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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to the first article of the Kamingespräch. I am Conrad von Kaiser, a resident of eGermany since I first found out about this game close to a a year ago. Recently I have begun to delve into the political field and now the newspaper as well.

While I am involved in politics, this will not be the nature of my newspaper, instead I intend to pass on useful information and other small bits of knowledge that I have obtained in my time here.

First and foremost is one that I have been dealing with more and more lately, and that is being active, involved and well informed of the positions, debates and other information that is brought about in eGermany. You see, IRL I am from New York, having taken my Grandfathers name I came to eGermany. More and more German has taken over the news and forums, rather then shrink to to the background, I have embraced this challenge, doing everything I can to keep up on matters and in my political party. It hasn't been easy, certain things are still lost in translation but with the proper tools you still can be informed and can still be a productive member of a land which may not speak your native tongue.

Those of us who went through the Swedish Occupation know how important that can be

Without further delay, some tips for those of you who may not necessarily be able to understand your countrymen or women.

1) Find yourself a decent, easy to use translation device. It may sound redundant, after all you're probably doing that already to read the articles and other media that is spread around, but are you sure it's reliable? If you find yourself scratching your head more often then not, not even able to read the translation after you put it through it's paces, perhaps it's not the right one. Certain translators are good for single words, but begin to have hiccups or problems with phrases and blocks of texts.

In the beginning I often used the Alta Vista Babelfish translator but found that articles or sentences became so garbled I could not read them in German or English. I've used a number of them in my time here but by far the best one I've found was recent and offered by Google http://translate.google.com

This does well with long articles, single phrases. Some things are lost in translation, some things may not make sense, but using this I have been able to read proposals, debates and articles. I have been able to get the idea behind the article and I have been able to read the debates in the comment section and form my own well informed opinion on it, as opposed to just dismissing the whole thing because I couldn't read it.

This is not an easy task, it is somewhat time consuming, but it is invaluable to do if you wish to be an active member or well informed citizen of the population.

2) Read everything. Article, comments, any backtracks the article may lead to. By reading everything you can first gain an opinion from the article itself, and then, by reading the comments or back tracks you can gain different perspective, find information that could sway your opinion either for or against. Perhaps even offer your own opinion. I find many are forgiving if you open with the standard "My apologies but this is translated through Google Translator" or something of that nature. Regardless of how you do it, make your voice heard, for a silent voice is one that is not contributing.

3) Don't limit yourself to only the country you are in. You are armed with a powerful tool, one that can open your eyes to the entire world. Read that article from eRussia, read that one from the eUSA. To be truly knowledgeable, to be truly informed you must know what the world as a whole is thinking, not just your country. Become informed, contribute, help and do whatever you can. Bring other sides of view into conversations for that is the only way as a nation we can truly expand and weigh our options.

A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. - Ann Radcliffe