- Pronouns
- He/Him, They/Them
So this is a bit weird, innit? Me, standing for delegate? I certainly didn’t expect this to happen even 3 months ago, but it seems like I’ve been granted a second chance. What better way to spend this second chance in the service of my online home for much of the last four and a half years?
A lot has changed since I was last a GCR delegate, way back in 2012 as Pharaoh of Osiris. The game - especially in TNP - is much more technical, with endorsement tools and automated telegrams and the like. I would very much like to learn more of that side, as I’m hopefully soon to start a Computing and IT course in my offline life, and it’s a side of the game I’ve never really been familiar with - as I’m sure the likes of Darcania and Sil Dorsett can attest to, with my ham-fisted attempts to help them run bots in the TNP RP discord!
But the fundamentals are the same. Successful regions - successful GCRs - require security, activity and a little bit of innovation to truly thrive. We have the security down. With the success of the World Assembly Development Program - the greatest single government initiative in any region in all of NS - and our dedicated Security Council, TNP is more secure than it has ever been.
On the activity front, TNP boosts excellent amounts of activity in several areas, with defined communities in Roleplay, on the RMB and on Discord. We can always do better, however.
Many of these platforms tend to break down what each candidate is going to do ministry-by-ministry. I would like to take a different approach. I believe that to make TNP and our ministries more successful, we should be looking at how we can get ministries working closer together to achieve our goals. Integrated government will always be a more attractive concept to me than each ministry operating in isolation.
Let’s start with what I’m terming - in an analogy that is probably going to see more and more contrived as I explain my ideas - as the Sisters - the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, World Assembly Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. TNP has the highest WA vote by some margin, though the advantage has reduced with the rise in endorsements that our ally The East Pacific has. Leveraging our WA vote and influence should be a tool in our diplomatic arsenal, as I argued in my piece here.
Consequences based foreign policy seems to have been lacking in multiple terms, going back some time. I admire the positive steps taken in Siwale’s term - the treaty with Greater Dienstad is a fine achievement - and terms previous to his, but I find that too often TNP has allowed diplomatic crisis and missteps in other regions to go without comment. The revelations about Andrew were seemingly settled without public comment of any kind from Balder and TNP made no comment about the issues in TSP regarding Tim and Escade and their extra-judicial bans. However the actions taken by Siwale and team towards the New Pacific Order are highly commendable, and jumping in on the St Abbaddon operation was a brave move for a TNP that had seemingly forgotten how to use the NPA as a tool of foreign policy.
If elected, I would use our Foreign Affairs ministry to seek out new partners with an interest in the World Assembly, either by sponsoring them for admittance into WALL, or through bilateral agreements with an emphasis on WA co-operation. The East Pacific would be a fine place to start, but there are also user created regions such as Forest with an interest in the WA, and whilst I will always disagree with Right to Life over their approach to the abortion issue, working with some of their authors on other issues should be considered.
Our foreign affairs won’t be entirely WA focused however, and I’d again just like to congratulate Siwale on our treaty with Greater Dienstad, an RP region with a storied history and home to players recognised by the WA such as the commended Lamoni, the recently condemned United World Order and the hopefully soon to be commended Lyras, all accomplished roleplayers. I’d like to build on these foundations, seeking out regions that we normally wouldn’t consider to be obvious choices to partner with. Sports RP regions like Atlantian Oceania could be approached for mutual ties, giving us the opportunity to work with players like the commended Starblaydia, who gave a talk at our RP convention event. Forest is home to a large number of players who pen issues, and if possible I would like to work with them on a program for the TNP University exploring the most important and iconic issues in NationStates.
