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Qwert · 03-11-2018, 03:44 PM

Issue XX - Sunday, 11 March 2018

Op-ed: The (improbable) rise of Margaret Harrison and social democracy

By Shaelene Hawkins
Published by The Sydney Times

Margaret Harrison portrait, April 2016

In 2015, an unknown social democrat announced her candidacy for the President of Qvait, competing in what was then a social liberal Labor Party. At the time, the favoured candidate from the Labor Party was Natalie Cruz, a social liberal. However, when this unknown social democrat announced her candidacy, she promised to return the Labor Party to its roots. She promised to return the Labor Party to the policies of Marco Fields and Patrick Beckley, two social democratic politicians who were respectively the second and seventh Presidents of Qvait between 1975–1980 and 2000–2005. However, this unknown politician had to withstand flak from every part of the political spectrum for a variety of reasons. In spite of it all, Margaret Harrison became President of Qvait, Chancellor of Valkyria, and one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

On 5 December 1976, a leader was born as the daughter of a national conservative politician who would go on to become the fourth President of Qvait in 1985. Even though she grew up in a conservative household, she became a social democratic activist at only 13 years of age. A young Margaret Ambrose joined the Young Social Democrats in August 1990, only two months after her father, Jonathan Ambrose, retired from politics. In 2005, she became the youngest Mayor of Darwin at the age of 29. Now taking on a new surname—Harrison—she took a seat in the Qvaitican House of Representatives in 2012 at the age of 35, being the sixth-youngest representative at the time. In 2015, she found an opening in the 2016 presidential election and seized it.

"She found an opening in the 2016 presidential election and seized it"

In a 3 June 2015 article of The Qvaitican Cascade, Harrison told the newspaper's editor that "the Labor Party [had fallen] out of touch [on foreign] policy with its voters and that is why the party keeps losing". In the beginning, Harrison did not look to the social democratic–social liberal divide, but rather to the interventionist–isolationist divide within the Labor Party, but this divide would serve as an opening to the other. After promoting an activist role for Qvait on the world stage, Harrison criticised the social liberal policies of her chief Labor opponent Natalie Cruz and blamed the 2005 social liberal turn for the contemporary woes of the Labor Party. Harrison's strong belief in social democracy took her to the top of the opinion polls among current and former members of the Labor Party. Only one month after the 19 June announcement of Harrison's presidential candidacy, about 900,000 people registered with the Labor Party.

A fire was ignited within a Labor Party that struggled against a once dominant United Conservative Party and the contemporary political environment provided the Labor Party an open road to Stockholm. After years of unity, the UCP was divided between liberal conservative Giovanni Giletti and national conservative Nicole Chancellor. The social democratic Harrison easily defeated her social liberal opponents within the Labor Party, but Chancellor barely won the nomination of the UCP. With liberal conservatives unwilling to vote for Chancellor, Harrison became the first social democrat to be President of Qvait since 2005. Since becoming President, Harrison has overseen several policy successes and some failures, but enjoys more than sixty percent support from the Valkyrian people.

In December 2017, Harrison's Alliance of Social Democrats endorsed an expansive government reform referendum that would not only turn the country into a republic, but the system of government in Valkyria would become semi-parliamentary. Referendum 1 would make the 2019 legislative election the second and last midterm election to occur in Valkyria for at least ten years. All legislative elections would be held simultaneously with the election of a Chancellor and a ten-year moratorium on government reform referendums. Recent opinion polling from the Harris Group suggests that the ASD would not only retain a majority of seats in the National Assembly, but it would gain more seats than it did in the 2017 legislative election.

Harrison with chief of staff Michael Mendez, February 2018

Come 1 April, Harrison will become the longest serving head of government within Qvait since 2010. If she manages to stay in power until 2022, Harrison will also become the longest serving democratically elected head of government in Qvaitican history. The upcoming Referendum Day will serve as an indicator for where the politics of Valkyria will go. Issues such as republicanism, physician-assisted suicide, the World Forum, and recreational marijuana will be voted on and determine what parties or alliances will have the upper hand moving forward. If the results of the vote are favourable to Harrison and the ASD, they may be willing to pursue a more ambitious agenda. Harrison's press secretary said on 5 March that the government's attention in April will be directed towards energy and public housing.

