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Issue 11,
Volume 7, 10 August 300 AP The Story behind the news. |
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Economics
Aij Utani set to take on foreign skies Mining diamonds by regulation Election 300 New poll signals LNP rise Hope faces the skeptical Politics Utani Burovian Movement moves into Nystonia International I'ana archipelago quandary War in the new world? Sport Utania's Golfing Revolution! Football: Round six |
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What IS a Zeitgeist?
Jerman for "Spirit of the Age". In this case it is to mean the "spirit" of the Utanian people, the magazine reporting the people's thoughts behind the press-releases and reported news. |
[Exclusive]I'ana Archipelago QuandaryUNV "Point South" Director Gordon Davidz doesn't want the I'ana islands, and is considering gifting them to the Ptica Island sanctuary, a suggestion that boiled the blood of a few Utanian diplomats. The I'ana islands are the last territory on the UNVCOCN list of the former Guwimith Dependency possessions, and Utania has been lobbying hard to have them returned to Utania. Seemingly to no avail. Last week, Mr Davidz, Director of the UNVCOCN mission for "Point South" (now Utania), which includes the archipelago, suggested that the islands might be gifted to the Ptica Island sanctuary, much in the same way that Mestonia Park contains small communities. This had several patient diplomats seeing red. Utania has rightful claim to the Islands, they said, its people occupy the only two inhabitable islands, I'ana and Yoma. (Technically they are a mix of Utani and Ptican blood, the last survivors of the Ptican people extinguished by the plague.) "The islands belong to Utania, not some wildlife park!" But, perhaps what is most flammable about the suggestion is that Ptica Park is managed by only one nation, now that Guwimith collapsed: Armatirion. Socialist, enormous (ten times Utania's size) and silent, it is the worst nightmare for the more paranoid Utanians, such as Intelligence Director for President Hope, Thomas Abels. Abels says that any suggestion that the archipelago should go to Armatirion will yield the strongest protest from Utania. To the likes of Abels and his Nationalist Party, or the Liberal Nationalists, I'ana is a military base waiting to be occupied. It was used as a minor base by the tiny Guwimith Navy, and could be significantly expanded. It is also a useful stepping stone for invading Utania, claims Abels. Under a benign Utanian government, there can be no such possibility. Davidz says he has taken this onboard, but is proving hard to convince. One can only wonder how many more electoral hearts and minds the Nationalists need to win before Davidz sees the error of this way. 
Archipelago Background
The archipelago was formed as part of now-dormant volcanic activity sometime in the past 1,000 to 3,000 years. The thirty islands are largely uninhabitable, sustaining little more than scant grasses. Furthermore, they amount to a total of 400 sq km. Two islands are the exceptions: I'ana and Yoma. These islands are the oldest, have substantial grassland and even forests, leading geologists to determine that they are some twenty thousand years older. Furthermore, I'ana has large phosphate deposits, from years of bird droppings, deposits that sustain the eighteen-hundred member communities. Two small former military bases also exist on the islands, once servicing the Guwimith Navy on supply runs to Ptica Island (for the scientists there). The people are a mix of Utani and Pticans, the now-extinct people of the Island. When Utani explorers and traders established trading ports on Ptica island, I'ana and Yoma were obvious stop-over points. The Ptican settlements then blended with the Utani that also settled there, and the Islands are long believed to be the second route the plague used to reach the mainland Old Continent. While the plague destroyed all remnant of the Ptican people, some of their half-caste brothers in the I'ana Archipelago survived, giving scientists the only genetic link back to the extinct people. What concerns non-Utanians about the islands is their commercial value: fishing and phosphate mining. "If commercial mining is brought to I'ana", says David Weist of the environmentalist group Peacegreen, "the island people could be destroyed, as their island is slowly mined from under them." As several international and Utanian companies have expressed an interest in mining the islands, this fear is given credence. |
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Previous issues:
So what, the President likes golf? |
Stock Exchange:
 Stocks continue to stagnate - when will the Govt. release cash controls? |
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©Zeitgeist Magazine, 300 AP.
<TECH> ©Mike Ham, 2000. All rights reserved. No reproduction without, at least, tacit approval. ;-) |