[EARTH] Leaders of the 'Standard-Bearers' Recognized for Domestic Philanthropy Efforts

[EARTH] Leaders of the 'Standard-bearers' Recognized for Domestic Philanthropy Efforts

via Macario Azevedo, Tayseri Times

[TOKYO] In what many are calling a significant turning point for the growing political movement, Mr.’s Khorshid Shahbazi and Isaac Algard along with Ms. Chandrabhaga Sathe and Chairwoman Lê Thi Mai jointly received the Masaru Matsumoto Philanthropic Award today for their extensive investment and direct involvement in a number of Earth’s most devastated regions; namely the Latin America-Central and South East-Pacific administrative zones. And, according to recently released reports by the office of Admiral Hackett, their work has not been without tangible effect: if the current rate of reconstruction and rehabilitation continues the national blocs are expected to break the Sixty Five Percent barrier by close of the the second and third fiscal quarters of 2189 respectively. A welcome change from the much more conservative reports released early last year that placed said dates closer to late 2192 if, indeed, at all.

“Truly, these men and women have honored my father’s legacy of charity and hospitality,” stated Matsumoto Junko, CEO of Matsumoto Technologies during her presentation speech. “To all those who would doubt the power, or reach of human kindness, I say that one only need to look to people such as these to have their faith reaffirmed.”

However the selection of the recipients has drawn no small amount of criticism and ire from watchdog groups such as the popular blog EyeOnTheSkies; which, in a recent post, drew attention to the party’s connections with the SA military, steadfast backing of the Systems Alliance Transitional Authority on Earth, as well as the party’s recent absorption of a substantial number of Terra Firma moderates. Accusing the organization as a spiritual successor to the ill-fated group, the essay has already seen widespread distribution across the extranet.

In an interview with the Times the Chairwoman acknowledged the accusations, though reaffirmed her adherence to what she believes to be the party’s basic tenets and organizational discipline. “Our motive is not and has never been one of xenophobia or hate. Hate is born of fear and misunderstanding and I find that all three make for a poor seat from which to make decisions on policy. What we support, what we have always supported is a strong, self reliant humanity that can engage with its allies and colleagues such as the Hierarchy and Clans on equal terms. And we believe that the key to this rests within the preservation of the myriad of human cultures against exterior erosion, a strong national navy and marine corps, a secure colonial network, and the growth of domestic industries.”

A retired Rear Admiral of the SAN Third Fleet who served during the Mindoir Incursions and subsequent crackdowns in the Skyllian Verge; Ms. Lê Thi Mai was elevated to a position of some prominence during the Reaper War; primarily for her actions in coordinating and leading resistance forces in the South East Asian theater. She is credited with overseeing the evacuations of Hanoi and Tokyo as well as organizing a number of successful guerrilla actions over the course of the conflict.

In the same interview Chairwoman indicated that the Standard-Bearers would be both capable and interested in participating in the SA Parliamentary elections at the conclusion of the Five Year Plan, citing party discipline, the self evident results of their work, and an amenable political atmosphere.

“Frankly,” stated Ms. Lê Thi Mai, “I like our chances.”

Now a Seperatist is the leader of Taetrus, and there's an uneasy peace. It started when the separatists left the Hierarchy to start a new life of tribalism on Taetrus, and the Hierarchy shoved its dick where it didn't belong, as per usual.

Actually no, not quite.

Facinus? I don't support them. I support the Sundowners! Wait, the Sundowners are on Taetrus, right?

Okay, I checked with my PR boys. We've been supporting the Sundowners, not Facinus.

...No.

The Sundowners are from Solregit.

.... Shit. Well, I need to go cancel some contracts and set up new ones on Solregit....

Mmmmm. So while our dear philanthropist friend tries to figure out which war crimes he wants to apologize for and which home grown insurgent movement he supports in the name of freedom (and oh believe me all those bombing victims are totally free of not only Hierarchy oppression but also limbs, viscera, blood, and cranial tissue through the politically liberating force of homemade explosives), back to the matter at hand!

Namely, Standard-Bearers: mulched by Solarist, plowed under by Labor-Colonial, or actually standing a chance of getting at least a handful of seats in Parliament in a few years?

daawwwwww, lookit da toothy li'l mongrel tryin' to swim 'troo his creds

SO ADORBS

I'M GONNA CALL 'IM

sssssandy

There's a Jaffrok Jumba Octuple Bypass With a Cardiac Shunt recently delivered to 1 Dwickcast Tower with your name on it.



It's currently hidden somewhere inside Terrorbyte's office as per my orders. Be a dear and go get yourself some dinner.

HAW

You can't fool me, Scars. I've been rippin' da beach ball's panels apart all night as it is - and I got a whole crew what oversees da whole food-shippin' bidness at dis here tower.

