Our new Cabinet
And the challenges they face
Written by Pichtonia and XIV
From 82.1% to 73.8%; from 46 votes to 48. President Writinglegend and his Vice President Aexnidaral Seymour are reelected. After running without opposition last time, they ran against a joke campaign this time, and the region confirmed its trust in the ticket. Whether some would have wished for more choices or for better reflection of the incumbents, almost everyone agreed that they did a solid job and ran a good campaign.
For Writinglegend this means that he's on the way to break records as President -- already now he is even with Pope Lexus X in regards to terms. Breaking that record should not be the incentive to run, but it could certainly solidify the thought. Aexnidaral Seymour will use this term to establish himself as a leader. It's no secret that he has Presidential ambitions, and himself said that he would love to run in his last EBC interview.
Polls in recent times usually show that both Aexnidaral Seymour and Writinglegend are favourites for the Presidency, or at least favourites to run. By being on a ticket together, they avoided all conflicted between each other and their circles, and it can be doubted that either of them anticipate a contested election in the near future. And even though it's unclear whether anyone in the current Cabinet would run against them, they surely aren't the only ones to watch the success of this term for the future of their career.
Minister Cat talked about being President one day, Kaboom already ran and now receives the chance to strengthen his Foreign Affairs credentials, Pichtonia also addressed the possibility of running (on) a ticket. Calvin and Kraken are usual suspects in Presidential surveys. And Brunhilde, although she does not seem overly ambitious now, has also been one of the region's favourites.
The EBC looked at the Cabinet offices and what this term could have in store for them and their future.
The Ministry of Radio was introduced by President Writinglegend after his fourth election victory last term. After radio veteran Cpt.Carrot had to resign from being the Minister of Radio, Cat was brought forward to take the lead and confirmed unanimously in Senate. Her former radio mentor sticked with the Ministry, though, and thus revealed one of its biggest vulnerabilities: A lack of organisation and trained leadership and technical knowledge. It is unclear whether the Ministry of Radio could function without Carrot, but according to her own Senate confirmation, that is something Cat and the Ministry will try to combat with further training -- and it's only one of many issues on her agenda.
After a term filled with content and innovative ideas, Minister Cat wishes to solidify the achievements and the success of last term by further balancing new and old ideas. In addition, radio broadcasts will have more advertisements and more foreign guests, according to the platform of Writinglegend and Aex. Cat already introduced advertisements last term and there are numerous radio advertisements currently in use, but their success has yet to be confirmed, and it is hard to have any kind of reliable statistics on it. Therefore this term might show whether they are a project of the social media kind or a definite success.
One interesting policy on Radio's agenda is to connect integration to radio through new shows. According to Cat, that will be done largely through the establishment of the "Citizen's Cloud", a system in which new members can introduce themselves through the region by answering a questionnaire and discussing those answers live on mixlr. Furthermore, Cat wants to look at the usage of YouTube for the Ministry of Radio, an intention that already sparked controversy in the Citizens Assembly over fears that traditional content could be impacted negatively by the policy.
Private media radio usage shall also be boosted. Maybe Radio will be able to learn from the mistakes of other media outlets there, such as the Europeian Moderna. Its editor Parallel solstice attempted to use radio as another platform for his media, but ultimately failed due to a number of technical issues of his own and almost a total lack of interest from the region. However, instead of running those broadcasts privately like Paralell solstice did at the time, Minister Cat wants to create a small media center within the Ministry of Radio, where members can create their shows and host them on mixlr, seemingly through the EBC.
Radio is still a new Ministry, one that very well still has to fight to be continued for another term. Although the President, the Minister of Radio and the Minister of Communications believe that this endeavour was a success so far, some citizens aren't wholly convinced yet. If Radio manages to succeed with its admittedly ambitious goals, maybe those critics could look at the Ministry more favourably. It will certainly be interesting to see whether Cat can use her first full term to shape the Ministry and our regional radio culture.
Kraketopia will remain Grand Admiral of the Republican Navy. It will be his eighth term as Grand Admiral, an achievement that surely had an influence on him being called the father of the modern day ERN. In the last hearing, he announced that he would want to continue the triggering seminar, train new recruits for the Navy as well as Calvin and Carrot for the office of Grand Admiral, to lead at least two hold operations, to increase operations with the Kingdom of Alexandria and finally to provide leadership to the UK military.
While those promises were largely respected, Common-Sense Politics, twelve times Grand Admiral himself, noticed a drop in operations of 78% and highly criticised the Executive for their handling of the Navy this term. Nevertheless, the President and Senate continue to trust Kraketopia as Grand Admiral, citing his extensive knowledge and historical success, as well as the lack of a realistic alternative. Cpt.Carrot does not seem willing to take lead, and Calvin was nominated for Interior. But even though the last term was not as shiny or celebrated as Writinglegend's last one as Grand Admiral, it was still a solid one, and Kraken's commitment to a more active term this time will have reassured Senators as well.
