A hard look at tough decisions.
George Barker
Ines Schumacher, president of South Africa, has written a post defending her decision to betray Australia as the fruit of pragmatism: in order to protect South Africa from a PTO, she decided to trade South African territory to Brazil, giving Brazil a platform to attack Australia -- heretofore an ally of South Africa.
Now, dressing up cowardice and betrayal as a "tough decision" makes for nice propaganda to South Africans, who want to hear that stuff, but nobody else is fooled. The recent leadership has turned South Africa into a lap dog, because after this, after ratting out the PTO of Brazil that would have left South Africa a respected member of the world community, no one trusts you -- no one trusts Ines in particular, or South Africa in general -- so begging Brazil and Indonesia, which PTOed South Africa, wiped it off the map, and then were generous enough to sell back some of its regions, begging these very same countries to "help" you, and selling out those few countries who felt any loyalty to South Africa in the process, is the only road Ines sees available. The toll for travelling that road is whatever dignity, respect, and above all, trust from other countries, South Africa had left.
Ines has been the de facto ruler of South Africa for about six months. Has South Africa made any progress in that time? You're back on the map -- great job! But so are Canada, and Spain, and they did it without sacrificing their self respect, or the respect of anyone else. You continue trying to manufacture a population boom -- a laudable thing. But why would anyone want to play a game where they live in a country that hides in a corner of the world refusing to do anything, until it is forced -- and then its decision is to sell out its allies? Is that the sort of game you, South African reader, would want to play? It seems to suit Ines fine, but in order to grow your country you need a lot more than people like Ines. And above all -- and this is the signature sign of failure and stagnation -- your leadership continues to see no option for survival except to make sordid deals with the very countries that wiped you out and now occupy your regions.
I don't think South Africa is making any progress at all. Had you made the really "tough decisions," had you chosen to fight with the Polish PTO, work with other countries to recover your regions via RW, you would have also been back on the map now -- but you wouldn't be under the thumb of Brazil and Indonesia, wouldn't be required to sell out your allies, would have your dignity, would be a nation native South Africans could join and be proud of, and have an incentive to keep playing for. That isn't the South Africa you have now, and you can thank Ines, and her record of making the same types of "tough decisions," for that.
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OK, this argument keeps coming up, so I'll word my response to it more clearly than I did above.
Defence of Ines: "We did what we did to try and protect this country from a PTO, it may not have been the best choice for our allies but it was the best option we had. Every country puts themselves before their allies."
This is short term, reactive thinking. You don't seem to understand this: This "deal" has changed the way South Africa is perceived. Forever. Just as the UK did with their deal. Had you gone down fighting (if that even happened), you would have had respect, and the good will of other nations. What you have now is nothing. Brazil and Indonesia will "help" you, as Brazil did here, as long as you are willing to obey them. This is exactly the situation the UK is in now. They are locked in to one alliance, because no one else wants anything to do with them. They aren't even a sovereign nation any longer; they simply click the attack button whenever Hungary, Russia, and Indonesia tell them to click it. Similarly, you are now a "sovereign" nation to the extent that Brazil and Indonesia allow you to be one -- no further. Your security rests entirely in their hands, because no one else will help you, because no one else trusts you. This was the path you were set on months ago, when Ines decided to make the deal to give you one lousy region in exchange for fealty to Brazil. It's the path you're still on, and now there's no way off of it.
The saddest part of all is that the PTO could still succeed, and you'll have further discredited yourselves in exchange for nothing at all.
Comments
Lol fine I post this comment on THIS article.
Astra Kat G: >A hard look?
Seems like it's pretty darn ~easy~ to publish an article in eUSA criticizing an eSA decision with with you disagree.
I don't think publishing an article in one country or another has any bearing on whether George is being confrontational or not. Since Astra you seem to be implying that George is chicken or something for not publishing his article in South Africa. No offense George but you're very standoffish and also very smart, I know George doesn't avoid arguments.
Congratulations to South Africa on stooping to the level of the eUK, sacrificing allies because its "going to happen. One way or the other."
eUK should ally with eSA, they have a lot in common.
>>>Plus, eSA doesnt have the power that Canada or Spain possesses
Neither Canada nor Spain freed themselves alone. They worked *with* their allies, and their allies were happy to work with them, because both countries had demonstrated they could be relied upon.
Doing nothing is boring, and nobody wants to play a boring game. Thus, stagnation. The biggest influx of players I've seen to SA came after the PTO and wipe out.
