Kalistan

[Doc]

Emperor Stresses need to Stand Strong Against Fascism
Televised Speech dubbed "Why we Fight"
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
June 1, 5612


Emperor in first Televised Address to the Nation, on KRTVN-1

Programming was pre-empted last night at 7pm as His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Fredrick III Ananto addressed the nation.  It is a rare occurrence for Kalistanis who are not close to the Anantos to ever hear the voice of their Sovereign, but His Imperial Majesty believed that it was important for him to address a national audience who is justifiably suffering a malaise over the war, and the seeming senseless waste of life in the Artanian Sea last year.  Below is the transcript of his short, 15 minute address.  His Imperial Majesty spoke and was accompanied by his official sign language interpreter, Allison Stuart.

Fellow Kalistani Citizens.  We thank you for allowing us to preempt your evening for a few moments to address you here.  We feel that it is important for you to not only see the face of your Emperor but also to hear our voice.  Because it is our opinion that we have allowed ourselves to become far too distant from our people.  And this is something we wish to remedy.

When we were young, our Mother told us about her father, the man who adopted her and raised her in her home as his own child.  She told us how highly she thought of him, how great a man she thought he was.  Her father, she said was kind, and gentle, and had a wonderful sense of humor, and loved her mother very dearly.  This man was of course, our namesake, Emperor Fredrick II, and he brought these two Kundrati Nationals to live here in Kalistan, to make it their home.  Yes, Kundrati:  Both Empress Pavlina and Empress Carolina were born in Kundrati.  Our grandmother did not speak Vrassan fluently when she arrived, and according to our mother, her accent embarrassed her for her entire life, because it set her apart.

When they arrived, most Kalistanis welcomed them very warmly.  This warmth and kindness is a Kalistani trait, as much as is our commitment to peace and happiness of our citizens.  And our mother and her mother both found it here in abundance.  Here our Mother said she was happy, grew up healthy, and was sheltered from the world.  She was welcomed by the Anantos as if she were their flesh and blood.  She was welcomed by the people of Eveari, and cared for by the people of Kaliburg.  She wanted for nothing.  She was sheltered from much of the struggle and strife, both here and in the world.

But there were some, here among our own people, who were not satisfied that Fredrick married an intelligent, confident and successful woman from Kundrati.  One cannot choose where they are from:  Our parents choose that for us.  But Pavlina did choose to move to Kalistan, to become Kalistani, to learn Kalistani ways, and to learn Vrassan.  And to accommodate to the norms and mores of her adopted home.  It was easier for our own mother, but nonetheless she made that choice early on too.  Both women fully assimilated into this culture, to the point that our mother had lost her own native language completely and spoke Vrassan without any accent whatsoever by the time she was 15 years old.  In fact, she was in everyway a Kalistani woman, except her heritage.

Our Grandmother was not so fortunate, however.  And fascists who were opposed to the mixing of a foreign born woman and a locally born man murdered our grandfather, Pavlina's husband, because of their hatred of the outsider.  Immigrants who have made our nation great, that gave us the reason to stand up tall and walk globally with pride.  We take in those who flee from other nations:  when they flee war, we are a safe refuge.  When they flee oppression, we are a land of rights and freedom.  When they flee famine, we are a land of abundance.  Kalistan has welcomed countless millions over the millenia, so that we are proudly a nation of migrants.  And yet these few individuals, pretending to support democracy, attempted a coup and then a civil war, because they could not bear the thought of a Kalistani loving and marrying a Kundrati.  So they killed him.

This is the story of our family.  It is an historical fact.  But since then, our grandmother declared that she would oppose fascism whenever and wherever it appears.  If they can murder an emperor, they can murder anyone.  And any who oppose the fascists in Kundrati is in fact murdered.  We have known for years that Kundratis enslave people by the thousands and force them to labor to death on projects that seem to have no purpose, except to kill those who work on them.  Countless mines are opened with slave labor, while thousands of fascists sit in Kundrati's Cities and reap the benefit of slavery.  To pretend that the people in that nation do not know what is going on there, is equivalent to believing that there is a magical man who brings you presents for Eliyahu's birthday.  If they turely do not know, it is because they do not wish to know, they wish to shut it out.

That nation was over run by fascists, the people with the same mentality as those who murdered our grandfather, YOUR Emperor.  Many watching this program are old enough to remember Fredrick II Ananto.  Many of you recall your shock at his death, and your revulsion as Kalistan, of all places, spasmed in insurgency and civil war.  Those are the same people who have completely captured Kundrati.  And those are the same people now who have killed more than 12,000 of your fellow country men and women who were fighting to roll back that sort of darkness.

