Candidate: (Brendan)
In a battle with his busy diary, President YAN was luckily able to pull himself away from his office in the top floor of the Council Room. The man who has served in Cyberian politics, led Virtua several times and made himself a comfortable position in the Virtuan community was soon to be arriving at the interview room at the vNews headquarters. As he stepped out of his black limousine, a pack of bodyguards briskly escorted him. Arguably at the peak of his political career, there were many worries about the safety of the nation’s president. Passing the paparazzi mob who were shouting questions regarding the rumours surrounding the death of the previous Vice President, oscar123, the president quickly denied any involvement. He seemed rather agitated on the commencement of the interview but nevertheless we continued.
In the beginning of your Miniconomy political career, it is undoubted that you faced a lot of criticism. Has this in anyway changed your outlook towards politics?
Well, of course it is never nice to have a lot of your own citizens that are suggesting things like: ‘he’s probably gone in a few hours again’ and such things but it did not have a bad influence on me as a Miniconomy player nor on my functioning as politician in Virtua. It only motivated me more to show the people that were having those wrong ideas about me the converse. Which I did, as you might know I already am in my third term as President and I didn’t have to cope with any criticism this period. Which makes me of course very happy, as I want to make all my fellow Virtuans happy.
What has been the most challenging part of being President of Virtua?
Keeping everyone happy with you on the presidential position. I always want and try to achieve that each round; the happiness of people with your view on points and way of working. I do that by e.g. asking for the thoughts of Virtuans a lot. For the rest I always find the part of inactive council members very hard, I always find it hard to dismiss someone but sometimes there’s just no other option.
What is your stance on the current debate over the Federal Union vs Council of Veterans?
Well, I was very sceptical about the Federal Union the previous rounds but now I kind of had a mind change about that. When we started with the FU this round and we appointed a new chairman I saw that he, Tresias Aegirsson, is extremely motivated and tries to get the activity as high as possible. I think he did that well till this moment. Therefore I want to see a very good alternative before even considering voting in favour of it, I think the CoV isn’t such an alternative for now. If Virtua will have to vote in favour or against the CoV I will of course open a public voting in the Council Public so that every Virtuan can say whether he/she likes it or not.
Do you think you would be courageous enough to ever lead Virtua into a war?
I don’t know, to be honest. I think you can only give a right answer on such questions as this one if you once experienced such a war. I luckily did not and I hope I will never have to face one. If it’d happen though I would of course do best I can to make the right decisions at the right time.
What are your goals for the future?
Well, I don’t really have goals in the future. I will probably become a bit less active due to the fact that I will have to make a lot of exams this year and I don’t want to make those bad. I have two big goals in MC though and that is to become Super Captain of Industry, I hope Podje can give me some nice tips and tricks how I could achieve that. The second is that I will become CBI Special Agent once, that’d be funny and of course an honour.
How do you like your tea? Milk and sugar?
I hope I did not make every Virtuan citizen angry by answering this. Honestly I don’t like tea at all, I prefer water or lemonade. Though, I don’t dislike tea either but I don’t find it spectacular or so. But if I could choose between cold water out of our clean rivers or our tea I’d prefer the water.
Do you have any regrets in Miniconomy?
Not really, I only dislike the mud-fighting in the FU etc. Some governments don’t want to give the others a privilege unless they don’t profit from it as well. That is something we see now in the education law I try to get implemented now for a while. The countries Ibisha and Digitalie don’t support it as they don’t benefit from it. I find that very childish and it gives a good picture from the persons on those functions like president and king in their countries.
Do you think the ‘opening up’ of the Federal Union was appropriate?
To kick off I want to say that I regret it that the new appointed chairman of the FU made that decision on his own. When you are making such a big decision I think you should at least involve the presidents and king in that decision. Though I would have agreed with the idea as I am someone that wants to stimulate transparency and fairness as much as possible. It is also nice to have the option as a citizen to contact your president or delegate about things that have been said.
Should Nasdaqar citizens be allowed to trade ‘restricted goods’ – guns, gunpowder and explosives?
Well, I always agree with the Virtuan Law so my answer would simply be yes in here. Though, when I look into it as a person I think as long as the city (or criminals in it) do not make the life of other Virtuans very bad (by not committing a lot of robberies or other crimes on them) I will agree with the organisation of the Virtuan city as it is now. If not, I am in favour of removing the ‘city of crime’ and re-shape it into a lovely trading city (so as it is now but then without the criminal benefits).
What is the meaning of life?
Of course this question can have two definitions but as it is about me as MC person I will answer it like me in MC. Important factors for the meaning of life in MC are in my eyes: having fun, having friends and enjoy playing MC.
It was at this point that YAN received a phone call from one of his spies residing in Digitalie with some ‘crucial’ information which he was unfortunately unable to share. He quickly put his jacket on and made a dash for the exit where he was greeted by the security who had been waiting patiently outside.