Author Topic: Tamoran job fair at the Bene Gesserit Chapterschool in Ui Cenneslaig (UC)  (Read 3058 times)

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Offline Markus

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Introduction

Ever since relations were opened between the Theocracy of Kaitaine and Tamora there had been a slow but sustained progress in improving relations. That didn’t mean cooperation between the two governments, though it was hard to define the Theocracy’s government in the first place, but a growing interest among the Tamoran people about issues relating to the Bene Gesserit and especially their faith. The two nations were hardly similar and their religions even less so but perhaps what created an interest on the Tamoran side was that the Bene Gesserit were seen as outcasts, heavily criticized and even called terrorists by East Moreland and Rokkenjima and that always good recommendations for Tamorans. Also, there was the fact religion was a central part of Tamora’s society and once the Bene Gesserit came into the attention of the main stream people wanted to know more about them.

It was in this context that Musaevna Kadyrov decided to organize a job fair to attract Bene Gesserit graduates and alumni to Tamora. Unlike some Midaranye countries that relied heavily on oil and gas, Tamora was too large to support itself only from that and had a huge industrial base heavily protected from foreign competition by crippling import tariffs. That and many other factors meant that Tamora was lagging behind technologically and the gap was widening each year. The large businesses in Tamora were desperate to attract talent that would allow them to improve their R&D capabilities and it was no easy task with Tamora having a poor reputation aboard and also not being a rich country and thus not affording to pay huge wages. Musaevna Kadyrov thought that the Bene Gesserit and their craving of knowledge as well as their particular religion might somehow be used as a way to attract some of their brilliant minds to work in Tamora. It was a long shot and she knew but these were desperate times and they figure it was worth a try. So Musaevna Kadyrov gave the mammoth task of organizing a job fair in UC to her personal assistant Zara.



Making the preparations

Zara immediately got to work and organized a team. She had her staff get in touch touch with the major Tamoran businesses in order to come together and see what benefits they could offer that might attract the Bene Gesserit. Of course they couldn’t attract talent for business like Musaevna’s that built weapons since that has a high risk sector and foreigners would not get access to such a sector but otherwise there were plenty of opportunities. Furthermore, just contracting the Tamoran businesses would not be enough since after all the school was placed in the largest national economy of Mundus which was roughly three times richer than Tamora. If there was a chance to get the attention and interest of the students and alumni there it wouldn’t be by outbidding the rich nations of Mundus, that much was clear. So Zara got in touch with the Church of Mani, local and kingdom level authorities in order to set up what she believed were interesting programs. Finally, she even reached aboard. Tamora did not have that many friends around Mundus but in Midranye things were different. When Zara was confident that they had what seemed like an interesting enough offer for the UC Chapterschool she got in touch with them and asked to be allowed to organize the job fair.

With that out of the way there was still a mountain of paperwork ahead of them. Zara would need to get all the required authorizations and visas from UC authorities. Not an easy task since UC was not exactly friendly to Tamora. Furthermore, in order to not further raise suspicions she made it so that before going the BG Chapterschool their fair would also go to a couple of regular UC universities. She couldn’t care less about them and their offer was hardly geared for regular UC students but it had to be done.

Ooc: This is a small RP event I had planned for quite a while but is proving too ambitious for just one post so I split it and will continue it when I have time.


Offline Markus

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Some of the largest Tamoran businesses had a presence at the fair. The major fields were agriculture (machinery, pesticides etc), pharma, oil and gas but other areas were also present. Most of the jobs that were on offer were those relating to R&D though other high skilled jobs were also on offer.

Financial offers:
Most jobs offered an average wage of 24 thousand dinars (usd) per year more than three times the average wage in Tamora but well below what UC, EM and other rich nations could offer.

Benefits & attractions:
In order to make the offer more attractive the organizers attempted to provide promote Tamora as a place worth exploring where knowledge could be gained. So at the fair the businesses tried to tempt the participants with the following attractions: 

