HumanSanity for Blue Canaria North!

[HumanSanity]

Hey all!

I’m back now after a two year retirement from the game between mid 2017 to mid 2019. I decided to take a break as I made the transition to attending University to ensure my life was put together and I was starting out on the right foot. Now that I’ve gotten myself established, I am ready to return with a different and (I hope) better perspective on NS, its role in my life, the value we derive from it, and how I want to approach being a leader in this game. With that new perspective, I am running for Senator for Blue Canaria North.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m HumanSanity. I’ve been in and out of the Islands since 2011. In that time, I’ve become a Knight of TITO, a long-time Taco Island resident, and at various times a highly active recruiter and a roleplayer. I’ve also served in various governmental positions in the 10000 Islands, including as the Minister of Immigration, and the Senator from Lyonesse East and Himes West. I’ve also served as the second Chief Executive of a key ally, the Renegade Islands Alliance. I believe these experiences have informed my perspective greatly. While there have been blemishes on this history, I have subsequently served at high levels in the 10000 Islands and look forward to doing so again, and I’m happy to discuss questions or concerns with anyone.

I want to outline my vision for the role of the Council of Nine more broadly and therefore what role I want to play as Senator. I believe this will be informative regarding why I am running for Senate and what I bring to the table.

First – I believe the role of the Council of Nine is to coordinate, plan, and organize regional activities for the 10000 Islands. Each member has their own area of operation that they are trying to improve and often both brings up bills to improve that area and ideas for activities for Council feedback. It is my goal to take part in those discussions, with an eye towards refining and creating ideas that will maximize the fun we can all have. Specific areas I believe we can work on include nation retention, role playing, developing recruiting culture, and reinvigorating our House system, and I am eager to bounce ideas for all of these.

Second – I believe the role of the Council of Nine is to reflect our values and interests on matters of regional importance. To me, these values are friendship, respect, compassion, and excellence. Sometimes these values come into conflict or it is difficult to determine the best way to fulfill them and that is where the Council of Nine has to make tough decisions on matters of regional importance. In my past time on the Council, and as Chief Executive of another region, I’ve learned how to make those choices.

I am eager to take any and all questions that people may have for me. In the coming days I look forward to talking with people about the direction we should take. I will also go through recent Council of Nine decisions and say how I would have voted on each of them and why to provide a sampling of my views and the process I will bring to Council decision making. As Senator for Blue Canaria North, I can promise timely delivery of the monthly emissary update to the Delegate. While this isn’t a very creative portfolio, its one where I feel confident I can regularly fulfill my job responsibilities. Additionally, since I believe the role of Senators is to represent their constituents in the Council of Nine, if elected I will adhere to Paffnia’s transparency pledge regarding Council deliberations. I believe this will encourage constructive dialogue over matters of regional importance.

But I also want to ask a question of each of you: what do you believe to be the values of the 10000 Islands that your Senators should uphold? Government is not a one-way street. Some of you know me already, many of you are new to me. I want to hear from everyone that way I can best represent the entire region.

HS

[Louisistan]

Hi HumanSanity, I'm glad to have you back in the region!

You are running for the BCN seat, which is responsible for the Emissary Report.
In your opinion:
* What is the purpose of the Emissary Report?
* Does the Emissary Report as it stands serve that purpose?
* What improvements, if any, would you make to the Report?
* Will you be able to meet the deadline throughout your term?

How would you have voted on these issues:
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37636/297-lwu-threat-reduction-passed
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37607/297-amendments-minister-education-passed
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37179/291-discord-moderation-act-passed

Are there any issues beyond the BCN portfolio which you plan on bringing up in the Council?

[HumanSanity]

Sept 9, 2019 4:38:24 GMT -5 Louisistan said:

Hi HumanSanity, I'm glad to have you back in the region!

You are running for the BCN seat, which is responsible for the Emissary Report.
In your opinion:
* What is the purpose of the Emissary Report?
* Does the Emissary Report as it stands serve that purpose?
* What improvements, if any, would you make to the Report?
* Will you be able to meet the deadline throughout your term?

The purpose of the Emissary Report is to help update our friends and allies on a variety of regional happenings. I also think emissary reports serve an important archival purpose - i.e. that things of note (as big as a governmental debate or as small as a TI game) that were happening in the region in any given month were written down in a specific place.

In my opinion, the current emissary report does serve these purposes and I will continue much of its form and function.

As of right now, I don't have any specific improvements I want to make to the report. I'll probably make a few small ones as time goes on but nothing major.

