(https://i.imgur.com/6gaoYRY.gif)
What does another term of URL government stand to deliver me?
I'm glad you asked! We've had quite a few discussions about our goals over the past few weeks, but it's helpful to get it all in one place:
- Continued Success on Immigration: This term saw such a boom in immigration that Talossa finds itself with more citizens than it did when the term started. We saw a new one-month immigration record set in October that's almost double the previous record -- and that's compared to nearly the last seven years! (https://talossa.com/infoteca/) A lot of this was due to the tireless efforts of Miestră Schivă in her role as Immigration Minister, making the changes necessary (including legislation where appropriate) needed to make immigration a less onerous process for applicants. We're going to continue "trimming fat" where appropriate, while also sponsoring legislation to make the process more impartial and transparent. Targeting an average rate of one citizen a month is a realistic goal (that's a goal we're guaranteed to exceed this term, by the way!), but using average rates is also a wise decision to prevent people from trying to light the country on fire again the next time we have a dry month.
- Mentorship for New Citizens: While the Immigration Ministry has quietly revived the TalossAssistant program, I think it might be more helpful to look at the other side of the coin: what do we do with new citizens once they've immigrated? And the answer, for many years now, has been...not much! I've already put up a few recommendations (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4579.0) for new citizens that should prove helpful -- they were based on feedback from new citizens, after all -- and I think an optional mentor program for recent immigrants, a "Novice Network", if you will, would be a logical next step.
- Reforms in the Zouaves: Talossa's "military" has seen signs of life recently, and that's a good thing. The Zouaves are the most effective tool the Government has to promote cultural development, but they themselves need a bit of development too. I'd like to start with "exhibitions": creating "exhibitions" are how you get promoted in the Zouaves, and there are a lot of things that qualify (https://wiki.talossa.com/Zu%C3%A1vs_da_l%27Altah%C3%A1l_Rexhit%C3%A1l#Exhibitions)! But in the time I've been a citizen, it doesn't seem like we've ever had a way to be sure you get credit for something! How can you know you're close to promotion if you don't know your work will count as an exhibition? Problems like these are ones I intend to help the Zouaves solve. (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4476.0)
- Refreshed Visuals Nationwide: Talossa has quite a few talented artists. We've got talented web developers, wiki editors, the whole shebang. We need to use them better! It's not just the Zouaves that need a visual refresh, it's not just the website, it's...most things, really. The wiki's main page is cluttered with information. The website feels very dated, which is a problem that is deeper than content. Better visuals help to make us more appealing to people who are considering joining our community. Bringing the nation into alignment with what people expect on the internet in 2025 isn't a small task, to be perfectly level with you, but it presents a lot of opportunities for everyone to make their mark!
- Continued Work with Other Micronations: One thing our Government pledged in this last term is more contact with the micronational community. While "you can lead other micronations to the Landing Pier, but you can't make them post" might be the important lesson learned, that leaves us with two conclusions moving forward: one, we should be very choosy about the nations we wish to try and form relations with, and two: the micronational community is perhaps most valuable when we focus on the organizations as opposed to individual nations. I've already proposed a Talossan Micronational Olympic Committee as the first way to do this, in order to utilize micronational competition for the same reasons macronations utilize the "big" Olympics: namely, publicity and soft power. Our steps into the micronational community have in fact borne fruit: at least one new citizen this term immigrated after we introduced Talossa to the wider micronational world, and they liked what they saw! The only way to make sure that isn't the last citizen we recruit from the community is to remain active in it.
- Realistic, Measurable Goals: A government that's promising to be all things to all people is a government that's going to leave a lot of people disappointed. It's one thing to talk a big game. It's another to deliver! Personally, I'd rather have a government say "hey, we'll be making incremental changes to X, Y, and Z" and then end up being able to do that and add in I and J too.
- Talossan Culture Kept in the Hands of the People: One of the big draws of a micronation like Talossa is that you can make of it what you want! Talossan culture is sort of vague, which is a massive strength, because it lets people be Talossan in the way they find most meaningful. Some have campaigned on giving the Government a leading role in defining our culture; we in the URL reject that approach as heavy-handed and narrow-minded.
- Keeping Power Decentralized: The more work you promise to do, the more big projects you pledge to do, the more helping hands you're going to need available. We've seen some parties promise a lot of pie-in-the-sky goals, while also promising to put a lot of roles on a small number of people. Government By Many Hats makes it easier to concentrate power, but it doesn't make it easier to actually accomplish much in the way of positive change.
- A Government Built on Honesty, Optimism, (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4478.0) and Respect (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4448.0): We've seen some shocking displays of dishonesty in this campaign, which have been justified by the folks involved as doing "what [they] need to do to win." I don't stand for that sort of thing, the URL doesn't stand for that sort of thing, and I don't think Talossa should stand for it either. We don't believe in putting up false positivity as an election tactic, we don't insinuate or imply guilt or corruption where we know darn well there isn't any, and we don't stand for harassing or bullying people. These tactics certainly well may yield results in the short term, but they're dangerous for the country in the long term. We reject them, and we hope you do too.
The Union of Free Reformists: Your Choice Today for a Better Tomorrow
(https://i.imgur.com/eZK1m7t.png)