This term the ERN will lead at least one large joint op of its own. Other than that, there seems to be an even greater focus on training this time around. For example, another triggering seminar will be held. General education will continue in the ERN and Kraken will continue to groom new leaders for the office. Europeia will also host a multi-regional war game and get video training going. If the term is as successful as it's promising, Kraketopia might have the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his critics. Either way, it will certainly be an aspect of the Executive that's under the watchful eyes of many citizens.
The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs wasn't uncontroversial before, now with the resignation of Mousebumples as World Assembly Delegate its work might have a whole new relevance. Its new Minister Kaboom was brought forward for being one of the only ones who consistently work for our World Assembly interests abroad and at home, having been Deputy of World Assembly Affairs since December 2015. The first-time Cabinet member will follow Malashaan, who will be less involved in Europeia due to his busy real life.
Already during the term the Ministry of World Assembly was under high scrutiny, but with the beginning of Writinglegend's reelection campaign the doubt was voiced even stronger, and that feeling was carried over into the nomination hearing. In the hearing Kaboom often stressed the relevance of World Asembly matters to Foreign Policy, as well as the policy-oriented direction of the Ministry instead of a more bureaucratic one.
Promises for this term include establishing a Portfolio Deputy System, holding a WALL conference, expanding our World Assembly ties and more informal discussion between delegates. President Writinglegend also wants to stretch our ideological foundation. A focus on commending influential individuals can already be seen as Europeia discusses commending r3naissanc3r. In this term, liberations aainst Nazi holdings shall also be continued, which is something Kaboom has been involved with before.
The new Minister will have extensive discussions and a survey from last term to build this Ministry on. Doing better than before seems to sound easy at first, with criticism that the WA Foreign Policy lacks direction, that WALL has stalled and that the current policy is more reactionary than being a leader. But will it be? With his nomination, discussion on the Ministry seems to have calmed a bit for now, and with Mouse's resignation it might actually be seen as a useful and logical addition to support our World Assembly Affairs. The Ministry was sold to Europeia as a second chance this time, though, and not using it well could be its early end.
Calvin Coolidge will be switching from Culture to the Ministry of Interior. Europeia's Panda was hailed for being a leader and one of the most active recruiters in Interior, who'd understand the office inside and out. And that will be needed: Especially the Recruitment League was criticised by former Interior Minister GraVandius for being inactive and unenthuiastic, good leadership could just be the right measure to bring Interior back on track. Calvin certainly has a lot of work ahead of him. Recruitment dropped by more than half compared to GraVandius term, Integration was seemingly fully abandoned save for the CSO. If it hadn't been for the nation boom, critics argue, there would barely have been any progress this term. They fear that a continuation of the current efforts will make us slide back down to thousand nations.
What the new Minister can build on is a strong and efficient CSO as well as a region that still has more nations than at the start of the last term; and some of them may be willing to roll up their sleeves and to recruit. According to Writinglegend's campaign, the recruitment league will stay at the center of attention, with rotating captains and more promotion. Another addition to the recruitment league will be weekly gameside "broadcasts" in order to advertise for it and to build up the sports aspect of it. RMB interaction will also be one of the new task of the Ministry of Interior. It will be nothing new to Calvin, who already interacted with the Regional Message Board in his time as Minister of Culture, mostly through surveys for EuroTycoon and Survivor, and is probably one of the more frequent users of the Dispatch system.
After a term that was generally seen as weak, Calvin could establish himself as one of the favourite Ministers next term. However, if there's not much change, the anger and criticism could be dangerous for both Calvin and Writinglegend.
The office of the Attorney General stays under the lead of Trinnien (formerly Rylian). The two-times elected Senator and two-times elected President continues to have the trust of President Writinglegend, who previously reasoned his nomination with their similar views on the DoJ and the legal understanding of Trinnien. This time, he said he saw Trinnien excel in his role, a reason that was echoed by Vice President Aexnidaral Seymour on the EuroToday of November 21.
[flash=300,250]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR8fn4ndYGo[/flash]
Both this and last time, Trinnien was confirmed by all six Senators. This new mandate will allow him to work on the goals of the President, namely discontinuing law clerks and introducing a new 1-on-1 training system. President Writinglegend also intends to move on from the mock trial, thus taking a burden off the shoulders of future nominees for Attorney General. In his new nomination hearing, Trinnien confirmed that he would immediately begin to work on an analysis of the successes and failures of the current mock trial, as well as an idea for a new mock trial.
Trinnien has repeatedly said that he views his core tasks as legal advisor to the President and as State Prosecutor. With a Senate that widely seemed to be focussed on mock trials, it has yet to be seen whether that will lead to controversy between Senators and the Executive.
