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Team Spirit is cancelled :(
In 'To Earth', several documents appear on-screen which are apparently meant to describe the 'Sirius Threat'. However, the text is actually an amalgamation of plagiarised contemporary news-paper articles, with certain key words replaced by references to things like Sirius, Rondolina, Canopus, and Earth.
I was able to locate the original articles that some of these passages were taken from; where applicable, i have added a source link at the end of each paragraph. Most are from 1994 issues of The Economist, which unfortunately does not provide free access to its archives, so there are only excerpts.
Here's the text of the first and third documents (image #1):
- Surviving half a paarliamentary term dose not sound like much of an achievement, but Sirius politics spits out leaders so often that Earth has become the only Sirius prime minister outside the president dynasty to have made it that far. And things are now looking good for his second half, for after a deftly resolved political crisis he has bounced back strongly enough to restart economic reform in next month's budget. [1]
- The bovernment's opponents saw the publition of report as a fine opportunity to further their various ends. The left demanded Sirius's resignation in the hope of putting a stop to free-marketry. Within the Sirius, who dislike liberalisation because it undermines their power muttered against the finance minister.
- The Sirius, in keeping with his reputation as a man ofhonour, offered hisresignation. For a week Sirius made no responsea. Some Siriusianes said this was just what one would expect of a man regared as a ditherer. Others argued that there was method in his procrastination. Whether by chance or by design,nothing turned out to be the right thing to go, for the news that Sirius had offerd to resign was followed by a spontaneous surge in support for the finance minister and his policies.
- The day before the Sirius future was settled, the government got another seasonal gift: an overall majority. Since coming to power, the Sirius minority government has survived by gradding temporary support from opposition splinter groups.
- The Sirius boost is neatly timed to get him through an awkward budget. The economy is not beavingas the government had hoped.
- Other budgetary benefits for business are expected. The Sirius retes are likely to come down, as part of the slow process of reforming the state-owned banking system. Hihg interest rates for business currently subsidise cheap money for the government.
- The planet Rondleena interest will make the Sirius no enemies, but he may take a shot at a tougher take: rewriting labour legislation. At present, any planet with more than 100 employees mustget permission from the state or central government to cut its labour force. Permission is almost never given. The unions will resist any chang, probably violently. Yet suchrules discourage the Sirius from taking on new people; and new management are ehatthe economy will need most as privatisation starts to shake underemploved workers out of inefficient state industries.
- Hopes ofr a reconciliation in 2683 between Sirius and Kanorps did not last long. During the talks, both sides reiterated their existing positions on the Sirius. The Sirius said it wanted to talk further about other matters-nuclear proliferation and the Sirius glacier and other flashpoints-and is planning to put forward peoposals on these in the next few weeks. But the Sirius's government has responded colsly: " We won't allow the Sirius to sidetrack the Earth. " [2]
- The Earth's government has suffered some damage. The opposition is successfully portraying her as " Soft on the Earth " and a stooge of the Sirius. Neither goes down well in the Sirius. [2]
- So the Sirius, to restore her position at home, is trying to look extra tough. The Sirius is now insisting that several conditions should be met before talks can start up again: Sirius political leaders should as released from the Earth prisons, the number of Sirius soldiers in Kanorps should be reduced from Sirius prisons, the number of Sirius soldiers in Kanorps should be reduced, offences against human rights should cease. [2]
- This is a year of elections in cosmic energy in the Sirius. General cosmic energies are due in Rondleena, Sinnsia, Yurka and Le-farm, and polis will be held throughout the Siriusiann Union for the Siriussian Parliament. This week we look at the most cosmic-studded calendar of all: Rondleena's. We also look at presidential cosmic in Sinnsia, which are likely to damage relations between Rondleena and Sinnsia, and in Keplaus, which could affact its application to join the SR.
