. “The Cyberians will never drop the subsidies, because this would make them look ridiculous.” Virtuans won’t give in, that is clear as well. We will have to wait a little longer and then we can publish the attack plans of both countries. You thought Wikileaks was shrewd? We are even shrewder!