Intergalactic Summit

In Shinsuru, there's a species of cold water fish that lives under the northern arctic circle called the Pearl Diano. They're slim, silvery fish about the length of one's forearm. They swim together in a massive swarm and what makes them peculiar is that they survive off much larger creatures.

When blood falls into the water, they frenzy, stripping flesh from bone with alarming speed. Whalers talk about whales beached with massive chunks torn out of their sides.

Far to the south, Shinsuru has an ancient coral reef system. The fish there thrive in the warm, tropical waters. They are colorful, bright and come in a multitude of different shapes and sizes.

I assume if the fish of the coral reefs and the Pearl Diano were to create their own respective governments and culture, they would look very different and seem odd to one another.

And I was under the impress calamari was the combination of the words Caldari and Amarr. (Calamari)

I admit to some hesitancy in involving myself in a discussion that already looks like a wreck, but Oliver has both asked and demonstrated a need for other citizens of the Federation to involve themselves in the debate, so I will. To what extent it will come off as having his back I'm not sure, but here goes:

I've grown up in the region of Solitude - more specifically, in Gererique, on the second planet from the sun, on which my family owns a spot of agricultural land. Aside from occasional Serpentis lowlives, Intaki loafers and Ni-Kunni contraband runners, it's a civil and quiet corner of space.

We grow a varied assortment of produce, mostly wheat and vegetables, but also fruit and berries. Our property also includes a handful of vineyards, from which we bottle several labels of wine. With only a fractional exception, all we produce is sold on the domestic market (the Federation-wide domestic market, that is, not system-wide or regional).

While primogeniture has largely fallen out of favor elsewhere in the Federation, it's still practiced many places in Solitude, and in Gererique, it's very common. In my family, we are quite aware - and fond - of our history. We recognize the danger that dividing up our property could pose to our family and our brand name. As such, my older brother stands to inherit all of the land and the family business, while my younger brother and I are recompensated in other ways.

On the surface, it might look like such a system would only encourage children who don't stand to inherit to split from the family and go their own ways. In practice, the opposite is true. My family is quite close-knit as a social group. We all have a vested interest in seeing each other succeed and the family business prosper, and our shared social network is invaluable to us all - far more useful and discriminating than any public welfare system could ever hope to be. Many of us have also invested in land of our own, close to the family property. I myself own a cabin and a modest property of about 500 square kilometers of forested hills and mountains nearby, where I go hiking and hunting in my leisure time.

We expect excellence from ourselves, excellence from each other and excellence from our workers. Solitude is a fairly young region with a growing economy, and diligence and hard labor is required if it is to continue to grow. It's not uncommon to hear locals say, with equal parts pride and scorn, that this is where the money is made which the Federal authorities squander so idly elsewhere. There is no place for slackers and lay-abouts here. That is not to say we never pause to relax and enjoy the fruits of life - but doing so is far more satisfying when it's done after a day of industrious work.

We also expect diligence and good behavior from our children. We teach them to respect and heed their parents and teachers, do our best to instill in them the attitude that school is a place where you better yourself by learning useful skills and knowledge, and we don't let them walk around looking like ruffians. I dread to think what the reaction of my parents would have been if I had come home as a teen sporting one of those Minmatar tattoos so in vogue elsewhere.

That is not to say that we aim to stifle our children's minds. On the contrary, we encourage creativity, curiosity and ambition. We do teach them, however, that dreams have to be tempered by responsibility and backed up by hard work and effort.

On a whole, I can empathize with a lot of what the Caldari say about the importance of family, duty, hard work and sound business sense. Obvious differences of history, tradition and ritual aside, the greatest difference as I see it is that my family's business is its own independent enterprise. We are not beholden to a larger corporation or megacorporation. We would never allow any share of our business to fall into the hands of other people. Not outsiders, not neighbors, not even the most senior among our hired workers. It is ours and ours alone.

I've often heard it said that Caldari ships are designed by two different commitees, those commitees not having reference to each others work until the job is complete.

That said, what Caldari ships lack in aesthetics, they more than make up for in performance and I suppose that function should define form.

Thank you for posting Emile, and yes I totally agree on your point about not being beholden to larger megacorps.

Back home on Duripant my family to this day still helps maintain a community hydroponic garden and I remember the thing I always liked most was that after the harvest we didn't sell off the produce for a profit to the trade ships that would pass through but just shared it with each other, and if we had an overstock of something that we couldn't properly store it was customary that we should freely offer it to neighboring communities and they would do the same. My mother used to tell me that we did this because in the ancient times there was a point when many of the communities on Duripant were unable to sustain themselves, and it was only because people freely gave of themselves that we avoided civil war over resources and survived to eventually prosper.

I thought that the Achura, Deteis and Civire were different ethnicities?

Oddly enough, this is the exact same complaint that the Caldari homeworlders had about the Federation when they seceded from it - that its politics were dictated by the ethnic Gallentean majority. If memory serves, Gallenteans are still the largest ethnic group in the Federation by a large margin, and still have a controlling interest in the political process. It is, after all, still called "the Gallente Federation", rather than for example "The Federal United Star Systems" (the acronym for which would be FUSS - how apt!)

If you think the ethnocentric nature of the State is a matter of shame for us, then you're failing to grasp why it was founded in the first place. We wanted to live by OUR culture, OUR rules and OUR morals. If persons or cultures other than those of Caldari Prime descent find that their outlook on life is compatible with our own, then they can do perfectly well in the State and find themselves perfectly accepted.

Is there racial tension? Of course there is! Human nature is far too stubbornly stupid to eliminate such frippery. But in a Meritocracy, a manager who doesn't promote their people on merit, and instead promotes by ethnic group isn't doing their own job properly, and is setting themselves up to be replaced. For those with competence, skill and a good work ethic, you would be hard pressed to find a society with more opportunities for success than the State.For the incompetent, lazy and unproductive, the safety nets and vast expensive tax-funded institutions of the Federation may be more to their liking. We won't stop them from leaving, we just won't pay for their shuttle ticket either.

The whole point is that it's our society by choice, and we won't bomb you for trying to leave it.

I feel that you're being a little rash in your judgement about me, as time goes by and I become more accustomed to the vibrational tone of this IGS I look forward to proving you "beyond a shadow of a doubt" wrong.

"Peacock" is a more apt description for capsuleers of any race who like to sit around and make a lot of noise boasting and posturing without any actual action to back their noise up. The term most used for pilots serving under the FDU's banner is "frog".

I've heard of a couple of etymologies for the term:

• There's a popular ethnic Gallente dish called grenouille made from frogs.
• Like frogs, Gallente sit about constantly making a great deal of noise while saying nothing of substance.
• Gallente ships are green and have an organic look. One of their now-defunct transport ships looked like a frog.
• Gallente is similar to a Sebestor word - gha-lan - which is a small, hopping amphibian.

And to be sure, it's an ethnic term, not a nationalistic one. If you apply it to an Intaki, you're doing it wrong. Though it has spread to mean a general Federation citizen. Whether you think that's appropriate depends on if you're a descriptivist or a proscriptivist.