Latest revision as of 22:12, 5 November 2006

Overview

Powerhungry Chipmunks was a large, sleepy nation that sits peaceably about the River Ica. It was known by nations worldwide not for its fine furs or expansive farmland and countryside, but rather for prolific career, for good or ill, writing United Nations legislation. Some point out it might be impossible for Powerhungry Chipmunks not to have a sizable impact upon the shape of the modern UN, given the sheer number of proposals and repeals the nation has authored and resolutions it had passed.

The nature of this influence, however, is widely debated. Some cite Powerhungry Chipmunks, with disdain, as helping give respectability to the "national sovereignty crowd". Others view the nation in a rather fairer light, identifying its proposals as instrumental in bringing about a preferable modern sensibility of proposals and resolutions. Powerhungry Chipmunks representatives generally maintain silence regarding the nation's history and possible international stature, though one quotation from a national leader, Sam Palleel, has survived the nation's pruning of self-referential comments in the international sphere. In addressing his junior, Johan Arnaen, regarding a particularly nasty exchange on the UN forum, Palleel prognosticated, "Don't worry about the detractors; they live and die under a bridge. Our work persists over time. Our legacy will far outlast its detractors."

Geography and Peoples

Powerhungry Chipmunks covers a relatively large landmass stretching from the Anacaer Mountains to the west (which form a sort of fence about the nation's non-oceanic side) to the Alach Bay to the east--and centered on the Ica river which flows between the two. Powerhungry Chipmunks expands for almost a thousand miles total north and south of the Ica. The Powerhungry Chipmunks capital, Palenth, is located on the Ica, approximately eight hundred miles inland from the Ica's mouth.

Powerhungry Chipmunks is segregated into regions (and general ethnic groups, as well) by the Ica and its several tributaries. These regions include The Ascelles, The Escelles, Vicaea, The Mitaean Highlands, The Field of Galla, The Bend, Zerberdeer, Icae and the Acsis Marshlands.

History

Powerhungry Chipmunks history is shrouded in doubt. When and where the peoples' now under the Powerhungry Chipmunks flag began aligning themselves to one another is unclear. Powerhungry Chipmunks archeological information is not inconclusive, but the peoples of Powerhungry Chipmunks show an alarmed degree of distrust towards foreigners, and little information has been yielded by the limited foreign interest in the nation’s history.

It is generally known throughout the region that the peoples now united under the Powerhungry Chipmunks flag were still separate and distinct nations by 800 P.C.E (Powerhungry Chipmunks Common Era), making the longest Powerhungry Chipmunks could have been identified as a single nation nine hundred years. Beyond that, any Powerhungry Chipmunks history that does leak beyond the self-imposed isolation of its peoples is littered with the expansive oral traditions handed down (and greatly differing area to area) in both rural and urban Powerhungry Chipmunks, and unreliable to foreign study.

Powerhungry Chipmunks citizens reckon time according to traditional date the Ica first flowed from the Anacaer to the Alach, called “the Time of Beauty”, approximately 1700 years ago. Powehungry Chipmunks tradition states that the explorer and hero Galla traveled westward across the Ica valley (then dry) and high into the Anacaer Mountains. There he discovered a sacred site, at which he struck his sword, Palatae, against the rock, and the river Vicae sprung from the rock. Vicae is the largest tributary of the Ica and without it is said the Ica would shrivel up in the dry plains of Icae, near Alach bay.

Galla is considered the “father” of many of the various tribes which would inhabit the land around the Ica, and much of the oral tradition in Powerhungry Chipmunks surrounds him and his family, as well as the sacred site of Vicae and artifacts from that site (to which certain religious sects in Powerhungry Chipmunks make pilgrimage). However, these traditional stories, passed on religiously in some parts of Powerhungry Chipmunks, as guarded against foreign ears as the secular history of Powerhungry Chipmunks.

The name “Powerhungry Chipmunks” is a mistranslation of a Gallan phrase meaning “mountain-river people”, which legend states was used by a tribal leader to describe his people to foreign traders. The mistranslation, however, caught on among neighbors of Powerhungry Chipmunks who disliked the nation's isolationism. Eventually whether in slander or jest or deference, "Powerhungry Chipmunks" is the name the nation is recognized almost universally in the world.

