Join the new world

Dear citizens of Ireland,

let me start off by saying, in this manifesto you will not find any propaganda. Propaganda means the spreading of lies and / or half – truths in order to make one look better. I will not partake in this business and will simply outline what mine, and hopefully, our policies are going to be.

Perhaps a very, very short biography for the newer people that have joined the game. I’m amongst Ireland’s oldest active citizens, being elected well over 10 times in congress (granted, the new V1 system does not recognise appointments before V1). I have achieved 8 hard worker medals (240ish days worked in a row), the military rank of Captain (well underway to my nextrank), and 2 presidential mandates to date, are some of the things I’ve managed to accomplish in this game.

Lately, there’s a lot of shouting going on. Shouting calling for ‘change’. I ask myself the question, why? Like someone has already said before, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Now, I could go on about all the things achieved, but that doesn’t really help the public, does it? We need to start looking in the future, rather than live in the past. I know this introduction is rather short, but I don’t wish to occupy the people any longer with items that don’t have any real importance, when we are supposed to be talking about subjects concerning national organisation. So, let’s take a look at what we can bring the next term….what follows is quite elaborate, bear with me.


Defense

The current state of the IDF has improved drastically over the last month. We now have a governing body outside of the political system, which allows us to more easily deploy our troops to the area that immediately needs help. This new system is actually still in the process of being implemented, but it’s safe to say that it’s only a matter of moments. Before this new system arrived, we also managed to get by, as our participation in the War Games shows. Our IDF was given the ability to train in War Games and were supplied with gear to train with. Needless to say, that this is something I wish to continue.

It has been said our IDF are a bit pacifist at times. The latest deployment of the IDF to help a nation being wronged shows that this statement is untrue. The reason why the IDF wasn’t sent out earlier, was in order for us to have our men at our disposal if a hostile congress takeover was going to take place. That attempt was warded off, leading to our armed forces again being able to partake in international events.

I am a strong supporter of upholding morals and fighting for justice, it can be taken for granted that the IDF will be sent on much more missions of this calibre when the occasion arises. They will not be used as an imperialistic strike force, but more of a force that will protect the people standing at the brink of oppression. They will also not be used as a meat shield by any nation trying to impose its will upon us.

We still have the state Q1 weapon company functioning, which has a twofold objective. Its primary objective is to offer the new people a job at a fair wage, and the possibility to increase their skill in the meanwhile. Private companies can skim the state company’s employees for a skill level that they wish to employ and offer a better wage accordingly. Its secondary objective is that, while the people are increasing their skill, they will still produce something. The weapons they produce are kept safe in the state stocks, and distributed to our IDF when they have the need for them.

If we look at our MPP status, you will notice that we do not have our MPP with the UK anymore. This is because we started a training war with the USA, with whom the UK was also allied, nullifying our MPP with them. This is nothing to be worried about, as we still have a contract in place that assures our written alliance with them, and the UK government was informed and in agreement with the action we took.

If these War Games come to an official end, I am again in favour of only holding 1 MPP with the nation presenting itself as our closest ally at that point. If we were to join an alliance, than it becomes an entirely different matter, which will of course need to be debated by congress. As that matter is still too abstract to be talked about without taking huge hurdles, I feel that it is something that needs to be dealt with when the time comes.

Why only 1 MPP, you ask? Because MPP’s are a significant cost. Since Ireland is not a nation with huge revenues, it is simply an economic hazard for us to maintain more than 1. If we ever should be threatened, we can still take the necessary steps to allow our allies to help us.



Government

Contrary to popular belief (), I still stand behind a consensus government. Many may argue that the current government has a partisan spin to it. I have to admit, it may seem like that at this point. Though, look at the reasons why that actually is. If partyies get offered a position and turn it down, do they still have a valid argument when debating the lack of ministerial positions?

If you appoint ministers based on merit, which is what I’d like to do too, you have to calculate the person’s view of what merit actually is. The last few days I’ve noticed several different definitions of merit, each person having some common lines mixed with some very different lines.

Would any President appoint people who have just run against him or at least campaigned against him, fueled by lies and statements entirely pulled out of context, in order to say something different? I believe that there actually may be people who think that he should, but I believe that making such a move is already starting to erode the very foundation of his own government that will eventually lead to its demise from the beginning. A nation without a functioning/presentable government, possibly troubled by in–fighting, sends out a message to the less – than – friendly nations out there, that we are ripe for the picking. I, for one, do not wish for Ireland to stumble down this road, and will only appoint people who have proven that they are competent, active and experienced. For this, I will however be upholding a significant minimum level of achievement in all of those areas.

