Is the grass greener on the other side?

Day 2,705, 02:36 • Published in Australia Canada • by Ilene Dover

Welcome back to the third and final article in my series examining the recent eAustralia revolution. This time, we look at things from a different perspective as I chat to InfoWar - currently Supreme Commander of NEBULA.


Feeling calmer yet? Some very angry words were exchanged in the Senate thread...

I was really pissed off at first.. The way it was done, and the deception and lies involved. Also the thing that frustrated me, was that XenthuS was willing to hand the dictator position over to one of us anyway.. On top of that, we couldn't be sure what the exact intentions were of the revolt, and who they intended to put in the future dictator position. No real negotiations or discussions with XenthuS or the public were ever really attempted for handover, and they had lame reasons for doing it.

It all happened so quickly, I was also worried that we could lose Black Spectra's future military support, and we would remain a weak helpless country militarily like we have most of our history.


You say "we" rather than "I". Who is "we"?

Myself, some friends who were online and some Black Spectra players who were awake at the moment during the countdown.

There were also a lot of contacts I had who offered their help but there were many important wars going on, and I didn't think it would be fair to tell them to fight there and take them away from fighting other important wars. They knew from experience that the determination would make it very difficult to win. Some others I don't want to mention, because of reasons regarding conflicts of interests..


Do you think there was a trigger? Seemed like quite a backlash against the tax hike last week...

I think the tax thing was just the usual whingers looking for excuses to feel that they have been hard done by. The taxes were discussed many times. Many of the redtape conservatives who never get anything done wanted to discuss it further like they always do, probably let it drag on for weeks..

Anyone could have done an independent survey or asked congress to vote to revert it, and XenthuS would have complied.

One of the other lame pathetic excuses mentioned for the revolt was that congress wasn't consulted about the Serbian MPP. It is known that we desperately needed Asteria MPPs and were having trouble getting them after Peru kept NEing us. For this reason we had been knocked back by Asteria countries for weeks and weeks. Sometimes when you are trying to negotiate MPPs with nations, there is sometimes a narrow window of opportunity to launch it, because someone high up in their government gave the nod, if you don't take that opportunity they could be talked out of it or change their minds. Couldn't afford for that to happen... There's no way congress would have knocked back that MPP, that would have been obvious to anyone.

I think the main trigger was just opportunity. The determination was at a high point, and the opportunity was there.


Was a wildcat revolution planned for at some point? What would you do if it was put down?

A wildcat revolution was inevitable, because determination increases over time, also it's no secret that there are some who are against XenthuS... As I mentioned the determination had reached 2.7, it was an explosion waiting to happen really.

If it was put down, things would have been kept the same for as long as there wasn't a revolution. Australia's military strength would continue to grow, and Black Spectra would have continued to work with us and help us out. Of course it was never intended for XenthuS to be dictator much longer... An Australian dictator would have been put in the position probably soon after the next congress elections anyway and no one would have needed to waste money.



Is that why Black Spectra didn't realy really try? It didn't look like it, to this decidedly unwarrior like reporter anyway. Was that to demonstrate that it wasn't about power at any cost? Or just not worth fighting against the 2.7 determination?

I think what some of the public does not realize about Black Spectra is that they genuinely came here with good intentions. I know it sounds ironic, but it was decided before they even came and voted among themselves that they would come here and help Australia's activity, fight for Australia's interests, and help Australia grow and genuinely make an effort to work on even ground with the eAustralian public. XenthuS would always say that he would do what the Australian public wanted and that seems to be important to Black Spectra members in general.

Black Spectra didn't fight hard there for several reasons. One of the reasons was they are more interested in what the Australian public wants, and many of them wouldn't stay if the majority eAustralians didn't want them here. They are not hostile towards us. Other reasons were the 2.7 determination. Would be a waste of time and COs fighting against that, especially when there were hired guns fighting on the other side knowing that it could be interpreted as hostility to fight against. Also there was uncertainty not knowing exactly what the majority of the Australian publicly supported the revolt etc. But I think that they also knew that it was just a matter of time. Even the commander of Black Spectra Mac Vasco was awake and in the senate thread while the countdown was happening, he didn't even fight there himself..



Do you think the Black Spectra crew will stick around in eAus now?

I think some of the Black Spectra who already have citizenship may stick around but it depends on how the Australian public treats them. I know for a fact that probably the majority of eAustralians don't mind Black Spectra. It's just they are divided on things like immigration issues. For example they don't mind them here, but they want more controlled flow of their numbers entering the country. Others don't mind large numbers of them entering the country at once.

But I know that some of the eAustralians who fought for the revolution only fought for this reason. They want the control of the CS passes handed back which I think is reasonable especially if we get to the point where their numbers could outnumber ours, but we were are still far from that point. We could still safely let in another 20 or so before we got to that point. But I would have supported that same view myself after the next congress elections.


How will the revolution effect our relationships with Nebula?

The revolution hasn't affected our relationship with NEBULA. Because all that has happened is that the Australian government has been restored. NEBULA has a close community, it's a friendship, the same friends are still around, so the same friends are not going to abandon us for that.

But NEBULA is affected in other ways maybe indirectly. For example: if Australia loses Black Spectra's military support, NEBULA will lose it too. If Black Spectra abandons Australia they could abandon helping NEBULA countries too..


That's good to know. But what about Peru? They couldn't stand XenthuS, from what I saw in their press. Surely things will get better there?

I think that now that XenthuS has been taken out of power, it could help relations with Peru. The Peruvians were not too fond of him. Maybe Peru will start trusting us more now that XenthuS is no longer dictator.


JT seems to have copped all the flak for the revolution, despite pr3zzyy being the MU owner. How did that come about?

JT has been getting on my nerves lately.. I found him to be two-faced and he seems to just disagree for the sake of disagreeing to maybe feel important? I always felt that you never know which side the guy is on.. He will pretend he is on your side, the next moment he is behind the scenes conspiring against you while he appears to be your mate at the same time. Also you start to see someone's true colors once they get a little power handed to them. When he got the vCP role I started to see another side to him which I didn't like. I just don't find him to be genuine, and that was part of the reason why I fought against the revolution knowing that he was one of the main architects behind it.

I have never had any problems with pr3zzyy.. I don't know his exact reasons for supporting the revolution. But I know that he was mostly used as the puppet, while the true architects remained behind the scenes.


Some fairly serious allegations there! Are you two on speaking terms yet?

I am not on speaking terms with JackTrout, I don't trust him and I don't like him.

pr3zzyy: I am willing to continue on as it was prior to the revolution, I don't have anything against pr3zzyy.

So, the perspective from 'the other' side, as presented by InfoWar. He certainly makes some interesting points, and raises questions that I'd dearly like to know the answer to. How did he know XenthuS was going to hand over power? The Senate as a group didn't know (as I have the dubious privelige of being in the Senate)... How could InfoWar have known that Black Spectra planned on coming to eAustralia for the national benefit? XenthuS himself has admitted that eAustralia was a second-rate choice, after their original Scandinavian target became unavailable.

The anonymous and powerful, yet mercifully absent, friends were raised again too - for the other side of the argument this time. Who are these friends, and what is their real agenda?


On that intriguing note, I'm going to conclude the revolutionary articles (I'm sure you're all thankful that I'll shut up for a few days...).

I realise that two "for" and only one "against" have been published - XenthuS has politely declined an interview on the subject, which explains the "imbalance". If there are any recommendations for a second "against" argument, I'd like to hear from you in the comments. Preferably someone who can construct a rational argument and won't respond in a series of angry swear words or rants!