Error, Theft, and Morality
![Canada](http://www.erepublik.net/images/flags_png/S/Canada.png)
Sperry
![](http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mr-angry.png)
Whole 'lotta this going on around eCanada lately...
5 days into office, Trent is still getting his feel for the presidency. Up to yesterday, his term had been fairly standar
😛foreign affairs work, a calm Congress, and a growing quiet from both Rolo and the EPC that allowed our CP some breathing room. He has been kind enough to bring back the practice of daily articles, which not every CP manages to do. All good points for Trent.
But today brought the storm that Trent was hoping he wouldn't run into. Two moves, both at our old friends the UK, have brought on a heapload of criticism and turned up the "Impeach" word more than once.
First, Trent opened a Declaration of War against the United Kingdom. Most players have chalked this up to a newbie presidential error. And in many ways, it is. Trent slipped in a similar way that most presidents slip in their first (or fourth) turn around the block: he made a move that, at first sight, is entirely practical and sound. Going to war with Britain comes with the daily salad here in Canada. It's sort of what we do.
At a deeper level, however, the Declaration of War is a mechanical option. An expensive mechanical option. The move, since it has now been approved by Congress, will cost Canada a few hundred Gold. Quite the pretty penny, given the value of Gold in the game.
But this isn't really a newbie mistake: new players wouldn't really know what the DoW was, let alone take this as a standard step in war - we haven't seen a vote like this in many, many months. But as Trent himself has said, this is how the game was played back in his day. Trent's been around for a long time: over 3 years. Many of us oldies know the rules, and most of us know them very well. But from time to time, as we find now with Trent, there's a gap between former mechanics and current reality. And so we pay the price for assuming we knew what was what.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fw7iF68JR8k/SJaVdRWHE9I/AAAAAAAAUnc/RqbC4AVn6kU/s400/Pot-calling-the-kettle-black-734818.jpg)
Slipping up is fine. Worse mistakes have been made by players who ought to have known better, who have claimed that it was "all part of the plan" or that "we were screwed no matter what." The vote has been made, Congress and the President both have made a very pricey error. This is why we hold monthly elections, and not elections for life. President, not Praetor.
You might have noticed the media (the ONE media) has started to pay attention to Canada.
Which leads me to mistake #2.
Once again, Trent has been very forward about his actions here: noticing an Org that was being a pest, Trent found a mechanical loophole that allowed him to access the Organization. He played around slightly, and after ONE caught on (as they are apt to doing), offered to turn back the Org that he had accessed.
That Trent could access the Org is not his fault. That the Admins and a past President left several eUK Government Orgs on our official list is their sin, not Trent's. And while having a bit of fun with the enemy's newspaper is entertaining and mostly harmless, it comes at a very bad time.
![](http://mctaxpayer.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/morality_pic.jpg)
"It's not about integrity...It's a simple prank...If you want to make it about integrity then Trent has the integrity not to have folded the org."
Canada's international reputation is, in a word, poor. ONE (not to mention our allies) has plenty of reason to look on Canada as a morally questionable nation. This should not be our national goal. Indeed, given our history, this should be the sort of choice that we avoid. It's true, Trent isn't a demon for meddling with Orgs. But by "only" pranking and taking the lulzy, simple road, we don't earn any points.
There's a difference between not being a thief, and having integrity. "Rightfully ours" doesn't justify a move that embarrasses Canada at home and abroad, and shifts our attention to something that we should be better than.
Canada is a nation that has the ability to act with integrity. We have the potential to earn the respect of friends and foes alike. But unless we act on that potential, we will continue to upset other players and limit our pool of resources to the pots and the kettles. Personally, I'm hoping for something better than that.
Comments
A great read as usual Sperry. Well written
Good article Sperry...I'm hoping for something better than that X2
Informative and a good read....... the glory media days are back. Thanks Sperry.
Good Read.
Sperry4CP
Good read as an newbie in eUK nice to see others with some personal pride and not just bickering kids as many on here seem to be.
Sperry "Canada's international reputation is, in a word, poor" actually, it is probably closer to this: Canada's international reputation is laughable, as in they are a joke.
Great article Sperry.
There was no 'theft' just a simple case of 'Tahmasse'.
let's see, ONE has a paper that publishes constantly in eCan. CP takes steps to remove it. Our enemies get upset over this, and our ally, (who are actively debating leaving the alliance) who has already stabbed us in the back once, backs our enemies. Seems to me that it is others who have some issues here. If the tables were turned I'm sure Ethel and her co-conspirators would praise Talon's 'repatriation' of an Org.
