[EXTRA/SSG/Elections] Shinsengumi's Ambition

Day 2,172, 22:03 • Published in Japan Japan • by ahava3233


Japan, I've got quite an article for you tonight. I apologize if it's a long read, but please note, it is my intention to be as honest to you all as I possibly can. It's time for some "Classic Ahava". Now, let's play politics!


My Perspective



You really should know a little bit more about the kind of person I am; I'm a 22 year old woman, currently living at home with her parents, and I'll be frank folks. At the time I was born into this eWorld, I was not in a good place. Due to financial and other self-imposed constraints, I was rushing through my undergraduate college career to get a bachelor's degree so I could move on with my life. Unfortunately, looking back I'm not sure that was the correct decision. I did indeed succeed in graduating, in 3 years total nonetheless 2 months later, but the thing is...I honestly have yet to use my degree for any real purpose.



Rather, after I graduated, I basically fell into a deep emotional hole due to not knowing what to do with myself, so I began a great escape into the virtual world. I found quite a nice community here in eRepublik at first. As I didn't know how I could possibly fix my life, I took it into my hands to do my best to fix what I saw was wrong in the community to improve it. At the time, this happened to be some programs run by a fella I'm sure you all know, Geezus. Geezus at the time was running initiatives to boost his party membership by giving away supplies to new citizens. No one else in the community could really match his efforts, so I suppose you can say the community saw what he did as somewhat unfair. Here are some nice articles by samproidzz about it (yes 2.D.G I am still linking your articles), here and here.



I won't bore you with historical details, but this, along with the aid of Minami Saki (Who owned one of the minority political parties at the time, Cherry Blossom) and the philanthropic efforts of a man I came across during my early days, Kenji Li, resulted in the creation of a party known as Sakurakai. Sakurakai countered Geezus and spoke out loudly against him. The party grew tremendously from the get go and became quite a force in this country's politics.



Many people say that what happened next was instigated by Geezus due to Sakurakai's exponential growth, but regardless, it is now irrelevant. In August 2012, Sakurakai was PTOed by Serbians. What was Sakurakai before is now Constantine the Great.



In any event, instead of mourning the loss of Sakurakai, I moved on from there to other pastures, aka Shinsengumi. At the time, I saw untapped potential in the Shinsengumi given their commune system and approach to politics, so I stuck around for a while.



However, at the time my real life began to improve, I sucked it up, got a mediocre job and spent less time on this game, mostly only involving myself with minor cabinet affairs (MoCH, vMoFA, etc) and in-game Journalism. Eventually I decided to leave the game during one of Oraizan's terms (April or March 2013) after I got what I thought to be a better, steady job. I was gone for quite some time, until about late July when one day, I just randomly decided to log back into the game to find a message from Sir Robin Ibz. Matters quickly escalated from there, Japan got hit by Portugal, and there was a huge fiasco in the SSG/ISP/ULJ sector in the discussion to select the next CP--which resulted in Geezus winning.



SSG was not fond of Geezus's term at all, we got nowhere politically and we in SSG were extremely wary of Geezus's Board of Directors program. This was due to past bank and CP bans during the DEN 007 presidency the year before as well as a matter involving Darshu, who works with Geezus, using the orgs for his own benefit without consulting the public before Shabutaro's presidency, while I was away. So, we ran it to the ground with a boycott, which worked. There was also an issue with giving out loans to MUs with government money without consulting congress, which was thrown out the window.


The Shinsengumi's Creed



So, moving back to modern history, I'm sure you've all noticed that I've been on a bit of witch-hunt against the Serbian parties in this country (here and here). SSG is backing me, and my reasoning for it all is simple, Serbian politics are indicative of substantial PTO element in their parties. I don't think I need to say why, I presume most of you have been reading the papers. Shinsengumi gave them a chance, they basically blew it.

So, a few days ago I notice the presidential candidates. In one corner, there is Jetishumadinac and Kitarou Yuki. Given the PTO, I don't trust Jetishumadinac, and I only partially trust that Kitarou will be able to keep control of the Serbs if he happens to be a true candidate to run given they're such a pervasive force. In the other corner we have Kantaaa. He seems like a great guy and all, but err...I see Geezus behind him and he has no experience. Given the fact my party has not yet been contacted to work in his cabinet while other parties were and again, the fact he lacks any experience other than MoS, his candidacy screams a repeat of the Chocolate President aka DEN 007 to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that.