- A very permissible tax environment: no income tax whatsoever.
- Privileged access to records as well as sites showing the gradual development of Manism as a separate religion from Islam with the Church of Mani offering exclusive access to the records of the 13th century debate between the Muslim Ayatollah Marvan Satrapi and Manist synod in which the Muslim scholar attempted to bridge the gap between the two faiths. Another attraction was the possibility to visit the proto Manist temples that featured representation in mosaic of the Prophet Mohamed, which is now banned in both Islam and Manism. These temples are no longer used for service and access to them is restricted for Muslims and Manists alike.
-A very diverse multi ethnic and multi religious society and the opportunity to learn a whole range of languages: Parthian, Seleucid, Arabic, Turkish, Slavic and Armenian, each with its own separate alphabet. All these being the official languages of the constituent kingdoms of the Empire.
- The first country and one of the only two in Mundus to recognize the Theocracy as the legitimate government of Kaitaine allowing the Bene Gesserit to speak freely on the matter.
- Privileged access to the Imperial hall of records including the section dedicated to the genealogy of the Safavid imperial family which traces its roots to the late first millennium.
- Access to Delfan, the remote and reclusive capital of the federated kingdom of Akkar. Those accepted in the city would have the opportunity to talk with clergymen of the Druze faith and their secretive religion. Representatives at the fair made no promises the Druze would be sharing any of their secrets but guests are welcome to try and engage them.
- Thanks to an excellent cooperation with the Clisperi authorities, there is also the chance to get privileged access to the pyramids of Nafu. The access requires the express approval of the Pharaoh and the Clisperi autorithies reserved the right to reject the application for any reason.

The benefit plan was simple, the more time one would work for a Tamoran company and get good evaluation results at their yearly review the more access they would have to the above list of attractions. The Tamoran businesses made sure to inform those attending the fair that they would not be covering the costs associated with the transportation and accommodation for the attractions but they could provide recommendations for staying with the locals at affordable prices. Furthermore, they also made sure to inform them that Tamora had various customs that varied from region to region and that depending on the place the women could be asked to cover their head when entering a building, amenities could be segregated by sex, alcohol not available and strongly recommended not be consumed in public etc.

OOC: I would will do one more post after this and then Libby can reply if she wants to.

Offline Markus

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Zara just minutes before giving the lecture at the auditorium of the Bene Gesserit Chapterschool

In front of a packed auditorium Zara started speaking:

“As-salamu alaykum to you all. Thank you all for coming here today and looking at what Tamora has to offer. Though I know not all will be interested I do hope that at least you found out something new that you didn’t know about Tamora. I would also like to thank our hosts for allowing us to have this job fair. I apologize in advance for any mishaps which are entirely my fault. I assure you it was lack of experience rather that courtesy that caused them.
 
I would make just one more comment before you begin. Some of you may have heard of my boss Lady Musaevna Kadyrov whom would have wanted to be here and talk to you in person. Unfortunately East Moreland decided that associating with the Bene Gesserit is a crime and they are well basically harassing her and she couldn’t come. That aside, she does send you all her very best.

Now let me start by saying that I have a daunting task ahead of me. As Lady Musaevna told me : “you have to go to UC to talk to some of the brightest minds in Ardia and convince them to come and work in Tamora. And you have to do that in 15 minutes all while speaking in Latin. So no pressure on me.

So you’ve probably seen our financial offer and I am sure you’re not impressed. In fact that is there more so that people who are interested in only that can skip the fair and not feel they have wasted their time. Though I would say that 2000 dinars (USD) a month does mean a lot more in Tamora than it does in UC for example.

So I am going to focus on what is so special about Tamora that is worth considering working there. And if I were to summarize it in one word is: knowledge, religious knowledge. The country lives and breathes religion and has taken great care to preserve its historical sites and records. And we are not just talking about one religion. Sure, Manism is by far the dominant one but you also have Islam and Druze as well as Anahitaism and Christianity. Now Islam and Christianity are present all over Mundus but Manism and Druze are not. It is also here that you can see how these influence each other, this can be seen best near the borders of the federated kingdoms where syncretism, as much as we don’t like to admit it, is quite common. But there is more to Tamora than just that, if you work for or with one of our companies you will get privileged access to places few other foreigners have.Like for example our early temples that feature the Prophet Mohamed in mosaic which something that is now banned in our faith.  Remember that Tamora is not like most countries; it’s not part of any international organization, not even CETO and does not share its knowledge with just anyone. We are not a closed country of course but we don’t give access to just anyone. So not many outside of Tamora would have had access to these places and these records.

There are also little things that make Tamora special. So it’s no secret that we have no public education system, it’s all private and it’s not standardized. It has huge differences from one city to another let alone kingdom. There are also no national tests. So why is that interesting? You need to only look at how the Seleucid language evolved in Royal Seleucid versus and West Seleucid, a kingdom of Tamora. The Seleucid of RS is much more standardized and uniform than what we call West Seleucid “language”. A lot of regional words that are no longer in use in RS are flourishing in West Seleucid. The regional variances in language in West Selecuid are huge though indeed dismissing with the advent of the tv and the computer. I won’t even get into the writing and the various local rules. For those of you that are not interested in languages that would be at best just a side note but for those that are it could be something worth exploring in more detail. So while religion is definitely the major attraction of Tamora, there are also many such details that are also fascinating for those interested in these niches.

