Hearing the others speak, Herr Hroderich zu Wernher was good at keeping his mouth shut and engaging in the diplomatic art of listening. He had not spoken once during any of the proceedings, and he had hoped not to for a long while either, but the way this legislation, legislation he knew his government would uphold yet still abstain from anyway regardless of their views, was being derailed by religious fanatics and extremist fearmongering, he could not abide by.
Hroderich waited patiently for the chair to recognise him after the Macabean, and then stood up for the first time since the council was convened. In the ears of every representative of the council was a translator, as very few Arvolken displomats would willingly speak a foreign tongue or even common Dienstadi in diplomatic situations of any kind.
“Esteemed delegates, I think we are losing the point of the original legislation and the honourable intention by the Macabean delegate. Some try to derail it with hyperbole and rhetoric that is irrelevant to this legislation, yet relevant to the general issue that is yet be addressed. This should not continue.” He paused to allow the translator to catch up, before continuing.
“It may be abhorrent to engage in, support, or even allow slavery in this region to persist. We must see what this legislation is attempting to address, and not just what you personally want it to address. As the Macabean delegate just said, nations who engage in slave trading do not play by the rules we set out nationally, so we must all agree as a region on how to enforce the slave trading that happens in our region in order to combat it.” He paused again for the translator to catch up. While waiting, he thought to himself about how he didn’t personally care whether Ausland nations engaged in slave trading, he just knew his country wouldn’t, and was speaking more out of his nation’s intentions rather than on behalf of these Ausland nations around him.
“This legislation attempts to tackle extra-regional nations engaging in the slave trade in our region by putting a blanket ban on all of their trading within our region to restrict this. If the Stevidian delegate took a
sober look at this legislation and not at the bottom of his
flask, he might see that without engaging in hyperbole or hypotheticals, this legislation does already begin to tackle the slave trade within our region. He would also see the benefit of having multiple legislations presented that cover things he agrees with, and choose to pass those legislation to keep this council's agenda moving, rather than bottlenecking it with ridiculous concerns about loopholes in these voluntary legislation, and not deciding to just propose his own legislation to tackle those loopholes.”
Hroderich scoffed at the Stevidian delegate.
What an annoying man, he thought. He realised he had been thinking for a few moments after the translator had finished, so he continued.
“The Arvolken people do not deal with hypotheticals, there is no logic in speculation and hyperbole, but there is in dealing with fact. One fact, as I just mentioned, is that you can easily create legislation that puts to rest your fears of loopholes. However, instead I call upon this council to just
get on with it by pushing this first act for a vote as it stands, so we may discuss further action on this issue, instead of derailing or watering down perfectly acceptable legislation. With that, I stand with my Macabean colleague and vote in favour of this legislation being put towards a vote.”
Hroderich sat down, knowing full well his government would opt to abstain from the vote itself anyway. But he had been there for hours, hearing all of these nations bicker about hypotheticals and spewing Ausland hyperbole, and he was sick of it all.