Well....family aside....Hi

Satursday 22 Alvan 1580 CE

Keynote Speakers:
Blair Gobnet McLucais(PoT)
Amaziah Arasgain-Abbott(The Alternative)
Violette le Penne(CN)
Kenina Rodina McRoibeirt(PoT)
Aonghas MacBerger(PoT)
Órlaith Moreen McRoibeirt(CSP)
Catriona Éadaoin Sechnall(CSP)
Eachann Erskine MacSiridh(Nationl Security Expert)
Ríoghnán Finley MacUalraig(Anti-cult International)
Khalilah Shahira Amjad(Ex-Akhadist)
Jourdain Gérard Delacroix(LGBT Activist)
Frañseza Gaëlle(Womens rights activist)
Gobnet Finnguala MacUalraig(Animal rights activist)


Blair Gobnet McLucais Speech:

The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature.
One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary. By the same token, they attract little attention in comparison with current troubles, which are both indisputable and pressing: whence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future.
Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: "If only," they love to think, "if only people wouldn't talk about it, it probably wouldn't happen."
Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the thing, the name and the object, are identical.
At all events, the discussion of future grave but, with effort now, avoidable evils is the most unpopular and at the same time the most necessary occupation for the politician. Those who knowingly shirk it deserve, and not infrequently receive, the curses of those who come after.
A week or two ago I fell into conversation with a constituent, a young worker, quite ordinary working clansman employed in one of our great clan co-operatives in Kathmore.
After a sentence or two about the weather, he suddenly said: "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in Kathmore with the current way of living. I have three children, all of them been through state  school and two of them married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled back in clan territory. In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the Akhadist man will have the whip hand over the clansman."I replied “We will defeat the evils of Akhadism. We will win Kathmore back.”
I can already hear the chorus of execration from overseas. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings by repeating such a conversation?
The answer is that I do not have the right not to do so. Here is a decent, ordinary fellow Strathae clansman, who in broad daylight in my own city  says to me, his own High Chief that his city will not be worth living in for his children.
I simply do not have the right to shrug my shoulders and think about something else. What he is saying, thousands and hundreds of thousands are saying and thinking throughout the Kingdom of Strathae, especially in the areas that are already undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of Strathaen history.An invasion going on at a rate not seen since the laurentian opression that forced the founding of our nation.

In 15 or 20 years, on present trends, there will be in this country over 500,000 bigoted , sexist and homophobic Akhadist and Sentric immigrants and their descendants. That is not my figure. That is the official figure given to parliament by the spokesman of the Strathae Office of Statistics.
There is no comparable official figure for the year 1650, but it must be in the region of 1.5- 2 million, just a bit more than the population of Kathmore and MacCarmaig combined. Of course, it will not be evenly distributed around Strathae in fact it will be concentrated in Kathmore. Whole areas, districts and communities will be occupied by immigrant-descended populations with alien values to our accepting , tolerant, multi-sexuality and multi-gendered democracy.

As time goes on, the proportion of this total who are akhadist or Sentric immigrant descendants, those born in Strathae, who arrived here by exactly the same route as the rest of us, will rapidly increase. It is this fact which creates the extreme urgency of action now, of just that kind of action which is hardest for politicians to take, action where the difficulties lie in the present but the evils to be prevented or minimised lie several clan assemblies ahead.
The natural and rational first question with a nation confronted by such a prospect is to ask: "How can its dimensions be reduced?" Granted it be not wholly preventable, can it be severely limited, bearing in mind that numbers are of the essence: the significance and consequences of an alien element introduced into a country or population are profoundly different according to whether that element is 5 per cent or 20 per cent.
The answers to the simple and rational question are equally simple and rational: by stopping, or virtually stopping, further inflow, and by promoting the maximum outflow. Both answers are part of the official policy of the Party of Tradition.