There is one other issue that I would like to talk about and that is the ethical one. In Tamora we are taught from a young age that who you associate with matters and you should always be careful and considerate about it. For example if a vendor sells alcohol which is perfectly legal in most of Tamora, then it’s your duty to not support that business with your money and instead support one that does not sell such poison. This is not aimed necessarily against the one that sells alcohol but rather to reward the person that is aligned with your morals views. In fact it goes further than that since in time it builds close bonds between people. I always shop at the small grocery store near the place where I live. It doesn’t matter that its prices are higher, I know the owners and his family and buying from him is more than just a commercial transaction.  We Tamorans do this all the time, some would say it’s bad business sense and they might be right but there are more important things in life than money. So what does that have to do with you? Well, I think you should also consider the fact that Tamora has recognized the Theocracy and that it is friendly towards it. You have a very valuable resource: human capital. You can use it to help Tamora or let’s say East Moreland. Which of these helps your cause of having the Theocracy rule over all of Kaitaine and have your Revered Mother finally take her rightful place as head of state in Kaitaine? I will leave you to think about an answer to that.

One more thing, we have also managed to reach an agreement with the authorities in Clysperis and they have agreed to allow privileged access to their pyramids which are a joy to see. That requires the consent of the Pharaoh herself so getting that was no easy task. So for those interested in Kemetic Orthodoxy we also have that.

Thank you so much for your time and I do hope that even if you do not decided to take up a job in Tamora this fair did at least give you something to think about and why not maybe even learn something new.

If there are any questions from the audience I am more than willing to answer."




Ooc: if people want to claim they are a student and ask questions, feel free.
 

Offline Libby

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The Hall was full, of course they'd made all the Year 12 and 13 students (16-18 year olds) attend whether they wanted to or not so long as they were members of the Missionara. A sea of blue jackets with white piping would have been visible before the speaker. Several former students studying now at Universities or those working within the Chapterhouse archives whom were deemed "Viable for further training" were also present, their white piping removed the day they graduated. Naturally a handful of the other branches had turned up, not all Mothers continued directly serving the faith, at least not straight away and the Truthsayers were always interested in building up contacts. It was the Honored Matres that saw the highest drop out rate in terms of the Sisterhood's service, those not matched up being considered for carers at the schools or simply helped set up a life outside the schools.

Nessa Maguire was the first to put her hand up. "I graduate in a years time and hopefully will be heading off to University. Nations are thought to have specialities, for example if I wanted to study aeronautics I'd probably head to East Moreland, if I wanted to study maritime engineering I'd head to somewhere like Seaforth. What subjects of use to someone seeking to work outside the Sisterhood would you suggest is Tamora's strength. If I may also ask a second question, many of us in this room are speakers of Gaelic, Russian, and the various languages of where the Chapterhouses are based, just how realistic is it for us to be able to enter a place of higher education and employment in Tamora?"


As soon as Nessa sat down Lilias MacIomhair stood up. " Most of us here have grown up in nations that I suspect many would describe as very liberal. Tamora is well known for its traditionalism and its empahsis on certain expectations, for example the way even yourself is dressed today. As you're likely to be recruiting women in their early 20's who have come from these perhaps more liberal nations what would you say would be the biggest culture shock in terms of non-work life. Also while the wage package your offering is above that of an average Tamoran what rights and privledges would one of moving to Tamora have regarding health care, education for dependents, access to other public services and the like, especially if we're not paying income tax?"

Offline Markus

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First of all, thank you to the both you for your questions and also for showing up and listening to what I had to say.

I think you chose your words carefully when you said “thought to have specialties”. Tamora’s educational system does not support this concept of specialization especially when we are talking about higher education as in universities. This is a constant problem we have in the few meetings our representatives have with foreign governments on issues like education. They are all focused for some reason which I never understood on promoting STEM subjects and we are vehemently opposed to that as focus more on them would mean students focus less on their grammar, the studying of the languages of the empire, their religious studies, art, poetry etc.

In Tamora a university is a place of higher learning where one is expected to be proficient in at least two languages of the Empire which in practice often means Parthian and Seleucid or Arabic and to have a good understanding of history, art, architecture, philosophy, theology, finance as well as what you call STEM. While in most nations for some reason governments want everyone to go to university,  in Tamora universities are reserved for those well above the average. So to answer your first question, I don’t think we have a specialty and this can be seen pretty much in our economy where we do our best to rely on our own and thus our products tend not to be best as in some countries.

In regards to your second question, I don’t see you encountering any problems working for a Tamoran business as long as you speak Latin (ooc: the lingua franca of Mundus, if you don’t agree Latin is the one assume English was said or French if you’re Nova). It’s true that Slavic is an official language of one our federated kingdoms but it’s not really widely used.

