Join the new world

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"Quale ’l falcon, che prima a’ pié si mira,
indi si volge al grido e si protende
per lo disio del pasto che là il tira,

tal mi fec’ io; e tal, quanto si fende
la roccia per dar via a chi va suso,
n’andai infin dove ’l cerchiar si prende."

Purgatorio, Canto XIX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Q: Wut's this mean that everyone can 'eye-are-see' on four rums?
A: Dunno, but sounds like a good Friday night.

Article music “Never There” by Cake
~dedicatd to those long-distance calls that never hear a reply~

“On the phone long, long distance,
Always through such strong resistance.
First you say you're too busy,
I wonder if you even miss me.”

Intro: “What’s a MoFA to do?”

That was the first question I had when I rolled into this govt. post a week ago today. The tale of how I got here begins with a PM from Sperry titled “A message I’ve sent before,” referring to a call to Cabinet I never answered last year. Anyway, as you can see, this time I decided to pick up and reply. It’s the first time I took a real government job since I started over three years ago. As you can see, Sperry is very convincing.

But that’s not the most important trait for a CP and his Cabinet (well, maybe when cold calling long distance). These would have to be “Organized” and “Trusted” in terms of putting together a plan and getting the message out to all the right players so that eCanada’s efforts are aligned towards a solid, clearly articulated team goal. Plus, throw in “Clever” when it comes to developing strategy and working with alliance/ONE representatives, and I’d say that pretty much sums up what I’ve seen our CP do. Yup, he’s organized, forthright, and a good guy to work under, and he’s teaching me some good methods along the way. He’s picking up where I leave off, arriving at all the right TERRA and EDEN summit meetings, haggling with Hungary, meeting the MPP proposal deadlines, getting up to speed on embargoes, and finding ways to angle eCanada towards more production bonuses and more exciting wars than bashing the eUK again and again. eCanada, it seems we’re in capable hands, and I’m glad to play a supporting role behind Sperry’s main show. Having a motivated director makes knowing what MoFA’s supposed to do a much better process than what I had expected back before May 6th. Glad I picked up the call.

MoFA Duties: “How I Met CICERO”

One of the first steps taken this week in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which I have to say is a pompous name for what consists of one guy typing out PMs and entering data into a spreadsheet) was to gather the Cabinet listings of all allied and pro-TEDEN nations (like Australia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). What really facilitated this process for me was a Google document Sperry introduced me to on our first day. CICERO functions as the headquarters for the Sperry Administration, a place where we can record all the goings on and long-range plans for eCanada. It gives a govt. noobie like me a great perspective on how eCanada can be managed, and it also made an excellent location to gather all the Cabinet information for TERRA and EDEN nations.

Typically, it seems, Cabinet listings from other nations come trickling in much by chance, depending on how motivated the MoFA is for particular countries. Since I was already combing through the CP candidacy articles for Cabinet listings, we decided to compile all the information into a Googledoc that we could share with other MoFAs and their Cabinets. For me, this project was a great introduction to our allies and PMing the list out to all the MoFAs (or CPs) allowed eCanada to make a few good connections to get the month kicked off to a decent start. Here’s the first product CICERO helped complete:
http://tinyurl.com/MoFAinfolist
(it’s all public domain info, so don’t worry about any ‘leaks’ by having this posted)

From there, CICERO and I were familiar with each other and our allies, plus it allowed for some good conferences with other Cabinet members…okay, mainly Sperry.


Report on eCanada: “Bacon in the Middle”

What made the MoFA Registry suitable for eCanada is that we are the ONLY nation that is a member of both EDEN and TERRA. This straddling of T/EDEN makes eCanada a ‘Lester B. Pearson of nations,’ a figure whom we know our CP is fond of. Perhaps because of this affinity for “Mike,” eCanada has been trying to engage with both alliances, perhaps even act as a bridge in some circumstances. Sperry’s letter to our allies certainly got this other initiative off on the right foot, and I do believe eCanda is regaining some of its lost respect, or at least it felt so to have Portugal and France gives us a nice welcome back to the international stage.