The third sister, the Ministry of Defence does a lot of good work, with operations at most updates, either on our own or with allies, oftentimes making up the majority of both the pilers and updating WA nations in joint operations - I personally jumped on a recent NPA operation with the SPSF where our ability to bring large numbers of WAs quickly to events was remarked upon by our ally. The MoD would become the third sister by utilising it more frequently in a WA focused foreign policy. WA Blocking - the act of taking regions not to tag or hold, but to remove delegates that are approving a proposal that we don’t wish to reach quorum - is a concept early in its development but has shown interesting results. I think the opposite - taking over regions with delegates that aren’t approving a proposal in order to approve it, without affecting quorum - is possible, but requires more detailed planning.
I outline the potential for the MoD to be the third sister whilst also recognising that ultimately, this potential won’t be realised if both the rank and file members and the high command aren’t interested in the possibility. Military gameplay should be, above all, fun. If people aren’t going to have fun pursuing this kind of military activity, then we shouldn’t pursue it, and that’s something I would have to talk to my Minister of Defence, the High Command and the rank and file about. If they want to back that, excellent, if they don’t, then I’m just as happy for the NPA to continue the fine work that they do currently.
I’ll now talk about the Ministries of Communications, Culture and Home Affairs, that unsurprisingly I’m calling the Brothers. Communications is undergoing a transitional period and I’m interested in seeing what direction the ministry heads. Communications does a good job and I’ve been happy to contribute to the Northern Broadcasting Service when I can. I feel like this can be further utilised in relation to our cultural events. The NBS has commented on events we run but there’s been no real tie in, and going forward I’d love to see event organisers coming to advertise their events via the NBS, and the NBS expanding to further broadcasts and eventually having regular programming, more than once a week.
Culture is the ministry I’m probably most familiar with, and to see it go from a ministry without a minister, with just myself running things, to this multi-departmental, larger and more active organisation is something I am so happy to see. Asta and her events team have made huge progress in how we do events and they are so much better now than a few years ago, where we were the ones going to events, rather than hosting them. McMasterdonia has done a superb job leading the ministry, and the Roleplay event we held earlier this year with Greater Dienstad is a result of his hard work along with a number of others.
I’ll admit to not knowing too much about the work Home Affairs does, and this is a ministry I would need to learn more about before making any decisions on staffing or programs. I would like to say I do have some suggestions that I’d be interested to hear feedback on from those more familiar with the ministry - such as introductory events, where new members can get to know both the government and their regionmates in Q&A or tutorial sessions either here on the forum, on discord or on the RMB - the RMB Q&As have been successful thus far and I’d love to see that expanded. I’d be interested to see Home Affairs work with Culture or Communications to help inform the region - and especially newer members - of our history, the importance of our cultural events and how we got to where we are today - as the largest, most successful and most secure feeder in NationStates.
I spoke earlier of innovation and I think I can find areas where the government of TNP hasn’t had an interest in and could definitely could get involved in. I know my shortcomings and it’s fair to say that I am not very good at drafting legislation. My recently passed Delegate Advisor law - and yes, I will be appointing advisors - relied on final wording provided by Crushing Our Enemies and I thank him for suggesting it. To this end, I would seek to appoint a Regional Assembly Officer, who would represent the government in the RA and push the delegate’s legislative agenda. I still intend on pursuing amendments or laws to help make our elections more competitive, increase transparency and close loopholes with an updated Freedom of Information Act and to also enable the Regional Assembly to hold the executive to greater account, though this last thing can be achieved without the need for legislation.
I know some will or have already bring up my former Delete-on-Site status and my sometimes prickly temperament as potential disqualifying criteria or as something to hold against me. I can only say that I am not the same person who got themselves banned from NationStates. I’ve grown as a person and I think that is evident in how I’ve built the TNP RP community - firstly on the forum and secondly as a guiding hand for the RMB RP Moderation team. I said in my thread announcing my return that TNP RP is the thing I’m most of proud of achieving in NS. I meant it, but I look forward, if given the opportunity, to build on the hard work of previous delegates - of those I admire, like McMasterdonia and Asta - to those who I might’ve disagreed with - like r3n and Plembobria - and those who have recently shown that TNP is still attracting some of the best players in the game to hold the highest of offices - like Siwale and Pallaith - and to help bring TNP into 2019 and beyond stronger, more active and more outward looking than ever.
