Deralia Suspends Construction of Arcology
Mithra, Deralia — Officials on Deralia have temporarily suspended the construction of a mammoth arcology intended to honor the planet's Imperial Governor, as attempts to build it using compulsory labor have been "plagued with sabotage," according to the Governor's office. In the latest incident, a crane was toppled on the construction site under suspicious circumstances, causing severe damage to the site and killing 3 workers and 1 foreman as over 300 tons of building material plummeted through a scaffold and to the ground. Similar incidents in recent months have hindered the building of the "Ribaldequin Augustus Arcology" since construction began earlier this year. Last week, a tank of coolant was ruptured, also under suspicious circumstances, causing the shut down of a number of binary loadlifers and putting construction behind schedule. 4 workers were injured in the incident. And last month, durasteel beams fell from a scaffold onto an Imperial landspeeder below, killing 1 foreman and his driver. An unspecified number of workers were reported to have been executed in response.
It is believed that anger is high among the laborers on the site, many of whom appear to resent being relocated from their homes to labor camps and compelled to build the Governor's arcology as part of his policy of putting Deralia's unemployed to work. The arcology is also unpopular in the planet's capital, Mithra—a city of classic architecture with a proud relationship with its long, cultural history.
Governor Ribaldequin has contended that the construction of the arcology, and his employment programs, are right for Deralia. "We have made the decision that they [members of Deralia's religious minority, who constitute much of the labor force] can... become physically perfect through industrial labor in the production of the Ribaldequin Augustus Arcology," the Governor explained in an announcement to the people of Deralia, which also praised the compulsory labor as "healthy exercise." Since then, much of the planet's unemployed—including its religious minority—have been assigned to labor camps with little or no overt resistance (although, clearly, acts of sabotage on the arcology are prevalent).
Critics of the Governor's methods, including Senator Thanatos (Chandrila), Senator Cerra (Garos IV), Senator Kuriyoshi (the Cronese Mandate), and Representative Vanden (the Naboo), have asserted that the Governor is punishing the poor through compulsory labor. The Senators recently signed a petition critical of "the drafting of Humans on Deralia, including women and children, into a compulsory 'Labor Corps' with or without their consent, without apparently having attempted to procure labor from elsewhere in the sector, or offered to the people of Deralia more generous terms of employment." The petition also criticized Governor Ribaldequin's dumping of waste in Deralia's polar regions, and the feeling—believed to be prevalent among Deralians—that the Governor does not consult with the planet's government as much as he could, and, according to the petition, should.
"All of these, in our opinion, tend to the disruption of the social, cultural, and political fabric of a world whose people and government have demonstrated a consistent dedication to the Empire," the petition read, "We do not wish this upon Deralia as we would not wish it upon our own worlds."
Simon Levi, the Imperial Moff of the Tammuz Sector in which Deralia is situated, called the petition "an ad-hominem attack on an excellent official," and expressed his confidence in Governor Ribaldequin and his methods. "On Deralia, we seek to be the teacher to this loyal and ancient world," the Moff wrote in response to the Senators' petition, "We can do something the Empire has always striven towards: we can bring a world forward thousands of years in less than a decade. We can bring it into the future."
Statements of this sort frustrate officials of Deralia's government who The Coruscant Journal contacted for this story, who point to the planet's strong economy and commercial and political relationships with other worlds of the Outer Rim as evidence that, according to one anonymous official, "Deralia is a regional leader, and long has been. We are the future of this sector, and we're not 'thousands of years behind' as the Moff and his Governor seem intent to portray us."
Or, as a weary patron in a bar in Mithra one evening remarked to our reporter, "Deralia ain't broke. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Glasses were raised throughout the room, accompanied by grumbles of agreement—which workers on the arcology would be likely to share if a curfew did not require them to be confined to their labor camps for the night. The construction of the arcology is expected to resume later this week following a safety review.