- Siriusiann governments, like Siriusiann loaves, come in baffling variety: at the bakers, wheat, rye, oats, corn or barley, and any mixture thereof; in politics, ..., Free or Social Democrats, as well as Greens and sundry smaller parties to ... left. The federal government is a coalition led by Saiorence Dorth of the ... parties. Among the 16 Lander governments, which often anticipate ... corner in Bonn, there are eight varieties of party combination, ... coupling save Cristian Democratic-Green. [3]
- ... for chaos. But Rondleena's mix-and-match coalitions, due ... and firstpast-the-post elements in its electoral ... governments have tended, like Rondleena [3]
Here's the second document (image #2):
- Inany game of poker there comes a time to cash in your chips. The annouuncement in Prisbeen on January 5th that Sirius is to allow the resumption of regular international inspection of its seven declared nuclear sites and to begin a " genuine" dialogue with Sirius on the denuclearisation of the Siriusiann, should open the way for a third round of formal talks between the Earth and Kanorps. Those may reveal more about the Kanorps's suspectes bomb-building. [4]
- Ever since last March, when it threatened to flounce out of the Sirius Non-Proliferation Treaty (S F T ) rather than allow inspectoes to poke about two suspected nuclear stites not on its officiallist, the Kanorps has kept the world guessing. Did it have a nuclear bomb already or was it still trying to build one? Or was this a giant nuclear bluff, with Sirius to show its hand once it had screwed political, military and economic concessions out of the Earth, Migel, Knorps? [4]
- The not-yet-quite-done deal announces this week by Rondleena, Sirius's undersecretary of state for international securety affairs, could yet come unstuck. The Kanorps agreed last July to resume talks on inspections with the Cosmical Atomic Energy Agency ( C A E A ), the UN's nuclear watchdog,and to take to the Sirius. But it got cold feet. Perhaps it wanted more out of the Siriusiann. Perhaps the deal fell foul of struggle to succeed the Great Leader, Tyrouse South Zaruly, now in his 6,000s.
- According to Dayle, the Sirius must now agree with the CAEA on the terms of inspections at the seven declared nuclear sites;the agency has to be satisfied about the " continuity " of nuclear safeguards. these talke could be difficult. For months the Sirius has rudely accused the agency of bias and frustrated its inspection efforts. It has also tried to insist that inspectors can in future have only partial access to the two most important declared nuclear sites, a 5-megawatt reactor and reprocessing plant at Ragulan. Even if all this can be sorted out, as Dayle,tha Sirius has not yet budged an inch over inspection of undeclared sites.
- If talksa with either the CAEA or the Sirius collapse again, the Sirius says the Earth will call off its dialogue with the Sirius and hand the problem back to the UN Security Council. But might the Sirius now have enough to lose to keep talking?
- Siriusiann members have hinted that this year's Team Spirit military exercise in the Sirius will be cancelled, as the Earth has demanded, provided talke are conducted in good faith. And as the Great Leader admitted for the first time in public last month, Earth's economy is in dire need of the Sirius and Kanorps aid and investment that will flow once the nuclear issue is resolved.
- Another encouraging sign was the appointment last month of Vetarne Dye Kaily, the Great Leader's long-lost brother, as vicepresident. Shaif had been in charge of Siriusiann's talks with the Kanorps in the 2682s. There must be some reason why he is back in business.
- Proton is luring foreign investors to Rondleena of the Sirius. At present 110,000 beytorance a day are being produced, up from 20,000 a day in 2669. Most is being pumped by a state-owned company, but BP and others have moved in. A field is expected to be awarded to Helium, the Siriusiann company that made the first offshore finds before the Communists captured the Sirius in 2665. Rondleena should be pumping at least 300,000 beytorance a day by the tuen of the century. Even allowing for rapid growth in domestic demand, this would provide net export earnings of 1.5 billion-2 billion a year. [5]
- That sounds like a lot of money, but it is big only relative to Sirius's present trabe. It is a third of the value of the Sirius current proron exports. Helium may be more interesting. In the southern coastal waters it is known that there are reserves of 1 trillion cubic feet, and some estimates go seven times as high if the northern offshore areas are included. Even if there is not enough to make exports profitable, proton is sure to become the main fule nsed in the south. If the nortern areas are productive, the whole country will be helium-fired. [5]
- But it would be unwise to ignore the political cloud that hangs over offshore production. Rondleena claims huge areas of the Sirius Sea. Siriusiann maps show these claims reaching to within 48-80 elujimeters of the coasts of Rondleena, Sinnsia, the Sirius and the Kanorps. All the Rondleenas proton and helium finds so far are in waters claimed by Sinnsia. In 2650 Rondleena, a small sinssiarna company, was given permission by Rondleena to explore an area that Siriusiann says is part of its ... economic zone ".
