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Dear all,

Please Note: This was intended as an article solely about me leaving eIreland, in the process of me musing about my immediate future it turned into a candidate endorsement. A pretty long one, actually, but I can make no apologies for that. Lol.

Donut To Go

As any of you who follow me know I have for some time now wanted to do some eTravelling. I have tried to do this via my org, Donut Stores, but put it on pause during the franticness that is December in my RL. So far I've only really visited Sweden (where the people are just incredibly lovely) and I want to take more places in. I feel I've done my time in my beloved Community Ministry and while I will probably never choose to run for president I'd like to make myself more useful to the nation in general (one of the reasons I'm merrily bankrupting myself in my push to hit FM faster) and I still feel that, while I've improved, my international knowledge is certainly my weak area.

Because I've only got a couple of days left of my term as MoC I'm moving my citizen account now before something distracts me and I delay again. I will leave my newspaper here in Ireland and I will at no time be requesting citizenship of another nation - I'm eIrish 'til I die. My 'Donut On Tour' paper at my org named above will move nations with me, a little confusing I know but it's how I'd rather do things. The org itself could end up anywhere as I need to pick up weapony bargains.

I feel now is a good time to do this as, like I said, it's time to step down and let someone else hold the MoC reigns. There are a couple of other departments I am interested in and and I've discussed with Edana the possibility of taking a different cabinet position next term but, helpfully, she agrees with me that the holder of that position would not need to be physically in Ireland to hold it and frankly, cabinet or not, my priority will always be this country. If we were attacked I'd be back here so fast there'd be a smoke trial, I assure you.

I also feel now's a good time because of the other two main candidates in the CP election. I have good time for Appleman but even before he took his seat I was planning to head out at the start of 2010 and I know Moo isn't looking to retain existing Ministers so much as hire from his own party and Soarsie to thank them for their support. Admittedly this idea of a partisan cabinet isn't one I'm keen on - I pretty much think the thing Patton got most right was ditching that - but it's no slight on Moo that I wouldn't stay on if he were elected. He seems a nice enough fella to me. The only reason I spoke to Edana about holding a position should positions be hers to assign is because it's Edana.

I should probably explain myself on that one. As you might have noticed I do my best not to get into name calling, mud slinging or any other kind of sniping that may arise around here. In life in general, and particularly as the Community Minister here in eIreland, I have felt it not useful to get into brattishness when I don't agree with people. If my opinion is different I will state why and keep personal attacks out of it (though not if ten people have made the same point before me, I'll try only to contribute if I have something new to add) and my disagreement with someone else's opinion doesn't mean I dislike the person stating it. In fact, as TD, there have been times when I'd be reading the dail and violently disagreeing with one person's opinion while merrily chatting to them about entirely unrelated matters on IRC or via PM. I have friends in most political parties, certainly all of the larger ones, and I have people in my friends group that I honestly can't remember ever agreeing with about anything. Entirely honestly I pride myself on that. To me personality is entirely aside from politics and to that end I have even, for the most part, quietly not endorsed any candidate in public in any prior election, CP or Congress or Party.

I kind of have to buck the trend just this once and I have to buck it, frankly, because it's Edana. From her first article I thought 'okay, this woman's one to watch'. I even PM'd a friend with the link to the article and went, "Have you seen this girl? I like this girl" her attitude so struck me. I subscribed immediately, something I usually only do after a couple of interesting articles. Most of us, as noobs, flounder around going "I don't know how the flip this whole thing works"... Edana just dug in and got going. I started on eRep July 15th, Edana exactly a month after me and in the first week of September both of us took up our very first cabinet positions. My first few days I completely regretted it - there'd been a recent house-draw related scandal at the MoC and there were a lot of articles and PMs to read through before I could even make a start on the basics, never mind all the ideas I was having and the suggestions others were making. Edana, if she shared such nerves, didn't show it. She took off like a greyhound out of a trap and turned the MoNC from a floundering good-idea with no punch behind it (and no org, come to that) into a noob-nurturing machine. I very much respected her for that.

Since then I've gotten to know her better and I know that in Edana we have a candidate not only with a desire to make this nation greater and ideas to bring that about but with the drive and determination and (let's be honest here, Savage) the bull-headed stubbornness to see them through. She has her opinions, she's not afraid to voice them but she's also not afraid to listen when people disagree, something I've seen in the private dail numerous times in the two terms we've both served (and in the public one during all of her terms as a congresswoman). She actually engages with what other people are saying - I've read comments by her where she's quoted several things back at people and put her counter point/asked for clarification/etc. in a way that made it clear to me she was paying attention to what was being said while I've seen other TDs argue with a proposition or a statement they clearly hadn't read all the way through. In fact I've seen a few of them pull a Gogarty and make it personal while I've seen Edana disagree with someone while making it clear that it wasn't about who was saying something, only what was being said.

Now I'm not saying she's the only good TD we have, far from it, but of what what I'd consider the cream of the crop (and again, those I'd consider the cream of the crop come from across a range of parties) she's the one that's currently standing to be our president and she's a candidate I can genuinely and enthusiastically get behind. Don't get me wrong, whoever our CP is come January 6th if I got a PM that I was needed to do something I'd do whatever it was if I was at all capable but I'd go out of my way for Edana and I'd do it gladly because, frankly, I've seen how much of her time, her efforts and herself she invests in eIreland and, frankly, the woman's earned it. I've great respect for Darragh too, actually, and I was going to explain why but yeah, this is already kind of epic. Lol.

That was a much longer digression that I'd planned lads, lol.

The upshot of it all is this: Upon publication of this article I'm heading to South Korea as a starting point, I tend to stay there at week or so at least. I debated between there, UK and US (as our closest neighbors) but chose SK to start firstly because I know the least about them and secondly because a number of people I've great time for are over there and I've never really understood why. I'd like to.

UK and US will be my next stops after there.

I'm not sure how long I'm going for but, like I said, if Ireland needs me I'll be back without hesitation. I'll still be around in our great nation via this paper and my shouts and, possibly, that ministerial position if Edana gets elected and then chooses me to fill the post. Whoever takes over as MoC I will happily mentor if needed it, no matter where I'm at eGlobally.

And I want to re-iterate, very clearly, that this isn't an 'eIreland is boring, I'm off' article. This is an 'I love this country, I want to educate myself and be of more use to it' article. I'm not abandoning ship, this isn't a snit-fit at the current administration, this is an act of patriotism, even if patriotism with a very donut-flavored slant to it.

If you're interested in my global learnings I recommend you subscribe to my other paper here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/newspaper/donut-on-tour-207558/1

Most of my subscribers so far are those lovely eSwedes I mentioned.

With love, and always eIrish,
Donut