A Second Speech to the Ziu from a Citizen

[Ian Plätschisch]

With respect to immigration statistics, I am not sure how useful they would really be. Seems like someone would have to spend a few hours combing through the past years of data to reach the conclusion "it's not going great," which we already know.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

With respect to immigration statistics, I am not sure how useful they would really be. Seems like someone would have to spend a few hours combing through the past years of data to reach the conclusion "it's not going great," which we already know.

But we could start keeping track now! And then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation again in the future.

[Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB]

I've asked this question before and you've kind of dodged it AD. You want to see involvement and activity. What precisely are you yourself doing to get involved, other than asking a lot of questions and demanding deadlines? What are YOU doing to tackle some of the issues?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

You mean besides these efforts to come up with a host of pertinent ideas and keep the government accountable? Recently, I volunteered to be clerk of courts; I have gone through my archives to provide the ID cards templates to get that actually going; I provided the plan for social media engagement; I volunteered as a TalossaAssistant; I wrote and prepared a full four-page guide for new citizens...

I understand the impulse to blame the messenger, but at a certain point it wears thin. I have done a lot and I am doing a lot.

[Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB]

You mean besides these efforts to come up with a host of pertinent ideas and keep the government accountable? Recently, I volunteered to be clerk of courts; I have gone through my archives to provide the ID cards templates to get that actually going; I provided the plan for social media engagement; I volunteered as a TalossaAssistant; I wrote and prepared a full four-page guide for new citizens...

I understand the impulse to blame the messenger, but at a certain point it wears thin. I have done a lot and I am doing a lot.

No blame is ascribed. You say "keep the government accountable," but Talossa is not just composed of members of the government. I don't see you (or really many other people for that fact) rallying the general populace to get involved. Most of what I see from you in your recent posts is just a touch of a "holier than thou" attitude. I could be wrong.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

You mean besides these efforts to come up with a host of pertinent ideas and keep the government accountable? Recently, I volunteered to be clerk of courts; I have gone through my archives to provide the ID cards templates to get that actually going; I provided the plan for social media engagement; I volunteered as a TalossaAssistant; I wrote and prepared a full four-page guide for new citizens...

I understand the impulse to blame the messenger, but at a certain point it wears thin. I have done a lot and I am doing a lot.

No blame is ascribed. You say "keep the government accountable," but Talossa is not just composed of members of the government. I don't see you (or really many other people for that fact) rallying the general populace to get involved. Most of what I see from you in your recent posts is just a touch of a "holier than thou" attitude. I could be wrong.

My ability to rally people is limited, since I'm just a citizen (albeit a loud one), but I'm doing my best -- you're commenting on one of my efforts with this thread!  And I think you can see similar efforts in the ID card discussions and the new citizen pamphlet discussions.

I'm not really sure why I have to keep defending myself -- about how much I'm personally doing, about my tone -- when I'm asking for really basic things like tracking our most important metric.  Do you really think it's unreasonable?

I think you personally are going above and beyond, by the way, just doing a stellar job as Secretary of State and as a citizen in general with your willingness to do one of the hardest jobs plus help with social media.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Immigration rate is the most important number in the country right now and we're not even bothering to keep track.

Why haven't we started keeping track of this now?

The Zuavs rewards activity with pomp and ceremony.  The whole program is already set up.

Cabinet has discussed this. Initiative now lies with the new Minister of Defence.

It's been several weeks.  Is anything going to happen with this?  Is there anything people can do to help?

Government business and party business should be relocated to Witt, as much as possible.

This would still be a great thing, still.  If moderation is the only reason why this isn't happening, remember that the person in charge of your party would automatically be in charge of moderating the board under the terms of how Witt is run.

Start an advertising campaign.  Target some key words like "micronation" or "conlang."

Cabinet has discussed this. Finance says we can afford it. Initiative now rests with MinStuff.

It's been several weeks now.  Is anything going to happen with this?  No appropriation bill has been offered.

I know you're hoping I'll just drop this stuff, D:na Seneschal, but I think we're finally starting to turn things around a little bit and I want to keep the momentum going. The things that have moved forward, like the ID cards and the new citizen pamphlet and the social media use, have done so because of citizen initiative. Danihel did the ID card design and I made the pamphlet and Txec is putting up stuff on social media. But that sort of collaboration can't happen if people don't know what's going on.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Someone accused me of "effectively being the real Seneschál". That may or may not be true, although the Seneschál is capable of speaking to himself; which is why I refrain from commenting on things which are in Txoteu's wheelhouse. But we've definitely got a candidate for "effectively being the real Leader of the Opposition".