It almost passes belief that at this moment 10 or 15 additional immigrant children from bigoted cultures are arriving from overseas to Kathmore- and that means 10 or 15 additional families a decade or two hence. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 8,000 bigoted dependants, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the bigoted culture immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. So insane are we that we actually permit unmarried persons to immigrate for the purpose of founding a family with spouses and fiancés whom they have never seen.
Let no one suppose that the flow of dependants will automatically tail off.. In these circumstances nothing will suffice but that the total inflow for settlement should be reduced at once to negligible proportions for immigrants from bigoted , homophobic and sexist cultures , and that the necessary legislative and administrative measures be taken without delay.
I stress the words "bigoted, homophobic and sexist." This has nothing to do with the entry of non bigoted immigrants, any more than of aliens, into this country, for the purposes of study or of improving their qualifications, like (for instance) the non-bigoted immigrant doctors who, to the advantage of their own countries, have enabled our hospital service and our clan cooperatives to be expanded faster than would otherwise have been possible benefiting our people. They are not, and never have been, the bad type of immigrants.
I turn to re-emigration. If all immigration ended tomorrow, the rate of growth of the immigrant and immigrant-descended population would be substantially reduced, but the prospective size of this element in the population would still leave the basic character of the national danger unaffected. This can only be tackled while a considerable proportion of the total still comprises persons who entered this country during the last ten years or so.

Hence the urgency of implementing now the second element of the Party of Tradition's policy: the encouragement of re-entry to Strathae of those descended from the clans.Such a move is indeed necessary to encourage the growth of real Strathaen values and traditions and to encourage skills  and most importantly re-import more people of Strathen values.Such a policy is indeed needed to protect our culture and make sure true Strathaen culture is always in the majority.


The third element of the Party of Tradition’s policy is that all who are in this country as citizens should be equal before the law and that there shall be no discrimination or difference made between them by public authority in the regions of Kathmore and MacCarmaig, one united Strathae living under the values of acceptance of lgbt, acceptance of womens equality , unity of Strathaens and protection of our sacred environment.We will have no "religious exemptions” either you accept these values or you damn well go back home to your backwards societies where you can be a homophobic, sexist and bigoted asshole.You accept Strathaen values or you leave Strathae.There could be no grosser misconception of tolerance than the one by which so called liberals propose. The idea that one must tolerate intolerance or else be seen as intolerant. No there is no room for the tolerating of the intolerant, for such tolerance will inevitably lead to the destruction of said tolerant society. It is not kind to the moderates of those in the Akhadist faith and Sentric faith who truly follow those values of acceptance and love nor on the Strathaen population, nor on women and nor on the LGBT who will inevitably suffer the hate of the extremist dangerous Akhadist and Sentrecist.

Indeed you only have to look at the Sentrecist NGP spreading homophobia among their supporters in Goldecia, you only have to look at the streets of Vanet under the DA and of socialist “liberal” Rambouillet to see the results of tolerating such intolerance. Ask yourself this would you rather be gay or female in Strathae or gay or female in Rambouillet where daily gay people and women are attacked daily just for holding hands, “not dressing modestly” or a white person is attacked because “this is not a neighbourhood for you whites.” This is the type of discrimination that thrives when one lets such intolerance takes hold and stops expecting the same of the bigoted immigrant population allowing them to bring their evil bigoted cultures.What you get is intolerance taking over entire sections of the city.You only have to look at these examples to see the dangers of allowing a fifth column of Akhadists and Sentrecists to grow in your very midst.

This is why to enact legislation of the kind before the clan assembly allowing the intolerant to exist in our midst  at this moment is to risk throwing a match on to gunpowder. The kindest thing that can be said about those who propose and support it is that they know not what they do.

Nothing is more misleading than comparison between the Akhadist and Sentric  immigrant in Strathae and the good immigrant. The good immigrant comes with good intentions , works hard and lives within our values system. The Akhadist and Sentric extremists do not, they demand their law, they are cruel to animals, they endanger lgbt individuals and endanger women who have the “audacity” to not force on themselves the Akhadist or Sentric standard of dress.In short these bigoted individuals destroy the very society and freedoms they came to enjoy for themselves while using these very mechanisms to bring in their disgusting oppressive religious laws.


This is all done all the meanwhile without consultation of the local population, without any thought as to how it will impact the future. The Kathmore we know and love could very much be destroyed within 50 years, being an alien city within our nation.And it's not just the effects of the bigotry but the isolation such communities engage in that causes damage. They identify as Akhadist or Sentric but not Strathaen. That breaks unity of the nation, they seek to abolish the clan culture that makes our nation the great nation it is. In short they are a threat to the very stability of society.