Throughout the current 9/19-1/20 term, I will be able to meet the BCN emissary report requirement. I will also be very transparent with Lenlyvit if I am ever going to be delayed or have difficulty with a component of the report.

How would you have voted on these issues:
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37636/297-lwu-threat-reduction-passed
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37607/297-amendments-minister-education-passed
* 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/37179/291-discord-moderation-act-passed

NS 297-4: The LWU Threat Reduction Act

My vote: FOR
Council Vote: 7-0 PASSED

The start of the war against LWU predates almost every active Islander. While I have no sympathy for raiders, this does not mean a continued war against LWU was practical. Over time, TITO has fought LWU in a variety of places as outlined in the text of the law. Despite this, the “war” is not over until the founder of the LWU CTEs. It is impractical to maintain a war where the condition of victory for either side is whether whoever holds the founder nation dies unexpectedly without the opportunity to pass it on.

Let there be peace. The war didn’t mean much in the first place and when LWU strikes again, I’m sure TITO and our defender allies will be there to stop them.

Some have argued that losing face like this is embarrassing. While the war wasn’t causing an active embarrassment to the region, it wasn’t making sense either. It was time after all these years to move on with our lives.

NS 297-2: Amendments to the Role of Minister of Education

My vote: FOR
Council Vote: 7-0 PASSED

Old man time: I served as a buddy at two relatively disjointed times (for a time in 2011 and in 2016) and I enjoyed the experience both times. During that time, I spent a lot of time sending welcome telegrams/PMs to new nations and not getting strong replies. It seemed pointless that I was supposed to develop longer-term relationship with my Buddies given that many simply never logged on again. By combining responsibilities of the Official Welcome Committee (which did not exist at that time) and the Buddy Program, the reduplication of responsibilities can be avoided.

Further, while I would never have thought of it, the idea of moving TIBOE to the Delegate’s office makes sense given TIBOE is primarily responsible for regulating internal WA endorsements.

In this way, the continual refinement of these programs to streamline efficiency and efficacy demonstrates the 10000 Islands’ value of excellence. While we may have for a long time done things another way, with the Buddy System being one of the region’s oldest laws, that doesn’t mean we should always do things the same way. Improvements are needed to achieve excellence.

NS 291-2: Discord Moderation Act

My vote: FOR
Council Vote: 9-0 PASSED

I wasn't here for the genesis of the XKI Discord that led up to this point. I understand at one point Hahiha / USSR had created an informal discord, followed by a TITO operations Discord, followed by the unified Discord (maybe I have the history wrong). At some point I imagine this act was a necessary solution for ongoing lack of clarity regarding Discord governance.

However, it seems the solution was crafted with a keen eye towards the important Constitutional division of powers between the Council and Command. While in the past I had been not-off-board from proposals like make the TITO FC an observer on the Council, I've realized over time this separation must be kept absolute and clean, and I'm glad the Discord Moderation Act maintains this while opening space for collaboration.

At the same time, the alternate solution of a segregated TITO Discord and XKI Discord seems like something that would hurt the activity of both. It's good for TITO activity that sometimes a TITO member just checking on the spam channel will see the TITO channels coincidentally, and vice versa.

Sorry that's a long ramble, and I may be missing some of the details, but the solution seems to fulfill its intended purpose while preserving the separation of powers.

Are there any issues beyond the BCN portfolio which you plan on bringing up in the Council?

A few specific areas I think we can improve are listed in the OP: nation retention, role playing, developing recruiting culture, and reinvigorating our House system.

I have few specific proposals ready to go on any of these in any kind of legislative language. A few ideas I may bounce of Sargon Reman regarding recruiting culture include creating a reward for regular recruiters (e.g. some kind of recognition for recruiters who consistently send 500 telegrams per month) and creating a recruiting Discord channel for casual chat. Early in my time in the region I was an active role player, although I've gravitated away from it recently. I remember a lot of activity revolving around the LUSS RP that Mutanatia (the then RP mod) put together - perhaps having a centralized international decision making body gives a lens through which to run other role plays.

I hope this has answered your questions Louisistan - thanks for bringing them! One thing that has always resonated with me - regardless of if I win or lose - is this post that one of my mentors in NS Shizensky made. In it Shiz outlines that often times the most change comes from off the Council. I'm intending to maintain a decent level of activity regardless of if I win or lose this election, and ideas that I have will always go to the CoN lobby for discussion.

