Intergalactic Summit

So you're saying that the Minmatar-identifying crewmembers of those Federation Navy ships destroyed at Colelie were failed by the Tribal Council? That's an interesting precedent...

Others have mentioned the ramifications of the policy you claim the Tribal Council holds. Not that I believe you, but I'd like to offer Rhei's statements as evidence to any members of my government who are reading this. That viewpoint, Mr. President and collected Senators, is exactly why I've been encouraging the Federation to treat the Republic as a neutral (instead of friendly) power, and to beef up the border regions with them. If they bring a strike force across the border again, we ideally want to be able to stop them with no Gallente* lives lost.

*For those of you with more... retrograde concepts of identity, I'm using "Gallente" here in the Gallentean manner, not as an ethnic identifier.

I was decrying the rather substantial amount of off topic posting and other hijinks in this thread. It just gets very tedious after a while. Thanks for your thoughts offered in the greatest spirit of concern, I'm sure.

Well, instead of complaining about certain pilots pursuing their own agendas, let's say f*ck them and ignore it while trying our best to keep such an important discussion on track.

Also, I would say capsuleers are far from either 'elite' or 'professional' but that's a minor point to make here...

Rella, how do you feel about this matter being originally discussed? Do you, too, want to see answers from Shakor? What answers do you want and why do you think he will give them to us "elite professionals?"

Personally, as I've said recently, I do not think it matters what we say or do; Shakor will act as he does until the baseline majority acts against him.

I mean no offense when I say this, but I could see all of Electus Matari demanding answers and refusing to fight his proxy war, but it would create no change with Shakor. It's clear to me the Empires merely use us in their politics when necessary, and mute us when it's detrimental.

I hope my opinion is wrong.

-Eran

For what it's worth, I support the shaman's initiative and hope that she gets the answer she and her people need.

You know those last statements tell you everything you need to know about the situation.

The fates of trillions are decided by handfuls of people in small rooms. Get a few people in a cave, and you can soon have it sounding as if there are millions. Such is the price of the echo chamber. First, someone says something absolutely ridiculous. He may be brushed off. But he repeats it, and it bounces off the walls so many times that it eventually sounds like everyone is talking about it.

Perhaps what they need is fresh perspective. I know that traveling the universe outside the Empire is meant to teach others about a faith they have only heard of from their less enthusiastic fellows. However, on a personal level, I can say that I have learned more about my faith simply by traveling among those who are not a part of it at first. Perhaps that is why I continue to travel. I've learned more answers this way than at a monastery.

Perhaps the Matari council have proven that they desperately need perspective from outside their small group. What had likely become egregious offenses to their honor are little more than distant political football. What they consider viable options are truly cause for their people to fear for their lives. Their acceptable losses are fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.

If they refuse to listen to fresh reason, I suppose it will be up to the Matari people whether they inject that reason forcibly, bear the cost of their leaderships' decisions, or leave for more secure space. With the Republic doing their damndest to make enemies of the Gallente and their understandable distaste at returning to Amarr space, I wonder if the Caldari will soon have their own sizable Matari minority.

Not on the same terms that the Federation got theirs, this I promise you.

I see little issue with anyone regardless of their ethnicity becoming a State citizen so long as they are willing to accept that the cultural and societal imperatives of the Caldari State and its constituent corporations take precedence over their own.

However if the matter becomes an hypothetical issue of Matari seeking refuge in the State on supposed humanitarian grounds, then I would say the CEP must enforce the sovereignty of State borders and their integrity by turning their boats back and preventing illegal immigration becoming the norm.

We Minmatar have the Republic. We have a government. We need accountability from our leadership as the OP requested.

The time has come for Minmatar capsuleers to make their influence felt, we mine the ores that produce the minerals that have built the war ships of our Republic. We engage in the commerce that feeds our Republic and supplies employment and opportunity. We have financial ties with every empire of New Eden and all the Alliances small and large of Null security space.

As Minmatar capsuleers we also have an additional duty, we have to make sure our Republic functions in the best long and short time interest of our people, of the Matari.

This foolish chest thumping aggression with our oldest, and honestly only proven ally must conclude.

Power only yields to greater power, and we the Minmatar capsuleers are a greater economic and military power then the Republic.

The long burning desire for our formerly conquered people to self govern has once again been obtained, we must not allow it to be derailed by small minded so called leaders who have not the good sense or administrative skills to feed and clothe all the people adequately. The Republic has the resources, the Republic has the skills, our Republic needs accountability.

We are not ragged primitives as many are so comfortable envisioning us, only a small tiny minority fraction of our population live without paved streets, but they are always displayed as symbols of our existence. Truth is they are only a symbol of how poorly we have held our leaders to account, a symbol of our failure to meet our responsibilities as citizens of the Republic.

So I do not join with merely humbly asking for answers to why the obvious mistakes have been made.

I instead raise my voice and demand action, we the citizens of the Minmatar Republic demand results not excuses!

In my opinion, take what you will of it, the Republic deserves a "re-branding" of sorts.

It is no longer a republic, firstly. Name it how you will, but the 'Minmatar Republic' is no longer such. When you have an election where only one candidate runs, it fails to be either a republic or democracy.

This isn't so much transparency as it is about honesty.



The current state of governance in the Minmatar Empire is closer to the Amarrian Heirs than to any Gallente democracy. You have the seven major houses, and the seven major tribes. These all have a saying in a council, and these council's are the ones who make decisions, regardless of public votes. None of them are elected, but rather selected by others in power based on their status. Certainly, neither Empire gives a damn about transparency; why should they when it is so easily disregarded?

The Amarr government uses God's Will to subvert the demand for answers.

The Minmatar government uses their passions of 'History' to project their power.

It is ironic, in my eyes, how things have turned out. Neither side really has any public representation in their current states.

It is true that many Minmatar will not rest until all "their people" are returned in their hands. It fails to grasp me, though, how a thinking man can believe a man so deeply ingrained in an outsiders culture remains 'your' people. This much was clear with the 9th Generation Slaves, and this much is clear now.

By trying to replace their current culture with one of the Minmatar, you are only doing the same thing the Amarr did. Perhaps you did not use Vitoc to do it, but the ends beget the means. Harass, entice fear, and shame them until they unwillingly submit, perhaps while they even secretly abhor you and practice their old culture, but it is no different besides the use of Vitoc.

The problem of the Minmatar Empire is no different than that of the Gallente or Caldarian Empires, in my mind. We are, in the end, so similar that it seems to pain us. We cannot accept that, in the other man's or woman's shoes, we probably would have done the same. We want to think of us as superior and morally empowered, yet the reality is that this world is darker beyond what we wish to accept. Things are not so cut and dry. The Gallente and Caldari now live on Caldari Prime under a tense peace, but one that hasn't been seen in five years. I only wish the Minmatar and Amarr found themselves on a similar landscape so they could witness each other and reflect.

-Eran

Pilot Mintor while I agree that the Republic, as it's currently constituted, is not a true representative democracy, neither is it a monarchy. The main difference being that the Clan, Tribe and Council heads are all responsible to those whom they lead. When the actions of our leaders are found to be in opposition to the best interests of the people the leaders can be removed from office. In the Empire the only way to remove high level authorities is by order of the sovereign or death (via natural causes, assassination or murder).