The United Federation of Chasetopia wrote:Application Form [Branch Opening]Nation: The United Federation of Chasetopia
Type of government: Theocratic Republic
[Optional]Economic policy: Laissez-faire (Total Free Market)
[Optional]Foreign policy: Jingoism
Application Form [Investment]Which one you are [tick one]? Agency [], Alliance [], Business [], Government [X], Organisation []
Amount to be invested [US$]: 10,000,000,000
Summary of how and where we should invest in your nation: Defence, Arms Manufacturing
Application Form [Account Creation]Which one you are [tick one]? Agency [], Alliance [], Business [], Government [], Individual [X], Organisation []
Official name on record: His Holiness Chase McClure - CEO of Chase & Co. Petroleum
Official nation of origin: The United Federation of Chasetopia
Type of account [tick one]:
Standard [] Executive [X] Cash Fund [] High Security [] Green Future [] Next Generation [] Gold Bullion []
Initial deposit [US$/gold/assets/etc.]: 90,000 gold bullion troy ounces: valued at 114,174,000 NSD/USD
Do you want us to invest the money nationally? No
Do you want us to invest the money overseas? No
[Optional]If stated as YES, how do you want us to invest your money? In what way?
Parenga Motu, the National Bank building“According to a recent domestic report by the reputable East & West journal, cybercrime has climbed to become the third most reported economic crime affecting financial institutions throughout Yohannes”, Kayla paused. Everyone was watching her. The bald, overweighed thirty something executives along the front row. The awkward looking university graduate on her newly purchased, oversized attire. The lady at the back of the room. Wait, isn’t that’s
Deputy Minister Dumblepore? Mhmm…
“The potentially common minor ones have been: CVE 2014-3566 (Poodle), CVE 2015-0204 (Freak), and CVE 2016-0800 (Drown), connected as they are with SSL configuration problems. Most domestic institutions have responded accordingly by keeping up to date their legacy IT infrastructures. But this is still not enough, in some potentially serious cases.” What is she doing here? I thought she would come later midday? The suited bigwigs grumpy. The slaving interns tiresome. She was busy. Distraction by family related matters, or thought, was the very last thing she would have wanted there and then.
“One of many recent technologies to be used to counter cyber criminals are the hoax banking card network. It uses coupled computer software programmes of the same group, processing together to give legitimate-looking information or assets to be stolen by criminal organisations or individuals. Yohannesian law enforcement will then be able to arrest and prosecute these offenders.” A hand was raised.
“Yes, Sir?”
“Gregory Lindén, Madam Williams. It is a pleasure to converse with you this morning.”
“Thank you, Mr Lindén.”
“Highlighting specific areas of economic crime worth focusing on is easy. Acquiring the technology, or prior to that, of course… utilising the currently available means to update or create the technology, is easy. As you would know yourself, Madam…”
“Yes, Mr Lindén, I understand where this is going…” Get to the point, will ya.
“But as the former Chancellor Shon Key would say: show me the money. Who will spearhead this effort, of shifting a part of their budget towards something that, some would say, are still considered non-existential?”
“It is existential, Mr Lindén.”
“Yes. That it is existential is true. That it is harmful enough or proven to be realistically possible – notwithstanding the non-existent infrastructures due to the lengths of oceans and distance from our nation, is another matter.”
“If I am understanding this right, we are of the opinion, or you are, that the more peripheral, or far away from Yohannes, Bank of Yohannes branches and offices are, the more we should just let these assets be insecure? And we shouldn’t do anything about it?”
“I am sure you would understand, Ms Williams. Very few nations out there would have the know-how and actual knowledge to attempt such a thing, given that they lack the infrastructures – the vast undersea cables, logistics, etc. – to attempt such an undertaking from far away, through the vast oceans and seas separating Greater Dienstad and Yohannes?”
“What about our far away branches and assets?”
“Is it important enough for us to put aside substantial resources to protect against what may never come, or may never even be possible to be done, towards our most important assets: those closer home?”
“These assets are faraway and worth not as much, Mr Lindén, but peripheral assets are still assets.”
