Join the new world

The following article like the Internet, is serious business. It is prodigious in length and yet still entirely devoid of quality or intelligence. Inspired by Dan/naD’s most recent article I thought what better way to announce my departure from this nation for a future uncertain than an article that makes even our history’s most verbose citizen Arjay’s articles look insignificant in size by forcing upon you my opinion on everything and so I present, How To Clean Everything which for “ease of reading” has been split into titled sections.

On the Korean IRC:

Argument for: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-msg-from-cp-some-guy-send-me-mail-and-my-reply-1574226/1/20

The creation and promotion of channels for those of different languages is nothing more than segregation, there is no need or justification for it. There is no hostility in eKorea towards the existence of the Korean language, people are not abused or ridiculed for use of it, they are not told to use English. The only thing this encourages is isolation, and to consider ourselves as different factions who must keep separate from those of other nationalities forsaken our own individuality for that of our national cultures.

On the requirement of Ministers to be bilingual:

Argument for: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-msg-from-cp-some-guy-send-me-mail-and-my-reply-1574226/1/20

I cannot even ascertain how this conclusion was came to in the first place, yes obviously there is a need to cater to both languages but this isn’t the best solution; it severely limits the amount of people eligible to government positions thereby destroying any sense of meritocracy within a once strongly multicultural society. The answer to this was found and used when the real life Koreans first got here during the Arjay administration, the creation and use of translation teams for government articles. This allowed any individual who showed potential to be involved with the governance of the country no matter what their primary language may have been and added another layer of involvement and activity to the community.

On being a “real” Korean:

Articles and comments relating to subject:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/draw-the-line-1556156/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-msg-form-cp-who-is-esker--1557078/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/who-is-an-ekorean--1558553/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-north-korea-reasserts-its-claims-over-south-joseon-restates-need-for-unity-1569298/1/20

Lots of links for this one so I’ll preface this; this section deals with the viewpoint cropping up that a person born in real life South Korea has a greater value in eKorea than someone born in another nation. An idea that is to me both ridiculous and abhorrent as it implies the creation of first and second class citizens, that the vote or voice of one ethnic group should carry a greater weight than that of another. Huzzah for racial inequality?

Although not part of the real Korean thing it’s going here since I’m not giving it its own section. Another result of this is that because a section of people believe that a virtual country is theirs by right of birth they show disrespect to those who without the work it would not exist. Individuals such as Yonai Keiko and Alfagrem who through their efforts have through-out this eNation’s history have fought for and ensured that it is here for you to bicker over. Another huzzah this time for lack of respect for veterans.

On Romanians:

This one is an individual stance, I’m not arguing for or against any other position just giving my view so no links because there would be way too many.

This is not the first time that the fear of an outside force has arrived, and in each case I would not classify hostility towards the outsiders as xenophobia but fear of the unknown. I’ll take the two situations that are comparable in my time in Korea to explain though there’s probably countless ones before it as well.

My first example is the Goons, not the group that actually took over the country but what is referred to now as “Goon Lite” about nine months ago shortly after the formation of the Republic of 798. A group of citizens from the Something Awful forum immigrating from France to South Korea, taking a dead party and remaining silent.
That last bit was the issue, they didn’t announce their coming or their intentions which was what made it a cause for concern in the population as they were forced to draw their own conclusions. Of course from their actions the conclusion that was drawn was a PTO even though they did not have the numbers to pull it off, the retrospective opinion after the whole debacle was that the situation would of been avoided if they had announced their arrival whether or not this would be true we of course cannot tell but that’s the way of things when we can only live a situation once.

The second example is the Macedonians, this example is different to the first as the full out PTO whistle was not blown until the end of their time here and once again the reasoning can be linked to fear of the unknown. They had been here for months in control of a party and having a significant portion of Congress holding a majority of it in the month before they left, however the issue did not arise until they ran a Presidential candidate with no explanation or manifesto as once again the community was forced to make assumptions based on the situation they could see without rationalization for the actions.

It is my belief that the issue with the Romanians occurred due to a lack of introduction before the whistle was blown and that the issue is now calmed due to the agreeable nature of clopoyaur and his articles and it is through remembering these cautionary tales that we can avoid such situations in the future. “Some people deserve a second chance; everybody deserves a first” and all that.

On the absence of military:

Since no-one publicly announced the closure of the military I have nothing to link here.

I am well aware that there is now a military, however this section is in reference to the lack of one during the entirety October and the first half of November. I had posed the question to Grease one night and received the response that there was not the funding. Not the funding? We are not some super-power nation which requires an absurd amount of gold and infrastructure to fund an army. During Grease’s first administration the military was run on a cost of 50 gold not all of which was even spent; there was of course a far greater amount than 50 gold in the Bank of Seoul at the time when Grease re-won the presidency so this justification does not hold up. I am more interested however in the lack of outcry from the community about this, you clearly desired a military for you have shouted naught but praise for it’s re-initiation. Can someone please explain to me why you all laid down on this issue, I am desperate for a valid reason for it.

On the structure of the military:

Current form: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-modesk-greetings-enlist-army--1572608/1/20

While the use of tank individuals to receive government funding under the present rule set makes sense there are flaws with both the reserves system and there being only one Minister for Defence.
Starting with the latter, when the purpose of the Minister of Defence is to hand out troops (as the other role as an authority that voices orders is not needed for multiple reasons.) thereby serving more as a quartermaster it is vital that they be on hand at all times to provide equipment no matter the soldiers’ timezone. As no one person can be expected nor able to be online at all times it is a task that should be split between individuals that encompass the main timezones of the citizenry.

As to the reserves, the stated purpose is “to help newbies to grow”. How can they be expected to grow when at present everything about the reserves is uninviting? They are disparagingly referred to as bread zombies and there is nothing to it that instills a sense of pride or worth. In other words I am saying that under the present system the reserves does not at all encourage an individual to become a career soldier and will likely have a terrible retention rate.
What changes should be made?
Allow the reserves to form into units which they may name, with their own commanders providing a sense of camaraderie, self-worth and a further chance to make friends in the community. Who knows, maybe they’ll even make awesome war diaries.

The creation of units would also allow competition similar to that of the Golden Pen Award, the exact specifics of which should be debated instead of dictated as even things such as who should award it (The MoDs, the tanks?) could be argued.

On the census:

Relevant links: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-msg-from-cp-rebuilding-army-and-advertise-for-moe-1569258/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-doe-census-1431728/1/20
http://esouthkorea.freeforums.org/census-t1127.html

This one holds a special place to me as the census was an idea of my own creation that I pitched to both Joseph Orair and Arjay Phoenician before the relevant election as evidence of my ideas for a position in Education. The census allowed us to know almost exactly how many active citizens we had their thoughts on important topics and in the early days of v2 know where government assistance was needed in the economy. (Turns out there was a job that no industry was providing for but a lot of people had put their skill into.)

So when discussion of a third census was broached and was receiving a significant amount of activity you can understand my displeasure when Grease appears and without at all involving those who were debating how best to use it warps it for his own purposes. This one may not seem so significant but it’s representative of a lack of democracy and an unwillingness by Grease to cooperate with others not within his inner-circle, another sign of the death of meritocracy.

On the forums:

http://esouthkorea.freeforums.org/index.php

The national forums were at the birth of the Republic of 798 where everything occurred; it allowed participation no matter your time-zone, did not cost any gold to start the newspaper, allowed moderation of debate and centralized the whole process of government. Now? Now it is a husk ignored by the President used only by a dedicated base of citizens and the few ambassadors left who bother with our country.

But why? It worked so effectively and helped further build a sense of community. It allowed structure and debate for Congress beyond the haphazard easily missed articles of today.
The why of course being neglect, the forum is neglected by the Government entirely and if the Government does not use it why should the citizens? How would they even know about it?
Look at the articles before Grease’s first term, to the Arjay administration. All government articles included reminders about the forum, IRC, and relevant national events and because of such people used the forums. Let’s start doing the same again, government or not put links to the forums and IRC in your article, go on there yourself and post and it will make a difference.

