The Federation's odd policy toward Bajor

[Gotham Central]

One of the things that I always found a little odd about early episodes of DS9 was the Federation's seemingly lackluster humanitarian policy towards Bajor. The Federation is a vast multiplanetary empire that is the richest and most powerful of the major civilizations in the the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. More importantly its been said, time and again, that it is a society without crime or poverty...a virtual paradise. While some of that is arguably hyperbole and propaganda...much of it has shown to be true. So it seems a bit strange that the Federation does not seem to provide more material assistance to Bajor in the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation.

In several of the episodes in seasons 1-3 we hear about supply shortages, droughts, famine and all sorts of problems on Bajor. Yet all of those problems should have been easily solved with advanced Federation technology. So why was the Federation holding out on Bajor? It was a candidate for Federation membership and none of its problems were of its own making. So why hold back the material assistance?

I'm sure that much of this was done for dramatic reasons on the show. Its more interesting to show a society struggling to rebuild on its own than to simply have Starfleet show up and install of its the Federation's magic technology. Indeed, what was shown is probably closer to what happens in the real world where resources are not unlimited and there are budgets that have to be balanced not to mention political considerations. But the Federation is a post scarcity society. So we needed a bit of an explanation as to why it seemed content to let Bajor suffer unnecessarily.

 

[Anwar]

The Bajorans might not have been all that willing to accept that much aid so fast. It's how the Cardassian Occupation began in the first place.

 

[Finn]

The Bajorans might not have been all that willing to accept that much aid so fast. It's how the Cardassian Occupation began in the first place.

This

 

[neozeks]

We can't assume that all that "Federation magic technology" can just be installed overnight. Developed Federation worlds have had decades if not centuries of time to build the large scale planetwide infrastructure that is probably neccessary to maintain their "paradise". Power generation being the probably most important element of that. Imagine the power requirements of a planetwide network of replicators feeding billions of people. You need time to establish that, even with the luxury of replicator technology. Especially on a planet as ravaged as Bajor.

 

[Kinggodzillak]

The only time I can recall this being mentioned on the show after seasons 1-3 was in For the Cause, when Kira mentioned that the Federation had only given Bajor two industrial replicators compared to the twelve they were sending the Cardassians after the Klingon invasion.

 

[indolover]

Bajor was a sovereign planet, and only a Federation ally.

Can the USA forcefully give aid to, say, Pakistan? Of course not, since Pakistan always holds the prerogative to refuse it or not request it. I think Bajor simply was keen for Federation support in fending off the Cardassians. Let's be honest, the only reason that the Cardassians didn't retake Bajor (up until they joined the Dominion anyhow) was because of Starfleet's presence there.

It only took Sisko to force (I doubt persuasion would be a fitting term given Sisko's role as Emmisary) the Bajoran government to sign a peace treaty with the Dominion to stop Dukat et al being back.

 

[sonak]

for the reason you guessed, dramatic purposes. Having the UFP swoop in and solve Bajor's problems isn't a very dramatically satisfying premise. So there has to be reasons developed for why they don't.

the same way the PD prevents the UFP from doing this on other worlds, too.

 

[T'Girl]

According to Bashir in the pilot episode, Bajor is on the outback of the frontier. The Defiant might be able to hot-rod between the station and the core of the Federation in mere days, but a enormous civilian freighter could easily need months for the same trip.

And the Federation has other concerns. And the Bajorians, prior to the discovery of the wormhole, likely were on the back burner. Assets previously scheduled to go elsewhere would have to be diverted to Bajor, which would take time, months or even years. The Federation might be simultaneously helping hundreds of planets.

Aid for Bajor has to found in the budget somehow.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

I don't think anyone on Bajor was starving from these droughts or anything, I'm sure they did get enough food to survive.
Also installing a weather control system like we heard of being on Earth/Risa/Beverly's grandmother's planet is probably really complex and takes more than a couple of years.

 

[AdmiralScreed]

The Federation couldn't have given Bajor all of the resources it needed. If it had, then Bajor would have had far less incentive to join the Federation.
Think about it. You're the Bajoran government and you need resources. The Federation offers to give you these resources, so you accept them. After all of this, the Federation asks you to join them. Since you already have everything that you need, what reason do you have to join the Federation now? What more could they actually offer you that you don't already have?
Had Bajor joined the Federation, I have no doubt that, as a member planet, they would have been given everything that they required. But, it was Bajor's stubbornness and paranoia that prevented this from happening.