“But their effects would be limited towards assets of these peripheral, faraway, minor branches of the Bank of Yohannes. There is no magic formula that somehow, by targeting these peripheral branches, suddenly our headquarters, or even inner branches, closer to our borders, would be affected also.”
“Yes, Mr Lindén. But they will still target our assets at these peripheral, as you have said yourself, faraway and minor branches.”
“And that is the point, Madam Williams. They are faraway, peripheral and minor. Business 101, spend much less than you earn. Will the annual amount we spend to protect these peripheral branches faraway from Yohannes be much, much less than the annual profit of these branches, including assets held in their host countries?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no.”
“It cannot be both, Madam Williams. It must be one, or not at all.”
“Thank you for your concern, Mr Lindén.” Thank God, you are finally seated. Kayla glanced towards the direction of the Deputy Minister, still attentive and knowing, looking at her from the back. I hope her opinion of me wouldn’t be affected by the rebuke of that haughty man. A particularly nasty piece of work he was. Must make sure I will tell
Albert this one later. It was half past ten. The meeting was over.
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Outside Parliament SquareKayla's distress had turned to fury. She was too distorted to concentrate properly. She wanted to shake herself for daring to spearhead the cybersecurity reform act. I knew that I needed the political support of more members of parliament in the Bank of Yohannes Committee, but I never knew it would be that bad. She made a mental note to remember this next time, for her steps of springboard through the career ladders were all but set. Under the influence of her father, she was the favoured lieutenant of Albert. And it was a matter of time before she could have her way with a particular Mr Lindén. The prospect gave her consolation.
The path from the Economic Palace to the Beehive crossed a main road. At the crossroads pedestrians could turn west, for the Imperial Palace and diplomatic quarters, or east, for the largest port in the Kingdom of Alexandria, and subsequently Yohannes, Port Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Kayla and Dumblepore turned east. Te Whanganui-a-Tara was a city of hills on one side, and rounded, naturally shaped low coast on the other; the ideal place for the establishment of a protected port of trade for the earliest Yohannesian settlers. It was a city built on that port, with commerce and trade being the catalysts for growth since the 18th century.
At Easter the Home Fleet of the Commonwealth Navy was conducting its annual naval exercise around Te Whanganui-a-Tara bay. It attempted to demonstrate its ability to protect the many container ships and merchant vessels carrying overseas goods to and from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, even as parliament had recently voted once again to cut naval related expenditure for three consecutive years. With Bank of Yohannes related assets and investments in around six hundred nations overseas, and foreign trade being the bread and butter of the Yohannesian economy, Kayla was unsure whether parliament had chosen the right target to reduce government expenditure.
"Slashing welfare or healthcare will never be a vote winning move. And the education sector is already so vastly overburdened, that even the most ardened populist would never dare to chop it round the block further", Dumblepore cut her moment of tranquility. She was smiling, Kayla thought, and she knew my thought process very well. A mother figure, it seems, is what she wanted to be. Someone to replace my absent mother, after all this year. The way she said her name, Claudia, on that day. There was something about it. Dumblepore must knew more about the story of mother and father than father had told me so far.
Kayla had not warmed to the Deputy Minister in their two hours' worth of walk together. Dumblepore was a well meaning person, who attempted to probe as much about her past as possible, without asking directly as to make her think she was being interrogated. Choice of university. Past boyfriends. Career decisions. It seems Dumblepore wanted to see a trace of Claudia, her old close friend, in Kayla the daughter. But I never knew my own mother, beside pictures and portraits of happier times.
Dumblepore was mentally brave, always ready for a fight with ministerial subordinates or counterparts; but in other ways she was weak. She confused her superior, Minister Bill Snottish, by not standing for what she thought was wrong when ministerial agenda was on the line. She separated her personal views from official reasoning too far. The decision to close down Korokoro Ecosanctuary Regional Park was one recent example. She was an ardent greenie at heart, and she knew that putting the axe towards Korokoro related funding would not be a votewinning move for her environmentalist, left leaning constituency and electorate. It was, of course, not so for Bill Snottish, who represented the Eastland constituency: true blue, fiscally conservative National heartland. Yet she led the Minister had his way, all the way through. She was afraid of putting at stake her chance. The first female Minister of Business, Innovation, and Enterprise. Fancy that. By the time that they reached the inner complex of Port Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Kayla knew that Dumblepore was cut on the same cloth as her father.