And lastly, I will have a response to United Royal Islands's post in her thread responding to my question about regional values shortly. I appreciate her candor, and I will try to respond in kind, because I believe this is an important and productive way to highlight our differences.

Edit: I will also get out a few more notes on recent CoN decisions including the Coromandall ban appeal and the 21st Century Rome Embassy rejection shortly.

[HumanSanity]

As promised, a brief discussion of United Royal Islands's thoughtful response to my question about values. To briefly list them here - this is URI's list -

Sept 8, 2019 19:21:46 GMT -5 United Royal Islands said:

While there are many values that all islanders will relate with, if I had to form a concrete list of my own to call our core values - I would offer the following:
Community,
Tradition,
Respect,
Compassion

Where I differ from HS’s insightful list (community/tradition vs Friendship/Excellence) does shape some of how I view 10000 Islands and thus my political views.

There are two crucial distinctions here - the Community vs Friendship distinction and the Tradition vs Excellence distinction -

With regards to Community and Friendship:
I agree with URI that "we are all bound by our collective identity as Islanders and Defenders" and that "we act together when we must". All regions, even our enemies, attempt to act together when they must. I disagree this means that the value of community supplants the value of friendship. I'll work with anyone who shares the goal of making these Islands better - the one common thread I believe holds true across all of my actions - even if we disagree wildly on the method.

For me, while I am eternally loyal to the value of our community and to the ideals of Defending, I believe that is due to the friendships I have formed here. I could defend from many regions - and have before, as many other Islanders have. Similarly, many have moved on from the Islands and continued to defend while living elsewhere. This begs the question of why I chose this community. In fact, I've done other stuff in NS, and the reason I chose to come back to XKI after a prolonged exile was because of the friendships I had formed, and could return to, here and because I believe the culture and environment here is conducive to lasting bonds. The people who I played with before my recent retirement have been a pleasure. Similarly, many of the new people I've met are also budding friends of mine.

One of my take-aways from being away from NS altogether is that ultimately I want to play this game to have fun with friends, and my goal as a Senator is to craft a region conducive to doing that.

With regards to Tradition and Excellence:
Tradition is often a source of excellence. TITO's extensive record, the contributions of Islanders outside of Defending to the international arena, the activity, fun, and community we cultivate are all traditions we pursue. But how we, governmentally especially, chose to pursue these things is not about tradition. Times change and require new approaches. The part of the tradition I wish to uphold is our values and goals - but methods change.

That is why pursuit of Excellence is what I value. How best to pursue excellence is the question I ask myself in deciding what change I wish to see in our region. There are areas where I am more "reform" minded than others because I believe those reforms promote excellence without compromising on our core goals. Tradition for its own sake does not persuade me to act - excellence does.

I'm sure at times if I am elected some will say that I am pursuing "legislation for legislation sake" or "symbolic legislation". In my mind, that will be because I'm pursuing excellence, and the distinction we have is not over philosophically "Yes/No should we pass legislation" but rather should we pass this law.

Many thanks to URI for her thoughtful response, I hope that my response has done justice to these distinctions.

[Louisistan]

Thank you for your thoughtful responses HumanSanity. I am quite satisfied that the BCN seat will be in good hands, no matter who wins the election.

I have another question which only occured to me yesterday evening:
Reading through the most recently released council debates I was unsettled (to say the least) by the confrontational tone and andversarial stance displayed by members of the Council. I recognise that we've had some difficult time this year and I regret having played a role in that, but I believe we can and we should be able to disagree with each other respectfully in this region. I especially believe that council members should collaborate in a collegial manner and not get entrenched in ideological or inter-personal conflict.

Do you agree with that? And will you try to approach council discussions with that in mind?
To put it another way: If you are elected and the council debates are published three months from now: Will I be reassured by your contributions to the council or is there a risk I will fill similarly ill at ease to the last time?

[HumanSanity]

Sept 10, 2019 2:10:20 GMT -5 Louisistan said:

Thank you for your thoughtful responses HumanSanity. I am quite satisfied that the BCN seat will be in good hands, no matter who wins the election.

I have another question which only occured to me yesterday evening:
Reading through the most recently released council debates I was unsettled (to say the least) by the confrontational tone and andversarial stance displayed by members of the Council. I recognise that we've had some difficult time this year and I regret having played a role in that, but I believe we can and we should be able to disagree with each other respectfully in this region. I especially believe that council members should collaborate in a collegial manner and not get entrenched in ideological or inter-personal conflict.