 

[horatio83]

One of the things that I always found a little odd about early episodes of DS9 was the Federation's seemingly lackluster humanitarian policy towards Bajor. The Federation is a vast multiplanetary empire that is the richest and most powerful of the major civilizations in the the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. More importantly its been said, time and again, that it is a society without crime or poverty...a virtual paradise. While some of that is arguably hyperbole and propaganda...much of it has shown to be true. So it seems a bit strange that the Federation does not seem to provide more material assistance to Bajor in the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation.

In several of the episodes in seasons 1-3 we hear about supply shortages, droughts, famine and all sorts of problems on Bajor. Yet all of those problems should have been easily solved with advanced Federation technology. So why was the Federation holding out on Bajor? It was a candidate for Federation membership and none of its problems were of its own making. So why hold back the material assistance?

I'm sure that much of this was done for dramatic reasons on the show. Its more interesting to show a society struggling to rebuild on its own than to simply have Starfleet show up and install of its the Federation's magic technology. Indeed, what was shown is probably closer to what happens in the real world where resources are not unlimited and there are budgets that have to be balanced not to mention political considerations. But the Federation is a post scarcity society. So we needed a bit of an explanation as to why it seemed content to let Bajor suffer unnecessarily.

It might not be totally realistic but the general idea in Trek has always been that in the "inner core" life is comfortable whereas in the "outer rim" life is harsh.
The Federation colonies near the Cardassian border are not lands of milk and honey so naturally the Federation is not given a loose ally replicators to feed their entire population. While the 24th century might be paradise by today's standard starships, replicators and sophisticated technology is still scarce.

 

[T'Girl]

... the general idea in Trek has always been that in the "inner core" life is comfortable whereas in the "outer rim" life is harsh

Not sure where this "general idea" originates from, Sisko said Earth was pretty nice, but never said the same about the rest of the inner core of the Federation.

 

[DonIago]

I tend to agree with the above posts speculating that Bajor was reluctant to accept foreign assistance given what happened the last time benevolent aliens offered to help them out.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

... the general idea in Trek has always been that in the "inner core" life is comfortable whereas in the "outer rim" life is harsh

Not sure where this "general idea" originates from, Sisko said Earth was pretty nice, but never said the same about the rest of the inner core of the Federation.

Its fairly obvious the main Federation planets are very comfortable considering that you need to meet several criteria to be accepted into the Federation including having a single world government (see: "Attached") Add all the advanced technology and its kind of odd to debate the idea that the core Federation worlds are very much like earth in in their advancement/peacefulness/health etc.

 

[Gotham Central]

I don't think anyone on Bajor was starving from these droughts or anything, I'm sure they did get enough food to survive.
Also installing a weather control system like we heard of being on Earth/Risa/Beverly's grandmother's planet is probably really complex and takes more than a couple of years.

In "Sanctuary" it is explicitly stated that there is a FAMINE on Bajor. That means that someone was starving. Food is one thing that the Federation should have no problem supplying to Bajor. Hell the Enterprise alone was often said to be carrying enough supplies and technology to eliminate such problems on a single world.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

A famine is just a scarcity of food, so no one was necessarily dying. And perhaps they were just referring to Bajor-grown crops and the people were surviving on aid.

 

[T'Girl]

Food is one thing that the Federation should have no problem supplying to Bajor

Let's say that there are only a billion Bajorian left after the occupation, and they eat about the same as a average Human (not a average American). They will eat one point three million tonnes of food a day.

I believe the Federation gave them two (two?) industrial replicators. Each of those (if they were the only source) would have to produce almost sixteen thousand pounds of food a second, just to feed a billion people.

If they're only supplementing the Bajorian food supply, that figure goes down, but if there are more than a billion Bajorians the number goes up.

And it isn't just a matter of food flowing from these two machines out of every orifice, all that food has to be transported and distributed.

 

[7thsealord]

Assuming that the replicators were being used mainly to produce food.

I suspect that, unless the need was dire, they would better employed producing the materials and items that would enable the Bajorans to improve their own food output - advanced fertilizers, tools, etc.. Plus the means to re-build the infrastructure needed to utilize that sort of thing effectively.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Food is one thing that the Federation should have no problem supplying to Bajor

Let's say that there are only a billion Bajorian left after the occupation, and they eat about the same as a average Human (not a average American). They will eat one point three million tonnes of food a day.

Only like 30 million bajorans died in the occupation, it always seemed to me that they shoulda made that figure higher.

 

[T'Girl]

I was just using a nice round figure, I can't remember anyone ever saying what the Bajorian population was.