In the thousands upon thousands of letters I have received since becoming High Chief, there was one striking feature which was largely new and which I find ominous. All Clan Assembly Members are used to the typical anonymous correspondent; but what surprised and alarmed me was the high proportion of ordinary, decent, sensible people, writing a rational and often well-educated letter, who believed that they had to omit their address because it was dangerous to have committed themselves to paper to a Clan Assembly Member agreeing with the views I had expressed, and that they would risk penalties or reprisals if they were known to have done so at the international level or with their jobs. The sense of being a persecuted majority which dare not challenge the radical change in their own communities for fear of international condemnation which is growing among ordinary Strathaen people in the areas of the country with these Akhdaistist populations is one I empaphise with, I go to my home street occaisonally the streets where I spent my teens. Now sometimes they resemble Tambossa more than Strathae, I feel like a stranger in my own country.


I am going to allow just one of those hundreds of people to speak for me:
“Eight years ago in a respectable street in Kathmore a house was sold to a Akhadist. Now only one gay clan strathaen lives there. This is her story. She lost her husband and both her sons in the line of duty in service to the police. So she turned her seven-roomed house, her only asset, into a boarding house. She worked hard and did well, paid off her mortgage and began to put something by for her old age. Then the immigrants moved in. With growing fear, she saw one house after another taken over. The quiet street became a place of noise and confusion. Regretfully, her clan strathaen tenants moved out.
“One day walking down the street 18:00 at night she was holding hands with her partner. A normal event to her mind. 5 Akhadists started shouting homophobic abuse, they demanded she stop holding hands since this offended them. When she refused she was set upon by the 5 Akhadist youth. She was attacked with such ferocity she had all her bones broken and was left bleeding in the street , bleeding to death . They left her to die with her partner and they would have attacked her girlfriend if it hadn’t have been for the sirens of the police and ambulance called for by her girlfriend.The lady is now scared to go out at night or in the day, she is scared to leave her house to shop and she cannot move, no non-akhadist will buy the house, and she does not wish to sell the last non-akhadist owned house to akhadists. And why should she?”


The other dangerous delusion from which those who are willfully or otherwise blind to realities suffer, is summed up in the word "integration." To be integrated into a population means to become for all practical purposes indistinguishable from its other members.
Now, at all times, where there are marked differences, especially of religous, integration is difficult though, over a period, not impossible. There are among the immigrants who have come to live here in the last fifteen years or so, many thousands whose wish and purpose is to be integrated and whose every thought and endeavour is bent in that direction.
But to imagine that such a thing enters the heads of a great and growing majority of the streams of immigrants from bigoted , homophobic and sexist cultures and religious groups and their descendants is a ludicrous misconception, and a dangerous one.
We are on the verge here of a change. Hitherto it has been force of circumstance and of background which has rendered the very idea of integration inaccessible to the greater part of the immigrant population - that they never conceived or intended such a thing, and that their numbers and physical concentration meant the pressures towards integration which normally bear upon any small minority did not operate.

Now we are seeing the growth of positive forces acting against integration, of vested interests in the preservation and sharpening of religious differences, with a view to the exercise of actual domination, first over fellow-immigrants and then over the rest of the population. The cloud no bigger than a man's hand, that can so rapidly overcast the sky, has been visible recently in small parts of Kathmore and has shown signs of spreading quickly, indeed the desire for domination was shown in the proposal of a grossly oversized Akhadist Temple designed to proclaim the dominance of Akhadism over all. The words I am about to use, verbatim as they appeared in the local press on 17 February, are not mine, but those of a Clan Socialist Clan Assembly Member who is a shadow minister in the shadow cabinet:
'The Akhadist communities' campaign to maintain customs inappropriate in Strathae is much to be regretted. Working in Strathae, particularly in the public services and clan co-operatives they should be prepared to accept the terms and conditions of their employment. To claim special religious rights (or should one say rites?) leads to a dangerous fragmentation within society. This attitude of special entitlement is a canker; whether practised by one religious or another it is to be strongly condemned.'

All credit to Éimhín Murdoch McRoibeirt for having had the insight to perceive that, and the courage to say it.
For these dangerous and divisive elements proposed by the liberal loonies who say we should tolerate intolerance as part of democracy  is the very pabulum they need to flourish. Here is the means of showing that the bigoted, homophobic and sexist immigrant communities especially among the Akhadists and certain messianic groups can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the weapon of having their intolerance tolerated which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the early Eskkyan Strathaen Clansmen, I seem to see "the Gaels and streets of Kathmore foaming with much blood."

