The-CID: Thank you and all the members of the United NationStates Media Group for this opportunity.

TMJ: So Capitalist Paradise has been around for a while, a little more than 11 years I believe. Can you list some of the biggest highlights over this past decade?

The-CID: Capitalist Paradise was founded on May 2003. Only one year later, the region started to drop its numbers after two DEN invasions. I arrived at April 2004 and around June 2005 I became the elected UN Delegate (aka WAD) and began a re-foundation program.

Capitalist Paradise was re-founded Thursday on March 02, 2006. The re-foundation was a whole success: I wrote our first Political Organization ("1^st Constitution") which allowed us to build our First Regional Government; 10 days later we had our first WAD election and our 1st Outside Forum. We achieved 100 nations in 3 weeks and 150 nations in two months!

Over 2006 and 2007, Capitalist Paradise foreign policy was marked by steady expansion: we allied with regions like The Exclusive Capitalizt Zone, Elite Conservative Circuit, Capitalist Alliance, Capitalism and many others. Moreover, regions like The Capitalist Wing, The Corporate Hierarchy, Tradelands and some others merged us in order to consolidate one single powerful Capitalist region in NS. Seven years has passed and some nations from those regions are still in Capitalist Paradise! We also became ACCEL members with me as Director. This alliance provided us with votes for UN Resolutions (aka General Assembly), diplomatic relations with no-capitalist regions and the possibility to join ACCELs army. Capitalist Paradise is neutral, but ACCEL had no problems to get things even with the DEN.

Until 2009, our region was home for 260/220 nations, always around the TOP 20 for Largest Regions. All kind of nations were always allowed, but I recruited Capitalist nations only, so we used to have 75% of our nations with a Capitalist category, 95% with at least Strong Economy, 90% with a low income tax and 70% with no tax at all.

In 2009 I ceased to exist and the regional population went into free fall, declining to fewer than 80. Per Constitution, the WAD became the CEO. A nation called FASTERCAT seized the delegacy in a controversial coup; however, despite his methods, he was able to forge a new Constitution based on the 1^st one ("Old Constitution"), and raise the population up to 900 nations by recruiting all kind of nations (not only capitalist ones).

In April 2010, he resigned his position ceding the delegacy to Nation of Quebec, founder of one of the regions who merged us. In 2011, he passed the torch and Afforess became the next WAD. Since the regional population declined to fewer than 400, Afforess also lost endorsements and several nations exchanged the Delegacy until June 2012 when we were invaded.

Finally, on Christmas Day, 2012, with Kaputer as WA Delegate and Capitalist Paradise fully recovered, I returned to existence. During this year an a half, interest things have been going on in our region: a new Constitution was forged, an invasion was repealed... but perhaps the best known for everyone was the massive recruit by stamps campaign developed by Afforess, who lead the region from +700 nations up to +900 nations.

TMJ: I'm sure the biggest news around Capitalist Paradise lately has been the resolution aimed at liberating your region, more specifically the one authored by Nierr. Do you feel the resolution is justified based on the evidence presented? How will your region vote on the issue?

The-CID: The proposal written by Nierr is a big joke since it was written with the only purpose of achieving a personal revenge against one of the members of Capitalist Paradise: Afforess, also known as Shadow Afforess. Lets go through this preposterous resolution together:

-Description: Noting this Council's mission statement to spread interregional peace and goodwill, via force if necessary.
-Declaring that peace is more important to the international community than goodwill
-Acknowledging therefore, that sometimes goodwill must be sacrificed for peace, the World Assembly Security Council;
Nothing so far...

Lets continue; the proposal claims, and I quote:
- Recognises that the residents of Capitalist Paradise are not fulfilling the region's potential
- Deciding that others could put Capitalist Paradise to better use
- Hoping that one day this resolution will be able to contribute to the goal of fulfilling Capitalist Paradise's potential to the fullest

I just gave you a very short brief of the history of our region. How can someone say Capitalist Paradise is not fulfilling it's potential? There is no better use for our region than the current one. We are the most important Capitalist region in the game, friendly, neutral, peaceful and incredibly active.

Finally, the author revealed his true identity:
- Observes the presence of one or more nations who are engaged in dubious practices in Capitalist Paradise

This is the evidence that proves the resolution is a personal vendetta. Moreover, according the SC rules, "Liberate a region" means "Strike down Delegate-imposed barriers to free entry in a region". There are no barriers in our region! There had been no barriers since I founded Capitalist Paradise in 2006! There is an active Founder (me), the region is not locked, it holds free elections and any kind of nation has been always welcome. The proposal makes no sense at all! Of course, we are going to vote against it. There is no reason to vote for this proposal with the only exception to express hate to single nation.