Do you agree with that? And will you try to approach council discussions with that in mind?
To put it another way: If you are elected and the council debates are published three months from now: Will I be reassured by your contributions to the council or is there a risk I will fill similarly ill at ease to the last time?

My ultimate goal is to conduct myself in a collegial manner. My empirical record on this is a mixed bag - and, at the very least, I think we can both agree that we got heated with each other this summer during the discussions surrounding the formation of the TCP. I have already, and will again, apologize for my role in overheating those conversations. It felt appropriate in the moment given the lack of clarity surrounding discussions - but I recognize that it was a mistake, and I think I will take that mistake to heart and slam the breaks on some of my instincts to escalate.

Within the Council, I haven't ever had a problem in the past with being frank, direct, and respectful to my colleagues. Maybe some of my former colleagues disagree, in which case I apologize. I think when confining the issue to how to craft appropriate legislation, it is easier to find our common ground.

Structurally it's impossible for anyone to say they won't go to blows. If in someone's mind the individual situation calls for it then they certainly will do it. However, I can say with confidence that my threshold for that will be far higher than it has been in the past. I can also say that I have genuine appreciation for other possible members of the Council. Despite recent disputes, Markanite has been appreciative of me and fair to me for years, and I will reciprocate with politeness and respect. I believe there are few people more dedicated to the improvement of these islands than Paffnia. Sargon Reman and The Tasmanian Islands seem to be responsible younger Ministers rising to their duties with distinction. Dominion of Compassion and I have worked together in the past and I see no reason that would be unable to continue. United Royal Islands has been very candid in her ideological disagreements with me, and I have done my best to respond with similar candor and respect because I believe making these distinctions is a public good. I'll be candid that I don't know Lenlyvit or Aschente well, but they both seem dedicated to their current jobs and maintaining a friendly presence.

I could go on - this is not to negate the respect I have for others who I will likely serve with but to briefly note that I think we *can* all get along.

TLDR/summary - no promises, but generally I want to reassure you and anyone else that I will act with an eye towards actively being part of the solution and not the problem.

HS

[Louisistan]

Thank you for responding to this rather delicate question with such openness and honesty.

[HumanSanity]

Thank you Louis for your tireless devotion to being part of the process in whatever capacity you are able

[HumanSanity]

Additional decision notes -

NS 297-5: 21st Century Rome Embassy Request

My vote: AGAINST
Council Vote: 7-0 AGAINST

To my knowledge, 21st Century Rome has a raiding past and continues to have diplomatic engagement with raider regions. In the past, the 10000 Islands does not open embassies with raiding regions, regardless of the “ideology” they use to propagate those beliefs. I would maintain that as a prerequisite for opening any embassy.

For me, our drive to defend and refusal to open relations with invaders is linked to the core regional value of compassion. Understanding the way that a raid could suddenly interject into a regional community and destroy a valuable part of many peoples’ lives gives me compassion to believe that raiding, region crashing, etc. are wrong. These are not the values I want reflected in our allies.

In the past when I’ve served on the Council of Nine, I have been broadly deferential to TITO Command and the WA Delegate’s perspectives on embassy requests, and if elected I would continue that approach.

NS 297-3: Coromandall Ban Appeal

My vote: AGAINST
Council Vote: 7-0 REJECTED

While I was around when Coro was banned, and I don’t remember the precise circumstances, I do remember him having a fair share of both energy and unpleasantness. I understand some may think that I would have a bias here given my own banishment and subsequent unbanning by Grub (Lenlyvit), but I am not always in favor of granting clemency. While most of the information regarding this vote will remain classified, I accept the explanation posted that “insufficient information was supplied by the applicant to warrant overturning this ban”.



Response to United Royal Islands on transparency is forthcoming - may take a few days - but I promise to share my thoughts before the end of voting

Thanks all for participating in the conversation

[Mutanatia]

Can you reassure us that you will finish your term?

[HumanSanity]

Sept 14, 2019 20:57:57 GMT -5 Mutanatia said:

Can you reassure us that you will finish your term?

Can I say it? Yes. And I believe it.

Can I prove it? No, I wish I could, but no.

That said, I have a fair bit of energy oriented to NS right now - I can spare 2-3 hours per months to get the Emissary report done, and my routine is set for checking in at least 1-2 times per day right now to contribute to council discussions.

In other news, glad to see you! Hope you're doing well

[Paffnia]

Congratulations, HumanSanity! Glad to have you on the Council.