[South Africa] UNITY!

Day 581, 20:38 • Published in Brazil South Africa • by Oceanus

Negotiations Cancelled!
Today the fruits of our labour in a month of talks with Brazil, the re- posession of Mpumalanga and Limpopo through diplomatic means, was thrown to the wind. This morning I had put aside an hour or so to reorganize my ambassadorial corp to send envoys carrying the word of eSouth Africa's return to the eWorld. I was shocked to see that no resistance war had started. Why I asked?

Yesterday I was informed by Ines that SAIB had become dangerous and was jeopardizing negotiations. I was disturbed by the thought and resigned from the SAIB. I chose to take Ines' word on it and trust an old friend over my recent acquaintance Hollysglad. I decided to investigate in the morning.

The SAIB
I woke to Ines' article here:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-south-africa-hollysmad-will-fail-837158/1/20#comments
"The Brazilian party South Africans in Brazil (SAI😎 has lead to talks with Brazil being suspended"
Was the line that stuck out. I didn't feel like dealing with it. I cancelled my plans for the MoFA restructuring, trained, fought (reached Captain today!), worked, organized my new Polish Weapons company, found an investor in Zagarius (Thanks!), messaged my new platoon (The fighting fourth!) etc... and then signed off. ..

Throughout the day my mind continued to wander back to the SAIB. Was Holly really planning a PTO? I do know from PMs that her election planning wasn't completely straightforward. She had included diversions and strategical candidate placement. But who can blame her? South Africans as Brazilian citizens by default have a right to political representation. Brazilians would feel threatened and I assumed that she was simply balancing the odds a bit to allow for SAIB votes to count more towards their chosen candidates within the original territories of South Africa. I still stand by this. I didn't always have a high opinion of Holly, but she is not stupid enough to think that she really could have PTOd Brazil. I do believe that she only desired South Africa's rightful representation within Brazil's congress.

Brazil
*angry voice*
And so. Brazil cancelled negotiations like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum because they did not get everything that they had wanted. Had they not wanted us to settle in and accept our part in what they called the "Brazilian Empire"? Did they really feel so threatened by our participation in their politics? And if so, why would they punish SAIL which did not associate with SAIB, and had been working on peaceful negotiations?! Brazil got our cooperation, we stopped the press takeover, and many of us stopped the economic sabotage, all under the assumption that if we played along we were helping negotiations.
I'm beggining to doubt whether Brazil ever intended to return our regions. Cavalcanti must have been looking for any reason he could find to just cancel everything, and he found it in what he perceived as a TO attempt in the SAIB. Brazil gave us another stellar example of their tyrannical mindset today. They could have done the right thing, but why bother when they can do whatever they want, right? After conquering us through PTO, what I consider a glitch in the game's function, and not even giving a fair fight, they now rule over us in this manner deciding to throw away our month of hard work on some silly excuse.

Unity
Why, if they decide that they can just stop negotiations on a whim, should we play along at all? And why should we be throwing blame at eachother and not at the Brazilians themselves? We shouldn't be. Don't let this tear us apart. I'm angry that the negotiations didn't go through like everyone else, but in the end I blame Cavalcanti and Brazil.
I'd like to quote Holly on this. A shout that sent pangs of guilt through me when I realized how I had just finished denouncing her in a PM.

"Cavalcanti you said it best on the forum. "What better way to tear up a group then from the inside" :C" - Hollysglad

Communication
One thing that must be mended is a general lack of communication and transparency on all sides! Newspapers, PMs, The Forums. Its all that we have left as a community in exile. We need to make full use of these things. I doubt that Holly and many of the other people involved in the election planning even knew about negotiations. I myself only heard of the possibility of regaining regions about four days before it could have happened. If we had stressed to them the importance of not threatening the Brazilians, all of this could have been averted! But instead, almost everyone was kept in the dark. I spend alot of my time these days answering confused PMs from common citizens wondering exactly what is going on. Nobody seems to know, and I only do myself because I ask Ines every time I'm absolutely befuddled. (like that time I was sent to Malaysia and nobody explained why. HIRESHMONT! *shakes fist😉 We need to start writing more articles, sending more PMs, and spending more time on the forums!

What Now?
We have played along now for months. Many of us have swallowed our pride and have pursued the goal of peaceful negotiations. But the time has not come for us to "regurgitate our pride" back up all over the Brazilians for failing to follow through. We simply do not have the power to retake our lands with anything other than words and outside support. We are a smaller community that has been swallowed by a larger one. Numbers seem to matter more than anything in eRepublik, and we simply don't have them. We must continue to pursue negotiations that will lead to the return of territory. And with better communication, maybe this time it will be possible.
But if Cavalcanti thinks that he (or she?) can continue to toy with us, getting us to play along while he stalls any real results from talks, then we must do everything possible to violently oppose our oppressors. If we determine that talks are impossible then we must restart the Press Takeover, restart the economic sabotage, and actively work with Brazil's enemies to bring them down! And I would throw my full support behind SAIB to cause any strife we possibly could within Brazil's government. We could be a constant thorn in their side. We all have connections! If we contact them all who knows what sort of dastardly plot we could put into motion rolling Brazil's way.

Until that time comes, play nice! : )
We can be good to you Brazil! So long as you give us two regions back, we will play along. What difference does it make to you? You will still have high diamonds from Gauteng! All we ask for is Limpopo and Mpumalanga. I read the treaty and it is very reasonable, don't abandon it now.

,Oceanus