On 1 April, Harrison will be travelling to Chicane to tour a nuclear power plant that finished construction in January 2018. In a government report for the year of 2017, researchers found that 72 per cent of Valkyrian energy came from nuclear or renewable energy. The remaining 32 per cent came from fossil fuels. In April 2017, Harrison promised that 75 percent of Valkyrian energy would be nuclear or renewable by 2020 and 100 per cent by 2045. For Winston Island only, 87 per cent of its energy comes from nuclear or renewable. Harrison said Winston Island would be 100 per cent reliant on clean forms of energy by 2030. Many major cities in Valkyria have bought into Harrison's environmental agenda and, in the cases of Stockholm and Sydney, plan to ban diesel-powered vehicles by 2030 at the earliest.

"The upcoming Referendum Day will serve as an
indicator for where the politics of Valkyria will go"

After passing the Shelter Act in late June 2017, Harrison will be visiting a construction site in Brooklyn where three buildings dedicated to public housing are currently being built on 2 April. She will also be meeting people at a homeless shelter in the south side of the city. Throughout her political career, Harrison has been vocal in the need for Qvait's and now Valkyria's homeless and underprivileged to be given adequate shelter. Now Chancellor, this signature policy issue has been given a spotlight. As of a February 2018 estimate, Valkyria's homelessness rate is 1.15 per cent, which is above the global median homelessness rate. In June 2017, Harrison said, "For an economically advanced country as ours, it is morally unacceptable that we spend more money on our military than we do on the well-being of ordinary civilians."

Other than healthcare, the issues of energy and homelessness were top priorities for Harrison during her presidential campaign in 2015. Now that Harrison is at the top of her game, the issues that she spoke out about over the years—expansive universal healthcare, homelessness, the environment, and labour—are at the forefront of Valkyrian politics. Because of Harrison, social democracy has made a comeback in Qvait and now in Valkyria. So far, the polls—the momentum—are on Harrison's side and she is pulling all the right strings possible to remain popular in 2022, when she faces a new election. By then, several of her energy, healthcare, and homelessness goals will likely be met and new goals will be set. In the 2022 general election, these programmes, which are immensely popular according to a series of Harris Group polls, will be Harrison's reelection message—"I got the job done".

Shaelene Hawkins is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Sydney.

Commentary: Comic books, an emerging culture in the Peocracy

When it comes to art, Huawan has certainly no match, every brush and stroke have been completely different of the art form in the rest of the continent. One of which are expressed through the world of comic books.

First introduced in the 1960s, comic books was a cheap way to get entertainment through reading, almost akin to the famous dime store novels. Its simple drawings and plot lines are made to produce a few chuckles, and provide a relatable insight to Peonic life. As a result, early models of the comic book were not really transferable to the outside world, especially due to it being incredibly Peonic.

Typical Peonic LiuDong/Manga

It was then in the 70's that comic books became the force to be reckoned with, the infamous 1972 culture shock integrated the old styles of the comic books into something much more permanent and complex. Artists styles have improved vastly, and taking modern methods as well.

It took the country by storm, and comic books were no longer dime quality, they became a national favourite. With storylines that are unbelievably complex, and beautiful drawings. It became known, as the LiuDong in Mandarin, or Manga in Japanese.

Ever since the culture shock, the LiuDong became a fundamental art form to avant garde Peonic culture, and whilst some people regard the LiuDong as lowly, make no mistake that the amazingly developed characters alive in the LiuDong could portray a particular style in their respective stories.

Agricultural yields lower than expected, Peocracy to import

The recent summer floods and heavy downpour along with inconsistent weather changes had caused rice yields to be lower than the national target. Rice being the staple food of the Peocracy followed by wheat and cassava, all of which have also taken a massive blow.

