Kurt replied to me: > >The way I read it, this 'world government' started out as a fig leaf > >to cover the power-grab by the first world. Two generations later, > >the numbers of the third world started to make themselves felt. If > >anything, there are too few Chinese and Indians ... > > If the first world, specifically the US and EU, were the driving > force, then I can see good old fashioned nepotism and nationalism > favoring those nations while passing over the others. [...] > No offense to any Spaniards on the list, but I wouldn't count Spain > as being a first world country. Five hundred years ago, yes, but not > in the 21st century. Second world, absolutely.
Ah. Spain is not a global power by itself, but it is a member of the EU (and the NATO, FWIW). And a Basque is either Spanish or French, so he's EU, too. So you could complain that (a) the EU and Japan grabbed too many of the 'First World slots' and (b) that the Spaniards grabbed too many of the 'EU slots', but IMHO not that the First World as a whole got short-changed. And on that scale, the sample is too small to argue about much - 1.25 Japanese vs. 1.00 American vs. 0.75 Spanish. > And of them, only one comes from a country that's currently got > anything in the way of a military that would form the core of > anything that might be considered a "world military". I'll give > Japan it's due, for Japanese nationals, as they have the economy and > ambition, but the others? I just can't see it. Well, Terra had all those proud, national squadrons in their first battle. They couldn't agree on a command structure and tactics, so they got defeated in detail. I'm not surprised that the survivors of that disaster were passed over for subsequent command posts :-) > Also, I think *how* first contact was made played a big part in the > opening years. I've always said, if first contact is to be made, let > us be the ones doing the contacting someplace other than our home > system. > > Kurt Feltenberger The history of Ancient meddling is just as important. Just another bunch of humans wasn't world-shattering news to the Vilani. Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
