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**Seraph** · 06-22-2020, 09:31 AM

The Southern Journal
The Official News Outlet of the South Pacific

Inside the Cabinet - I

Interview with the New Minister of Regional Affairs - Erinor

By Whole India

I am Whole India. After the June elections, I had an interview with all the winners, in which we get inside their brains and explore their plans and reformist ideas for the region. The best way to begin this special series is with our new Regional Affairs Minister, Erinor. We get inside his mind to understand his plans for the region.

Firstly, congratulations on your election victory. As you are our new Minister of Regional Affairs, what do you have in mind in terms of small scale events? Also which events will happen this month?

We are currently working on a local summer event which was planned as part of Penguin's tenure and which will be announced soon. As for small scale events, I want to create short weekend long events that allow us to spend time with friends in region's we're still getting to know, in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They might consist of low-maintenance activities and icebreakers, like light spam games and typical conversation. The details are still to be worked out fully as this is an idea in development and will require input from Foreign Affairs, too.

Do you have any policy on puppet registration, as according to many there are potentially spies in the region?

This hasn't actually been much of a hot topic in the region, nor is it particularly relevant regional affairs. There is, however, no way to ensure that a person is divulging all of their puppets in such a scheme, so I don't think it would be very worthwhile.

To quote your manifesto, you want "to rebuild our journalism", so are you going to promote more private media or recruit more people to regional media?

You can't really make people write for you in a casual hobby environment like this, so, really, I'm going to be encouraging folk to write more, offering article suggestions and providing constructive criticism to help writers improve and gain confidence. If people want to create private media, I'm happy to offer Ministry resources in support, but my primary concern is the output of the ministry itself.

You have said you want to free fellows and that you don't want a slave system any more, so what are your steps to achieve that and how do you plan to free fellows?

Well, firstly, I'm not going to demask people for inactivity. I don't really see the point as it doesn't seem to produce any more activity, but rather constantly shrinks the pool of people you're potentially working with. This will allow fellows to see what's going on in all non-OpSec parts of the Ministry, whether or not they are currently active and will therefore allow them more freedom to choose what they might wish to get involved in. Secondly, I'm going to encourage creativity and ideas from fellows so that they can lead their own projects with Ministry support. I hope to inspire an atmosphere of creative expression which encourages people to share and use their talents for the benefit of our culture.

One of the candidates who ran against you, Rabbitz, had proposed a point system. Will the Ministry do something like that under your leadership?

It's not something I plan to integrate. It sounds like a great idea in many respects and could benefit activity, but I don't want to encourage a competitive atmosphere in the Ministry or add any extra bureaucracy, so it's not really my style. I'm confident Rabbitz will get a chance to put his plans into action in the future, however.

What will be MoRA's new policy to recruit members?

As I said in my campaign, integration was never something I found very successful in part terms, so I'm not planning to implement any huge schemes for this. I do, however, plan to advertise MoRA in person and encourage fellows to do the same, so that we can welcome new players into the Ministry on a personal level. I also have a few small ideas in how to increase awareness of the Ministry and what it does, like including a mention to our ministries in the telegrams I send when endotarting and in other areas of regional interaction.

Penguin's campaign mentioned a town hall system. What do you have in mind for that?

I'd prefer to encourage continuous communication in the ministry in a way that suits the needs and availability of the fellows. If people don't want to speak up, that's fine, although I'll do my best to ensure there are as many non-threatening avenues to be heard via as possible.

What are your plans for RP?

I want to do more events that allow existing RPers to showcase their stuff and to let other players see what a creative and fun thing our RP community has always been. I also want to make sure that the Treasure Island Report is publishing RP articles for the same reason.

You have said that you don't want to force people to be active, but the ministry's reputation also matters, so do you have any policy on ejecting inactive members?

Absolutely not. As I mentioned in a previous answer, I see no benefit to activity in removing people from the Ministry unless they actually don't want to be part of it. I prefer to bring about activity through inspiration and encouragement as well as the example of myself and more active fellows. This way, those who may have been inactive for a long time still have the chance to see an opportunity and jump on it, as well as develop towards projects through their engagement with other fellows.

Now for my last question. There are very many inactive nations, so what will you do to bring them into the mainstream?

The vast majority of nations in the South Pacific are either contended issue answers or puppets and there's no need to badger them into joining the forums or Discord or even the RMB if that's not what they're interested in. The important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is to ensure that all players in the South Pacific have the opportunity to take part in whatever aspects of NationStates' expanded activities most interests them and that they are not denied that activity through the lack of anyone telling them that it exists, as such, promoting the various things that make NS awesome will always be an important part of the Ministry under my leadership.

Erinor clearly has plans for the Ministry and does not plan to be hemmed in by the expectations set by previous Ministers, especially with regard to activity. Will this plan pay off or will this be another luke-warm Summer term?

Check back tomorrow for my interview with the new Minister of Military Affairs, Fihami.