NationStates Jolt Archive

Luke Gregory, the President of the Republic of Edwards Street extends his invitation to all heads of state and foreign tourists to join a celebration of the nation of the Edwards Street reaching the 500 million mark in population. There will be street festivals with food and music from all of Edwards Street's ethnic groups, and fireworks at sunset every night for 3 days beginning today, and going through to the grand finale on Friday in the capital city of Granite City.

As the newly-minted deputy senior vice president and external affairs officer, Carly Sanders knew why she was given the assignment, but when her direct boss, Grant Haffner gave it to her, she was still perplexed.

"We don't know much of anything about Edwards Street," she protested. Haffner, both the senior vice president and external affairs officer and the acting president (forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=568813) of the country, couldn't get away from the business of running the government. He nodded slightly at Sanders, but he was still insistent.

"I'm aware of our limitations. Believe me, there's much I still don't know about the world's political scene. It takes a while to get back up to speed after a long period of isolation."

Haffner turned and looked back at his office with a blank expression. Ain't that the truth, he thought. He still had a large stack of papers and a lot of reading to do, plus he'd just started brewing a pot of coffee. He was in for yet another long night. The presidential election couldn't come soon enough in his mind.

"So what do you want me to do," Sanders asked.

Haffner turned back to look at Sanders with an annoyed appearance, but quickly changed expression. He wanted to project calm, even though his nerves from working 140-hour weeks were getting extremely frayed. Besides, he thought, she's really new to the job. There were some things he'd have to explain to her that he might not have if she were experienced in foreign diplomacy. He drew in his breath slowly and evenly, then spoke.

"Inform Edwards Street that you're attending as a representative of the acting president of Sarzonia," she said. There isn't much information about Edwards Street in our intelligence files. One thing I do know is Luke Gregory is very young. He's only 19."

"Really?"

Haffner grinned slightly, then handed Sanders a thin folder.

"All the information External Affairs has on Edwards Street is in that folder," he said. It has a basic history and a brief biography of Gregory. Sarzonia Twelve should be ready to take off any time now. If I were you, I'd hurry home and pack your bags."

Sanders looked back at Haffner with a wide-eyed expression on her face. He could tell she was scared, so he did his best to calm her down."

"Carly," he said in a soft tone. "I know you're scared, but remember: I wouldn't have sought you for this position if I didn't think you had potential to be great at it. Mark took a chance on me, and I'd like to think it's paid off."

Sanders nodded. Mark Lorber, the previous senior vice president for external affairs did take a chance on Haffner. Even though Haffner was known for having a brutal temper at times when he was first nominated to serve as Lorber's deputy, and even though he had to learn on the job, Haffner was now in a position where he could possibly become the nation's chief executive.

"Thank you sir," she said. She turned around and left the office.

Wish I could go, Haffner thought. But he had to get home tonight because his son was playing a football match for his high school and his wife couldn't attend. Besides, it would be the first night he'd spend in his own bed in weeks.

(Reponse by fax to the nation of Sarzonia's deputy senior Vice-President). This is Luke Gregory, President of the Republic of Edwards Street. Let me introduce myself, and my nation. I am the youngest elected President of Edwards Street, I was elected to a 5 year term in 2007, some would call me a conservative, others a libertarian, but my political views are somewhat a combination of both, this combination has led to my country being classified as a "New York Times" democracy. Before I was elected President, I was a political activist, and Vice-President of the Free Speech Society, a pro-civil and poltical liberties group. My nation has been a democracy since 1941, when the king (my great grandfather John Edwards) was overthrown in the Democracy Revoultion. He threw out the elcted Parliament in 1936 and declared himself communist dictator and prescuted people for their poltical and religious beliefs, that's why to this day, our citizens highly value poltical rights, civil rights, and free speech. I would gladly accept dignitaries, citizens and even the head of state of Sarzonia, if the head of state wishes to attend, I would be glad to personally meet him (or her)
Sincerely --Luke Gregory President of the Republic of Edwards Street

(Director of the Foriegn Ministry, Sarah Espinoza walks in), "Mr. President, our office has been doing reseach on Sarzonia, it appears to be a very capitalistic nation, with good civil and poltical freedoms"
"My kind of country!" President Gregory says with a laugh
"They also have a large military, and have over 7 billion people"
"Well, Director Espinoza, this may well be a nation that we can become good allies with, draft a trade agreement proposal, and contact them about becoming political allies"
President Gregory looks over at the intelligence director, "Start looking into the alliance that Sarzonia is in, it looks intersting, and I might be open to moving Edwards Street to another alliance if Parliament approves"

[OOC: When I research potential RP partners, I generally don't look at their nation pages too closely. I try to look to see how they RP their nations. In my case, some of my information is over a year old.]

"Well, this is interesting," Sanders said after examining the information Gregory sent her closely. Now instead of feeling as though she was staring at a black hole of no information, she felt as though she had some ground to start from.

She laid out her clothes for her trip and picked up a tourist's guide to Edwards Street. She knew Haffner was on his way to Romandeos for a presidential debate. That meant House Speaker Charles Hunter would serve as the acting president while Haffner was out of the country.

The nation's tenuous political scene left the country hamstrung until a president could be elected and transition into the Gray House. She knew that. She wished the election could end sooner and Sarzonia could get back to the business of healing.

But first things were first. She had to tend to business. And right now, that meant learning more about Edwards Street and possibly extending Sarzonia's hand in friendship to a young country. Plus, she was in the mood to have fun after her appointment and confirmation.

Seven hours later, she stared up at the large jet, preparing to stretch her right leg and plant her high heeled shoe on the bottom step. The 20 steps leading into Sarzonia Twelve weren't particularly large, but for someone so new to international diplomacy, they might as well have felt like climbing Mount Caroline.

OOC: IC post coming soon.

Congratulations may you have a great party

From
IMHQ

Flying to Edwards Street was taking a lot longer than projected. The aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Fennerby Airport in Portland because of heavy turbulence. What Sanders did not know was the aircraft also had much lower fuel reserves than it was supposed to. When Haffner found out the aircraft took off without being properly fueled, he would be irritated.

However, that was in the future. Sanders was finally ready to make her way to Edwards Street. She looked forward to meeting Gregory, especially since he was impossibly young as a national leader, even by Sarzonian standards. After a quick training session on major Sarzonian allies, enemies, neutrals and other sundry nations, she knew Pacitalia's head of state was 28 when he assumed the office of prime minister.

As she studied the information, she knew the mix of libertarianism and conservatism would be an interesting topic of discussion between the two nations. She knew she was on her first mission, but she hoped her gradually rising sense of confidence would pay dividends.

"Uh, Ms. Sanders?"

"What is it, Leonard?"

"Do you want to watch the presidential debate on the video feed from Flagstaff?"

"Sure," she said. "Hook it up to my laptop.

"Already done," he said with a bright smile. As a sophomore at Woodstock City College, he knew he was extremely lucky to snag a major internship with External Affairs. He was excited about this trip. He knew Gregory was the same age as he was: 19. He barely resisted the urge to reach into his right pants pocket to feel his Sarzonian passport. Instead, he pulled out the laptop with the feed already established. He set it on the makeshift desk in front of Sanders.

"Thank you Leonard," Sanders said. She peered in to see the SNN logo. She knew SNN was carrying live footage of the debate in Romandeos and heard the opening music for SNN.

She knew Edwards Street would be an interesting challenge for her, but she was eager to see how her boss rose to a challenge of a different kind.