Spiritus Foreign Update

Spiritus Foreign Update: The Defeat of the Raiding Pies and Brownies

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In the past election, the Regional Assembly had five seats up for contention as six members sought election into the hallowed halls of the Regional Assembly. Only two current members sought re-election. Those two members were both newcomers to the Regional Assembly in their previous term: Istanialand and GraVandius. Meanwhile, two former members of the Assembly, Toms and Phonexia, hoped to be elected, while one new member, Olevsky, ran for his first time, along with one person, R0x4ry, who had run before, but had never been elected. Once the election was all said and done, Toms was the only one not elected to serve in the Regional Assembly. After the election, in a tight contest between Phonexia and Istanialand for Speaker, Istanialand became Speaker.



Meanwhile, in the Presidential Election, two tickets battled for the most powerful position in Spiritus. Incumbent President Blitze ran with Vice President Wuufu to form the ticket of Blitzfu, once again. Meanwhile, Phonexia and Sam111 ran for election for the Rhinoceros Party, which began their run to take over the region in the Regional Assembly and Presidency during this election. In the end, Phonexia and Sam111 fell up slighty short of winning the election, while incumbent Blitze shall serve a second term in the Presidency.



As for WARLORD OF THE HOBO SQUIDS, former President Rogamark ran against long time WARLORD Legonimis. Although many squids turned out in higher numbers than expected for Rogamark, Legonimis once again prevailed with an army of his squids showing up on voting day.

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In the previous Regional Assembly, Libertarian Librarians ran unopposed for the Speakership, which allowed him to assume the role. After this, he proceeded to continue with an ongoing Executive Accountability Act hearing, in which the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Information Blitze was asked to testify in his role as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Information. The hearing conducted asked questions about his everyday job, to explain why he kept embassies that may have been more inactive, and other various topics, such as possible deals that may be kept from the public view.



The Regional Assembly during its term also abolished the position of Deputy Speaker, as well as confirming Sovreignry as Associate Justice once again. Along with this, the Regional Assembly created an alternate image version of the Commendation of Spiritus award to be used by the recipients if they so wished.



After a time period of two weeks where the region flew the Black Hawks flag over the region as part of a deal to gain votes for the Salaxalans during the Secretary-General election in April, providing Spiritus with much global exposure, the Regional Assembly not only called an Executive Accountability Act hearing but also began working on non-binding and binding legislation on the flag, so that the Executive could not change the flag for such a long period of time without consulting the region.



The non-binding resolution concerned condemning the deal with the Black Hawks and the flying of their flag over the region. The binding legislation, which still is being discussed, would make the current flag flying over Spiritus the official flag, also allowing the Executive to change the flag for a short period of time. If a flag change exceeded that timeframe, the Executive would have to gain Regional Assembly approval. It has yet to be determined if the legislation will pass and in what form.



Finally, the Regional Assembly created its usual seating act, and unlike last term, allowed for five seats be contested during the elections instead of four.

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During the past few months, the Blitzfu administration has been hard at work. One of the first things they did was present the Panchromium Pact to the Regional Assembly after having worked out the final details. This is Spiritus’ second active treaty and first for Blitze as Minister of Foreign Affairs.



The Blitzfu administration has also reviewed how well we are retaining citizens. The administration has allowed for the welcome telegram upon entering the region to be changed to include more aspects of Spiritan life, while simultaneously making it more concise. Meanwhile, upon applying for citizenship, the applicant now receives a welcome private message that holds valuable information for getting used to life on the forums and making an easier adjustment into the region.



Finally, Blitze recently appointed newer member Istanialand to the position of Deputy Minister of Integration, where he shall join our other Deputy Minister Phonexia.

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The Panchoromium Pact, negotiated by then-President Rogamark and Minister Blitze for Spiritus and Church of Satan and Libetarian Republics of the Rejected Realms, was unanimously ratified by the Spiritus Regional Assembly a few weeks later. The treaty contained most of the usual clauses as well as one involving Blitze’s favorite thing: cake.



