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Statement regarding erroneous article.
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Thursday, 22 Dec 2011, 5:18 AM | Message # 1 |
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| Statement of Facts
Acid burns are not the number one cause of death on Vjun, Vjun is a world which has been inhabited for thousands of years, and one which it's citizens are well accustomed to living in. Acid is a danger on Vjun, just as Ice is a danger on ice worlds, but it is one which every citizen has learned to live with all his or her life and throughout the lives of his or her ancestors.
The wealth distribution percentages stated are simply not representative of the facts. Around 80% of wealth is owned by the top 5% of the Vjun population, this is no different, this is not so far removed from many capitalist economies which see a similarly top heavy distribution of wealth. Equally, the Freeman class represents an increasingly affluent middle class who can stake claim to a growing slice of the planetary economy through their domination of the textile trade and this is represented by their increasing power within the Parliament. The lowest class, the feudal tenants have a history of rising high, from those who enjoy profitable conditions on the land (being offered large tracts of land for cheap rents) or those who enter households and often become professionals, able to buy their freedom after a few years are also a class on the move upwards. Unlike in many capitalist societies, Vjun does not pull itself out of poverty through crushing the poor, but by working and encouraging that work through rewards.
Poverty, such as it exists, is not really present in the majority of Bitter End, as a community largely composed of Freemen it has a large and influential craft guild who assure standards and wages for the major industry in the town (weaving). In Bitter End there are three types of freeman (not to mention class distinctions within this middle class), and this article has convoluted them into a mess by branding them all with the iron of the lowest of these.
Franklins - Farmers, Weavers or Craftsmen of some prominence. Certainly a member of a guild and likely a Master Craftsman if still working at all, in most cases professionals or merchants. Often upwardly mobile and wish aspirations towards the nobility. Some Franklins let whole manors from Lords and rule as the "Lord of the Manor".
Established Freemen - Freemen families who have been so for at least one generation, usually in skilled crafts or sometimes professions, often in the service of the great families or Franklins. Heads of households usually members of craft guilds. The majority of adults in this class are also Master Craftsmen in their own right.
Freedmen - Men who have been freed from a feudal contract. This may be by being released, purchasing a release or simply running away. It is traditional for a Lord if releasing a man to give a small sum to him to allow him to establish himself in a trade. If a man purchases his release, he is likely not a poor man and so is usually able to sustain himself upon release. Those who run away from Feudal contracts do lose the right to their property, and some of these may struggle to find the means by which to live, but no more than penniless adventurerers in any society who run away from an apprenticeship or degree to live their dreams.
In all of the population wages have risen dramatically since the plague (several fold) and the freemen of Vjun have a healthy history of gaining wealth as well as intermarriage with the nobility.
Senator Oriel, has brought numerous profits to Vjun through his tenure as Senator, from the financing of the Vjun Science Commission (which lead to a massive boost to the planetary budget) to fighting to bring down obstacles to the free dispersal of Vjun commerce at Volus and the Cronese Mandate to financing the first Vjun navy owned by the people rather than individuals. Furthermore he has secured free trade and security agreements which help secure the future for Vjun.
The Imperial facilities on Vjun do employ Vjunite citizens in various administrative, catering and custodial roles, in addition to this the Imperial employees spend much of their free time in the larger Vjunite settlements, enjoying a "Crepes Malreaux" alongside their choice of Core or Outer Rim beer.
If one did become an "acid beet planter" the nature of the work would depend entirely upon if the person taking up the work wished to do so as a free man or a bound man. If a man bound himself and his successors to the land he wished to work on, he would undoubtedly be given (for free) sufficient land to feed several times his family in number, and simply have to pay a small rent each year (equating to 10% of profits) to his lord for the use of it. Naturally this option does have the downside that unless he is freed from the contract, he is bound to it for life.
If the man were a freeman, and wished to remain so, he would not be able to sign up to a feudal contract and so would have a "free capital" rent. These are more commercial and a man would expect to pay a higher percentage of his crop in rent (around 33%). Farming is a hard job on Vjun, but for men who have been seasoned to it by thousands of years of ancestral labour, it comes easily enough, and so do the profits.
There is a shortage of labour on Vjun, and no shortage of land. It is a hard world, but not one on which a man needs to be poor and one on which there is an abundant opportunity to work and succeed by the sweat of his brow.
