March 2020 Update

[Papercuts and Skittles]

Foreign Affairs Update: March 2020​

Delegate:
Bran Astor
Guardians:
Recuecn, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, Dalimbar, Fujai, Big Bad Badger
Ministries:
Ministry of Cultural Affairs:
Minister: Fujai
Deputy Minister: Recuecn
Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Minister and Chancellor of UTWP: Dilber
Deputy Minister: Gryphonian Alliance
Ministry of World Assembly Affairs and Recruitment:
Minister: Sensorland
Deputy Minister: Nieubasria
TWPAF Commander: Overthinkers
Speaker of the Hall of Nations: Giovanniland

Reign of the Crab King: An Era of Crabby Terror... or Age of Peace and Prosperity?

No one could’ve seen it coming… and by the time we knew what was going on, it was already too late. On the otherwise uneventful date of March 27th, a massive crab invasion surged onto land and took control of TWP’s government, led by the mighty crustacean leader known only as the Crab King. While the rest of the region was still mostly unaware of this shocking turn of events, hundreds of sharp red claws tore up the region’s most precious document, the Manners of Governance, and replaced it with the very cleverly named “Crabby Manners of Governance”, which made the Crab King the ruler of the region, created a Crabinet of Ministers, forced all residents to adopt a crab, and more.
Actually, crabs had been crab-raving around the TWP Discord long before the takeover even happened. A week before the invasion, there was a proposal made to eradicate crabs from the West Pacific, but it was shuttered after crabs spammed the reply section. No one suspected that the crustaceans would actually try to take over the region.
After the takeover, the residents of the West Pacific splintered into two groups- the Pro-Crab faction that supported the legitimacy of the Crab King as overlord of TWP, and the Anti-Crab Movement that believed in the original government of the region and that crabs were better off eaten with Old Bay seasoning and lots of butter. Our delegate Bran, held hostage by the Crab King, secretly called for crab traps to be launched into the region in an attempt to get rid of the crab army, but to no avail.
During the Secretary-General elections, crab supporters and crab deniers set aside their animosity and grudgingly came together to support TWP’s candidate, Giovanniland. Gio was part of the Anti-Crab Movement, but agreed to focus his campaign against marsupials- a shared enemy of both sides- in order to unite the West Pacific vote.
The reign of the crabs finally came to an end with the TWPurge Olympics on April 1st, in which the Crab King was overthrown and his crustacean brethren were launched out of the region by our trebuchets. While a few crabs continued to invade the region in a desperate attempt to regain control, they were picked off by our leadership and sent flying back into the seas. With that, the crab overlords’ control over the West Pacific finally came to an end.

SecGen Elections​

On March 31st, Max announced that 4 years had passed since the current Secretary-General had been elected, which meant it was time for a new round of elections to determine the next holder of the position. With both anti-crab and pro-crab residents pooling their votes for TWP’s main candidate, Giovanniland, he was able to make it to 10th place in Round 1, 9th in Round 2, and once again finished 10th in Round 3. Gio’s anti-marsupial stance drew in support from outside the region too, with our allies Balder and LKE joining in with the TWP vote after Round 1.
Because Giovanniland wasn’t in the top five that would advance to the General Election, the West Pacific threw its support behind Kuriko, XKI’s delegate, who did win the election.

TWPurge Olympics

The region’s Guardians competed to purge as many Nazis, puppets, crabs, and meme nations from the West Pacific as possible in 12 hours in celebration of April Fool’s Day (and to slim down the region for a killer summer bod.) The Olympics were such a success that TWP ended up cutting almost 2,000 nations, falling from 4th to 9th place in population and raising The Rejected Realms from 10th to 6th.
TWPurge Olympics Final Numbers
1. Resu (534)
2. Badger (445)
3. Dilber (239)
4. Fujai (201)
5. OT (197)
6. Dali (120)
7. Halo (57)
8. Sensor (39)
9. BBD (32)
10. Bran (1)

Coronolingo

TWP is putting its residents to the test with Coronolingo, a month-long challenge to learn a new language using the website/app Duolingo. In a regional poll, the language that the most people chose as the one TWP was going to try and learn was Swahili, which won over Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Esperanto, Klingon, and High Valyrian (you might be surprised to know the last two actually have full courses on Duolingo, despite being fictional languages!) In April, the nations taking on the challenge will come together and hold a conversation in Swahili with what they’ve learned.

The End of the March to 600!​

Our delegate Bran Astor crossed 600 endorsements on March 29th, concluding the March to 600 (pun maybe intended.) With that, TAO the Watcher announced the winners of the card giveaway for the March to 600, rewarding cards to three nations randomly selected from all new endorsers of the delegate up to 601 endos, with two receiving Ultra-Rare TAO cards, and one getting Bran’s season 1 card.
Within a couple of days, Bran raised the endorsement cap for nations endorsing him to 200, from the previous cap at 180.

Looking Ahead
-Autism Awareness Thursdays
-Pacific-Con
-Coronalingo Regionwide Convo
-Burning Marsupial II (with TEP)

Read the April issue of The West Pacifican, TWP's monthly news publication, here.