TMJ: Were you surprised this resolution managed to reach quorum?

The-CID: Honestly? No.

You know Socialist regions vote according their ideology: "If the name *Capitalist* is on it, burn it!". However, quorum was reached for other reason: Some people didn't like Shadow Afforess because he was always at the edge of the game rules, and sometimes, at the wrong side of the edge. Lets remember the "Liberate Haven" proposal, the NS++ dispatch problem and the "recruit by stamps" campaign. Some of this actions, specially the last one, earned him a lot of enemies. Regarding the last one, for some reason people believe the recruit campaign was backed-up by Capitalist Paradise itself; as a result, the region too earned some enemies. Furthermore, I once even read in the Forum about people claiming "Capitalist Paradise = Afforess".

So lets set the record straight: Afforess campaign was 100% legal, meaning, inside the games rules. He took advantage of this new feature and he did it first. Now, his actions were not the actions of a whole region nor were supported by Capitalist Paradise´s Government. Please take in mind that I, as the Founder and Chairman of Capitalist Paradise, condemned that type of recruitment in our own RMB. Kaputer, as Delegate and CEO at that moment, did the same.

Capitalist Paradise is a region, not a single nation. Is a region with a Founder, an elected Delegate, an elected Government and almost 500 nations inside. The Proposal is an unfair punish to all of us.

TMJ: What has been the common reaction among residents of Capitalist Paradise?

The-CID: Terrible. Just terrible. Capitalist Paradise, as a region, does not deserve this kind of attack. Some nations in CP wanted to draft proposals in order to "Liberate" regions, others were asking for the head of Nierr [the author]. A big mess. I released an statement to our residents in our RMB: "Please, do not take part in this and just continue to use our RMB for chat or for fun." And then we have Shadow Afforess' reaction...

TMJ: Shadow Afforess, I'm sure you may be familiar with him, was deleted by a game moderator, The Blaatschapen over his post on the resolution thread, and to give you the exact statement: "If the author here wants to play with fire, let's play with real fire: link. I promise never to release or distribute aforementioned tool if the author withdraws his proposal and does not propose new submissions regarding Liberating Capitalist Paradise." The tool that he mentioned, of course, referred to the password cracker he wanted to release. Do you believe he was reacting in a reasonable manner?

The-CID: Afforess took the wrong course of action, for sure. My believe is that an honest man made the wrong move.

As you well said, he threatened to release a crack for regional passwords, but the tool was just a crazy project. He was deleted by The Blaatschapen due blackmailing, which is forbidden per game rules. But the tool never existed. And since you are talking about mods' actions, let me tell you something: The proposal at vote, its consequences (despite the result) and the bad precedent that is now been created, all of this could had been prevented by the mods:

1. Proposals must contain a valid argument and this one has none.

2. The "tit for tat" ruling applies to proposals whose only argument is liberating a region in direct response to another proposal; even though Nierr's proposal contains other arguments (all of them with no sense at all), the author itself claimed "You [Afforess] started it when you drafted Liberate Haven." Link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=303708&start=25

3. The very useful flowchart posted by Sedgistan has been overruled. Link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=218040#p4088685. I am aware its is a guide and not a rule per-se, but if you read the whole post, you will realize the proposal goes against the spirit of the "Guide to the Security Council". The proposal is illegal and it should had been deleted by the mods. I recall that [violet] herself once said that she will "tweak" (her exact words) the SC rules as times goes by. I think we have reached the exact moment.

TMJ: To end on a more lighthearted note, it's definitely not an easy feat to raise a player-created region into strong position. Did you think CP would grow to the size it is today a decade ago?

The-CID: It was a secret dream... They said "everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance". I am sure everybody wants to create a great region that exists as time goes by, but doing maintenance its quite hard. I remember manually recruiting thousands of nations in order to build Capitalist Paradise!

Capitalist Paradise is a region named after a Category, the name represents its spirit. I already CTE once and when I came back the spirit was there: a friendly, neutral, peaceful and Capitalist region. The Spirit prevails. And because of that I firmly believe this proposal will never reach the resolution status.

TMJ: Thanks for joining us today, we really do appreciate your time.