That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror just on the other side of the border but which there is interwoven with the history, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of Eskkyan proportions long before the end of the century. Indeed now it is not the Laurentian culture invasion but instead the invasion of Akhadism and Sentrecism.

Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now. Whether there will be the public will to demand and obtain that action, I do not know. But I certainly hope we can be in a position to defend the very values that make us Strathae and our ancestors shed their very blood for. All I know is that to see, and not to speak letting Kathmore be invaded by the forces of evil and intolerance would be the great betrayal.

The Election of the 17th Federal Convention of the Florinthian Federation
1580

The election for the 17th assembled Federal Convention of the Florinthian Federation is set for late 1580, and the campaigns have begun with the start of the new year.

The Centrist Party will be looking to retain their leadership and consolidate their power in the legislature. In 1574, they took advantage of failing confidence in the Liberal Party, who led the nation through a period of stagnation under Prime Minister Willem Oglethorpe, to seize power and select the first Centrist Prime Minister, Ben Blanckenship, who was elected by the ruling coalition of the Cenrist and National-Labour Parties. The Blanckenship mandate was marked by advances in social welfare as well as education and tax reform. A new generation of Florinthians were raised with a can-do attitude passed down by their government, as the 16th Assembled Federal Convention proved to be the most busy, passing over 500 more bills than the previous two administrations combined.

This election is notable as it will be the first to include the expanded legislature, a decision made early on in the 16th Convention. There are now two hundred seats, as opposed to the 148 previously used. The intention of expanding the legislature was to include a "more diverse set of opinions and perspectives within the legislature" as well as address the differences in population among the states and give Florinthians better representation.

The loser parties from the previous election, namely the Liberal and Federalist parties, will look to use the larger number of seats to their advantage, and campaigning has been hard. The new number of seats has also given smaller parties the opportunity to push for seats, as some parties previously seen only as fringe options, such as the Left and Greens now have the opportunity to take seats.

The campaigning has been difficult, and now the election is coming. Below are the parties and their platforms.



Florinthian Centrist Union
Leader: Ben Blanckenship

The Florinthian Centrist Union comes into this election as triumphant victors, having completed almost all of the goals they set at the beginning of their mandate. They see this as an election of consolidation, as they believe they have proven their integrity and ability to complete tasks. That being said, with the work of the previous convention finished, they have set out the following goals for their next term.

Education - Continue education reform, primarily focused on tertiary school in the Federation. The Federation should be seen as a primary destination for those pursuing university degrees, not only from domestic students, but for students abroad. The  Centrists seek to ensure that study programs for foreign students are accessible. They also plan to address the cost of tuition for domestic students, so a university education can become more affordable.

Foreign Affairs - The Centrists see the WBEA as a remarkable success, and want to make efforts to expand the connections between member states as well as expand the organization to include other nations in the West Brigidnan region. The Centrists see Florinthus as being a primarily neutral state, but more efforts could be made to promote cooperation with such nations as Lanlania and Gehenna, and Severyane as well. Mordvania and Oslanburg are also seen as chief nations to cooperate with.



Florinthian National Labour Party
Leader: Lauren Harvey

The Florinthian National Labour Party was seen in the years preceding the 1574 election as the party most expected to succeed. They had great support among young voters and their leader, the late Guy Fontaine, was seen as the future of Florinthian politics. But the the Centrists stole the show, and during the previous mandate Fontaine perished in his Denil home of natural causes, leaving the party somewhat rudderless. Still, they were members of the ruling coalition and in time the next NLP leader approached, a woman named Lauren Harvey.

Harvey was embraced for her no-nonsense attitude and her strong leadership. She had spearheaded many of the bills put forward by the NLP during the 16th convention, and to many she was seen as a natural successor to Fontaine. Her leadership has led to a somewhat more liberal NLP, though this is also credited to the close cooperation with the Centrist party. The main points the NLP wishes to push are below:

Foreign Affairs - The National Labour Party feels that Florinthus should act more like a world leader. The Lanlanians have proven stagnant and unable to push forward for Brigidnan cooperation, and in the meantime places like Nyland are more concerned with local problems. The NLP believes there should be more efforts to promote international cooperation. The WBEA is a good start, but the NLP believes more can be done, and that it should include nations outside of Brigidna.

