From: Alan E and Carmel J Brain <aebrain@dynamite.com.au>
> On other matters, more GZGpedia related, some work needs doing on
heh. The entire NI mindset and philosophy is based on that never happening
again. But it never hurts to have more allies covering your back. On the NI
homepage, I have listed generic "trade agreements" with OU, but it could (and
maybe should) be developed further. Defense pacts? other types of alliance?
> In any event, given the
Sounds like a decent place to live.
> Maybe it's because we're all to busy down here fighting off the
Now there's a spinoff FT power: The Terran Union of Uplifted Species (though
whou would want to uplift spiders and snakes?).
On Fri, 10 Dec 1999 10:54:57 -0500 "Izenberg, Noam"
> <Noam.Izenberg@jhuapl.edu> wrote:
Quoting Alan:
> In any event, given the number of Red Sea Pedestrians in Oz, there'd
> Sounds like a decent place to live. <
I've always thought so; I just wish I still lived there!
> Maybe it's because we're all too busy down here fighting off the
And you forget _them_ at your peril! <eg>
> Now there's a spinoff FT power: The Terran Union of Uplifted Species
You don't uplift _them_ -- you squash them! Preferably with a
landslide. The sharks get depth charges...
Phil, who once told an MIT professor of space science about Drop Bears... and
I cracked up totally when someone else mentioned Tree Kangaroos and he looked
at me as if to say, "Is this guy kidding?" <g>
Hmm, actually you might be surprised about how much stronger and reinforced
nationalistic feelings become with social/ethnic groups that have
migrated
to Australia. Without over generalising - Turks, Vietnamese, Greeks,
Maltese and Lebanese in Sydney and Melbourne for example have some extremely
closed little communities.
Bringing this relative to GZG, extrapolate this to any of the colonies and
you've got plenty of ripe little brush wars that can flare up; ripe for
scenarios and mini campaigns!
Given teh OU propensity to 'fence sit' on most occasions trade with NI would
probably be quite common; best price is always so attractive....
Owen G
> -----Original Message-----
> Glover, Owen wrote:
Oh, I agree. But they don't build walls around these areas, with razor wire on
top. And although they tend to mix only "with their own kind", there are no
raids from one area to another. There's no "Paki Bashing".
There's no risk of a Chinese being murdered in Vietnamatta (Cabramatta -
a heavily Vietnamese area in Sydney) just because he's Chinese. Do some
travelling around the world, and you'll see all the above. e.g.
the "Peace Wall" separating Protestant/Unionists from
Catholic/Republicans in Northern Ireland. Try entering the Turkish part
of Cyprus if your name ends in -ian.
As I said, I've personally known people of immediate Greek descent to marry
people of immediate Turkish descent here. Now it's by no means common, but the
fact that it can happen at all puts Oz way ahead of most of the rest of the
world.
> Bringing this relative to GZG, extrapolate this to any of the colonies
See the GZGpedia for some of the more loony OU fringe elements. e.g. the "Sons
of Kamehameha" who want Hawaii to be inducted into the OU. Or the LEF who want
Nouvelle Caledonie to become part of the FSE. Plenty of
> Izenberg, Noam wrote:
> The entire NI mindset and philosophy is based on that never happening
Just don't rely on them. Useful to have, but icing on the cake. Gotcha.
> On the NI
None that would be publically acknowledged. The OU page has a bit about
"rumoured" stealth technology for some covert ops ships, and NI secret
R&D bases buried in out-of-the-way places on OU M-types. It might be an
idea having something along the same lines for the NI.
I want to give the impression that such treaties do exist, but that if people
prefer, "they're just vicious rumours." Which would allow a limited number of
stealth designs in OU service, while allowing people who prefer not to have
them to restrict them to only a few stealth transports that never appear on
the table (even if present <g>), or delete them altogether.
Finally, it gives a good excuse for DS II or SG games with the OU and NI
allied. But doesn't force this.
Example from the 1990s.
Israel and Oz have no formal defence co-operation at all. We export
large amounts of wheat, and live sheep to various of Israel's neighbours, who
would barf chunderously if we did have. So the night vision gear seen in East
Timor doesn't have any ELOP (an Israeli
electro-optical firm) labels on.
In the Gulf war, it was data from Australia that was sent to Tel Aviv within
30 secs of SCUD missile launch detection that enabled them to
give the warnings. But of course, that was from a joint US-Australian
facility, blame it all on the Yanks. Even though there was a direct line,
rather than going through the US first....
And, as has already been mentioned, those of us who didn't want to be involved
in the Collins class Combat System Fiasco did stuff for the IDF Sub Combat
System instead. Just not as Australians, but employees of a German company.
Defence co-operation agreement, what Defence co-operation agreement? Bit
of a giveaway Israel making an Oz prime minister (Bob Hawke) an honourary
Israeli citizen while he was still serving though. Hope the NI
are a bit more subtle with the OU, at least wait till he/she's out of
office.