Kundrati, under fascism, is not the modern nation it once was.  It is now a slave state, with no forests, honeycombed with slave built and operated mines, and monstrosities that pass for cities built with the blood and bones of thousands of slaves for the glorification of one man, and that man's ideology.  The people are not free in the original homeland of our mother and grandmother.  The environment is destroyed, the people starve, and they want to spread that ideology abroad.  They have already captured the mind of the leaders in Likatonia who will no doubt be copying their example.

Containing that is something we must be willing to fight for.  As of this date, nobody else is.  As of this date, Kalistan stands alone in the fight against Fascism.  At the moment we broadcast, no other nation, except Kundrati itself, has shed a drop of blood to roll back fascism in Artania.  Not a single one.  And yet this is the calling of a life time that Kalistanis have bravely stood up and accepted:  the Calling to try to make the world better not only for the slaves in the Kundrati Concentration Camps and punitive mines, but also for all people who struggle against fascism.  

The same dark force that reached its crooked claw into Kalistan and murdered your Emperor, and we say Your Emperor because we were not yet even born when Fredrick II was assassinated, that force is still on the move on Terra.  This is the same force that launched multiple attacks against the peaceful nation of Xsampa, because that nation decided that they wanted to leave an alliance.  That is the force that we, as a nation, have always stood up against, and it is one we will always stand against.  Even if we are the only ones doing it.  So be it.  Even if we lose a whole fleet doing it.  If it pushes the shadow back one single inch, it is worth it.

But, We will make this promise to you, our People, our Countrymen and women, and our friends and Brethren.  We will never sacrifice Kalistani lives in vain.  Not every cause is noble and not every battle is well planned.  But if you continue to put your faith in us, we will not fight in vain.  We will not sacrifice a single sailor, soldier, airman or marine in vain.  The lost of the IV Fleet, while tragic and possibly unavoidable, was nonetheless a noble fight.  The Kundrati sailors gave our sailors the same chances we gave them.  The Fascist Navy simply out matched us up until they stopped existing.  And we paid blood for blood.

But this loss does not absolve us of our responsibilities to our nation.  We will continue to look for new opportunities to help others push back fascism on as many fronts as we can.  In the meanwhile, we ask that you, our People, join together to support this empire in its fight.  You can make the difference.  We are organizing volunteer units to help protect the homefront.  There are many jobs in this Empire that need being done and it will take all of us as one to do this.  If we work together, not only can we ensure that Kalistan stays strong in this time of challenge, but also that we come out stronger than ever.

We are authorizing the creation of monthly Volunteer Days, where you can join with others in your community to donate your time and energy one day a week to the NSP.  All adults in Kalistan are familiar with the NSP and the things they do.  You might find yourself building a submarine one week, then the next week cutting cane in Yoshimi, and then the next week, boxing medical supplies for shipment to Lodamun.  Your Empire asks you for one day, one weekend a month, and that you contribute this extra day of labor to the cause of fighting fascism.  Only by working together will we be able to finish what the Fourth Fleet started, and ensure that the Fascists can never threaten any nation again.

Participation is not mandatory:  These are volunteer opportunities.  But there is plenty of work that needs to be done across Kalistan.  We can assure you, the NSP will welcome you and be grateful for your contribution, your nation will be grateful, and We will be grateful.

We will never forget the sacrifices and the contributions of the people of this Nation.  We will also not forget the personal debt we owe to the people of Kalistan, especially those who welcomed our Grandmother and our Mother when they were foreigners in a land that they did not understand, had never been to, and were not well liked in by some.  We are lucky to have been born here.  But without the generosity of the people of Kalistan, and the openness to foreigners--traits that the Fascist government of Kundrati does not possess--We would not be sitting here addressing you now.  So we shall strive, for the rest of our life, to repay at least some of that debt that our family owes you.  And in exchange, we ask for you to step up for this nation as well.

And if you happen to be in Eveari, we will invite you to come out to thin underbrush in the Green Mountains with Ananto NSP this weekend.  We will be there with Empress Consort Monica, and will dedicate two days of volunteer service each month until this war is resolved.  We will be there working right next to you, with you, shoulder to shoulder, until we push Kundrati Fascism into the grave, or die trying.  We are ineligible for military service, so civilian service will need to suffice.

This is why we fight, and this is why we will win.  We thank you for your attention, and we hope you too will step up and do your part for our Empire.

Please hold those families and friends of the members of the Fourth Fleet in the Light this week, as well as all of those wounded in the First Fleet, and we should also say, please spare a kind word for the families and friends of the lost Kundrati Sailors as well, as they know human suffering and grief the same way we as Kalistanis do, and no doubt feel the same feelings Kalistanis feel with the loss or convalescence of their loved ones.  Thank you for your time and attention, and we wish you a good evening.

@TheRepublic