As for weaving, weaving is not an industry controlled by the Nobles at all. The weaving industry is controlled by the "Weavers Guild" who work on a fixed timescale and pay scale (akin to a union, but with more dignity) to produce some of the finest quality fabric in the galaxy. These fabrics are hand spun and the hellish "factory" does not exist on Vjun, instead craftsmen work their own hours from home, for fixed prices which are adjusted anually to assure weavers a fair deal.
Training is well organised via a scheme of seven year apprenticeships which leave a Master ready to ply his craft. A Master Weaver, working from home, would have to work around three days in seven to live a comfortable life and support his family, beyond that he is free to work any further days and so increase his profits. This is seen by the number of Master Weavers who have recently taken out tenancies of whole castles of manor houses from Lords.
Rents in Bitter End are low (as all over the world) and so finding premesis is not a problem, nor do fibres and loom come at a high cost.
Vjun is not a bad place to live, but it is a different place. It is a world goverened by the metric of a feudal economy, a patriarchal economy where the rich care for those lower down in society. On Vjun, few if any are "taken advantage of" in hellish 60-80 hour weeks under the harsh eyes of overseers. They are not bound by industrial capitalism where you are encouraged to tread on the heads of others if you wish to rise. Instead they are bound together in a feudal system, where is is in the interests of all in society that all prosper, where guilds protect wage rates and where land is cheap.
The poverty and misery portrayed in this Coruscant Journal article is nothing but innuendo and fallacy with a political agenda.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Bart_Cochrane | Date: Saturday, 24 Dec 2011, 2:44 AM | Message # 2 |
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| My readers should know that I stand by my article about the people of Vjun in The Coruscant Journal last week. 85% of Vjun's population are "Serfs" who are "bound" in labor to the nobility, and who have no representatives in the planet's parliament. While there is an avenue of independence from the nobility (laboring for a year or more from "Serf" to "Free" status), this often involves the forfeiture of property—including personal property—and even family. The wealth of a "Serf," then, can't be claimed as his own; rather, it belongs to the noble to whom he is "bound." Thus the statistic that I cited (99% of the planet's wealth, most of it hereditary, is owned by 5% of its population) is not farfetched.
Of the so called "Freemen," who comprise just 10% of the population, between 60% and 90% are considered "poor." Their existence has been described as "meagre," and not by me. Most "Freemen" are employed in either farming, fishing (both of these are hazardous on Vjun), or the planet's textile industry. The characterization of textile work in my article—"long hours to meet the galaxy's endless demand"—is not incorrect.
There's no question that Vjun's people are well-adapted to its harsh climate. Weatherproofed awnings and canopies cover most of the buildings and well-traveled streets in Bitter End, but these are little help when the "Bay of Tears"—a vast lake of acid—floods as it's known to do in heavy acid rainfall. Moreover, since the plague wiped out much of the planet's population, much of its infrastructure has fallen into disrepair (for instance, weatherproofed awnings and canopies; many of them in Bitter End, as I personally observed). Statistics on Vjun are notoriously unreliable, but there is strong anecdotal evidence that acid burns (and other acid-related injuries and accidents) remain the number one cause of death on the planet—even if they are uncommon among the nobility who, as ever, have a dramatically different experience of Vjun than do most of its people.
I will admit, however, that my article was uncharitable to Vjun's senator, Bernard Oriel. He has indeed done much for Vjun and it's impressive how he has elevated a world of some 11,000 population to such prominence in the Imperial Senate and in interstellar treaties, etc. But the contention of my article was not that Senator Oriel has done nothing for Vjun, but that "none of his proposals have benefited the people of Vjun" in the sense of improving the quality of life for its poorest people. Because of the secrecy of the Empire's installations on the planet, whether any of the people of Vjun are employed by the Empire is a matter of some dispute (an official of Vjun's government told me no). I'll give the benefit of the doubt to Senator Oriel's office, however, as he is better informed on this particular point than I am.
But the central point of my article remains; Vjun's government and society disenfranchises a large number of people--some 85%, conservatively—and dooms many of them to cruel and unusual forms of misery on a planet that is defined by its inhospitality to human life. Supporters of a feudal system will find nothing wrong with this, but those of us of a more democratic persuasion look upon the wretched of Vjun with pity and solidarity.
(The Coruscant Journal has no "agenda"—my editorial this week contains a legal disclaimer that my views are not necessarily those of the publisher, and while I do work as a reporter for the Journal I write this rebuttal on my behalf only, not on behalf of my employer).
Bart Cochrane, Reporter
The Coruscant Journal
Message edited by Bart_Cochrane - Saturday, 24 Dec 2011, 2:46 AM |
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