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South Pacific Independent News Network · 10-08-2021, 12:00 AM

OCT. 2021 CABINET ELECTION
Minister of Defence

Senior Editor James Halpert sat down with all candidates for Minister of Defence to know more about them, their journey in the South Pacific and their ideas for the Ministry of Defence.

Witchcraft & Sorcery / Fred

We're back with our conversation with the person formerly known as Witchcraft & Sorcery, candidate for Minister of Defence!

hello! ^_^

Usually I would start asking about you, but I was just taking a quick look at your campaign thread. So those of us out of the loop, maybe you can tell us more about the video?

"formerly known as Witchcraft and Sorcery"
So I guess I'm Fred now.

Maybe you are!

The video is mostly a reference to something Tisha said in legislators lounge. Soemthing about Fred and the Annoying Orange, and I commented that Fred was from Nebraska (which is my home state IRL). So I took the Fred theme and ran with it.
I saw that video and thought it was somewhat accurate as a satirical summary of my PM term. The boxes at the start being all the Sunshine Act nonsense we had to sort out at start of term, and then the fights being the way I responded to some of the criticism of my government which I thought was unfair.

That's...one way to look at it.

Mostly it was just me poking fun at myself.
A thing of which I'm very fond.

I will say I did find the video refreshingly and unexpectedly funny.

thank u ^_^

By now we could say you are a bit of a household name, having been Prime Minister for the past term. You alude to this in your campaign, but why go for Defence instead of running for a second term?

I needed a change. Don't get me wrong, it's been an absolute honor serving as PM, but I realized I was much happier running the SPSF and the needs of the military better suit what I'm able to offer this term. Personality-wise, the military also suits me far better than politics. My political style of "when something kicks you, kick it back" works better on the battlefield than in treaty negotiations or in managing the government. I do think we've had a lot of successes this term, especially with the unified applications, but I need a change for now.

If you had to give an account of your term, what are some of the highlights and areas of improvement that you would mention?

Highlights: unified apps, cabinet communication both internal and external, maintaining relationships with allies despite rough going at times
Lowlights: Multiple cabinet resignations, the worst summer lull in history, OWL issues/conflicts with various members of the assembly

Moving on to your campaign, I found it interesting that you intend to "draft" legislators as a backup force of sorts. Perhaps you can expand on that and how you see it working?

Basically, I intend to include all current Legislators in my list of people to call on for major operations. That will include pings on Discord, posts in the private halls of the assembly, and creation of on-site dispatches. My rationale for this is that by virtue of being Legislators, they have passed a security check and thus are vetted enough to be granted access to Libcord or the SPSF barracks. So the process would be somewhat seamless - this could also take the form of a dedicated "civilian militia" channel that could be made and pinged in the event of emergency backup forces being needed.

I'm guessing part of the idea would be that some of those legislators would eventually go beyond a passive militia and actively join the SPSF?

Yeah, that's the basic idea. The main idea is that legislators can serve as a standby force in the event we need extraordinary support, and the secondary idea is that some of them would like it well enough to join our active updating corps.

What about those who are already in the SPSF or those who will join? Do you think things are for the most part fine as they currently are or are you looking at any changes, for example in terms of training or in terms of the culture within the military?

In terms of training we have good starting guides, but I'd like to work on structuring some stuff for moving people up the ladder. We don't really have a dedicated officer training guide at the moment, and while that's mostly not a problem due to the often personalized nature of officer training, I would like to have something that's like "here is the absolute baseline of what you need to know to be an officer" for soldiers to look at, should they desire to move up the ladder.
Otherwise my main focus is on recruitment and retention. That was an area in which I had major success in my last MoD term, and which I'll look to replicate again. For that i mostly rely on the "fun" factor - both in terms of my personality and in terms of the actitvity itself.

Recently the Assembly considered an amendment to the Military Code to "navify" the ranks. Is that something that will affect how you approach the recruitment and retention / cultural aspect of the job?

I voted against it and basically have the same position that Nakari did. I don't think it's necessary or all that helpful - to current milGPers, especially defenders, the proposed ranks were too similar to the ERN's, and it made it look like we take ourselves far too seriously. Imo that's not good for recruitment, nor is it the image i want to project. Most of you know me by now as someone who doesn't take myself all that seriously, and is just here to have fun. I don't care too much for formalities or extreme "by-the-book"ishness, for lack of a better word. This is a game and I want to enjoy myself, and for others to enjoy as much or more than I do.

It's probably time to start wrapping things up, but I do have an important question. Did you decide what you'll submit for DefenderVision?

I need to get my guitar tuned first. But I have a few things in mind. Stay tuned ^_^

Is there anything you'd want to mention before we call it a day?

Es gibt ned so fü Tog im Joahr, ois wia da Fuchs aum Schwoaf hot Hoar.

Naturally.

I've had a few glasses of wine and I'm feeling aggressively Austrian today.
Otherwise, vote for me! ^_^

Make sure to check out Fred's campaign and ask questions there!

I love that I'm Fred now.

It was foretold that you would become Fred. The circle is now complete. Once you were but the W&S, now you are the Fred.

The South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) is not affiliated with the Government of the South Pacific and any opinions expressed in its publications are those of its authors unless otherwise stated.