Military - The NLP believes the current state of the Florinthian armed forces is abhorrent. While Florinthus should not be interested in conflict, it should be prepared to defend itself and its interests abroad. The military requires a complete overhaul, and the recent tax reform provides surplus in the budget to do so.



Florinthian Liberal Party
Leader: Walter Philmore

The new-look Liberal party that came out for the 1574 election fell flat, to say the least. It alienated its old voting base with new ideas and was unable to spur the same sort of youth movement that the Centrists and NLP enjoyed. The end result was a major failure for a party that led for over a decade prior.

The Liberals have consolidated their message and simplified their perspective, emphasizing smaller government and increased liberty leading to financial and economic prosperity. Their interests are as follows:

The Economy - The Liberals believe the previous Convention put too many restraints on the economy, particularly the financial industry. While the economy has continued to steadily grow, they believe potential growth is capped by rampant economic regulation. Limiting the regulation to more natural levels will allow the economy to grow more rapidly without allowing corporations to grow too powerful. In particular, they believe the tax reform plan puts too much pressure on businesses and the corporate tax rate should be lowered.

WBEA - The Liberals are in complete opposition to further expansion of the WBEA. They believe that it had its benefits but is quickly growing too large and before long will bind the economies of the member states too closely, which could lead to increased financial risk. They are also in complete opposition to the adoption of a uniform currency, and will attempt to block any plans by the WBEA to do so.



Florinthian Federalist Party
Leader: Bruce Chalmers

The Federalist Party is another of the failures of 1574, owed partly to their failure to capture young voters, and during the campaign much effort was made towards gathering youth support for FFP issues. Their leader, Bruce Chalmers, believes that this election is the Federalists to lose, and that many are fed up with the liberal perspective of the 16th Convention. Their primary issues are as follows:

Immigration - The FFP sees the lax immigration laws as a travesty and point to increased crime in major cities and lower average income in major metropolitan areas as indicators that the "immigration experiment" is and was a complete failure. The so-called "Denil slum", a moderately large sector of low-income neighborhoods where many immigrants landed after entering the nation, is frequently cited as a haven for crime, drug abuse, and prostitution, and the Federalists believe the lax immigration laws are to blame. While they recognize the value of immigrants, they believe the current laws are too weak, and that emphasis should be put on the usefulness of immigrants to further the Florinthian economy. Work visas therefore are to be protected and given special status, but the near open-border policy allowed by the previous Convention will have to go.

Education - The Federalists believe education to be a responsibility of the states of Florinthus, rather than the federal government. They believe the recent education reform laws to be a gross overstepping of boundaries and that power should be given back to local governments to determine what is best for their children. National standards do not require uniform education policy, is the motto of the Federalists when it comes to education. They also believe university should remain as is, in terms of affordability, and that efforts should be made to encourage individuals to enter the work-force, to jump-start the crumbling Florinthian manufacturing sector. ~~ revitalizing the manufacturing sector is another federalist issue.



The Left
Leader: Lance Krejewski

The Left is a party of socialists that believes the Florinthian economy should be returned to the people. They believe the Centrists were on the right path, but didn't go nearly far enough in their efforts, and that the Federalists and Liberals were primarily to blame. The Left have, for the first time, a good chance of gathering seats after the expansion of the legislature, and so are ramping up their campaign efforts. Some of the more radical Centrists have also pledged to join their number, making for an interesting election for the previous fringe party. Their issues are as follows:

Education - The Left believe a university education is the right of all Florinthians and that the government should ensure that all citizens have access to high quality university-level education. The current system is too expensive and benefits the wealthy more than anyone else. An educated population is best equipped to serve the nation and so ensuring that all are educated is a top priority. The Left also believe in further emphasizing aptitude tests at an earlier age, so that students can prioritize their strengths to better serve the economy later in life.

Foreign Affairs - The Left believe Florinthus should be stronger on its cooperative neighbors, namely Oslanburg and Galeae, to ensure that their people have more control in the elections. The Left believe that associating with governments such as these tarnishes the Florinthian reputation abroad, and that more emphasis should be put on nations such as Mordvania and Severyane. The WBEA is seen as a failure, though it could be better if the economies of other members were more socialist.