A lot has changed since I was last a GCR delegate, way back in 2012 as Pharaoh of Osiris. The game - especially in TNP - is much more technical, with endorsement tools and automated telegrams and the like. I would very much like to learn more of that side, as I’m hopefully soon to start a Computing and IT course in my offline life, and it’s a side of the game I’ve never really been familiar with - as I’m sure the likes of Darcania and Sil Dorsett can attest to, with my ham-fisted attempts to help them run bots in the TNP RP discord!
But the fundamentals are the same. Successful regions - successful GCRs - require security, activity and a little bit of innovation to truly thrive. We have the security down. With the success of the World Assembly Development Program - the greatest single government initiative in any region in all of NS - and our dedicated Security Council, TNP is more secure than it has ever been.
On the activity front, TNP boosts excellent amounts of activity in several areas, with defined communities in Roleplay, on the RMB and on Discord. We can always do better, however.
Many of these platforms tend to break down what each candidate is going to do ministry-by-ministry. I would like to take a different approach. I believe that to make TNP and our ministries more successful, we should be looking at how we can get ministries working closer together to achieve our goals. Integrated government will always be a more attractive concept to me than each ministry operating in isolation.
Let’s start with what I’m terming - in an analogy that is probably going to see more and more contrived as I explain my ideas - as the Sisters - the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, World Assembly Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. TNP has the highest WA vote by some margin, though the advantage has reduced with the rise in endorsements that our ally The East Pacific has. Leveraging our WA vote and influence should be a tool in our diplomatic arsenal, as I argued in my piece here.
Consequences based foreign policy seems to have been lacking in multiple terms, going back some time. I admire the positive steps taken in Siwale’s term - the treaty with Greater Dienstad is a fine achievement - and terms previous to his, but I find that too often TNP has allowed diplomatic crisis and missteps in other regions to go without comment. The revelations about Andrew were seemingly settled without public comment of any kind from Balder and TNP made no comment about the issues in TSP regarding Tim and Escade and their extra-judicial bans. However the actions taken by Siwale and team towards the New Pacific Order are highly commendable, and jumping in on the St Abbaddon operation was a brave move for a TNP that had seemingly forgotten how to use the NPA as a tool of foreign policy.
If elected, I would use our Foreign Affairs ministry to seek out new partners with an interest in the World Assembly, either by sponsoring them for admittance into WALL, or through bilateral agreements with an emphasis on WA co-operation. The East Pacific would be a fine place to start, but there are also user created regions such as Forest with an interest in the WA, and whilst I will always disagree with Right to Life over their approach to the abortion issue, working with some of their authors on other issues should be considered.
Our foreign affairs won’t be entirely WA focused however, and I’d again just like to congratulate Siwale on our treaty with Greater Dienstad, an RP region with a storied history and home to players recognised by the WA such as the commended Lamoni, the recently condemned United World Order and the hopefully soon to be commended Lyras, all accomplished roleplayers. I’d like to build on these foundations, seeking out regions that we normally wouldn’t consider to be obvious choices to partner with. Sports RP regions like Atlantian Oceania could be approached for mutual ties, giving us the opportunity to work with players like the commended Starblaydia, who gave a talk at our RP convention event. Forest is home to a large number of players who pen issues, and if possible I would like to work with them on a program for the TNP University exploring the most important and iconic issues in NationStates.
The third sister, the Ministry of Defence does a lot of good work, with operations at most updates, either on our own or with allies, oftentimes making up the majority of both the pilers and updating WA nations in joint operations - I personally jumped on a recent NPA operation with the SPSF where our ability to bring large numbers of WAs quickly to events was remarked upon by our ally. The MoD would become the third sister by utilising it more frequently in a WA focused foreign policy. WA Blocking - the act of taking regions not to tag or hold, but to remove delegates that are approving a proposal that we don’t wish to reach quorum - is a concept early in its development but has shown interesting results. I think the opposite - taking over regions with delegates that aren’t approving a proposal in order to approve it, without affecting quorum - is possible, but requires more detailed planning.
