Author Topic: Rosendahl Report Episode 2 - Lodja  (Read 1354 times)

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Offline KrisNord

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Rosendahl Report Episode 2 - Lodja
« on: October 11, 2020, 08:34:24 PM »





The second episode of the Rosendahl Report stays in Albion but this week heads East across the continent to visit Lodja. The Queendom of Lodja has in recent months found itself going through a series of crisis, first issues with corruption in the military and then following the arrest of General Ignat Kozlov a series of scandals followed the publication of a vast number of e-mails and leaks. These snippets of information saw the government begin steps towards reformation and just yesterday a new Conclave, Lodja's version of a cabinet, was announced with 73% of its members being made up of new comers to the nations highest government group. One of the few to survive the political culling was Lord Besarian Ivanov who has now served as the Lord of the Conclave, the equivalent of most nations Prime Minister for five years. During his time on the Conclave he has served three Queen's, he was a Minister under Queen Sonya before being promoted to the top job under Queen Viktoriya and now Queen Klara. We have him in the studio today to talk about the various reforms that have been discussed in the last few days.

Having now served in the government of three Queen's what would you say has been the most significant differences between the three reigns?

Its been a great honour to serve the Queens that I have. In terms of differences I was only part of Queen Sonya's government during her final 6 months and therefore we didn't actually do a great deal. At the age of 101 it was clear Queen Sonya was content to just be a supportive hand in that time and perhaps was just positioning people to help a new Queen. It was only when Viktoriya took over that I really had a chance to do anything. Viktoria was a very different Queen, she was full of a desire to have Lodja not just be part of the world but take a lead in several manners. There was a very clear influence from Sessifet and she used a strong hold over the Conclave to guide the decisions. I think though this also sadly created situations where some Ministers disliked the lack of power they had and therefore took to feathering their nest in other ways. Queen Klara though is very much about setting us tasks and then scrutinising the work we do, she has very much held people to account and now we see this with the broom taken to the Conclave.
 
The Queen has spoken of beginning to take a more hands on approach to controlling the faith of the nation. In a faith that believes the Goddess Sessifet resides within the Queen why has there been such a separation in the past and how do you think the Queen's new stance will change the nation?

We believe there is no seperation. Every word spoken by the Queen is either from Sessifet or has her approval. I think though the fact that previous Queen's have seen the need to focus on political matters and faith matters at different times drag their focus away from the spiritual as they have given the High Priestess more and more power to deal with religious issues. Traditionally the Queen would have put in place the head of every Temple however we haven't had that for a few decades now. There should be no seperation, Sessifet showed us how best to live and she still resides with us. We will see in the coming days I think the faith feature more prominently in decisions made by Queen Klara as even around the Palace we have seen a kind of change in her attitude to expecting a higher standard from those of us residing on the Island. I think those expectations will begin to filter down now.

With a clear division between Plebeians and Patricians in society how can your nation have a true meritocracy like Queen Klara has stated she hopes to create?

Every society has a hierarchy. Be that systems of nobility that many nations across the world have, for example East Moreland, Achkaerin etc or be it systems like Runavik where those hierarchies are fleeting as a select group of people are put in charge for several months at a time. For the world to function there has to be a hierarchy and that hierarchy works best when it gives people something to aim for. In Lodja that is a two tier system with ladders of hierarchy within each. Every single person gets a chance to climb based on their skills, hard work and intelligence. The Queen is now ensuring that rather than this taking generations for a family to raise an individual can do so in their own lifetime. The new conclave features several Plebeians and the upcoming election will I believe set a new precedent for the amount of influence they have.

In many ways Lodja has been seen as a bit of a laughing stock as of late, first with military issues, then corruption and now a list of scandals that has seen the King effectively exiled. How do you think Lodja can return to a position of respect in the global community?

I find that question rather insulting. Every nation has issues from time to time. Take for example a few weeks ago East Moreland, a nation renowned for its aeronautical ability lost one of their drones, we've seen Rokkenjima utilise their military for operations we would deem as taking a hammer to crack an egg. Our rank and file military are good people who work hard and had been let down by previous regimes. Over the last four or so years though they have busted their guts to improve and we saw in the recent exercise along the Cenneg and other TUNA nations that we can hang alongside other quality armed forces. The scandals we have seen are effectively hangovers from times past those involved have been doing those things for years if not decades in some cases. The fact we have clamped down on them and effectively outed the problems shows things have changed. The fact Lodja has, when needed, helped refugees, pioneered environmental policies and seen Queen Klara take a leading role in redrawing parts of the MCUR and Uppsala Convention, additionally creating TUNA which is a growing and effective economic and co-operative organisation. I don't think we have to return to a position of respect, I think we've always retained it among those we have worked with.


With that in mind we open the phone lines and studio floor to questions from journalists or individuals across Mundus.



OOC - Thanks to Libby. Next week it's Sultan Yahya IV of Waddan if you want to be Episode 4 get in touch on Discord.