Green Party
Leader: Akilah Mounib

The Green Party is another party that typically operates on the fringe of the Florinthian political spectrum, but with more seats available has the opportunity to make a splash in the 17th Convention. The Greens are led by Akilah Mounib, a first generation Florinthian who was born after her parents came to Florinthus from A'Sir. The Greens are primarily interested in socialist economics while ensuring that the environment is respected.

The Environment - The Greens believe Florinthus has much to do in terms of environmental work, and that it could become a beacon for clean renewable energy. Investment in nuclear, solar, and wind power should be increased and research into cleaner fuels should be made a top priority. They also believe further environmental regulations should be put into place to protect Florinthus' natural beauty.

The Economy - The Greens believe the economy should benefit everyone in the nation, be they rich or poor. They intend to raise the minimum wage to ensure low-income families have enough to support themselves. They also believe in increased income taxes on top of the current tax reform, to support some of their planned social welfare programs: namely a single-payer healthcare system and universal tertiary education.

Strathae-Eskkya-Lomarre Friendship Treaty 1579

Work Permits:
1:Any Strathaen with 1 Strathaen Grandparent has the right to live and work anywhere in Eskkya or Strathae
2:Any Eskkyan with 1 Eskkyan Grandparent has the right to live and work anywhere in Strathae  or Lomarre
3:Any Lomarren with 1 Lomarren Grandparent has the right to live and work anywhere in Strathae  or Eskkya
4: Any signatory nations reserve the right to deport individuals convicted of a crime and ban them for life from the country
5:All citizens on work permits have to sign any relevant loyalty pledges

Residency:
1:All Strathaens with one Strathaen Grandparent Can become citizens of Eskkya or Lomarre after 10 years of residency or less depending on national law.
2:All Eskkyans with One Eskkyan Grandparent can become citizens of Strathae or Lomarre after 10 years of residency or less depending on national law. .
3:All Lomarrens with One Lomarren Grandparent can become citizens of Strathae or Eskkya after 10 years of residency or less depending on national law.
4:All ethnically Strathaen individuals with 1 Strathaen Grandparent can become citizens of Strathae upon arrival but are probationary citizens for 5 years
5:Any Strathaens who can prove they have grandparents who were members of an official government recognised Clan immediately become recognised as a member of that clan.
6:All nations reserve the right to deport individuals convicted of a crime and ban them for life from the country if they are on probationary citizenship
7:All citizens on work permits have to sign any relevant loyalty pledges

Joint Tourism Visa:
1:There shall be a joint tourism visa
2:Any country may issue the Lomarre-Esskya-Strathae Visa
3:The visa shall last for 1 month
4:Any Strathaen can visit Eskkya or Lomarre  without a visa
5:Any Eskkyan can visit Strathae or Lomarre without a visa
6:Any Lomarren can visit Strathae or Eskkya without a visa

Border fees:
1:There shall be no border fees for entering or exiting Strathae, Lomarre or Eskkya on any of the citizens of Strathae . Lomarre or Eskkya.

Free Trade:
1:Eskkya shall charge no tariffs on Strathaen or Lomarren goods and services
2:Strathae shall charge no tariffs on Eskkyan or Lomarren goods and services
3:Lomarre shall charge no tariffs on Eskkyan or Strathaen goods and services
4:Strathae Banks may freely operate in Eskkya or Lomarre
5:Eskkyan Banks may freely operate in Strathae or Lomarre
6:Lomarren Banks may freely operate in Eskkya or Strathae
6:There shall be no roaming charges in Eskkya, Lomarre or Strathae for respective mobile phone customers.
7:There shall be a duty free limit of 10,000 dollars per family in a single year within the duty free zone.