Last term it was promised that some people could receive some training by the actual appointed ministers. This sadly was not realised to its full extent, so I would like to learn from those mistakes and improve the system. Any person who does not receive an official position can ask to be enlisted under the minister. The appointed minister would then be in charge of answering every question asked by the ‘apprentice’ and show him the ropes of his job. If the apprentice shows a decent level of understanding, the minister in question can inform the President of the proceedings, vowing that the apprentice has reached the necessary level of competence. This way, we can keep track of who has a decent background and has the potential of being a future government official.

I am aware that this will be an extra burden that falls on top of the already extensive duties a minister has, but I think that this is unavoidable in order to ensure a future competent follow – up for Ireland.


Society

The normal Health Scheme was in a bit of a decline last month. This was mainly due to the FWP (Fast Wellness Program) being effectively implemented into the War Games that we ourselves are hosting. The concept is simple but effective. Any person with at least 40 wellness can fight in the War Games. A person that has at least fought once that day has the ability to visit a hospital. Our hospital supplies 40 wellness upon each visit. If a person with 40 wellness fights once, he loses 10 wellness, which brings him down to 30 wellness. If that person then visits our hospital, he receives the 40 wellness boost thus his actual wellness becomes 70. An effective increase of 30 wellness in 1 day, while the normal gifting scheme only has a maximum of 10 wellness to deliver each day.

This is not all though. The Health Scheme was just recently booted up again, in order to provide people under 40 wellness with gifts. This is to help them to get to 40 wellness as fast as possible so they can benefit from the FWP. The Health Scheme does require some more funds from the state, as it needs raw materials to be bought in order to produce the goods. It also opens up another state company. However, this also opens up another place for the new people to increase their skill. The state will have to invest some money into this, but the state exists to serve its people. Wellness is one of the primary concerns in this game, so we will not cut back on allocating funds to where they need to be in order to provide our citizens with this most basic element of the game. Needless to say, I wish to continue maintaining and improving these systems.

A housing project was also proposed last term, but this too hasn’t reached its full potential. This however is being mended as we speak. The project is finally shaping up and taking a more feasible form which will soon be proposed to congress. It would involve people getting the ability to ‘loan’ a house for a set amount of time from the state in order for them to be able to increase their wellness by themselves combining a house and decent quality food. Of course, this is sensitive to fraud which is why the necessary contracts will need to be made up and executed. Further info on this will follow when we get the shot at implementing it.

Why do we not have a Q5 hospital yet? To be fair, let’s look at this rationally. If we invest a lot of money in a single Q5 hospital that we would probably most likely base in our capital, we force ourselves to fall back to that single region in the event of a real war. For a War Game this may be beneficial, but when we are up against a real opponent, I feel that we should have the ability to defend all our regions. What I would suggest is that we supply all our regions with Q4 hospitals minimum, at least giving us a decent shot at defending the region from an attack. Granted, it will be tough to hold against the larger nations. But then again, if it’s going to be hard, do we not even try? I think we will since we ARE Irish, and in my opinion, we don’t bow before any power even if it has more resources than we do. After every region has its minimal Q4 we can use the remainder of the funds to start saving up for Q5’s.

Defense systems are calculated on regional population, ergo, there is no region in Ireland that really would get the full benefit out of a defense system, barring maybe Dublin. If every region has an adequate hospital, then we can start up the discussion on defense systems.

Now something that I’d like to add that has no real in – game power, but nevertheless is something that would make this game more enjoyable. A gifted writer changing on a regular basis (in order to increase competition among writers) would be in charge of writing at least weekly ‘stories’ about the things happening in Ireland, be it satirical or any other form.

The idea behind this is to simply offer a chance at some more roleplaying in Ireland, involving the people a bit more. Making the position of the writer changeable makes for a competition that will drive the quality of the media articles trough the roof. Attaining this position is a sign to the people that you are in fact a gifted writer who deserves recognition, perhaps even coming with some form of a reward. Other than that, it also adds some fun to the game if you see your name pop up.


Economy

People have common sense and wish to see things achieved, not things talked about. Our current economic model is a model of stability. Under the current administration the IEP has become stronger at least, the state companies have continued to provide training for our new citizens, wages and prices have remained stable, whilst the effect of the war game which have been organised has manifested itself in increased sales of goods, and increased productivity for companies as a result of the wellness boost of war. This model does not need drastic change or undermining, but simply minor tweaking according to day to day realities.