If we are talking about going to a university then that’s a different matter. First of all, our universities don’t take in foreign students except in exceptional circumstances. Even if you somehow managed to distinguish yourself though something like the Clisperi student that won the Manist Olympiad, you would still have to pass several tests which as a non Tamoran you won’t be able to do. Not to mention as I said that you’ll need to be proficient in two of our national languages. And that would be just to get in, in order to graduate it will be harder and there will be no hand holding like in other countries. So going to university in Tamora is out of the question for you. We don’t have the same system as most Mundus countries do and our educational system serves firstly our people.So universities would need to have a really good reason why they would choose to give a place to a foreigner instead of a Tamoran. 

I hope that answers the first set of questions.



Moving on to the second set of questions. It’s true that most of you have what I would say is a very liberal background and I expect many would be put off by Tamora’s conservative ways. Tamora is not for everyone, it is for those that see freedom in living by respecting strict rules. So while most of you have a very liberal background I believe that some of you might be attracted to a traditionalist and conservative society. Just as in our country some are attracted to liberal values and even choose to abandon their country, their extended family and move aboard.
First let me tell you that Tamora is very diverse when it comes to these expectations, while three of our major religions, Manism, Islam and Druze, promote among other things a style of dressing like the one I am wearing now the other two, Anahitaism and Christianity do not. If you ever seen Thanasis Polakis and his First Wife in the news you probably noticed she dresses pretty much like you do, that's because they are both Anahitaists and it’s the same with the Christians of the federated kingdom of Attica. These expectations vary a lot depending on your family, religion, local community and federated kingdom. As a foreigner people will not have expectations regarding what you wear or other religious aspects.  Also not all of Tamora is the same, while the Imperial Enclave and the Muslim kingdom of Altai are very conservative, Akkar or Attica are more liberal. Furhtermore, you may or may not have heard of Elysium, a city that is being built and administered by the Heyran Conglomerate in Attica. More and more Tamoran businesses are incorporating there and hiring there so that might be an even more liberal workplace than Attica and perhaps a better choice for some of you.

But you asked a about a cultural shock. I don’t know how to answer that exactly since for me what we do is natural and normal. I can tell you how I feel when I am travelling aboard and the most striking aspect is that people don’t care about you and your individuality in other countries. If I go to a coffee shop and take a seat and in a few moments someone will come and give me the menu, they never consider that I am woman and that the person serving me shouldn’t be of the opposite sex. It’s the same with public transport were men and women mix without any regard of their sex. Even in elevators everyone goes in without considering the social status, age etc of the other person. Even in nations that are theoretically religious I never get approached by locals that try to convert me to their religion evn though I do stand out by the way I dress. I have seen bartenders ask young people their age and if they are adults they just sell alcohol to them without ever asking them their religion and considering if that’s allowed for them. I always get the feeling aboard that I am not seen like a person who is different in many ways than others but like a customer, anonymous without any regard for who you are. That is not at all how things are in Tamora: your sex, religion, age , social status, family etc all matter. Also, I never get the silent crusade most Mundus nations have against smoking. They have no problem with alcohol but smoking is almost banned in a lot of foreign countries. Maybe that helps you get a bit to understand how things work in Tamora. 

In regards to public services, again Tamora is different: education, healthcare and pensions are all the responsibility of the individual, his family and his religious organization. The government is not involved in this and never was. We believe education is very important and since we are religious it makes sense for it to be the affair of the Church rather than the government. 
That being said, I can’t advise you to bring your kids with you unless you have to. As I said, our educational system is particular and doesn’t cater to foreigners. Now, there are things we can help you with so the employers can help pay for your healthcare but they will be paying you a lower wage of course. Also, Tamoran businesses are flexible so they can make arrangements where you work for let’s say half a year in UC and the other half in Tamora or maybe have a full time in EM and a part time for a Tamoran business which you will work via distance using video calls to keep in touch etc.

Also, please consider that we don’t do fairs like these all the time or for anyone. There is a growing interest and respect for the Theocracy in Tamora and this is why we have come to you to see if we can find some common ground to cooperate. We expected that once we arrive here and meet you, people will first notice the huge cultural divide between us. However, this is a learning process and I can promise you here that I will do anything short of forcing Lady Musaevna to get in touch with the Theocracy embassy in Djerb and see if there is some way that an arrangement can we found for Bene Gesserit individuals who want to work in Tamora and have dependents. So please don’t be reluctant to raise the issues that you have and we will try to find way to accommodate you.     

I think that covers the second set of questions.

Thank you.