The Lazarene Gazette April 2022

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Lazarus is rather sleepy once again, though this issue has found its way off a screen and onto the presses, at last, and just in time for spring, and maybe soon enough the beginnings of summer. Though the other hemisphere will be getting colder weather, so if you are one of those people, prepare to dress up warmly and find a decent book and fire to warm into.

In this issue, we have insight into the global trade fair that recently flooded the region with kittens, a general summary of past elections and goings on, the recent resignation of the last Prime Minister (or Managing Director) Domais, and general discussions on Lazarus in general. What are you waiting for? Find a comfy chair, grab a cup of your favorite hot chocolate (maybe add marshmallows...mmm, tasty!) Scroll down! Read those special words with your special eyes! I hope you enjoy the rest of the Lazarene Gazette.

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"Kittens in boxes were the prominent trade good of Lazarus, in the Global Trade Fair Event, as the region was flooded with the cute little pets, and by the end of the event there were 657 boxes of them, 4th largest number of them in the world. It was a puzzling event, as nations woke up to discover all kinds of goods, which they had forgotten about in warehouses. In fact, there seems to be a song coming along, where did the background music to "My Favorite Things" come from? Why am I bursting into song? There were...

"Stickiness on labels
And boxes with kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my tradable things..."

Where that came from is beyond me, and back to the news.

The region found delight at all the boxes of kittens, who are no doubt finding happy homes in Lazarus and bringing smiling faces and joy to children across the region, and elsewhere, as some boxes somehow were traded away to other regions, or worse destroyed. This most heinous of crimes, destroying a box that kittens are using. If you know of anyone who did this, make sure to burn them at the stake for heresy in face of cuteness.

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The Speaker of the Assembly proceeded to open a special election to replace Domais, after they resigned due to a dispute with another member of the region and had a perceived loss of confidence in their role as Prime Minister. Wang Yao and Constie (John Laurens) were the candidates, with Wang Yao putting forward an extensive platform for his candidacy that won praises, and most likely contributed to his victory in the election. Wang Yao won 70% of the vote, 0.05% voted for the other candidate, and the last 23% of voters abstained. This was a major electoral sweep, not seen in some time in Lazarus.

When Prime Minister (or Managing Director) Wang Yao addressed the region after their victory, they described that they were "very humbled with the trust that have been put into me by all the ones who voted in favor of my platform", and appointed McChimp as the Director of Public Relations (or foreign relations), Ellenberg as Director of Internal Management (or internal affairs), and joWhatup to continue as the Director of the Regional Guard. Tinhampton was also appointed as Deputy Minister of Internal Management, in regard to being the Vice-Director of World Assembly affairs.

Managing Director Wang Yao did also attempt to appoint a Director of Shareholders and Recruitment, the former Prime Minister Domais, but this failed when it went to vote, not reaching the required margin of above 50% of the vote. However, in accordance with the mandate and regional law, the Chief Executive Officer (Delegate) is empowered to admit shareholders or citizens for this duration, unless another director is put to vote this term to serve.

Prime Minister: Wang Yao
Director of the Regional Guard: joWhatup
Director of Public Relations: McChimp
Director of Internal Management: Ellenberg
Deputy Director of Internal Management: Tinhampton

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Sinkers are different from many Game-Created Regions (GCRs) and User-Created Regions (UCRs) in that each one has different challenges based on game mechanics, than a region that can rely upon new nations joining the region all the time, as in the case of Feeders, or as a result of recruitment to a like-minded region, as with UCRs. There are viable arguments for and against autocracy or oligarchy, as well as democracy, in such a situation.

What I would consider the positives of a democratic framework would be:

• Electoral accountability of low to high level government officials, and in the case of The Rejected Realms, this includes the Delegate. This has the added benefit of encouraging activity by showing citizens that there is an avenue for political advancement.

• Shuffling of powers and responsibilities of citizens in a region, as some problems can exist in an oligarchy or autocracy where citizens stay in the same political role forever, as they might be terrible at their job, or worse okay at their job but would be fantastic somewhere else. If there is a static situation, the region and those at the top may never find out.

• Cultural and political revolution from time to time, can be important for regional growth and development, as throwing out the old and bringing in the new, can mean bringing people out of the shadows to improve the region, when before they were bored with it.

• Development of a strong civil society, though not always, can mean a fabric of support for the political institutions, fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of the region, and possibly even a groundswell of support in case of an attempted coup, with the civil society having the means to overthrow an illegal Delegacy.
  

While these are great in principle, in practice there are complications, which lend to an argument against or towards modifying the democratic framework, for the right or wrong reasons. I could see an argument for a more authoritarian position in some scenarios, as with the following:

Electoral accountability should not be confused with political instability, as just because someone in power does a tolerable job or even a bad job does not mean there is not someone worse waiting to take the reins or even destabilize the whole region. This is true of the risk to democracies of vote-stacking or otherwise rigging a vote in favor of a candidate, which while not technically illegal in most regions, is highly unethical. Without a civil society in a democracy, there would be no one to object or vote against such a practice and really have a hope of stopping such unethical actions. This lends an argument to a firmer hand in a region without a strong civil society, and for now has justified the basis of the Council of Lazarene Security, as in such a situation, citizens can be banned outright for such an effort.

• Cultural and political revolution can be beneficial for a region, if it establishes a more active and more politically engaged region, as occurred with the establishment for a time of the People's Republic of Lazarus, and then the Humane Republic of Lazarus. It can also mean people lose out, and sometimes in a big way, as the People's Republic of Lazarus banned prominent members of Lazarus and raiders outright from the region, and in the case of the Humane Republic of Lazarus, provided a basis for resentment down the road. There was popular political will for change to another theme and constitution during the Humane Republic, but this effort at cultural and political change led to disaster. Had there been a firmer hand, it could have been stopped, as with the later civil war, though at the cost of democratic freedoms and assembly discussion.
  

This is not to suggest that a sinker should be dissuaded from democracy, though Sinker authoritarianism is not inherently evil, as there is a basis of risk in any system of government, either through abuse of power or by political manipulation of the masses to a negative end. For every elected Delegate, there is a risk of a coup d'état right behind them, as the running risk of democracy. While with authoritarianism, a firm hand can easily become a noose on the future of a region. Both arguments can be valid in a sinker, whether Lazarus, or one of the other sinkers people may be familiar with.

Hopefully you enjoyed the Kawaii.

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In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, spam is defined as "unsolicited usually commercial messages (such as emails, text messages, or Internet postings) sent to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of places", and implied to refer to sending or posting spam, including to a message board, and this is what Lazarus has seen for a few months.

There have been some efforts to spam in the past that were not that terrible, and just mildly annoying, though usually not to the levels we got in the last few months, where we had the following:

• Single letter spam posts, where someone would post, "e" or some other letter,

• Rants in full capitalization, describing how all the region is theirs now, along the lines of "ALL YOUR BASES ARE BELONG TO US", but not even in that comic fashion,

• A region apparently devoted to "raid us", possibly run by one or two spammers and their puppets, not understanding the concept of raiding in Nationstates, meaning taking a Delegacy through the means of endorsing someone else to be Delegate, and it took a long time for them to grasp this concept - and understand that you can't endorse without a WA nation.
  

So overall, there has been some decline in the quality of posts on the Regional Message Board, as I do not seem to remember Lazarus having to remove or suppress this much spam in quite some time. Now for the comics and more.

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