Can't have da old man sendin' enny more chili wit'out me knowin', after all - shit burns faster'n khar'shanian super-herpes 'troo a faceplace's [CONTENT EXCISED AS PER CERBERUS DECENCY VI PROTOCOLS]

D'oh you cheeky old bastard. Too clever by far for the likes of little old me. Shame, it's probably just sitting in the mail room now I suppose.

Slowly filling the space with the scent of roasted meat.

The fries atop it's massive girth tinging the atmosphere with an aroma of salt.

The grease at the bottom of the crate sloooooooowly pooling out and lapping against the datapad levees the poor, terribly frightened interns have erected.

Will they hold?

Oh well I suppose we'll just have to see. Pity, waste of a perfectly good meal.

And mailroom.

....

Dude, no you're not. This is a vorcha. Maybe notice a few differences? And nobody ever got rich making booze on Omega. Breweries are flammable, you dig?

There are a few translators for Vorcha that actually work. Granted, only those fortunate enough to have the money to afford them. And I was very fortunate, indeed, to see a certain episode of "News with Curr". I hope they mass produce them for cheap access, but nobody really gives two shits about us, do they? It's all about the Asari or the Salarians, who sat with their thumbs up their asses until the last minute to save their asses.

ohhh noooo, they're incorporating the moderates of terra firma

how dare they absorb the sane part of it.

In terms of what they did wrong in pursuit of this award, I believe that who they chose to associate with is the least on the list. In all honesty, I must say that I am quite impressed at the extent to which terms such as 'philanthropy', 'reconstruction', and 'rehabilitation' have been loosened up in order to include the actions taken by these organizations in Southeast Asia, let alone put them so high on the list.

Please enlighten us on these suppose wrongs.

The Standard-bearers have donated a significant amount of their time and their money to reconstruction efforts on Earth. They put their supporters' donations towards it. Large donations towards the betterment of sentients=philanthropy. They're not qualifying this with those they help agreeing with their political beliefs.

So please explain, because right now it seems you're talking out of your arse.

As for whether they'll win seats, I think thy have a decent shot, they're racking up some goodwill after all. On the other hand, people will be trying to limit the military's involvement in politics o whatever, and everyone knows they're strongly connected to the military. Still reckon the Solarists have the next election in the bag, if they can find a way to appease the colonies.

I suppose I misspoke. It is not so much 'wrongs' as 'failures to do right' by the people they are supposedly helping. If you will be bothered to look at similar efforts in other parts of the Earth, and further, in other parts of the Galaxy, you will notice that there are two distinctly different kinds of charity that are more popular than the rest. The first is the kind illustrated in the activities of the Standard-Bearers and their compatriots. In this fashion, large amounts of time, effort, and money are poured into the regions in need, but there is no plan involved. There is no sustainability. There is no reason, in fact, to believe that those on the receiving end of this 'philanthropy' will ever be able to manage life without it. This model only looks good on paper, and only to the uninitiated. It is however, a drain on the resources of those contributing to it with no end or possibility of recourse.

The other kind, which I support, takes a heavier initial investment and much greater amounts of time to bear fruit. Greater emphasis is placed on the development of infrastructure and education, and also developing the ability of the recipients to maintain both independently of outside aid. At the outset, this model of charitable work appears to fall short in terms of benefits to those the aid is provided to, especially relative to the investments those on the giving end are making. However, the long-term benefits, both to the recipients and to the providers, are far greater than can possibly be managed with the other primary model. One of the worst possible things to do with charity work is to make those receiving it dependent on it.

That said, if anything, it is in their efforts at philanthropy that the inadequacy of the Standard-Bearers for positions of office is shown. If these short-sighted measures are how they habitually approach public works, then their presence in the Parliamentary seats they are seeking will not be beneficial to the Alliance.

See this is particularly wrenching for me: I'm a Solarist at heart, a Labor-Colonial by trade, and a Standard-Bearer by sympathy (I'm a bit of a political slut you see). But, ultimately I think, the Solarists will dominate Parliament with or without the support of the LC. Whether they'll actually be able to do anything afterwards depends on how many concessions they're willing to cut to the minority party.

Firstly, I somewhat enjoyed being able to excise ninety percent of post to get down to the actual point. It's a pleasant reminder that, no matter how far into the realms of verbosity I verge I will never, ever, equate the sheer torrent of literary diarrhea currently oozing from the soggy, sorry mess that is your post.

Secondly:
The Sixty-five percent barrier is the minimum threshold for self directed sustainability. Do you know what that means? That means that as a direct result of the actions of the group as confirmed by the office of Hackett (an independent observer that has neither the motive to lie on behalf of the Standard-Bearers nor the opportunity considering the sheer prevalence of data and information sharing in the modern age and how much of a media focus Earth itself has become). Your argument (and I use that term so. Very. Loosely.) doesn't have a single actual support to stand on. Not a single fact. Not a single piece of credible logic. Nothing.

In fact (and this is really the best part), the approach that you yourself laud so highly is precisely what they are doing. Your entire rambling, self satisfied diatribe ultimately ends up crediting the very people you're attempting to disparage.