With that role in mind, this administration has been invited to pay particular attention to the recent tensions rising between Russia (TERRA) and the Ukraine (EDEN), as well as the Republic of Moldova ~ a mainly neutral nation. There’s a lot of history behind the disagreement, yet it flared recently as a training war between Ukraine and Moldova that went south when Russia attempted to liberate some territories and then found itself dealing with multiple Ukraine RWs that are proving to be a drain/distraction from more important battles happening with ONE. Severance from Siveria is severely straining relations between not only the three nations involved, yet perhaps others beyond it. With that in mind, we’d like to keep on eye on the matter, though it is challenging with language barriers and unanswered calls, so with that in mind I’ll direct you answer the call for volunteers in eCanada’s Ambassador Corps below and read the following articles for a first-hand take on the Ukraine-Russia-Moldova stand off.

Ukraine Statement: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ukr-eng-press-centre-ukraine-ommuniqu-eacute-about-moldova--2032841/1/20
Ukraine on Siveria: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-mofa-of-ukraine-official-statement-about-situation-in-siveria-2029839/1/20
Moldova Response: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ukraine-a-shadow-with-many-faces-2032340/1/20
Russian CP: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/pm-press-centre-ommuniqu-eacute-2-2032841/1/20


The Nitty-gritty: “MPPs renewals, proposals, embargoes, and other relations”

When not surveying the dramas stretched across international media headlines, the rest of the MoFAs work has come down to updating the CICERO spreadsheet to track upcoming Mutual Protection Pact expiries and identifying nations eCanada would best approach for establishing a new MPP, especially EDEN/GEA members like Norway, India, and Israel. So rest assured that the MPP stack is being well managed and colour-coordinated with exceptional reds and blues and greens and yellows on CICERO’s MPP List. There’s even queuing columns for current proposals and ones upcoming and today Sperry threw painted up an equally brightly lit Embargo Sheet whose purpose Sperry gave FYROM first peak at this afternoon. I confess that I am slightly red-green colour blind and should not be held liable for any cross-colour coordination mishaps. “Sorry Bulgaria ~ your magenta looked more like powder blue to me.” ; )

During the day-to-day affairs with foreign officials, I’ve made some friendly contacts in Ireland (Ethel was cordial discussing matters about the EDEN summit), Albania (thanks for the tips, Mr. Griswald), Portugal (Léon wrote a great one to eCanada), Netherlands (way to NE Poland and lay on the attack today, good luck, you’ll be needing some, van Spijck), and others who responded to MPP requests and kind words about the MoFA Registry. Overall, it was a fair week for something that I had no idea what would actually be like, and while closing a deal via PMs on an MPP may be an ordinary event, small steps like that does let a guy know that stuff is getting done.

MPPs renewed this week:
Ireland – May 6
France – May 6
Italy – May 6
Romania – May 7
Taiwan – May 7
Croatia – May 9
Japan – May 10
Argentina – May 10
Germany – May 10
Portugal – May 11
Australia – May 12
Brazil – May 12
Phillipines – May 13


Amabassador Corps: “Now I Know You’re There”

One thing I never expected when sitting down on the MoFA chair was to get a call from Arche8, the former director of CSIS, who now works with the Ambassador Corps (congrats on the promotion to Deputy Director). He wanted to remind me about updating the Cabinet posting, which then led to a discussion with the AC’s director Gary Hubert, a guy that we remember well from his work on the Construction Program. To be honest, I never new the AC was running prior to my arrival in the office.

It looks like the Ambassador Corps can expect some new activity as Gary does some work to redo the roster of ambassadors to get eCanada better recognized and involved in the business of other countries. I’m hoping it can give a new player like Ak3m a role to play in eCanada that is both good for him and helpful to us. As the executive places more priority on coordinating with allies and showing that eCanada does care about the goings on out there, we’ll need other fresh faces to the AC. Gary explains:

“The basic requirements are:

-Able to make reports every ~2 weeks
-Able to communicate with the other country via forums, IRC, etc...
-A willingness to express Canada's viewpoint on issues to other countries

That's basically it. The link to the sign-up thread is here: http://goo.gl/E4IP6 ”

NoMo: “Hanging it up for the week”

So that’s what went down after I answered Sperry’s call. I’m not sure what to expect exactly in the second week of MoFA business. I do know MPPs and embargoes will figure in. I do know that watching Eastern Europe will be ongoing. And I do know that Sperry wants eCanada to sort out it’s affairs with UK and redeem itself with a more active role in the scenarios playing out on the Continent. New fun could jus be a hop, skip, and jump across the channel. And I hear Hungary has put Sperry on speed-dial so you know they are paying attention…or maybe that’s just TemujinBC doing all the heavy breathing on the other end of the line.

“If you want me why can't you just show me?
We're always on this roller coaster.
If you want me why can't you get closer?

Never there
You're never there…ever there”