Our government will be able to guarantee that the following will be upheld honestly and efficiently:
- The current training system of the State Companies is vital to the future of our economy, and will be retained and maintained. It provides fair wages and job security, and also provides an important function in keeping the IDF supplied.
- The National Treasury will be safeguarded and managed efficiently.
- Fair and equitable taxes

During the last term we talked about selling our excess stock abroad. I think this is still worth pursuing if we still have the stocks to do so. First we need to make sure that the people of our nation can’t use them anymore before we decide to recuperate some of the loss we made when producing these goods. As said earlier, the selling of these stocks could also be done in nations that we may not be able to help military – wise, but maybe we can by supplying goods.

I know this has already been discussed in the previous manifesto, but I feel this idea can’t be brushed off the table and should always remain a possibility for the government to look at. We can never know how the eWorld will evolve and we might find the need to reach back at what we already have.



Foreign Policy

A lot has changed on the international stage during this month. The organisation of the War Games has played a major part. Previous President Top Gun launched the battle on his last day of his term. What he did not think about was what the effects of this war would mean to our closest ally, the UK. That War Game destroyed the UK’s economy, seriously impairing them. Due to the money the USA had spent on the possibility of War Games, they did not wish to call them off so the UK could regain their economy. This was a very messy situation, as we were caught in the middle of it.

However, due to intensive work by Eamon_de_Valera, myself and the presidents of the UK, USA and Canada, we managed to come to an agreement and a solution that gave the UK their economy back, provided us with our War Games, and did the same for the USA and its allies without them having to spend more unnecessary money on it. Needless to say that all sides involved emerged victorious from this in their own way, hugely improving our foreign relations with them, leading to Ireland deserving a spot among the more respected nations internationally.

Diplomatic connections with some of the nations involved have reached a new high, due to the talks concerning the war games and its organisation, but also through the more than regular communication I have had with the Presidents of said nations.

The War Games are one of the examples of our diplomatic negotiations that have taken place. We have managed to get them back on the right path for everyone, and have managed to keep them up for several weeks now. This has led to more economical productivity, healthier citizens, citizens gaining a lot more experience and our armed forces are ranking up. This is an aspect that we will of course pursue again if elected. We feel that we have invested too much organisation into this to just let it slip by, not to mention the benefits it supplies us with and the pure enjoyment people get out of being able to hit the ‘fight’ button.

Recently, there have also been talks about a new alliance, this is no secret. This alliance would only consist out of a select few nations, as it’s been proven in the past that a big alliance with many different nations is bound to hit rock bottom at some point. Ireland was invited to partake in these meetings, and I believe we are being held in high regard by some of the more prominent founding members of this possible new alliance. Due to this, Ireland gets a shot at becoming an active component of the international eWorld, both economically and militarily.

As I have said before, Ireland will not become a meat shield for anyone, nor will it join any alliance that does not share our morals or ideology. Ireland will never become a purely offensive nation, not under my watch. I think it speaks for itself, but I’ll say it anyway, if we get another shot in the big office we will continue building these relations and act the way we feel that is most appropriate. So far it has proven to be the right path to take, as Ireland has never had stronger ties to the nations that it shares borders with.




**takes a long deep breath**

Well, I believe that’s it for now. I could go even more into detail, but it’s already lengthy as it stands. I do not wish to hold people any longer. If you have some questions you are free to contact me in-game, on IRC or on the forum.

I would like to add, and this is a personal note and has nothing to do with our campaign or my manifesto, that I am not happy about the current situation in Ireland concerning inter–party relations. There have been constant attacks lately in the media from either side, I don’t care which party started it and for what reason, but I say it has to come to an end!

I remember a time that we were able to hold civilised elections, based on facts and decent motivation. All I see now is personal aggravation, and possibly even spite, towards some people. I thought Ireland had evolved past that, and had become a real New World nation that didn’t resort back to its real life counterpart. This is still a game, and I know some of you get fun out of name–calling and slandering other people, but place yourselves on the receiving end, bet that’s a lot less fun, huh? There are ways to have fun without having to use these sorts of ‘tactics,’ if that’s even an appropriate name for it.

I would also call the people to not walk blindly into plain propaganda. Ask yourself some questions, get yourself involved. In some cases, I see ‘ideas’ turn up that are already existent, but have just received a different name. This is quite easily dismissed by the more experienced players because they know about it. New players, on the other hand, do not know that there are other sources, and tend to believe the thing that has the prettiest make – up. I would encourage you to look past that and base your decision on facts, and vote based on those facts. An elephant painted pink is still an elephant.

I am not pointing fingers, nor am I calling anyone stupid, I just want the people to be informed, and to vote based on an opinion that they can form without any outside influence.

That being said, I wish everyone a great time while playing this game, and I hope you will make the right choice this Friday and help me, or better, help US lead Ireland into a brighter future.


For Ireland!!

Nithraldur – current President and Presidential candidate for the Irish Union Party (IUP)