^ That was probably the AGW, brought by Travis, good times.
Wow, Ines has an even poorer approval rating amongst foreigners than I thought. Good article, a keen insight and as brutal and scathing as Ines deserves for her transgressions and quisling attitude.
Oh yeah, Corn and exilious are both trolls, sorry, eSA seems to attract those.
Ines has a plan for everything, don't worry about it mmmkay?
^
You're a lapdog, do you truly think that I'm insulted?
Nope, I wasn't insulting you. But I am pleased that you took the time to think that I insulted you.
Im just telling these good people some common knowledge about eSA, they could think I'm a troll if I hadn't said anything 😁
editz: eSA gets some goodies out of this, and Australia has plenty of allies for the defending right?
eUK should ally with eSA, they have a lot in common.x2
Publius speaks truth.
@Craierinzane
I am sure Romania also had a plan before it lost it's empire. I am sure Indonesia had a plan before it got push out of the US. I am sure Iran had a plan before being pushed out of Canada. Just because somone has a plan doesn't mean it is a good plan.
It's no wonder eSA constantly berates EDEN-allied countries with the amount of trolling I've seen in comments here (and don't forget that prominent eSA trolls Exilious and Cornelious aren't originally eSouth African, either).
I know most of you are decent people, so it's hard for me to see you trolling tiny eSA like this.
>>>editz: eSA gets some goodies out of this, and Australia has plenty of allies for the defending right?
So this is about "goodies"? It resembles the UK's deal more and more. The UK got lots of "goodies" in the form of other countries' regions, but things didn't work out for them so well. That's the point: Ines is unable to think of anything except her idea of safety and "goodies." Give her a region, and she considers it a triumph. Yet, here you are, forced to betray allies to keep those "goodies." And if you think this is the last time it will happen, think again, because South Africa has demonstrated it's an easy mark, and easy marks get played over and over and over, until they are all played out.
Let's look at it this way.
We had 40 citizenship approvals at the start of the term, can't stop the pto that way then.
We could of went to SOL for help but seeing as they don't share a border can't do that.
Ok we ask AUS for help, wait now we've possibly pissed of Brazil and Indonesia and Australia still shares a border with Brazil.
Brazil came to us with an offer, it was a good offer, and looking at our options it was the best possible option at the time. Even if that contract was valid they would only need to give us a q5 defense system for declaring war on Aus.
We did what we did to try and protect this country from a PTO, it may not have been the best choice for our allies but it was the best option we had. Every country puts themselves before their allies.
Big countries can talk big, the last time eSA relied on allies to save itself from a PTO it got wiped off the map because another ally was more valuable.
This is nothing like what the eUK did so don't even try to compare, the eUK was in no danger of destruction eSA is a small country threatened by a PTO group that just took out Venezuela we are trying to save our country with the limited options that we have.
We may have our own issues, but I would suggest all foreigners do not consider Cornelious seriously. He's a fringe element, not because he was made so, but because he feels it's an easy way to authority and power.
And that's coming from a person who has no personal or professional attachment to Ines.
Woah thur buddy, its not like I talk for the leaders of eSA.
I hold no government positions and am not a widely know person. I just wanted to state my opinion of the situation 😁
We get a Q5D and a Q5H I think, those are our goodies since they violated the contract. If they hold through with the contract then eSA gets those goodies.
As said many times before, either way Brazil would have gotten to Australia. Ines took the least expensive and least painful way.
Basically, with the contract Brazil said they were going to get to Aus through eSA, no matter what.
eSA gets saved from being attacked and wasting money, gets some goodies, gets its regions, and all that is lost is some ++.
This is ridiculous.
Even if we didn't agree with Brazil's proposal to sign away our regions, they would have attacked us anyway, and take our whole country by force. They did it before in less than 24 hours. They can do it again. We are at the same strength we were the last time they did it, plus we have weaker allies than we did then.
What would you have us do, risk the thousands of gold we have spent bartering for our regions back, the hundreds of hours of our lives we have put into rebuilding our country after the fall of the second republic? Just to save an ally who has done little physically for our situation?
What would you expect us to do? Fight with SOL as region after region is wiped out, and on the 20th get hit by a congressional PTO? Have our treasuries wiped clean? Have our taxes skyrocketed and our economy destroyed?
