Independent. Rogue commando of the US-based Symbionese Liberation Army. ... went into political exile into Chimerica and assisted the National Liberation Front in governing 'liberated territories'. His governing policies made him very (in)famous within the movement itself ... After the Insurrection, it soon became clear that all the 'native' Chimericans did not know how to actually run their country, and required outside assistance. Ealb, against his better judgement, decided to assume power in Chimerica himself, but became frustated with the ignorance and self-interest of the Chimerican population.At the begining of the game, reporters will ask you certain questions. These questions mostly determine how History will view your regime in the future. I answered these questions using the most Conservative answer possible, but the answers themselves won't affect Chimerica right now anyway. Since all parties of the Junta have to approve of the President, I guess paying lip service to the right-wing isn't really that bad.
And the game tells me to appoint some Cabinet officals. The Cabinet serves a important role to the President: they provide advice to the President concering potential government policy. Appointing politicans to the Cabinet is also a great way to appease them. But having a Cabinet is fraught with its own dangers. Each person in a Cabinet has his own
Hiddden Agenda that he or she will promote at all costs, even going so far as to ignore other pressing problems just so his own pet programs get approved. If you propose a policy contrary to that Hidden Agenda, that cabinet member will either just implement his preferred policy instead...or launch a military coup. That being said, it is still always a good idea to have a Cabinet; if only because you can only accept policy recommendations proposed by other people. Therefore, you use the Cabinet as a way to 'choose' the governing policies you want to implement.
Which is why, in this run, we will go without a Cabinet.
Instead, we're going to talk to the people directly. Each 'Influential' have their own Hidden Agenda too, and will also implement their preferred policy, but they cannot launch any military coup. They can only support them, at best. For this run, I will go from the upper-left corner and move right, starting with the Landless Laborer.
Each influential have a little biography letting you know about the person you're meeting with. Despite the fact that most of the people we're meeting with are dirt-poor, they also happen to be leaders of political organizations, meaning that you shouldn't under-estimate them. A mob of poor people is not something to laugh at.
When you meet up with someone, you can choose to Accept or Decline their idea, or ask your Cabinet advisor for a different policy recommendation. You can also put it on the Cabinet Agenda, so that you can later ask your entire Cabinet about the policy. In this run, I'll accept
all recommendations. Even contradictory ones. If that sound stupid...well, that because it is. However, I remembered hearing that the 'No Cabinet' run is basically an instant-win. Since you are appeasing everyone, nobody will bother to kill you. Besides, land reform sounds like a concept the SLA supports.
Even when you have a Cabinet, you still have to meet up with certain influentials. Here, I meet up with the IMF to borrow some money...even though we are already heavily in debt to begin with. Trust me, we're going to need that money.
And the Americans are resuming military aid...without my premission. Swell. Something I should stress; the Chimerican military is currently split between a leftist commander and a rightist commander, the Americans are sending military aid to the rightists. No way that's going to lead to any trouble.
Chimerica shall put the United States to shame with our universial health care system.
Sometimes, when playing the game, you will receive Interrupts. An Influnetial will just march up right to the Presidental Palace and demand that you speak with him.
Unlike regular encounters, you
can't reject his advice outright, partly due to the huge mob waiting outside. You have to ask for advice, and hope that the Cabinet member advising you will argue against his position. Otherwise you have to accept. This policy isn't really that bad though, but there will be other Interrupts that I'm going to loath.
And this is exactly why we borrowed money from the IMF before, to
bribe pay for all these pet programs. Not to say this pet program isn't a worthy cause; we are investing in our future. But we aren't going to see a return on our investment here; we got a loan to pay off, and if we end up going in default, then the IMF can march right in and terminate all these awesome programs.
Even policies that don't deal specifically with money do, in a sense, deal with money. Our National Bank can loan money to farmers in our country; we could direct these loans to help out producers of export crops, thereby getting us some cold hard cash in order to pay for education and health care. Giving these loans to 'food producers' instead will help to make Chimerica less reliant on food aid, at the cost of making Chimerica's bankrupcy more likely.
Didn't I just already authorized land reform? Shoo! I'll let you know what type of land reform I want later on.
There are two main "export crops" in Chimerica, Cotton and Coffee. Since we need to ensure a steady stream of income to pay for all our programs, asking these people for help would be in our best interest. After all, these people also want a steady stream of income too, so we should get some sort of common ground.
Too bad the Cotton plantation owner is a jerk. His argument is...a bit lacking in common sense, but it can be argued that land reform may lead to less effienct production, leading to less crops, meaning less money. Fine Cotton Guy, but that won't help us in paying for all these
new programs.
Coffee Guy is more reasonable. After the 'revolution' we get to control a bunch of ineffective State Farms (previously massive estates controlled by Farsante) that would be better off in the hands of anybody
but the state. Even the National Liberation Front want to turn the State Farms into collectives, where the peasents, and not you, get to rule. While giving free land to the rich and middle-class isn't really a good idea, at least there is a chance that they can use this land to produce more export crops to help pay off our loan. A win-win situation!
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Topic: Let's Horribly Break Hidden Agenda (Read 68858 times)