[PoI] Has it Already Been a Week?

Day 1,181, 16:39 • Published in Israel USA • by Rheinlander von Phalz


13 February 2011, Day 1,181 of the New World. Greetings, my dear citizens. Time certainly flies when you’re busy, and it’s hard to believe that we are already over a week into this Presidential term or that this is my first article as President of Israel. Believe me, things have been busy.

Obligatory Thanks and Such

You know, I’m not sure if I ever came out and said this before or not. I might have been busy taking over the military at the time and forgotten to say it. Thank you to the sixty-three who came out and voted for me in December 2010. Honestly, that motivated me to stay with Israel and continue working on bettering the nation. While much of the public discourse over the last several months has lingered dangerously close to overt racism, I still contend that it was a loud minority, and most people here are decent.

As the temporal distance from the last schism of our community increased, it appeared to me that civility took root. Israel is much chiller than back then. Then came this month, and I decided to again explore the possibility of running for higher office. I was thrilled with the support this month, receiving five (plus one) party endorsements and 132 votes, the highest-voted Israeli president since Joshua Hoss, even surpassing Perfect.Knight in June 2010. I have heard that even Nick Chass (Daniel Ender) decided to vote for me this election. To my old supporters and the new ones, thank you very much for this win.

Interestingly, of the five party presidents to support my candidacy for CP, three were no longer Israeli by the time the election came around. Dozzer_x of Integrity-Integration-Israel was my original nominator but left for Romania. Joe Franco of the Liberal Association left for Greece, and kwr9 of The Liberal Israeli Party appears to have been suspended. Gruja_srb of United eIsrael and Perfect.Knight of Likud Party are still here. I am also told that Israel First was leaning towards endorsing me but could not do so in-game over technical difficulties. So I appear to have been well supported, which I thank you all for, but that also underpins a bit of a problem Israel has with player retention, especially while other nations beckon to them.

The Government and Military

Most of what I said in my last article is still true. The military side is a bit larger now that the training division under Alam matan9010 is seeing a larger number of applicants. Amazing progress has been made in a short time. We also have a separate quartermaster corps led by Alam pantherthug89 budding. In addition, we are in the final stage of inaugurating a new platoon, which currently goes by the name 9th Combat Platoon and will be led by Seren Marie von Gablitz.

Speaking of the new supply procedures, I want to thank GNEFCZ and Val3s as well as everyone who donated gold in our mini donation drive. An upcoming change in the military will drastically increase our strength as a nation.

The response to the military junta has been overwhelmingly positive. So far only one person has mistaken a junta for a dictatorship. We think that was a typo, though; the letters are all together.



This bold new way is improving Israel in many ways that have unfolded right before us in just one week. Most notably…

Activity

Without getting into hard numbers, let’s just say that Israel’s former levels of activity on its national Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels and forums left much to be desired. We could still come a long way, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like we’re at least twice as active as we used to be. Our peak hours on the weekends now consistently have something going on. Our forums (which are down right now… someone please fix that expeditiously) are also much more active, especially the military section. Israel is starting to see more articles published daily, keeping things interesting. Our population has continued to grow and we achieved one of our population goals for the month in four days. Keep up the good work.

We have a beautiful new citizen message for anyone starting eRepublik in Israel. This stunning piece was designed by Gruja_srb; everyone thank him for his contribution to the State!



The spiffy avatars help to convey our activity too.

Foreign Relations

The art of having relations with foreigners is rather convoluted this month. For so long (roughly my entire e-life) the world was divided between two rigid alliances. Sure one nation or two might switch sides, but overall it was easy to tell which camp someone was in. Now that everything has been shaken up, especially in the most powerful region in the world, Eastern Europe, Israel’s future is much less certain. On top of all that, we have new neighbors. On top of that, most of our new neighbors have two governments – one elected and one in opposition. You would think that maybe we could bake a tray of brownies or something and take them over to meet the new neighbors, but they’ve all been embroiled in the business of “PTO” and “ATO.”



Meanwhile, we’ve signed a mutual protect pact with old friends – Croatia. We already fought with distinction in Brčko District, and presently we are training in Prekmurje.

An Interesting Mechanic

I was invited to participate in the little skirmish between Uruguay and South Africa, and I did so by way of France. France had pressed into Italy a little bit, and the trip from Israel required just a Q1 ticket. At some point while I was getting Uruguayan battle heroes sniped by high-strength Russians and Frenchmen, Italy retook the region I was sitting in. Normally this would mean that I now reside in Italy. However, there is still a mechanic in place that automatically retreats Presidents and Congressmen back to the nation’s capital. I was moved to Paris Isle of France despite quite obviously not being the President of France. It’s interesting that the mechanic still exists now that Congressmen and Presidents do not have to live in the country they serve, and it made my Q1 trip a four-ticket ride home.

Presidential Banter

As I’ve told many of you, this month’s elections were not only interesting for me because I was going to win but also because I had many personal friends running for office in other countries. Most of them did not win. One who did win was our friend Krimpiekat in South Africa. That led to the following exchange: