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23rd May 2009 Edition

This is a party political broadcast by the erepublik IRC


AVE KUMNAA

End of Broadcast. Please enjoy the article.



Leaders ~ Editorial

Friends and readers, this has been an eventful week for us all. It seems like only yesterday when the future seemed so bright for Atlantis and the UK. Yes, things weren't always perfect, but the UK was moving along nicely, Romania was winning and the sun was shining.

Now everything seems to be dull and sad. I have started a new newspaper, the Voice of Hope in an attempt to raise morale. Please subscribe: it's not news, it's just supposed to be uplifting.

This week I'll be covering all sorts of issues. I'm opening with an interview with the new German ambassador to the UK, Hier Holley. You can find him on the German IRC channel, or by messaging him in game. Germany is an ever more important friend to the UK, and Holley is interested in furthering this relationship. Our old friends in Sweden and Romania appear to have lost interest in our friendship because of this. The Economist believes the UK would be better off being friends with everyone, but in the end that's the decision of the government not this paper.

We'll be moving on later in the paper onto the ongoing series of disasters in the UK. The Economist isn't going to comment on these issues- they're too sensitive. We're just going to explain what happened, as best as possible, and let the readers judge. Finally we're going to finish off with a brief overview of the events regarding Atlantis and an overview of what's happening in the rest of the world.




Leaders ~ Interview with Hier Holley, German ambassador to the UK


Hi there. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself? When did you join eRepublik, and what made you choose eGermany?

I joined eRepublik on the 11th of February 2009. I took German in high school a few year ago and have also visited Germany. I have always liked it when I have gone and so I thought that I would start my elife as a German.

Germany seemed to be recovering from months of occupation. This latest crisis seems to have come out of nowhere. Can you tell us some of the background to the conflict?

In January 10, 2009, resistance wars were started in German territories that were controlled by Sweden. This undertaking was called "Operation Burning Spirit." Germany had the help of PEACE and was able to regain all of our original territories. Sweden has stated during the current Swedish conflict that they were in the process of making exchanges. The problem here is that there were continued delays and stalls. Swedish officials were upset because of Germany's actions and started spreading propaganda in the media about German plans for imperialism and Nazism. Our relations have been sore since then.

ATLANTIS fell apart yesterday. How does Germany feel this will change the political situation in Europe?

Of course there has not been any official declaration about ATLANTIS falling apart, but personally it is evident. There have already been talks in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America about a Pan-Atlantic Treaty. It is to soon to tell what the next stages are of overcoming this dilemma.

Would you perhaps be interested in joining a new alliance, alongside Britain, USA and some other states?

I am glad you brought that up. I have personally made this my topic of choice in the German Foreign Relations forum. Since I have just started the topic for debate there has been no clear decision. However, I feel that our officials will gladly accept any form of alliance or treaty with the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

The war will be close, is Germany capable of defending herself from Sweden and Poland?

Of course by ourselves that answer would be very simple. The fact is we have very honorable and respectful allies which include the United Kingdom, United States of America, Turkey, and Canada. Together we stand a very good chance of winning the war.

How does Germany feel about the UK and USA position in this conflict?

Germany is very appreciative of our allies that support us and understand that internal affairs will have issues which can sometimes make it difficult to make decisions.

Finally, do you have a message you'd like to give to the people of the UK?

As the new German Ambassador to the United Kingdom, I invite any official or citizen to ask any questions regarding Germany or their thoughts on situations. Please feel free to contact me in-game or on the UK forums. If there is anything I can help you with, our you would like to know, ask, say, or ponder; just mail me a letter and I will pull our resources to answer in a timely fashion.




Britain ~ The UK held to Ransom

A few days ago we saw the biggest economic crisis since the end of the French war. Former UK Minister of Finance and current Filipino Director of Finance Roadrunnerspeed (RRS) stole all the gold and currency from the Bank of England. He did this by using the password reclamation option on the Organisation account, which hadn't been changed.

For those readers who haven't got their own organisations I'll explain how this works. Organisations are created from your home page. The Bank of England Organisation was created around a year ago by UK Prime Minister (President in-game) Kaleb. Each month its password is changed by the incoming Minister of Finance. All organisations have a feature for if you forget your password, where eRepublik sends a temporary password to the email registered to the organisation. Obviously Kaleb doesn't want an email every time the MoF forgets the password, so each month the Minister of Finance changes the email registered to the account.

However (and as a former Minister I take partial blame for this) this hadn't been changed since Roadrunnerspeed was Minister. I knew RRS quite well, and though we disagreed over several issues I trusted him implicitly, as did the current Minister of Finance Arthur Wellesley. RRS used the password reclamation function to reset the password, then accessed the BoE and transferred the gold to one of his own organisations. He then dispersed the gold through the Monetary Markets, making it untraceable.

After this RRS presented a list of demands to the UK, the completion of which would result in money back. The list was:
Goku Jones to be removed as Minister of Foreign Affairs
UK to support Germany militarily
Sara, UK Prime Minister to veto the corps scheme
UK to honour future MPPs
The UK government immediately acceded to these demands. Goku was removed, and has since resigned his office and move to North Korea. You can read his version of the story here. Sara issued her veto against the corps scheme. The other two demands are yet to be completed. RRS responded to this by returning 938 gold of the more than three thousand gold stolen.

RRS' motives are somewhat unclear, although he did claim that his actions were due to a growing discontent at the direction of the UK. The events prior to the gold steal may help clarify things a little for our readers.

RRS was planning a political takeover of Ireland. The evidence of this is clear to all now. He had given over 120 gold to mercenary company Elimercs, run by citizens Hoth and Dodgy Dude, to complete the operation. However, Goku Jones infiltrated Elimercs under the cover of helping them with the takeover. Once they trusted him he released all of the information to the British and Irish Presidents, thwarting the takeover. In addition, he took the gold intended to pay for Elimercs operations and donated to the UK armed forces. It may be implied that Roadrunners actions are directly attributable to this turn of events.

That was quite a lengthy article- I hope that it's clear now what happened. We can only hope to draw our own conclusions from what happened.




Britain ~ The End of Atlantis, the birth of new alliances?

On the 21st of May Atlantis ended. Romania and Sweden went one way, and the Western states- USA, UK, Germany and Canada went another. Atlantis Secretary-General Shadowukcs blamed the downfall on the childish actions of the Swedish President, and the 'cheating' of Indonesian forces. This cheating has not been proved so the Economist considers it to be thus far an allegation. In any case the alliance, without Romania's leadership, collapsed.

Since then the Romanians have released articles condemning the UK and USA for being inactive and working against the cause of Atlantis. Other nations have released counter-accusations condemning Romanian and Swedish imperialism as being the cause of the failure. Ultimately it is the Economist's opinion that Atlantis fell for three reasons:
The defeat of Romania in Podolia and West Siberian Region
The tensions between the USA and the Eastern Atlantis countries
The Swedish-German conflict and the division on MPPs
Ultimately the story has been bandied about in the news so much I'm reluctant to repeat it. However, if you're interested you can read Shadow's statement here.

There have been two main propositions for a new alliance. The first one proposed was an extension of the UK-Ireland Raleigh Treaty to cover the United States and Canada, creating a four-nation alliance between the English speaking states. This could then be potentially be expanded to cover other allied states.

The second proposition, voiced by JerryGFL is the 'Phoenix Alliance'. Presumably the use of 'Phoenix' suggests that this is intended to be a rebirth of the Atlantis alliance. The features of this alliance are very similar to that of Atlantis. Military alliance with limited economic co-operation. The only noticeable difference is that the new alliance would have a combined elite armed forces section. As has already been commented, the only real difference will be the membership. Which leads us to the question of who will be interested in making the first move.



Europe ~ Italian Alliance

This week saw the UK sign an MPP with PEACE country Italy. This raised questions about the future of not only the UK but also of the two major alliances. Former UK citizen and expatriate Relic criticised the move, claiming the Italians can never be trusted. However, the Economist fails to see the difference between the Italians and any other powerful country in eRepublik. They certainly don't have an immaculate recor😛 they've acted in takeovers and land-grabs many times. But then again so have Romania, so have many countries.

What the UK must look at now is its position in the eWorld. With Romania and Sweden saying they will never ally with us again due to the German crisis, we're left with the question: who are our friends? The answer to that question may not be what many think. Europe has many powerful countries, a bigger concentration than anywhere else in the world. It is normally the place where normal national boundaries are most solid because of this. As a result, the big alliances clash here the least frequently. We may find our allies amongst a mix of countries from both of the old alliances.

One thing that becomes obvious to anyone involved in politics for any length of time is that things are always changing. The only real constant is power, and the society of states in which we all work. To some Italians the UK are no doubt Atlantis scum. But to their government we are merely a middle-power looking for allies. When we judge whether to accept the hand of friendship from former Peace nations, we should judge them on the same basis.



United States ~ Glorious Isolation

This week the United States President, Scrabman, has told the world that the USA will be joining no alliance for now. The President has very wisely decided to see the lay of the land before making any rash decisions. In his words:

“Let me state this clearly and unequivocally. So long as I am President we are not joining any new alliance as a knee jerk reaction to a bunch of spastic fear mongers and worriers running around and freaking out about the state of the world.”

We feel this is a wise decision from the long-time US politician. Alliances are binding, and once you're in you restrict not only your own actions but those of all of your successors. If the USA is to throw their weight behind an alliance it has to be the successful one, not a failure like the original European Social Alliance (ESA) proposal was.

For the USA, what they need in an alliance is training wars. They may also need help securing their Russian border should Indonesia ever look East from Russia. But mainly what they need is fun, and securing that means allying with nations on the front line of the battles of the future. With central Europe in the state it is that shouldn't be too difficult, but with Atlantis divided there will be difficulty in deciding who to go with, if anyone at all.



The Americas ~ Peace wargames

Peace have taken a leaf out the USA's book and started their own war games between Argentina and Chile in South America. The sleepy Southern continent of the Americas rarely gets any excitement, and this is clearly an attempt to liven the place up, We think that this isn't a bad idea, and that if anything this could be good training for any UK citizens working over in Brazil. The only real effect is the problems with travel this may cause, so be aware!



Middle-East and Africa ~ Israel frees another region

Israel this week freed another of it's regions, South region. The last real victory of Atlantis, the resistance war must have cost hundreds in gold, as battle hero Big Brother finished with over ten thousand damage. This is yet another sign that Turkey's hold over its regions is weakening, and a fully free Greece and Israel could be just over the horizon.

However, with the fall of Atlantis, the question arises, what chance does Israel have without strong patrons in Europe and North America? Simply, the odds are not good that it will outlast the MPPs it holds with the USA, Croatia and Spain. Once those run out, who will defend the small nation? It is in Israel's best interests not only to recreate a global anti-Peace alliance, but to be at the heart of it from day one. We'll see how successful they are at achieving that.



Business News ~ Economic paralysis

In the last few weeks we've seen GBP dry up almost entirely. The UK tried to solve the problem by issuing £50,000 but it wasn't enough. Now the government has to find an additional 500 gold to release another £100 000 to add liquidity to the market. The reasoning behind this is that by controlling the flow of GBP the money markets can be maintained at benchmark trading rates. So General Managers who are in desperate need of GBP don't worry, help is coming.



**The Economist**

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