I refuse to see the third republic fall. Not now, not ever. The first republic fell by a three month PTO. The second republic fell because we decided to sally fourth against Indonesia & Brazil to reclaim our regions. The Third Republic will not fall because of pure brawn.
I believe in fighting to the last man woman and child and giving everyone a god damn gun if we are facing absolute defeat. We were looking down a crossroad. Total annihilation or foreign exile. I will always put my people above some foreign diplomat, and I am glad my President did too. The president thought of us. She thought of our country, of our work. Not some group of allies that has done nothing but offer training wars and criticized us.
No, I will not stand for your pre-judgments of our ways and our decisions. We have been defeated many times. We will not be defeated again.
I laugh at Crazierinzane. Ines keeps you on a short chain.
Do not fear, New World. I am here and I will revive the image of South Africa! Despite Ines's attempts at establishing herself as a permanent ruler, WE WILL NOT LEAVE SA UNTIL IT IS LIBERATED FROM HER GRIP.
South Africa, having betrayed her allies, is now in the same category as the United Kingdom, whose name is forever synonymous with fail, and who is not worth invading. The only hope for SA is a total change of leadership.
"I laugh at Crazierinzane. Ines keeps you on a short chain.
Do not fear, New World. I am here and I will revive the image of South Africa! Despite Ines's attempts at establishing herself as a permanent ruler, WE WILL NOT LEAVE SA UNTIL IT IS LIBERATED FROM HER GRIP."
Did you know I have never even talked to Ines in anyway possible, wether it be in comments, articles, forums, or IRC? Isn't that an interesting fun fact. See exilious? You learn something new everyday, you get 2 gold starts!
As some of you might have guessed, exil here is part of the PTO group. He prides himself on trying to make unaware people believe that he is not attempting to PTO eSA. In fact the leader of the PTO even said he was here with exilious to PTO eSA...for some reason they made it sound like they were all gay. >_>
>>>The only reason eSA is on the map now is because of the hard work of people like Ines and she has made some tough choices for the country.
The PTO of Brazil failed by what, 3 seats? Had it succeeded, you would have been back on the map. Had it not succeeded, you would have been back on the map via RW, helped by your allies. In both cases, you would be in better shape than you are now. "Tough decisions" are one thing; I prefer good decisions.
Lets take this disgrace out of office!
http://www.erepublik.com/en/South-Africa/law/20849" target="_blank">http://www.erepublik.com/en/South-Africa[..]20849
You never went down fighting, you went down from a PTO from them and lost all of your MPPs. And in your shoes eSA, I would've went to Australia for help, not people who invaded me.
I STRONGLY agree with this article as it's my opinion too. Great job George!
Cheers from eDenmark
Former eSA citizen
Serious business, indeed!
I stand together with Exilious. We wont leave this country until it is liberated from this dictatorship rule.
eSa = eUK 😃
Sir, you forget that Australia betrayed friends very recently. And many of our friends have frequently betrayed South Africa without us complaining. This is just another cycle of the New World.
When you are member of EDEN, have the biggest country in terms of GDP and population for neighbour and ally and you're not sandwiched between two major powers, you can afford many extravagances.
Okay guys, we had no choice. Brazil approached us saying, "Hey, we wanna attack eAustralia. Now we hear you are having problems with this PT thing. So, how about you give us three regions that will allow us to attack Australia. In exchange, we give you some free stuff and give you your regions back in a month. Or, we can just charge in and wipe you guys out again if you want?" We chose the route that would NOT destroy us.
Also, we tried to stop them from attacking anyone. One of the clauses in the contract said that Brazil could not use any newly gained regions from eSA to attack ANYONE or else they give us a Q5 defense system. Its not our fault that they decided to go ahead and attack anyway.
However, even though I supported this plan, there are a few things that Ines could have done better.
1. The only people that approved the contract were the Pres.' of both countries and the banks. Since 51% of neither sides' congress approved this, this makes the contract void as per eRep law. This gave Brazil a HUGE chance to fuck us over. Fortunately they didnt, but that still should have been addresses before this whole thing went through.
2. Ines should have told people! I mean its bad enough she didnt let the public know about this until a day before the plan was to go underway, but she didnt tell SOL or eAUS about it either! I mean seriously? Was it s hard to at least send the Pres. of eAUS a PM saying, "Hey, just as a heads up, I have a hunch eBrazil may use this plan to attack you. You guys should get ready to fend them off." 😐
I like you Ines and I have the utmost respect for you, but you kinda screwed up here.