So we go to the Shinsengumi's Creed, tenet #1.


Protect eJapan from all threats, foreign and domestic. Be assertive in your efforts, stand strong and voice your opinion. Do not stand silent. Fight until the last man and do not yield, for our honor!



The Deal



The above tenet is basically what I am following with my action to run for CP. After a roundtable private message discussion, I found that about 16 of the most active people in Shinsengumi are all essentially in agreement with me, the current CP candidates are not satisfactory--so I decided to pave the way by running myself for CP and giving Geezus and Darshu the following deal, basically a nice offer they really shouldn't be able to refuse. This is especially apparent considering the increasing influence of Constantine the Great and The Last Samurai, as given that, without Shinsengumi support, he is simply not guaranteed a win with the current voting projections. Please note that this deal is only a rough draft of what I would do as CP.

1. Place Kantaaa as my Prime Minister and train him for real government affairs. Honestly, he really does seem like a great guy, I just see him getting run over in the captain's chair this month if he runs for CP given he has only been an MoS so far.

2. Create a militia supply or commune program (which would benefit MUs such as Maid Cafe and Nippon Power). If you don't believe I'd do this, check my track record on the forum. I've alluded to the fact I'd prefer this sort of program more than once, but William is generally enamored with IJA/IAR...so I didn't want to touch it last month.

3. Focus on our alliances with CoT and/or other nations, whatever that means, fighting for them, rather than fruitlessly running RWs against Taiwan/RoC so we have a better chance later.

Notice about #3



I know this sounds like a dismal idea to many of you reading this article, putting off freeing Japan, but the thing is RoC is supported by the giant known as TWO, plus they are next door. As I mentioned in my previous article; if we succeed against them, they'll simply hit us again. Furthermore, they want us dead because we are here, not because we're CoT. Changing alliances will not solve the RoC problem, and in fact, we'd probably be blocked from joining TWO as-is due to RoC. They are the non-negotiating giant squid in the room, I hope the rest of you can take that into account.

Then, honestly, there's the fact that doing this should bolster our allied capabilities and keep us busy (keeping the community alive), and furthermore, there's the PTO. Whether or not you agree that Constantine the Great and The Last Samurai are PTO, keeping our borders closed for the time being might actually be a beneficial thing to put CTG and TLS's politics under tight scrutiny, I'm sure many of you would agree on that.



I also told Geezus and Darshu that I would be willing to accept a different candidate as well if they could offer it. Personally I would likely be in favor of such a circumstance and I have already asked Tarasino, who said no because he likes stability over accountability, and Kazami Yuuka, who I have yet to hear from. Geezus, that offer still stands. I want your response. I will run myself or someone else, with or without you the train will be leaving the station. Please respond to my messages, stop being a Snorlax. I hope this article is an effective poke flute 😛.


Why go so far?



When I first came here, as I said above, I was between a rock and a hard place irl. I am sure many of you are or have been in the same boat. This community has acted as a place of respite for me. When I hit rock bottom, I had somewhere to escape to and chat with like-minded people about Japanese related things while fighting for this country in-game. Serbians, I hope this explains my reaction to you. Many of you have no respect for this and scream on and on about war war war without respecting the community! That may be the game, but the rest of us play this game for more than just the game, they play it for the community. With no community, the game is honestly just senseless button clicking imho...I'm sure many of you can agree.

Then why not settle with Kantaaa and play it safe? Well, Japan is in a tight spot at the moment. A puppet presidency would likely dissuade the community from staying together, we do not want that!

So...I'm running, without any overt promises. SSG is sick of the balance of power as it is, so yes, we're gambling on it.

People, go ahead and comment and vote on this article as you like...I want to hear from you. I listen, I work for the dream of those who need it, not for myself. I hope I've made that clear as day to the skeptics. Mind you I also have more than enough experience in this game to do the job well.

Stay tuned for more fun articles, and drama of course. Get your popcorn. I am not scared of a little biting and am ready for the storm. There is more to come.


~ahava3233
PP of the Shinsengumi and its Current CP Candidate