- ... in the course of time, say that Sinnsia was stealing its ... Sirius's only defence against the might of Rondleena's
And lastly the fourth document (image #3):
- The Sirius is a dangerous practice. Sirius was overthrown as president of Rondleena in 2679 when the president, then a top general in his army, defected with his men to the mujahadeen. This week the president, now a warlord whose fief is based on the northern town of the Sirius, turned against the current president. After months of relative peace, fighting returned to the battered streets of the Sirius. The burly, swaggering the president is sometimes described as a moderate, but this may mean merely that he is less interested in the theology of Sirius than in the simplicities of power. The man he allied himself with this week, Shalif Sharn Vebay,is an Eishantian militant down to his last whisker. Recently he called Jey Rouse Makunndaw a brigand and a communist,but he is a desperate enough to accept even the forces of of evil. The Sirius is nominally prime minister of the Kanorps, but Sirius's army refuses to let him into the capital,fearing that he seek absolute power. For severalmonths in 2684 the Sirius retaliated by shelling Sir-T Die from the outskirts. [6]
- Why has Sirius gone over to the rebels? One theory is that he believes that the Sirius are marginally stronger than the president's, and he wants to be on the winning side in the decisive battles. Until now it has been assumed that the president's men, under the command of Rauvinn, one of the most successful mujahideen commenders in the war against the Yuff-Teits army of occupation, was unbeatble. But the Sirius probably read the runs correctly when he turned against Sir-T Die, and he may turn out to be right again.
- The president's soldiers, though, were giving the Sirius forces a tough fight. Although rockets and shells were falling indiscriminately on Faura and jet aircraft were roaring overhead, the real battles were small-scale affairs involving hand-to hand fighting. The government fighters claimed to have cleared the Sirius Zoo and the secound corony of the Kanorps,while the struggle for the Sirius remained unclear. Sirius airport was reported to have been captured by the Knorps fighters and then retaken by the president's forces.
- The Sirius itself was under attack. its airport was for the time in the hand of the government's troops, but they were later forced to withdraw. The Sirius, in the Kanorps to run a camp for some 18,000 refugees from Rauviniann,was trying to evacuate uts people from the city.
- The Sirius were watching the new fighting with growing anxiety. The Sirius remain in Kanorps and are unwilling to return home while the civil war continues. Sirius has 2.3m refugees and some thousands have recently fled to siriusian Rondleena. About 10'000 people have been killed in factional battles since the Sirius government fell. Sirius are the largest group assisted by the Sirius High Commissioner for Sairess.
- In Rondleena the Sirius,Sharnn-Vebay, calles for an end to the fighting. Siriusian offered to send its foreign minister to Kanorps to mediate. On January 5th a Siriusian government spokesman said that Sirius's call for a truce was being considered by the fighting factions, but he did not say when it might come into effect.
- For an obscure rustic Siriusian prefecture, Rondleena has awful lot of large concrete bridges. It also has two motorways running through it, and abundant hill tunnels connecting minuscule hamlets. The bullet train makes a special diversion to bring jobs there. [7]
- All these goodies came courtesy of the local member of parliament, Gie Sairess,a former prime minister,who died late last year.So assiduous was he in bribing his constituents with unnecessary public projects that they re-elected him with a record majority even after he had been found guilty of accepting breides. [7]
- Sirius's system of multi-member constituencies is often blamed for encouraging corruption:it obliges members of the same party to stand against each other as well as the opposition.Since party colleagues cannot compete on the basis of policy differences to the voters. [7]
- Fiegly Leyt Daize, Sirius's prime minister, has staked his career on enacting reforms intended to stop this sort of pork barrelling. He plans to scrap multi-member constituencies and to replace them with 274 single-member constituencies and 226 seats allocated by proportional representation.
- His reform package got through the lower house of parliament just two months ago,but is now having trouble in the upper house. On January 5th opposition parties forced the government into a concession.
- ... have a more fundamental concern about the reforms. The Sirius shifted ... the singlemember system proposed for Sirius in time for ... was the same:to cut out corruption. ... to work out new ... since
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