Re: OU Internal Factions

From: "Beth Fulton" <beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au>

> Beth - who wonders how many NZ gamers rile at the thought of an OU
"run by
> the Aussies" ;)

If you look at the unofficial GZG pedia, you'll see that there are two
major
political groups in the OU, the Wets and the Drys.

The Wets are basically the huge agribusiness interests of the Pacific,
led
by NZ (usually). Their powerbase are the fish farms and undersea mining
camps
that support a large proportion of the Earth's population.

The Drys are the genetic and grav engineers and financial services
groups
based in Oz, mixed with the large influx of SE Asian groups and
organisations that fled the expanding IC, and quite a few
unreconstructed
USAians who couldn't stand the return of the Redcoats to Columbia's
Sacred Soil (though the latter tend to be behind some of the larger
oceanic agricultural organisations - I'll see if I can find the URL for
the
Conservative US Ocean state that's in the Carribean - Republic of
Oceania? It has an interesting Constitution...).

Depending on the exact year, the President of the OU could be Maori,
Pakeha, Polynesian, Koori, Thai, Ocker or Yank. Then there's the
"special relationship" with the IAS, and the strong influence
of the Japanese industrialists, whose total dependence on OU resources
makes them good friends out of neccessity. And the Hutt River
Province, and the Dolphins... the secret treaties with the NI... the
gentleman's agreement with the Alarishi...

All in all, just as confusing and surprisng a mixture as today. In fact,
I've
borrowed very heavily from some of the stranger and less-known parts
of what is laughingly called the "Real World".

Summary: The OUDF *tends* to be heavily Ocker/Aussie, much as
the USMC has historically *tended* to be drawn from people south
of the Mason-Dixon line. But the OU itself isn't dominated by Aussies,
any more than Georgian Peanut Farmers or Texans have dominated the