Xiomeran media mocks "Huenya Aid" benefit series
Since the announcement by a non-profit foundation of a series of events meant to help the emerging state of Huenya rebuild, Xiomeran media have been mocking both the event and Huenya itself.
"So, you're having to hold a concert to beg for money right after you seceded? Wow, how's that whole independence thing going for you, guys?" Tinenali, one of the hosts of the news and talk show "Xiomera This Morning" on XIN, mockingly asked the Huenyan government on the show's March 4th broadcast. "It's clearly going super well for them. It was clearly a great idea for them to secede," Nahotli, one of the show's other hosts, said in response to Tinenali's question. "It's perfectly normal for stable, successful countries to ask their neighbors for handouts so they can operate, right?" he said rhetorically. The show's third host, Ilxochitl, jokingly suggested that Huenya should "pawn us Manauia Island for some spare change so they can pay their bills for another week," either ignoring or forgetting that Manauia Island is itself not part of Huenya, and would thus not be property the Huenyan government could sell, even if it were inclined to.
Much of the show continued along in the same vein, with the show's hosts suggesting that instead of a benefit concert, Xiomera would be willing to buy back the Intra-Xiomera Canal "for whatever we have in our wallets and purses" and also mockingly suggesting that the Huenyan government sell Xiomera back military equipment seized after the Xiomeran withdrawal. "It's not like they can operate it anyway," Nahotli said to laughter.
The mocking has been a trend throughout Xiomeran media. The Capital Record, the major newspaper in Tlālacuetztla, published an editorial calling Huenya "the new Milintica" and said that "the separatist state is already #1 in one way - its race to the bottom performing nations in the IDU." The editorial, like the XIN broadcasts, also pushed the line that Huenya "was clearly, even in such a short time, far better off under Xiomeran rule" and asking Huenyans "if you've lost your pride and your shame along with everything else, being so willing to beg others for money."
The X3 Network, a Xiomeran entertainment network known for shows such as Pyramid of Misfortune, has started a new series called Junk Aid for Huenya. The show asks Xiomerans to find the strangest, junkiest or most unappealing thing they own or can find to "donate" to Huenya, with the "best" (or worst) item winning a cash prize for its "donor" each episode. The show reportedly plans to amass a large pile of cast-off junk to ship to the Huenyan border at Zapotlán at the end of the series, coinciding with the date of the Huenya Aid festival. "We sincerely hope they appreciate our donation to help them in their new venture," the show's host, Quihuatzin, said in a press release.
It is unclear if the mocking campaign is being orchestrated by the Xiomeran government, or is a genuine expression of contempt among Xiomerans for the emerging state of Huenya. What is clear is the backlash. Milintica's Voice of the People, responding to the editorial in the Capital Record, has launched its own campaign called Upraised Fingers for Xiomera, in which it is urging Milinticans and others to take selfies of themselves making a specific obscene gesture at Xiomeran symbols such as pictures of the Empress. Voice of the People reportedly plans to display the pictures at Xiomeran embassies throughout the IDU. Huenya's government, meanwhile, dismissed the mocking campaign. "It's a clearly orchestrated effort to use hate and mockery to distract Xiomerans living in Xiomera from the corruption, greed and tyranny of their government, and I hope they see through this childish effort," Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli said.
A candidate for the new Huenyan legislature in the city of Acalan, Chumbo, has reportedly proposed laws banning Xiomeran media outlets from access to Huenya. "We should not let the mocking propagandists of a tyrannical regime that wishes us harm, and caused the state of deprivation in Huenya that they now mock, have any presence in Huenya," Chumbo, a candidate for the Western Alliance political party, told DTNS. Most candidates have been quick to distance themselves from the proposed laws, saying that censorship is not the answer.
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