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In Five Years - Where will we be?
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Hello everyone,

It seems that I'm a little behind on publishing my campaign articles for the Country President elections on February 5th, so this article will be the smörgåsbord of some that I have left. Each a bit shorter as well.

Getting straight to it,

Our militaries do well, both CAF and TCO. Both do their jobs quite well and have the leadership needed to fix things when need be, and I trust them to organize themselves as seen fit. But I'd like to share one idea that I don't think they've come across yet. It's something I think could be quite interesting, something I'd just like to toss out there while people are paying attention.

Militaries are entities that receive Government funding in order to deal damage in battle; quite simple. There are some people who argue about the amounts of funding they receive, though.

There's always been arguments about inefficiency in militaries, but it's always tough to confirm or deny this without the proper data. When it comes to soldiers using their supplies efficiently, there is a way to gather that data, and there's a good chunk of it has already been gathered for other reasons. To help militaries ensure supply efficiency, and to be able to prove it, having a document that shows each soldier's development in rank points and experience points would go a long way. With this data, we can tell [approximately] how many times a soldier fought each day, and how much influence they did. Just by averaging a soldier's fights/influence by how much funding they were given, we would be able to determine a benchmark for how efficient a soldier can be with supplies. This gives a quantifiable way to ensure soldiers are using their supplies well.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Well, it's not all that much. Technology makes everything easier, and with a couple of the local tech guys, it shouldn't be overly tough to put together (hoping, anyway! It does require use of the eRep API though...). Then it'll be to the militaries to update and track it as need be, to ensure their funding is put to good use by their soldiers. A project such as this will help bring accountability to a military as a whole, and transparency to a military from within.


The world has been changing again, alliances shifting, and we're in PANAM 'conditionally' now. From my point of view, we're halfway to where we should be going. We were dragged along for awhile when it comes to alliances (PANAM..), but we should be actively participating in the changes of the world. When it comes to things such as alliances, region bonuses, and general relations, we can do better. With Jacobi as our Minister of Foreign Affairs once again, we'll surely be going in the right direction.

PANAM & EDEN
I'll say it again, we are a part of PANAM conditionally, an "original member" even. Chucky has worked to bring us the conditional agreement that we have agreed to, now we have a responsibility to contribute further. Whether we want to stay or leave, we can't simply wait around to see what happens. We need to help the other member nations to see what PANAM can become; work for it to become something we want to stay in, otherwise we shouldn't have joined in the first place. This is something that a few of our top Congress-members could take part in, as well as the MoFA and myself, but it's an important step if we are to have any influence.

With all the talk about PANAM, we can't forget about EDEN. We are still a part of EDEN, and have actually gained a bit more influence in the alliance recently. EDEN has been having it's share of turbulence lately, yet is still holding together. EDEN contains many of our friends; nations who have helped us and nations that we have helped. EDEN may be having more troubles in the future, but we still have our friends, and keeping those friendships, EDEN or not, will be important for us.

General Relations
And we are lucky to have friends. Friends like eIreland, with whom we currently have a deal that gives us an extra resource bonus. There are also others that we can be friendly with, where it would benefit us to develop a basic trust. Improving relations with a few specific nations would help us greatly in the long term; it could help to ensure a somewhat more stable future in this world that is changing much lately. Even if it comes down to a basic benefit, such as region swaps, this is an advantage we should take. This of course includes our much desired grain region. I would like to pursue these better relations, which I why I have asked TemujinBC to help with this. TemujinBC has taken centre stage with other countries not so long ago, as our Country President in December. He has shown his abilities to them, and has earned their respect in a few cases, which makes him a prime candidate for this venture.


And for the fun of it,

A small something that I would like to try during February is a "Ministry of Entertainment". If I remember correctly, this isn't a new idea, but it isn't something we've had for a while. Lead by AngryMobMan and lukepeters, this Ministry would organize events, competitions, and other things that can either make us laugh or pique our interest. There are already a few things that do this, such as Acacia's podcasts, which always draws an interesting crowd, or James' penguin comics in the past, which were always good for some fun, so this Ministry would try to add their own spin to it and make a few interesting things over the month.



Focusing our attention on important matters will move us forward. We have new opportunities abroad, opportunities we should be acting on. Generating a few more enjoyable events in eCanada is cool, and trusting in the continued service of our largest institutions is great, but we must also pay attention to the larger scale.

Thank you for reading,
I hope that on Saturday, we can start working on the various aspects that create our community.