Tax Co-operation:
1:Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Sales Tax shall be harmonised into one set of rates set by the joint Eskyya-Strathae Tax Harmony Organisation
2: ESTHO shall be able to issue advice on taxation.
3:ESTHO Tax changes shall be approved by a joint 20 representative council of which 10 representatives shall be from each nation.
4:The 10 representatives shall be selected in each nation in a manner decided by the government
5:A majority of 50% +1 must be in favour of a tax change either downwards or upwards in order for that to become the new rate.
6:The Council shall meet up once a year to vote on the next year's rate

It is indeed time for each statesperson in all of Aflinland and Octitania to take their place on the podium and make their case to become perhaps the most powerful bureaucrats in the two realms. In 1580, we shall see very little parties running, perhaps because of fear or lack of interest.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary and Executive Elections 1580
In the Commonwealth of Aflinland, the Commonwealth elect their officials representing each district. The people who meet in the Chamber of Chieftains are called goðar while the more lower People's Assembly are known as Lawspeakers or "Þingmenn". Each district gets 9 chieftains on a winner take all basis. All 9 Chieftains will be elected by party and not individual. As a result, the Aflin Parliamentary system usually is dominated by two parties leaving little room for smaller third parties. For more information please visit this post: http://forums.eternityrpc.com/topic/11736319/1/

The Imperial Elections of the Empire of Octitania 1580
In the Empire of Octitania, the legal documentation election process has yet to be complete due to the constitution still underway being negotiated between officials. However, the provisional government remains. The Provisional Council has 60 seats in which 20 seats for each faction that participated in the civil were granted. The Provisional Council has elections every five year in case the system is ongoing. The Speaker of the Council will only be elected in Octitania and each faction at the moment is a party within the government. The Election will be merely an opinion poll and the council will appoint the Speaker of the Council.

Soooooooooooooo......

I'm going to try my hand at the football manager editor to make some sort of siora database, or at least a partial one. I have no idea how this will work, or how it will look. Wish me luck.

I'll post updates here, if I ever make any real progress

So, I've realized that for any kind of thing in computer tech RP to advance with any sort of detail there are a few questions we need to answer.

What operating systems are dominant in Siora?

Basically, "What's our Windows? What's our Mac? What's our Linux?" That sort of question (though Linux technically isn't a OS of it's own, it's a kernel, but we'll get to that in a moment).

For simplicities sake, I'd imagine the most dominant one would be some OS made by a Nylander company. But that doesn't change the situation - what would this OS be called? What company will have made it?

What OS kernels are there in Siora?


The OS kernel is the most fundamental component of a computer operating system - without it the OS literally cannot function. Basically, it's the layer that lets the computer talk to the programs installed on it (I know you techie people are yelling at me saying this is oversimplified, but I'm trying to put it in terms that anyone can understand so shut up).

RL there are two major kernels out there - Windows NT (used for Microsoft Windows) and UNIX (used for Mac, Linux, and many more). So, what do we have in Siora?

How much of those kernels are open-source?

Open-source means the source code (computer code) that makes up the kernel is freely available for anyone to view and use for their own stuff. This has it's upsides and downsides. On the upside, making something open-source is the best way to have it spread quickly. On the other hand, many private corporations LOATHE open-source stuff because by it's very nature open-source means they can't make much money off of it. The opposite of open-source is often called closed-source or proprietary (I'll be using closed-source here).

In real life, Windows NT is (perhaps unsurprisingly) closed-source.

UNIX on the other hand is a weird one. Originally, UNIX was NOT intended to be open-source. But eventually there were derivatives of the original UNIX made that was open-source. Now you see UNIX on most non-Windows operating systems (these OS's are called Unix-like operating systems), in everything from Mac to Linux to FreeBSD to Solaris

If we want things to be like RL, we could have two main kernels - one open-source and one closed-source. On the other hand, we could ditch the RL trope, and have one major kernel that's open-source, or a whole bunch of smaller kernels that vary in licensing (keep in mind though that this would make cross-compatibility a nightmare).

What is the main CPU architecture?

You're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about. How many of you remember 2006, when Mac announced they were switching from PowerPC to Intel processors? That's basically what that whole thing was about. Apple switched theri Mac OS from CPU's of IBM's PowerPC architecture to Intel's x86 architecture.

RL there are a lot of CPU architectures out there, each with it's own advantages and disadvantages. But there are really only 3 that are relevant today in the world of personal computers.

• x86 - This was the most common architecture until a few years ago, almost all OS's support this.
  
• x86-64/AMD64 - This is probably the most common architecture today. It's basically the same thing as x86, only upgraded from 32-bits to 64-bits. I know this is oversimplifying, but that's the gist of it.
  
• ARM - This is the type of processor that you probably have in your smartphone, it doesn't matter if it's Android or iOS I'm willing to bet with a 99.999% certainty that it has an ARM processor on it. ARM is also popular on microcomputers like the Raspberry Pi.