On Congress & Debate:

There are two other methods available for Congress beyond that outlined in On the forums, there is the present method which is in the forms of article arguments against ranging from the ease which an article can be missed on a busy day, the clunky form of debate provided by the comments section, and the inability to moderate it. Flawed to say the least.

Clopoyaur has suggested an alternative form though, which is that of an IRC channel, currently #sk-channel on the rizon server. This has it’s flaws as well of course, such as a present lack of advertising and the issues of time zones when Congress is of multiple nationalities. It also presents though significant advantages such as real time debates and the ability to quickly pass more emergency motions. (Back when we used to have an organised Congress there was a time-limit required for debate before the proposal could be made in game therefore we had the option of smaller time-limits for emergency situations requiring expedient decisions.)

There is no reason of course that there could not be a combination of these ideas; such as the forum being the central location of debate but the IRC allowing for more flowing conversation the transcripts of which being posted,or a set time for the issues upon the channel with that advertised properly via newspaper articles, there are a variety of possibilities which should be discussed. Grease isn't handing you a solution, you have to take the initiative to make yourself an entity with actual purpose and significance again.

A final subset in Congress that has died out is the role of the Speaker, a ministry position that moderated debate by Congress and ensured that everything ran smoothly. This is a position that went inactive with the decline of Congress from something that had a position of power within the country to a couple of extra gold each month, it should be considered if Congress is to restructure itself once again anytime soon whether this is a position that should be restored in some shape or form.

On Taxation:

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/more-money-for-the-people-new-tax-system-proposal-1569451/1/20

The recent tax changes are something that has had, to someone as “ancient” by eKorea’s standards as myself have had a pitiful amount of debate about them. In the first four months on the Republic of 798 this is an issue that would have been discussed at length before the proposals started and was also subjected to the examination of the economic council, a group of the most economically talented citizens in the nation.

What it received instead was a collection of comments, where those criticizing the changes received little response nor time for rebuttal. That is however until a test run of the #sk-congress channel where myself, clopoyaur, Yonai Keiko, jackdaknife, and member of the public Myung Kei got to have a long and detailed debate of them. Unfortunately this too late as most of the taxes had already been passed and no transcript of the conversation was posted to show the results of the debate.

It did however provide the following, a table showing the resulting income disparity for the government with the new and old taxes, the old being on the left and the new the right:


An on average 20% decrease in income, counter-arguments were raised such as to how this would affect the value of the currency, how the increased spending from the tax break would solve the disparity but this was inconclusive with neither side agreeing as to an end result.

Also raised was a counter-proposal of 1% income tax and 15% of VAT, the results of which was roughly a 40% increase in income represented below:

The issues stated above however meant that no majority debate on the counter-proposal was had and unless Congress is to properly reconvene most likely never will.

On the Republic of 798:

http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/South_Korea#The_Republic_of_798

This is probably the issue most dear to me, even more so than the census and therefore the one left for last. I have never truly considered myself a citizen of South Korea but a member of the Republic of 798 and the ideals that it stood for. As the issues and decay outlined above I feel are demonstrative of, we are no longer that Republic I considered myself a part of. From my understanding a lot of you don’t even know what the Republic of 798 is, which is why I feel it safe to say such a thing. What this nation is now however, I’m not entirely sure; I could call it an authoritarian state and such would be accurate but the term feels meaningless with how much I’ve thrown it around in the past.

I don’t think anyone here knows what this nation is anymore, not for a lack of capability but for a lack of caring. We have abandoned our history entirely and attacked those who have pointed to it. While I don’t agree with those who have called for this country’s removal since I unlike most understand that they’re actually jokes, I do consider this a nation in need of radical reform either back to the ideals of the past, or to something new or better which is something that needs both cooperation and debate even if the nation’s leadership won’t hear of it.