ProfessorHenn’s Retrospective #1
On October 9th, 2022, I was elected as Minister of Culture, and I stuck around in the Cabinet for the next two and a half years.
The time I’ve spent in that institution has left a mark both ways. My first election as Prime Minister was the last where we directly elected all Ministers, and that was two years ago now. Conversely, I’ve also altered my habits, adopted new ideas of living, and took on a new perspective towards executive work and being “in the know” that will affect the rest of my life. We are the summation of all experiences that happen to us, after all.
When I took office as Minister of Culture, it was after a multi-year hiatus from the South Pacific, and an even longer one from the Cabinet. My nation was founded in 2014, and immediately the user known as “ProfessorHenn” started doing things, although many who were active at the time would tell you that the behavior and mannerisms were not all there. It happens. Younger versions of us don’t have the maturity and wisdom that comes from knowledge through time. I took a mildly enforced break after the election in 2015 that saw Hileville elected as Delegate, and then the coup.
Following the coup, I didn’t continue in the South Pacific for a spell, due in part to RL circumstances, but also due to a desire to just do something different for a while. I co-founded Selene in February 2016, and have maintained the title since, although the only real involvement was at the start, when we were setting up the roleplay canons and rulesets. Once it became self-sustaining, I stepped back and had a hankering for political life again. I came back to TSP in 2019, a little older, a little wiser, but just as dumb.
I reintegrated into that political culture, but it didn’t take. I ran for office, under the banner of the Ministry of Regional Affairs, and lost. Work started to pick up and I decided to cut my losses and focus back on RL, taking another break. Regional affairs hosted a festival, and my one notable action during this entire stint was interviewing the Delegate, Seraph. I wish them nothing but the best, as they’ve taken to greener pastures than this.
In 2022, I came back and stuck around this time. The vibes were different this time, a little quieter, a lot more tense, and on the heels of a Great Council being called by someone widely expected to be the main face of the next generation of South Pacificans. Unfortunately, and for reasons not worth airing here, they resigned very shortly after the Great Council began and left NS altogether for a time, leaving the rest of us with this giant project with no clear direction. As good a time as any to get involved in, I guess.
I ran for executive office again very soon after reapplying for legislatorship, attempting to take the Minister of Culture position in a special election. I lost that race, barely, but ran again in the regularly scheduled election in October, leading to the start of my two and a half years in Cabinet. During that time, we did festivals, we did smaller events, we started to look at the structure of our government, bloated though I thought it was at the time, and we politicked our way through the Great Council over New Years 2023.
The next election, the high office was uncontested, and I wanted it. I ran unopposed for Prime Minister in February 2023 and took office with the last directly elected Ministers in my Cabinet. I wouldn’t change who I had for that Cabinet, even with the struggles we ended up facing. Adversity built some much-needed character for myself, and for the region, and we got some business done that was long overdue.
The Great Council went nowhere fast. Two sides were as stubborn as the other and political will fizzled out. A legislator, coming from nowhere and out of the blue all at once, got a one-line amendment to the Charter passed in the regular Assembly, and suddenly we had an appointed Cabinet. We concluded the Great Council shortly thereafter, only passing legislation to repeal the Local Council and reaffirm the South Pacific as one community, not two. Another legislator brought forth changes to the whole law archive to make the appointed Cabinet system make sense, including a resolution to cancel the May 2023 election so we could have the time to figure out all the necessary changes. Thus, I remained in office as the premier.
Life continued after that. Foreign relations tussles and changes (Frontiers update, anyone?) meant that I had to spend more of my time on FA than I might have otherwise wanted, but I enjoyed learning about that side of executive work and being able to handle things there. Aegis grew, we got some dispatches made up and tried to lay the foundation for a much broader usage of Aegis, but it hasn’t come to fruition just yet. However, it did mark me as the FA guy for the South Pacific once my first foreign minister stepped down, and I will be looking forward to not having to do the job anymore. Breaks are good and important.
My time as premier, and as a Cabinet minister in 2024, is recent memory, and not worth covering in this retrospective. If the recent election is any indication, the things I’ve done (or not done) have caused some consternation, and folks rightfully can complain about their elected and appointed officials not fulfilling the duties we expect them to. At this point, all I can offer is my apologies and a wish that I did not drop the ball on the most important things within my power, both legal and personal.
At this point, I do not intend on running for Prime Minister again, nor take office in the Cabinet as a minister or director. I’ve had my time, did what I did, and tried to leave the place in a decent enough shape for the next group of fellows to come through and make their own marks. I have made myself available to the Prime Minister and the next Cabinet for advice and thoughts, but I limit myself to just those items. Going out on these terms gives me the leeway to jump back into things in an emergency but not burn out or hard-land the space shuttle. Plus, I’d love to focus on legislation for a while, during and after my time as Delegate.
What got me back into things in the South Pacific was legislation, ultimately. The Great Council was an excellent time, even if ultimately unfruitful, and I would love to see newer legislators take an interest in both drafting, amending, and debating on legislation, as well as fulfilling that age-old task of holding the executive to account for their plans, visions, and actions. It’s the core of our politics, and has been since the start.
Well, that’s all for me, for now. As always, I am at your service.
The South Seas Gazette
(or more likely i did see it and went darn, i have to be a trusted adult here and can’t be abusing mod powerz, and then forgot about it :p)