They passed an area teeming with large container ships, rows after rows of valuable cargo, both destined for exports and coming as imports could be seen. No doubt financed by the Bank of Yohannes or our constituent banks, Kayla surmised. Money made the world go round, as father would say. But Kayla wondered whether too much money was ever a good thing. Capital growth. Foreign investment. Industrial contract. Asset expansion. For what price? A foreign version of Korokoro ecosanctuary abroad would be one, I guess. And the soul of someone, not unlike the person she was walking with would be another one.
Beside the area there was a path leading straight to the port office. They went through another guarded gate. Now they left behind the sprawl of container ships and entered the teeming inner area of the port. A vast, beautifully decorated glasshouse structure protected them from the weather outside. The outside air made way for the air conditioned reception area. The late 19th century portraits - of admirals, of trading pioneers, and of merchant-bankers - that jostled shoulder to shoulder on either side let her knew that she, and those of her generation, was the heir of a long, rich tradition of Imperial prestige and splendour. That her forebears expected her to sacrifice just as much for the future of the nation. I feel suffocated just thinking about it. Ugh.
Kayla realised with astonishment that there were silver and gold decorated shades beneath her feet. The whole floor was paved with gold, silver, and other precious metals! What wealth there must be here, she thought, for such materials to be used as if they were in a palace. They reached the end of a corridor and passed through yet another guarded checkpoint. Now they entered the inner office, and the atmosphere was suddenly quieter, but very tense. Immediately to the left was the entrance to the Director's Office. The magnificent oak door was shut tight, with two armed guards glaring at their direction. Dim figures moved behind the blinded windows of the office, and she could hear voices from the room, the insulated walls provided not enough protection indicating the raised volumes of the speakers in question.
To Dumblepore's right, no more than thirteen steps from the Director's Office, was the Company Meeting Room A, and Kayla saw instantly that despite the early timing of their arrival, it had been taken over with the silhouettes of many individuals beyond the door and windows. Two large civilian clothed men barred the narrow corridor that led to the meeting door. Beyond the two civilian clothed individuals were lines of armed men in black attires. Her Majesty's Secret Agents. There must be quite the number of distinguished guests there today.
The space between the Director's Office and Meeting Room A was empty except for Kayla and Dumblepore. Kayla suddenly realised that they had the full attention of the armed guards on the Director's Office side and the lines of armed men in black attires on the opposing meeting room. She had no visible identification badge, nor was she a regular sight to this place. Hey, there's no receptionist desk here, don't blame us! Looking around, she saw that Dumblepore had moved on to the meeting room door, and she followed her hastily.
The armed men in black attires let them through immediately: Dumblepore was well known. Kayla admired the eastern interior of the large room. It had an enormously tall glazing of The Last Supper, accompanied with secondary glazings of angels and saints painted on either side, about one third in size to the main glazing. The sun shone through, which was clearly planned. It looked like a palace, where all decisions of importance are made - which it was, in a way.
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Inside Company Meeting Room AThe dignitaries stared at Kayla and Dumblepore. She was nervous. To avoid looking at them, she appreciatively raised her eyes to the ceiling. It was decorated with gold and silver, beautifuly painted in glowing colours, just like the floor. She followed Dumblepore through the crowd. Dumblepore seemed tranquil here, secured and sanguine, naming out attending noblemen and peers, and shaking the hands of cabinet ministers of the Kingdom of Alexandria. If they are here, then it means. No way.
There was another line of armed men in black attires, then a crowd of naval officers, then an inner circle of dukes and margraves, with Her Majesty the Queen Garnet til Alexandros standing at the end. The Queen had lost her youthful expression since the last time Kayla saw her, three years ago in the Royal Castle of Alexandria. There were lines of anxiety on her freckled face and below her eyes, and a year of fighting the budget austerity-driven imperial parliament had made her thinner. She seemed to be enjoying the company of her dukes and lecturing her margraves, being at odds but not displeased.
