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Dear citizens of the eNetherlands,

If you have read my previous article you will notice the main reason for running as Country President of the eNetherlands: putting eNetherlands back on the successful track it was on ever since last summer and to not placate inane struggles we've recently seen so much to hijack this most important mission. We've seen much improvements occurring and the eNetherlands is too precious to carry too many months of lame-duck Governments and experimental Congressional Terms.

For next month, I will surround myself with the freshest and brightest minds this country has to offer. No unnecessary party politics or recycling the dusty old badges some have been carrying way too long. This is a momentous task in a country that previously was actually begging for people to join the Government, but I'm happy to find out that I'm in the process of inviting numerous exciting people to serve you!

Arguably the most progressive people, ElGorro and Janty F, will join me in the Government, in addition to (semi-)fresh political faces like BangIades, JackTrout and Weekstrom (plus outstanding requests to people like Kordak, Koning Der Zeeuwe and Kaczyk!). I even considered to work together a great deal with Mael Dunbar whilst I still was not sure of running, but sadly he couldn't join us due to time shortages. All in all a work in progress and whilst the fundaments are already strongly formed, expect a kick-ass Team coming your way very soon! 🙂.

The names of politicians are boring, however. So are powerpoint-like bullet points on what should happen. I'd like to present a vision instead that allows us to work together dynamically towards the long road ahead. I will present you a short overview of what such a vision would consist of, based on the Ministries (although I expect a great overlap between them!).

Ministry of Home Affairs
First of all I'd like to see continuation of recent rewards for media activity. It should however be enhanced, recognizing that we should reward quality and not necessarily quantity. Not because I am a poor man not wanting to spend money, but because the affectivity of semi-forcing people to post articles is overrated (that is very contextual, as shown by the massive activity in Janty's CP term) and excellent articles (like BangIades recent article) are underrated and deserve more attention instead. I also want the Government to take a role in this, and by communicating with people like ElGorro, JackTrout and Nutty Fox - all active in posting fun articles - I hope we can achieve this.

Last year I posted an article on our Population Numbers. Recently we've seen people fencing with 'protecting the youngsters' as if there were any. I've always been supportive of allowing qualitative foreign citizens to join us (like my opponent Koning der Zeeuwe does) but also to do regular 'return-calls' to previous dead eDutch citizens. 'In secret', together with ElGorro, I have done this twice since that article and whilst the effect is not massive, we've seen qualitative people return for a long time like Mark Decius, Alfonso Macenta, Kaczyk, Mael Dunbar and probably many others. I intend to do this more regularly and would like to make this a long-term policy!

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Well, let's be honest guys. This is a pretty boring area for the general public. It mostly involves talking in smoky backrooms with allies and enemies. There can however be made some easy and long-term improvements. The Dutch flag is not much shown in the battles of our allies, sadly. Weekstrom has for the longest time prepared an 'Ally Sheet' detailing what our relation is with every nation in eRepublik. I'd like to see that being used (and for example linked in MoFA newspaper description, like the Financial Sheet) and in addition we should regularly refer to excellent FA articles from abroad, like the ones from Irish citizen aimeisan.

Ministry of Defence
I am not gonna lie. While our metrics in damage output has greatly improved recently, we're still relatively weak. In the air we can make a difference by now and regularly we have done for our allies. On the ground we however have an existential problem in the lack of Legend-ranked Dutch soldiers. If true war ever comes to our area, we're most likely severely at disadvantage and no allies can make up for the lack of Legend ranks. I therefore want to enhance our current Green Beret program into something aiming for actual improvement and rewards based on accomplishment. People like 911mic are very close to Legend and it is paramount that we support such cases to the fullest to reach the Legend rank!

There are talks about doing 'strikes' with Poland in our Training War and many times we've seen semi-successful attempts at doing those ourselves. I can't promise anything unlike others, but ideally I'd like to see an organized effort again. This also means that initiatives like the DAF rewards for daily orders, the discounted weapons Shawtyl0w sometimes offers and other loose programs should be better utilized and centralized.

Ministry of Finance
One thing I can be sure of and that is Janty F continuing his excellent work on this ministry! In this area we've seen massive changes that perhaps have gone missing on many. For perhaps the first time ever we're experiencing massive surpluses and consequent massive investments in the Monetary Market (netting even more profit). We should adapt to that. That means common sense budgeting, without having 'leak' money to all kind of orgs (MoD) should be thought of. Janty F has some interesting ideas about that and I'm more than happy to support him in that.

We also should start thinking of how to utilize the new-found surpluses and think about 'saving up' whilst still support you in every endeavour like we do now. That also means we need to elaborate on the elephant in the room 'The Emergency Fund'. Currently this fund is as liked much as it's useful. I've read some exciting ideas in the past about reforming to a general 'Treasury' that whilst is not easily accessible can be used during expenditure spikes and falls - and therefore long-term. This would fit in nicely with for example the idea about a ''Black Friday Fund''.

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