Powerhungry Chipmunks and the UN

Powerhungry Chipmunks claims credit for twelve resolutions and repeals, as well as two additional telegram campaigns ("The Global Library" and "United Nations Security Act"). The nation's UN career began with the passage of "The Nuclear Terrorism Act" on October the 2nd 2004 and ended with the passage of "The UN Small Business Classroom". Powerhungry Chipmunks representatives and historians classify the highlights of nation's UN career as follows:

Normalization of the Repeal

Powerhungry Chipmunks' first resolution came very slightly after the first repeal was allowed by Moderators. The first repeal being of "Fight the Axis of Evil". By January of 2005, a few short months after the resolutions Powerhungry Chipmunks officials such as Samual Palleel and Johan Arnaen became intensely interested in the repeal. "Suddenly there was a new status quo, one we could shape" Palleel has recalled, "'Axis of Evil' wasn't a real repeal because 'Axis of Evil' wasn't a real resolution. We at the Proposal Department realized that we should play an intimate role in legitimizing regular repeals of resolutions. So we began with a controversial issue we were fairly certain we could turn a few voters off of: Prostitution."

Powerhungry Chipmunks officials refuse to publish documents from the time, but rumors allege that the passage of "Repeal of 'Legalize Prostitution'" came by way of shady power-brokering in the Pacifics. Indeed, the passage was in doubt until the Pacific regions voted, a characteristic Samuel Palleel still touts today, "The Pacifics are critical to anyone with a close vote. You should skip the forum, for the most part, and court the Pacifics. That's what I tell every aspiring proposal writer--right after I tell them to have a replacement ready. And we've used that lesson, too. It was Priority One to gain Pacific votes in the 'Chemical Ban' repeal, in NSoT ("National Systems of Tax") and we first thought of how the Pacifics would be convinced when we thought of repealing 'Gay Rights'."

Powerhungry Chipmunks' repeals, though not more numerous than other nations repeal retinue, forged the current view of repeals and resolutions. Powerhungry Chipmunks efforts have, in part at least, eased the way for past resolutions to be repealed for improvements, for re-drafting, and for changes in the UN mindset. Powerhungry Chipmunks also touts itself as the first nation to repeal its own resolution, which Palleel believes the utmost statement in the flexibility of legislation, "Well, it needed to be changed, so we did. Passed resolutions are no longer sacrosanct and untouchable. You can't just sit on the shirt tails of the past thoughts. You have to constantly reforge arguments and ideas. Those that fail to be renewed are bound to be repealed and replaced."

Also among the nation's repeals are two repeals, of "Required Basic Healthcare" and of "Education for All", which are based on an argument they were redundant. "Yup, we decided to make it standard for old resolutions that repeat ideas to be repealed--mainly because the popular opinion at the time was that 'Gay Rights' was made redundant by later resolutions. It was our initial goal in repeals, though we changed gears after 'Required Basic Healthcare'. Oh, we have nothing against gays, just the 'Gay Rights' resolution, it's so reactionary and overly-idealistic. It needs to go."

Legitimization of National Soveriengty

"No, no, no. Nationals Sovereignty was always legitimate" Palleel has said, "Texan Hotrodders, and the other ‘conscientious objectors’ to the old UN status quo of the One National Government can tell you that. We may have helped popularize it, and we thought up some new ways to argue for it, but we're not really original in National Sovereignty."

Indeed, the right for nations to decide domestic matters for themselves was argued long before Repeal "Legalize Prostitution". But Powerhungry Chipmunks contribution to the argument, in way of resolutions and forum debates championing the national government's flexibility, no doubt helped bring the argument to the international forefront. "When we first wrote 'Legalize Prostitution', we were just trying to accurately portray the situation between a lethargic UN that had only adjusted or repealed one of its past laws and more flexible national governments which can change legislation at a moments notice. Then when we got into it we said 'Good gravy, there's actual debate about this and people who actually disagree'. We stumbled upon it, really."

Stumbling upon it or not, the Powerhungry Chipmunks team soon moved ahead with the National Sovereignty principle, making a key choice with the "Repeal of 'Required Basic Healthcare'". Palleel is quoted is some interviews as saying, "There were a lot of softies out there who thought we should get rid of 'RBH Replacement' instead of 'RBH' itself. That's because the original was more far-reaching and enforced more absolute requirements. 'No way' we said, 'we're not here to make a UN dictatorship'. That's ultimately what made us decide to forego the repeal of 'Gay Rights' opting instead for NSoT."