So, what have we learned here? what's good for the goose, is not good for the gander.
What do our allies care about molesting an enemy org?
When eCan elected Trenton, it did so based on his lenghty time of participation on the team. His prank with the ONE newspaper is something I would easily expect from him, based on the many pieces of satire and parody (Jacobi "OBEY" posters in a wasteland, anyone?) he has put out over the years. Most of which I liked.
Yeah, eCan does need to polish up its tarnished international image. However, the purpose of elections is not to groom a CP after they are elected. The bar on what we expect has to set in place before someone is elected to office. So while I suppose this article is a good reminder on the politics of honesty and integrity right now, I hope it carries forward to the next election and is part of the campaign.
I like Trenton as CP. Doesn't mean he's going to be good at all aspects of the job. Yet, he was the best choice and people knew him well, which is why they voted for him. Is it possible to imagine that Trenton's creativity is what people want in a CP?
In other words, Trenton is who he is, so let's find a way to convince the voters of what they should want before the next election rather than try to fix the ol' boy once he's in office.
I facepalmed when Trent was elected as CP...
Foolish eCanadians could have had SaraDroz as CP, but of course ,we always go for the mediocre option don't we?
honestly that gold was never going to be used anyway. congress just fights over what to do with it. too bad you guys miss out on your ne damage bonus though....
good article sperry. no spin just information!
Yes, instead of putting that gold to a good use, or any use, for that matter, it's better to just LOSE it.
I wonder if Trent meant to do this.
Sara wouldn't have done anything octo.
SaraDroz would have been giving all the GOLD away in Peace Treaties. She gets wet for Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy
At least Trent wasted it on War.....
hmmm, seems that Sperry was onto something about international attention/reputation:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/blame-canada-2005212/1/20
I'd have got some gold from ONE for the org and from eUK if they had wanted peace.
"Sperry "Canada's international reputation is, in a word, poor" actually, it is probably closer to this: Canada's international reputation is laughable, as in they are a joke."
You'd know better than anyone about this Ethel. You were the one at the wheel of the bus for the four months when it was driven off a cliff and people have been struggling to pick up the pieces ever since.
"Foolish eCanadians could have had SaraDroz as CP, but of course ,we always go for the mediocre option don't we?"
They sure do Octavian. Your 9 congress medals prove it.
Gold for peace? That's so 2009.
Great article!
"Canada is a nation that has the ability to act with integrity."
I love this statement and I wholeheartedly believe it. My issue is the infrequency with which we exercise that ability.
"You'd know better than anyone about this Ethel. You were the one at the wheel of the bus for the four months when it was driven off a cliff and people have been struggling to pick up the pieces ever since."
I call BS, Ethel did a great job, and so did CFovetS. Our rep with EDEN and Terra was solid when my final term ended. Cripes, we kicked ONE out of North America and Western Europe and we kept UK wiped for two and a half months!!! This was all done with the co-ordination of our allies.
I agree, we didn't work the way the twenty-somethings worked and we didn't spend a lot of time on IRC, but we took care of business and we we address all the key concerns of our allies.
Trent and SBR are great examples of how little you can accomplish in 20 hours a day on IRC.
Trent never offered us the org back. He could have ticketed requesting the admins fix the (obvious) error. I can assure you that if I had been given control of Canada's national bank or something I'd have contacted the Canadian CP and ticketed the admins immediately to let them know about the error. I don't mind fighting fairly, but when there's a system exploit like this it's immoral to abuse it.
By the way we didn't want to publish in the Canadian media, unfortunately some quirk of the game decided that an org publishes in the country it's in, and because the UK was occupied that's just what happened.
Even now Trent hasn't ticketed to fix the problem (and at this point we've identified the 8 orgs which are UK, and none of them have any value any longer). So even when there is no strategic value (moral questions aside) he still hasn't tried to do the real thing.
I'm a ONE player, but I like to think that people in Terra and EDEN don't think I'm a dick simply because of that. When people on your own team are disowning you publicly you know there are problems.
Well, as a proud eCanadian, I hope that we vanquish the eUnited Kingdom posthaste and promptly annex and integrate our conquered territories, mistake or not!
Iain did you not read my latest article? I mentioned how I did indeed ticket the Admins requesting they be
giving to the UK.
Of course that little tidbit is sometimes easy to miss.