Dumblepore moved to face the crowding higher noblemen and slowly curtsied in symbolical adherence. The queen stared, acknowledged her, and said in her quintessentially feminine voice: "My faithful servant, the Imperial Deputy Minister of Business, Innovation and Enterprise, Rahamani Dumblepore. What have you brought for us to represent the interest of the empire?" That last line was playfully done. Nice. The contrast between royal and imperial was moot: for as the Queen of Alexandria, she was the Yohannesian Empress.
"I am pleased to be acknowledged in your present, my lady queen", said Dumblepore.
Kayla scurried beside her and made the same bow. Garnet said: "Have you brought your daughter to accompany you today?" The earls of the kingdom around them laughed. Kayla could see a trace of red on Dumblepore's cheek.
"This is the daughter of Sir Temuera Williams, who is also one of many rising stars amongst the Bank of Yohannes' regional management ranks, my lady queen", said Dumblepore.
Garnet looked again, and Kayla saw the light of recognition and surprise in her eyes. "Of course, I know Sir Temuera Williams.... the Dragon of Westland", she said, but her tone was cold; not the same as when she acknowledged Dumblepore. "Have you come to ask me to pay back the debt I owe to your father?" The earls laughed again.
Nicely done, yet again. Of course, the Queen had long ago paid her debt to father, or to be more precise, the debt the late King Garland, the father of the queen, had owed. "I am here because Minister Dumblepore had brought me along to accompany her... in this illustrious meeting, my lady queen." Garnet raised her eyes.
"I am thoroughly humbled to be given this opportunity to see the inner working relating to the future of our illustrious kingdom, and that of the empire - the Yohannesian Realms - of the Yohannesian peoples."
I would be glad to be of service to whatever it is that you may have within your planning and disposal, Your Majesty."
"... and you shall hear about it, daughter of illustrious dragon Williams," Garnet made a mocking smile. "Come and see me this afternoon, when I shall have within my disposal more time." She turned back to the margraves of the kingdom, and resumed her conversation in a lower voice.
Dumblepore curtsied slowly and retreated, and Kayla did the same.
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Her Majesty's surrounding"The twentieth century brought us the start of telecommunications through the very basic thing we take for granted today. Telephone. And throughout the twenty-first century, the scope of telecommunications expanded to include many things out there; to name but a few, mobile phones, personal computers with internet access, the intercontinental networks linked by undersea cables, and many other things which are important for both the civilian and military sectors of a nation state."
"The Bank of Yohannes acknowledged the importance of investing in this strategic industry, both in the nineteen countries and overseas, for the telecommunication industry is a string of networks touching the very fabric of everyone's lives; no functioning, civilised societies and industrialised nation states can survive without a healthy chain of telecommunications network; even the most military-driven, crackpot dictatorial nation states and societies could not realistically escape the importance of the telecommunications industry and network, for without its healthy existence their foreign ventures would grind to an immediate halt, rendering their military machines powerless against foreign predators and vultures."
"At contemporary, even taking into account the existence of mobile phones, digital networks, and the internet, the telephones realistically still takes the largest share of revenue earner for the industry, for one of the earliest inventions of the industry is responsible for the most basic things in life - a mother calling his son and daughter, someone forgetting to pay another person for the service rendered - down to some of the most important: the president of a nation calling his or her generals about important military matters, second line logistics officers calling their superiors in the army command, and the prime minister of a nation calling the leader of the opposition party to sort out an agreement over an important law about to be passed."
"I am of the opinion that this brief explanation is indeed, of acceptable standard", Garnet turned around to face the Earl of Halstenfortein. "As the Director of Port Te Whanganui a Tara, I am, of course, aware of your undoubted bias towards the shipping industry."
"Yes, my Lady Queen."
"The presiding head of government of Chasetopia, of course, insisted instead that the bulk of our investment be generously granted in the direction of her illustrious industry of armaments production?"
"Yes... my Lady Queen."
"... and that scandalous wish she shall have."
"Truly a generous acceptance of Her expressed wish, my Lady Queen."
"Ensure that the bulk of United Investment Corporation Emerging Nation Fund #1003 be made into reality, to be renamed that of Chasetopia Defence Fund by no later than... 2019."
"... and reality that shall become, my Lady Queen."
"Finally... I request for the summoning of Lady Williams. I shall not miss the opportunity to converse with her... before the end of today."