"National Systems of Tax", or NSoT, was never introduced by Powerhungry Chipmunks to the UN forum, for fear of an incendiary reaction. Vastiva, a nation without intimate ties to Powerhungry Chipmunks, was the first to start a topic addressing it, after it had gathered most of the delegate approvals needed to go to vote. Powerhungry Chipmunks had tested this no-forum strategy with "Reformed Literacy Initiative", the past November, but it was not the controversial proposal NSoT would turn out being. NSoT, it is said, inspired a new type of proposal, a proposal which limits what the UN can do in influencing nations. NSoT included language which "reserved" or "protected" the right for nations to implement their own tax systems, whatever they may be. The closest a previous proposal had come to this was "Right to Self Protection", in which Texan Hotrodders wrote that individuals had a right to defend themselves.

NSoT preceded the formation of the NSO, or National Sovereignty Organization, in the summer of 2005. The NSO went on to pass proposals such as "Nuclear Armaments" (by Flibbleites), which secured the right of nations to possess nuclear arms, and "United Nations Security Act" (by Texan Hotrodders), which said that nations had a right to develop weapons which were 'necessary to their self-preservation'. NSoT was later repealed and replaced, by Powerhungry Chipmunks, with "Representation in Taxation". Palleel responds to questions about NSoT's replacement, "Well, we made the mistake that we made in 'Small business Classroom', while telling everyone that we were all about freedom of choice, we made some recommendations--like bankruptcy laws and progressive tax systems--that some people didn't like. We had to fix it and make it Just the protection of nations' right to tax the way they want."

The UN "Service Industry"

A late trend in the Powerhungry Chipmunks resolution record has been the establishment of UN services. "The Microcredit Bazaar" and "UN Small Business Classroom" are the current resolutions, both offer nations which want them programs to help with a certain problem (poverty, and educating entrepreneurs, respectively). Some polls mark “The Microdredit Bazaar” as the best resolution in 2005.

Their “optional” qualities and openness to national involvement was not something new Palleel says, “No we took inspiration on those from the Tsunami Warning Device and a lot of Mikitivity proposals.” Powerhungry Chipmunks officials say they hope to add another service, UN Gun Amnesties, to that list, within the month.

Powerhungry Chipmunks, Moderation, and Leaving the Game

Powerhungry Chipmunks was deleted on March 31st, 2006 after the player behind the nation left Nationstates mid-March. Just previous to this, Powerhungry Chipmunks had a nasty spat with Moderation over, ironically, someone else's UN proposal. Powerhungry Chipmunks representatives questioned Moderators' rights to delete a proposal due to 'factual inaccuracy'.

"'Factual inaccuracy?' When are we, the 1600s? Surely maturity has pervaded the world enough for even the moderators to realize there will be some differences of opinion on what is 'fact'. And it's not like they helped by explaining how they were deciding what was 'factually inaccurate'. Getting the slightest bit of information was like pulling teeth." Palleel remarked in his memoir A Lost Rodent.

"It was their fault anyway. We made a statement that may have been hard to understand. They, with typical moderator self-importance, acted as if they understood it--though they hadn't a clue--and accused us of a variety of rudeness that ran the gamut. That was it. Not one second of trying to see things from our point of view. Their way or the highway. Quite juvenile, really."

Whether the disagreement (which ended with an email to administrators of Nationstates, who mothballed the complaint and Powerhungry Chipmunks never received an answer to whether the moderators had been out of line) contributed to Powerhungry Chipmunks' demise is unclear. Powerhungry Chipmunks had been in the process of drafting a final proposal (on Nuclear Terrorism) with the NSO, when the player abruptly stopped playing. Powerhungry Chipmunks had announced a desire to leave long before, and had set March as the target date, though it is doubtful such a rushed exit was what Powerhungry Chipmunks had in mind.

Some players, including Mikitivity, had pointed out on numerous occassions that the Powerhungry Chipmunks were the most influencial nation in NationStates citing their long history of not only drafting (what was at the time a record) number of resolutions and repeals, but also for their active participation in draft proposal discussions both on the UN forum and on several regional forums. At the time, no single nation had shown such a strong desire to work with other nations.