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Dear eIreland,

As many of you know I have recently been traveling the eWorld in the hopes of expanding my knowledge of the world outside our borders. My trip took me to Sweden, South Korea and India and I have also made strong contact with Israel and Norway through my work as an ambassador to them (as an aside - I highly recommend becoming an ambassador to those of you who haven't already). I feel I have learned a lot, and while away I've worked hard at ranking up so that should Ireland's sovereignty ever be threatened I am at my absolute most capable of defending her. I have also fostered some good relations with people from all over the eGlobe, relations I hope to build on as we all progress through eRepublik life together.

Now it was my original intention to travel through January and February and then return to Ireland and hopefully the dail at the end of February right as I achieved the rank of Field Marshall. I have changed this plan because as I have relgiously kept up with our media while away it has become clear that now is a time of great importance for our nation and, as a highly patriotic citizen, I felt home was the best place to be.

I am also putting myself forward as a candidate for election to congress. As my own region of the Southeast of Ireland already has two candidates from Independent Voices, and as its a small region where two candidates from one party is a lot, I have decided to run in the Northwest as it is where the most candidates from our party are running and as I decided to run quite late I feel it only fair to go in against the maximum amount of competition. This way I can't be seen as trying to sneak in somewhere with low votes, I hate when people do that and I would hate it to seem I was doing it.

Many of you know me already but for those who don't...

A Little About Me
- I have held a seat in congress three times before, taking one month off when RL meant I would be too busy to serve as well as Ireland deserved and another just now to improve my international knowledge, which I felt was my weak area. I rarely missed a vote in any of my terms, in fact two of the three I did miss (I'm sure there were no others) were in progress as I was very first elected and I hadn't had a chance to learn procedure yet.
- In addition I served as Minister of Community three times, under two different presidents, and re-instated the eIrish lottery as well as inaugurated and ran the very successful Community Awards in my time there, as well as hosting many one-off competitions. I also increased by about 15 times the amount of people friended to the org there, and by about four times the amount subscribed to the paper.
- I am our current Minister of Information, and have reformatted the paper there and am working on improving it's subscriptions. In this role I pay close attention to eIreland's media and global news to ensure the eIrish citizens are well informed. My term as MoInfo marks my fourth as a Minister, and I have now served under presidents from three different political parties.
- I have been in eRepublik for six months now and in that time achieved five hardworker medals (I'm working on number six) and two super soldier. I'm nine days into my next HW and 2.8 strength away from my next SS, as I have begun to pay Lana when funds allow in order to become a 'tank' all the sooner. As of today I am very proud to announce I've added my very first Battle Hero to that count, and hopefully all this proves that I am a very active eIrish citizen.
- I am, in all likelihood, going to achieve the Field Marshall rank in the next two weeks. I have worked very hard, and diverted most of my personal funds to this goal as I am well aware that as a small nation we need more military clout, should we ever get attacked.
- I am friendly with a great number of people throughout the country, from most every political party and from our highest ranked to some much lower levels. I make my decisions on a case by case basis, not by toeing a party line (Independent Voices doesn't have a party line, which is why I've joined there).

I don't have set policies specifically because I've come to learn that in this game being too set in your ways can be a bad thing, as situations can be highly fluid and things can change very quickly (who'd have thought a few weeks ago that Poland would be number 1 by such a large margin, for example).

I do have strong opinions on the following, however:
- New citizens should be educated and looked after. There are several higher-Q companies in eIreland that pay rubbish to new citizens who don't know better. I have, in the past, personally PM'd all newer citizens in some of these companies and set about gifting them up if I could and I know the MoNC does a good job, as does MoHealth but I'd almost like to see a deputy in one of those departments responsible for checking known offending companies to check on any new citz. working there, I'd certainly like to see something more official in place for dealing with it.
- As many have sai😛 It is about time we did some real fighting around here. I'm not particularly pro-Eden or Phoenix but it would be good to get our hands properly dirty for a change, and I'm willing to vote yes to real war if the right proposal comes along (rather than just 'kill [insert country name here]!')
- eIreland needs a better sense of community. I noticed when I was MoC that it's usually the same ten, maybe twenty people (with a slightly rotating cast on the periphery) who participate and that's a real shame, given the benefits there be to getting a bit more involved. Tempers can often run high here - we're a passionate people, after all - and I know I find it nice to have a more social, relaxed side to the game rather than just debating the various issues all the time.

I'm not going to let this run any longer, given it's already more mammoth than I'd planned. I do have a habit of running long. I'll happily answer any questions via PM or in comments here.

With love and in service,
einberliner