So allow me to the first to offer you a round of applause and thank you for your staunch support of the Standard-Bearers Mr. Onomatopoeia.

You are quite right. I am terribly sorry for my brash reaction. It is just that the results displayed in this article struck me as too good to be true. Far too good to be true, in fact. I did not wish to associate my suspicions with the mere facts that the Standard-Bearers were tied into SATAE and had recently recruited the "moderates" of Terra Firma into their ranks, which is not a good combination in itself, in my opinion, but I believe these traits are not bad enough to merit counteracting the good they have done for the residents of those regions of Earth. For that reason, I find myself guilty of imagining an alternative angle to view their actions that, while easier to attack, may in reality be contrary to the facts. I apologize for doing so.

That said, I would feel more comfortable if she stated her idea of the Alliance's goals in reverse order. No offense to our standing military, but I believe that "the growth of domestic industries" as she put it, should come first. Perhaps that is merely semantics, but to my knowledge, it is normal for people to list goals in the order they intend to see them achieved. Again, no offense intended, but rather than empowerment, what the Alliance military needs now is proper assignment in defense of Alliance colonies. What is needed far more than territorial expansion is stability and proper control of what we do have (that is, in protection from piracy), a lesson I would have hoped we as a race would have learned by this point.

I mean, the Standard-bearers are clearly already in the process of working on infrastructure. Why would they let that slide to the back-burner once they obtain the Parliamentary seats they are pursuing? Especially given my recent mistake, I would hate to assume that their efforts in this regard are solely for the purpose of gaining popular support in the political field, but that really is what it looks like at a glance. Further, what exactly does the chairwoman intend for the SA to "engage with its allies and colleagues such as the Hierarchy and Clans on equal terms"? Even at their lowest point, the Hierarchy is and will continue to be militarily and financially vastly superior to the SA. There really is no getting past that. We are several thousand years behind in the race. Also, the only reason we are politically anywhere near their position within the greater Milky Way is because of Shepard, who incidentally, made a rather big noise about everybody unifying against the greater threat the Reapers posed.

This in turn raises another question: I do not feel comfortable with the turn of phrase "the preservation of the myriad of human cultures against exterior erosion". Cultures come and go, and while present, they may disperse and generally disseminate among people who do not even understand them. This trait is indicated by the multitude of people wearing clothes with words in languages they do not understand, just because they believe the lettering is exotic. In my opinion, the belief that the influence of external forces "erodes culture" is a fundamental of xenophobia. Then again, perhaps I am just reading too much into it and still coloring the chairwoman's words with my own personal bias. I for one wish for a more cosmopolitan Earth, albeit with a lower population because unless my research is failing me in that regard, humanity is still behind in terms of terraforming it to keep up with the sheer number of people living on it. Probably due to the heavy reliance on colonies which lately either have been wiped out or want nothing to do with us.

I suppose I will just watch the rest of the interviews and read through their public agenda to see if I cannot discern with greater clarity the source of my misgivings about this situation.

....zzzzzzzzZZZZurk.

Is he done? Is it done? Can I reply?

Well apparently not all that sorry considering how you're not letting a little thing like lack of facts, substantive metric, and reality get in your way of being personally offended by the existence of a rival political party.
...Are you real? You do remember that we are missing virtually all of our holdings in the Skyllian Verge correct? That a great many very pleased owners of recently turned frontier property are still decidedly weakened so long as they remain frontier? You're calling a reclamation territorial expansion, I don't even know how to respond to that.
And look even if the Chairwoman did not already address your complaint regarding the growth of domestic industry you answered yourself with your own arguments. Setting aside all platform considerations they're trying to establish a political base on Earth. Which is understandable considering that's where the vast majority of military personnel come from. Self interest alone dictates that they at least make a cursory effort to address those concerns. So...what pray tell? Make zero effort to event attempt to bridge that gap because it's just too damn daunting? Go "well, good enough I suppose" and call it a day? The krogan are starting from essentially scratch. It'll be years before they can pound for pound equal the Alliance fleet? Should they simply not strive to reach something approaching parity with their allies because, let's face it, it's totally never going to happen? Shepard, a handful of decidedly prominent mega-corporations, aggressive territorial grabs, and a number of very good politicians.

Oh yes how dare mean old Mr. ex-Terra Firma want to preserve distinct human cultural groups against external economic and media juggernauts some of whom explicitly practice cultural assimilation. How dare those filthy backwoods hicks strive to make efforts to preserve and nurture crucial parts primarily human born and human oriented custom systems. Because, you see, tourists by t-shirts and idiots get tattoos. This alone is proof enough that culture is in no need of care or upkeep.

The colonies are by and large the most loyal ones left in the System Alliance holdings you miserable waste of genetic material.

It's because you're a brainless blithering twit. There. Look. I just saved you and everyone in this goddamn thread another series of essay length ruminations on "what could they mean by domestic industry?"