As a result, there are fears that the supplies for winter would thread on a thin line, and upon agreement of the The People's Council, imperial negotiators swiftly contacted several of its neighbours to help with ailing food supplies. It is the second time in Peonic history that a massive scale import scheme is undertaken to relieve pressure on food supplies.

On the other hand, prices of rice has risen 50%, going to be about 20 tiols/kg from the 13.5 tiols last year. Commodity prices have also risen as a result. Being one of the main exporters of rice in the continent, the surprising turn of events has made many economists uncertain of the future.

Op-ed: Paper Tigers No More
By Colonel Kusanagi

Long the neglected branch of the Imperial Frost Military, the Imperial Army was forged into a fierce fighting force in the span of seven months. For seven months we fought against our brothers in Reizen Province. First as a paper tiger whose roar was mightier than its bite. Struggling to hold on to the last footholds of the Reizen mainland. We watched helplessly as innocent lives were killed in the crossfire. Holding firm while our leaders stood beside us in the front lines guiding the civilians away from battle. Though sickness and disease ravaged the cities we held firm. We refused to budge an inch while the civilians continued to be evacuated from the country.

It was during the siege of Ikireijin that President Kensei opened the forge of Hell, extending a hand to his friends in Erinor who were invaded by the Bruumans. Through our conscription laws and volunteers, we numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but those conscripted to the FSDF couldn’t leave the trenches of Reizen. Our President was thoroughly ridiculed for his decision to commit troops in Sereva, but we the rusted sword of the Empire, and the powerful navy answered his call. In spite of our combined victory in repelling the Bruumans, our technological superiority meant nothing in the face of their experience. We suffered heavy casualties taking the northern beaches. The Bruumans made sure that we paid dearly for every meter of soil. Every night they came, like demons, and terrorized our camps. They forced us to adapt, to change from the methodical trench warfare learned at Reizen to a more mobile force. Through this baptism of fire we came to respect the Bruuman fighters, and learned their tactics which we used against them.

Once peace was achieved on Sereva Island the Army was dispatched back to the frozen civil war. We were told that enemy was just as divided as the Empire, and despite the FSDF’s best efforts, they couldn’t shift the tide of war in our favor. The Reizen forces knew of our old tactics and doctrines too well, and so we were dispatched with haste to break the stalemate. We followed our orders, storming the occupied city of Jakobsdal, and using it as a base of operations to relieve our brothers in Ikireijin. From Jakobsdal, we employed the night attacks used by our former foes to great effect, and whittled their defenses down to a pulp. Now we stand at the gates of Seranuma, the communist bastion of the Rebellion, and watch in horror as the Rebellion disintegrate into smaller factions of warlords vying for scraps against each other while trying to stave off our advance.

We long for the days before the war, when we were called paper tigers. When children smiled and the towns were lively. When the blood of innocents and our comrades weren’t spilled. Yet those days are long gone. We can only hope someone out there hears our calls for help in restoring order.

RP Digest

Treasure Island Report is back, with new clothes and a haircut, but the mission is the same as before: to promote activities and events in our nations, and the RP community in general. So what is going on in Treasure Island right now? Here's a selection.

The Global Games: Olympic games where RP nations participate.
War: Reizen Civil War, and conclusion of the Serevan War
Establishment of a UN-like organisation, the World Forum
Conflict brewing in Sector A1-0 (sci-fi RP outside main canon)
Various internal political conflicts and events reported in Flash News
... and much more.

________________________

Contributors
@Qvait: Op-ed: The (improbable) rise of Margaret Harrison and social democracy
@Hammerstar: Commentary: Comic books, an emerging culture in the Peocracy, Agricultural yields lower than expected, Peocracy to import
@Imperial Frost Federation: Op-ed: Paper Tigers No More
@Qwert: Editor, RP Digest

About the Treasure Island Report
The Treasure Island Report (TIR) is a monthly newspaper from the role-playing community with in-character articles and other community related news, letting others know what we get up to in there.

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(This post was last modified: 03-11-2018, 04:18 PM by Qwert.)