I outline the potential for the MoD to be the third sister whilst also recognising that ultimately, this potential won’t be realised if both the rank and file members and the high command aren’t interested in the possibility. Military gameplay should be, above all, fun. If people aren’t going to have fun pursuing this kind of military activity, then we shouldn’t pursue it, and that’s something I would have to talk to my Minister of Defence, the High Command and the rank and file about. If they want to back that, excellent, if they don’t, then I’m just as happy for the NPA to continue the fine work that they do currently.
I’ll now talk about the Ministries of Communications, Culture and Home Affairs, that unsurprisingly I’m calling the Brothers. Communications is undergoing a transitional period and I’m interested in seeing what direction the ministry heads. Communications does a good job and I’ve been happy to contribute to the Northern Broadcasting Service when I can. I feel like this can be further utilised in relation to our cultural events. The NBS has commented on events we run but there’s been no real tie in, and going forward I’d love to see event organisers coming to advertise their events via the NBS, and the NBS expanding to further broadcasts and eventually having regular programming, more than once a week.
Culture is the ministry I’m probably most familiar with, and to see it go from a ministry without a minister, with just myself running things, to this multi-departmental, larger and more active organisation is something I am so happy to see. Asta and her events team have made huge progress in how we do events and they are so much better now than a few years ago, where we were the ones going to events, rather than hosting them. McMasterdonia has done a superb job leading the ministry, and the Roleplay event we held earlier this year with Greater Dienstad is a result of his hard work along with a number of others.
I’ll admit to not knowing too much about the work Home Affairs does, and this is a ministry I would need to learn more about before making any decisions on staffing or programs. I would like to say I do have some suggestions that I’d be interested to hear feedback on from those more familiar with the ministry - such as introductory events, where new members can get to know both the government and their regionmates in Q&A or tutorial sessions either here on the forum, on discord or on the RMB - the RMB Q&As have been successful thus far and I’d love to see that expanded. I’d be interested to see Home Affairs work with Culture or Communications to help inform the region - and especially newer members - of our history, the importance of our cultural events and how we got to where we are today - as the largest, most successful and most secure feeder in NationStates.
I spoke earlier of innovation and I think I can find areas where the government of TNP hasn’t had an interest in and could definitely could get involved in. I know my shortcomings and it’s fair to say that I am not very good at drafting legislation. My recently passed Delegate Advisor law - and yes, I will be appointing advisors - relied on final wording provided by Crushing Our Enemies and I thank him for suggesting it. To this end, I would seek to appoint a Regional Assembly Officer, who would represent the government in the RA and push the delegate’s legislative agenda. I still intend on pursuing amendments or laws to help make our elections more competitive, increase transparency and close loopholes with an updated Freedom of Information Act and to also enable the Regional Assembly to hold the executive to greater account, though this last thing can be achieved without the need for legislation.
I know some will or have already bring up my former Delete-on-Site status and my sometimes prickly temperament as potential disqualifying criteria or as something to hold against me. I can only say that I am not the same person who got themselves banned from NationStates. I’ve grown as a person and I think that is evident in how I’ve built the TNP RP community - firstly on the forum and secondly as a guiding hand for the RMB RP Moderation team. I said in my thread announcing my return that TNP RP is the thing I’m most of proud of achieving in NS. I meant it, but I look forward, if given the opportunity, to build on the hard work of previous delegates - of those I admire, like McMasterdonia and Asta - to those who I might’ve disagreed with - like r3n and Plembobria - and those who have recently shown that TNP is still attracting some of the best players in the game to hold the highest of offices - like Siwale and Pallaith - and to help bring TNP into 2019 and beyond stronger, more active and more outward looking than ever.