The problem is that the Leader of the Opposition is entitled to have his questions answered, via Terps in the Ziu. I can understand wanting all the perks of "being able to hassle the Government with no responsibility for being part of the solution", but none of the hassle of standing for election and getting a democratic mandate to assume such a post. It's just much easier to ignore rudeness when it comes from "just a random citizen". In contrast, constructive suggestions are engaged with.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Someone accused me of "effectively being the real Seneschál". That may or may not be true, although the Seneschál is capable of speaking to himself; which is why I refrain from commenting on things which are in Txoteu's wheelhouse. But we've definitely got a candidate for "effectively being the real Leader of the Opposition".

The problem is that the Leader of the Opposition is entitled to have his questions answered, via Terps in the Ziu. I can understand wanting all the perks of "being able to hassle the Government with no responsibility for being part of the solution", but none of the hassle of standing for election and getting a democratic mandate to assume such a post. It's just much easier to ignore rudeness when it comes from "just a random citizen". In contrast, constructive suggestions are engaged with.

I'm a citizen of this country, and I think it's pretty gross that you would sneer over the idea that you might need to speak to me even if I'm not a member of the legislature.  We are a democracy.  You work for the people.

I have been asking my government some of these questions, over and over, since August.  Really basic questions, like "Why don't we write down how many immigrants we get each month?"  I think at this point I'm entitled to be irritated.

[Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, O.SPM]

Azul,
I want to hop in and point out a few things many might not know. Before my round of COVID, I went through a job loss on the last day of 2021. While that one-two punch knocked me down for nearly a month, limiting my general energy and significantly affecting my mental health, I was still very aware of the business of the Kingdom. Throughout this difficult month, I feel this Government has performed exemplary... keeping me in the loop and addressing issues in my absence. Let me be abundantly clear... I am the Seneschal of Talossa and will remain that till the end of my term. While my activity has been limited as of late, the amazing leadership team currently in place has gone above and beyond to complete our goals this term. I am returning to daily activity here on Witt and I am happy to address issues directly.

I want to personally thank Dame Miestra and Dr. Nordselvă for their work over the past month and this entire term. Talossa is lucky have them both.

Respectfully,
Gen. Davidescu, Seneschal of Talossa 

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

[Tric'hard Lenxheir]

Oh for god's sake i will tell you guys the same thing i tend to scream at the news when talking about the U.S. government...GROW UP!!!

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Oh for god's sake i will tell you guys the same thing i tend to scream at the news when talking about the U.S. government...GROW UP!!!

Absolutely right!  This nonsense isn't helping anyone, and no one cares who's "really" the Seneschal, Miestra and Txoteu!

We have serious problems.  We've got multiple provinces talking about merging because they've been silent for years.  But we've begun to pull out of the nosedive we were in, with a pair of new active immigrants joining us (Tric'hard and Mic'haglh).  And we've got some people like Txec and Danihel pitching in to actually get some stuff done.  Now's the time to seize the momentum and keep it going!  This is just the opportunity we need, so let's build on it!

We're not tracking our immigration rate?  Can we start?  Do you need help setting up a spreadsheet?

Are the Zuavs going to get started again?  Do you need help with that?

Is there any possibility of centralizing discussions on Witt?  Do you need help with logistics?

And is the advertising campaign going to happen?  Do you need help planning it or writing the bill to finance it?

[Ian Plätschisch]

I just remembered that you can get a count of everyone who is granted citizenship by looking in the database. If you want to see who applied, just look at the list of applications. I generally tend to avoid issuing bureaucratic reports when doing so would more hassle than it's worth. This seems to be a really important issue for you, but I don't understand what you think it would accomplish. Everything is right there already.

The cabinet is currently discussing ad campaigns. According to my research, we would pay somewhere in the ballpark of $1-$2 per click, which seems pretty pricey in my personal opinion.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Seems like the very first post in this thread was a cogent and defensible political programme - though not one I'd support in its entirety - which really should be adopted by a party running in the upcoming election.