After the ratification of the Panchoromium Pact, Vice-President Wuufu began to work on a festival with the Rejected Realms. After finding out that the treaty with the South Pacific would continue for another year, plans were made to have a joint festival between the Rejected Realms, Spiritus, and the South Pacific. Through the coordination of Vice-President Wuufu those in charge of festival planning in the South Pacific and the Rejected Realms, Roavin and Libertarian Republics respectively, a festival was eventually set up for the first of August.



So far during the festival, there have been spam games on the Spiritus forums at spiritus.wtf/ along with a Clue game that is still ongoing. Will the members solve the case and find the murderer or will they fail...dramatically. *cue dramatic music* In addition to the spammy games and Clue, there is a game running on Yucata, which has currently has a few members playing.



Perhaps the biggest highlight of the festival so far was the roundtable. Although legend has it that the table was actually a triangle, the main point of the event was for the three leaders of the regions, Blitze, Drugged Monkeys, and Libertarian Republics, to be open to any questions anyone may have for them, as well as discussing certain aspects of nationstates and the cake v. pie v. the alternative of brownies debate. Everyone had a grand time and it was a rousing success.

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About a month ago, Christmas was under the evil reign of raiders, as per usual. Also as usual, the defendersphere came to their aid. Not only that, the SDF rose to the challenge and lead the charge. Commander-in-Chief Blitze stepped up to lead the large operation of liberating the region as no one else had enough time that night to organize it.



Tasked with his first large organization of a liberation, Blitze asked defenders from all different regions, whether it be The Grey Wardens or Texas, in to his SDF colleagues, Rogamark and Libertarian Librarians. Blitze took charge, along with some valuable help from other veteran defenders, such as Benevolent Thomas, Tim, and others, to have a large enough turnout for the liberation to succeed.



As the defenders started to arrive for Blitze to organize and yell at, the total came very close to being under the needed amount. However, a few people could still miss the jump and have the liberation succeed. As the order to jump was given by Blitze, defenders rushed into the region and overtook the raider delegacy, to liberate the noble region of Christmas.



As always, the SDF is still a proud defender organization, and as Blitze showed, a region and organization that is vital to the defendersphere. The SDF will continue with onward with its glorious crusade, with new leaders, or old ones, taking the reins and leading the defendersphere.

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[small]Blitze's Tea and Cake are my personal remarks. These remarks are not necessarily the opinion of the Spiritan government or the cabinet. They are also not my official Presidential or Ministerial opinions.[/small]



Recently, not only in Nationstates, but also real life, people have been speaking about how good the old times were. However, how good were they really? Hard to say, I was never part of the 80’s, which is the time period Republicans idealize with Ronald Reagan. And I was never part of the “old” Nationstates, with no such things as stamps.



So, you may be wondering who am I to judge old times? Probably a valid point, however, I won’t try to judge old times, just remind folks that old times, although likely good, have been more idealized in our brains than they actually were. They can become twisted until they turn into an illusion they really weren’t.



In 1987, the economy was booming, and then in one day, the stock market lost 22% of its value. Although the economy had been strong for the most part during the 80’s, most people tend to forget 1987. Why? I am not quite sure. What’s my point? I shall answer that. It is that, although there are typically good and strong times, sometimes we block out parts of the past we don’t like.



So, was the “old” Nationstates really better? It may have been, I really can’t say, that wasn’t what I was part of. What I can say is I believe people idealize and make it something it isn’t. It likely was a good time, however, now is grand too. The small community makes it more personal and that can be very nice, or not. Depends on who you are and what you like. But, what I can tell you, we live in a different time, and it may be different, but that doesn’t make it worse, and so we must accept that change and enjoy what we have!

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Thanks for reading the Spiritus Foreign Update!

Authored by President Blitze

Edited by Vice President Wuufu and World Assembly Delegate the Salaxalans