The Ministry of Culture finds itself facing another change in its highest office. For his energy, enthusiasm and ideas Ervald was nominated by President Writinglegend. Ervald comes into an office that requires a lot of individual work to do well in. After Pichtonia was received better than Ferdy and Calvin Coolidge better than Pichtonia, it seems incredibly hard to do better once more. Yet Culture is known to have boosted career's before; and Ervald is certainly not new to the Ministry, even having served as a Deputy Minister for three different Ministers in two Culture terms.
Questions about Culture were rare when Writinglegend ran his bid for a fifth term as President, yet Ervald was faced with one of the toughest nomination hearings recently. He received 4 votes in favour. Still there was lots of information to take from his hearing, that allows us to have a good overview of the intentions for Culture of the first-time Minister and Senator Ervald as well as President Writinglegend, who is one of the region's greatest Cultural minds, if not the greatest cultural mind.
President Writinglegend outlined several measures for Culture, such as an activity offensive for the Cultural Hub. Next to effort in the Writer's Block, led by a Six Word Memoir contest, the Go and Chess Club activities shall continue and new Roleplays are meant to be created. The highlights of this term will arguably be an award show, where work shall be rewarded that does not usually receive regional attention, and hyanygo's ovation. For the latter, there are concerns that the ovation will resemble the usual game-orientated festivals more than anything else, and it will take good work to calm end those concerns.
But Ervald also has a number of ideas on his own, most notably the creation of a regional identity. After discussions about that were slow before, Ervald now has the opportunity to give them a focus and a better chance as Minister. Namely he wants to create a Europeian anthem, have more RPed state visits and a new header resembling the skyline of Arnhelm. For a first-time Minister, this term could be dangerously ambitious. If he doesn't follow his words and those of Writinglegend, it could be disappointing, albeit not catastrophic. But if he actually does well, it could be a great career booster. The following two months will arguably have a large influence on what the future holds for Ervald.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brunhilde will enter her third term. Her work was generally seen as very successful, and Writinglegend nominated her for excelling in the role. Already last time it was said she did wonders in Foreign Affairs. The Minister indicated that it will likely be her last term in Foreign Affairs for a while, although she admitted that she would like to stay involved with CAIN.
Therefore an unusual amount of discussion in Senate was about the future of Foreign Affairs. Brunhilde talked extensively about the involvement of her Deputies, as well as the focus on the Diplomatic Training Center. After it was arguably one of the greatest succeses of her first term, advance stalled with the absence of Klatonia and Cat's focus on other duties -- something Brunhilde recognised as flaw herself. For this term she chose Isaris to aid her with the DTC, and according to her hearing also aims to include guest teachers.
Amidst fears of a loss of ground due to the WA Accords debate, the administration looks to aggressively defend its interests in Gameplay. As one measure, the Europeian Standard is meant to be revived. Abroad the administration wants to retain a focus on CAIN, and furthermore continue to strengthen ties with regions such as the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Alexandria and the Allied States. The President and Brunhilde want to foster military and World Assembly relations with those regions, but also organic cultural relations in cooperation with the Ministries of Culture and Communications. Although achievements were made in that regard last term, some citizens felt like CAIN took all the attention.
It could be argued that Brunhilde's legacy in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs will already be a lasting one. With her intentions to retreat from the office for a while, it will be in her best interest to leave strongly.
The Ministry of Communications maintains stability in its highest office this term with Pichtonia securing renomination as the Minister. Pichtonia's renomination highlighted the President's earlier assertation that Pichtonia was one of the few people in the region who understood the undefined "it" of running the Ministry of Communications, and many of the questions and comments in both Pichtonia's original confirmation, and in his reconfirmation, were centered not around his competency, but rather about his plans on expanding the Ministry and increasing involvement.
President Writinglegend highlighted the success of EBC columns in getting people better involved and giving them focus for their articles and the Minister confirmed this assessment. The high number of articles was mentioned by Pichtonia to underline this success, as was the transparency and the beginnings of thematic articles, which President Writinglegend wishes to continue along with a broadened usage of Foreign guests.
However, there was still criticism raised by both the region generally and in Senate that Gameside efforts seemed a bit weak. There was an interest in the Dispatch work, and Pichtonia himself acknowledged that there needs to be done more. Others were irritated by the lack of a Foreign Update, and although President Writinglegend took responsibility for that, it leaves a bit of a stain on the term. Certainly, it is something that will try to be avoided this time. A desire for more audio additions to articles was claimed to be heard.
Whether the Minister of Communications takes these criticisms to heart, however, will be seen at the End of the Term.
Interested in doing these kind of articles yourself? The EBC is a part of the Ministry of Communications and are always seeking enthusiastic new members. Contact the Minister of Communications so we can get you started today!
