Kalistan

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Kalistani News in Brief: Kalistan in Recession;
Talks with Kundrati and Tel Bira; The Strangers to represent Empire in FOMAT
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
May 22, 5683


The Strangers, from Sulari, will represent Kalistan at international Contest

Kalistan in Recession
As predicted last year, as a result of a shift in Kalistan's foreign policy to nationalism, Kalistan entered a recessionary period in mid December 5682, economists now say. The announcement of the recession was made earlier this month in Kaliburg by the Finance Ministry, who tracks Kalistan's economic performance, and was confirmed by the Board of Governors of the Imperial Bank, which is Kalistan's central bank.

"We have seen a moderate contraction in economic activity across all sectors," said announced Their Imperial Majesties' Minister of Finance Ms. Louisa Argon. "Hardest hit are those which are most dependent upon international trade, which have restricted as Kalistan has actively ended its search for additional trade partners. This has a depressive effect on other sectors which receive secondary benefits from international trade, including supplying inputs and outputs that then utilize foreign trade to add value and or to supply others Kalistani made products. Hence, we have seen about a 2.8% contraction per quarter since mid 2nd Quarter of this fiscal year, putting us officially into a recession." The Finance Minister noted that this number is well outside of the +/- .05%, controlling for population changes, targets of ZPG policies, and have prompted Government response.

The Finance Minister stated that the National Government is taking active steps to protect jobs, wages, and prices in the market from affecting consumers and workers. "Much of the workforce in Kalistan is already essentially nationalized: The salaries of more then 82% of the workforce are paid directly by the National Government from Workforce taxes. But for those businesses which are being hit by this recession, which is the response to Kalistan's shift in foreign policy, we are taking steps to offer temporary rebates for those workforce taxes, and for other employers, we are crafting policy right now which will help keep you afloat while we weather this correction." The Finance Minister also announced price caps in the market to help prevent price gouging, "More importantly, we are also fighting shortages through either investment to create substitution here in Kalistan, or to limit consumption, so people don't end up hording out of panic." He said Kalistan is also working to address shortages in some sectors in the long term by finding new sources from new partners.

"We expect the recession to slowly work its way out throughout the remainder of this year," said the Finance Minister. "Forecasters predict that likely within the fourth quarter of next fiscal year we should be moving back toward our targets. It will require sacrifice from us all, and it will require us all to keep our heads, but we have a solid foundation in our nation and we believe Kalistan can weather this storm and come out leaner and more efficient on the other side. There is hope on the horizon. But for now, we ask Kalistanis to sit tight, and let the structure adjust. We are taking steps for you, and we would like to ask you to also do your part."

Talks with Kundrati and Tel Bira
As Kalistan enters its first recession in a very long time, it is also entering very limited talks with both Kundrati and the Amudim City State of Tel Bira. The openings came around recent accession of both polities to the Non Aligned Movement treaty. Their Imperial Majesties' Foreign Minister Mr. Henry Greene hailed those moves as successes, and said they provide a foundation for both improved relations from Kaliburg, and grounds to talk about other issues.

"Both Kundrati and Tel Bira's adoption of NAM provides us, at last some common ground to build upon," said Minister Greene. "To this point, we had none. As everyone knows, there are long standing disagreements between Kalistan and both of these two governments, and they are very serious. But the primary issue has always been that there has been no mutual agreement on anything, from Kaliburg's perspective, and so there has been no basis to even talk with either of these two nations. That does not appear to be the case anymore."

Minister Greene said that mutual participation in NAM by both Kundrati and Tel Bira helps Kalistan to legitimize that position in the world. "We know that great power blocs are dangerous to security in the world: They drag nations which have no interests in war unnecessarily into conflict. When a great power says jump, the smaller powers of the world are almost forced to ask How High, because they rely on those Great Powers for security and trade to such a huge degree. Smaller powers do not have the ability to both resist a Great Power and hope to survive at the same time. So NAM lets the rising and developing states know that they are not alone, they can count on others to resist as well, and they can, and should be setting their own course independently of the demands of the world's most powerful nations."

Greene said that both Kundrati and Tel Bira joining the treaty opens a lot of doors for them in Kaliburg. "Yeah, this makes it possible to talk about a whole host of diplomatic, security related, and economic matters. Not specifically the NAM treaty: I'd say if they joined ODEN, it would have the same effect, but now we have something to talk about, a way to bring our grievances to the table and a measure of trust to know that the other side is willing, for larger reasons, to work on those with us. It's a very positive development in Kaliburg, and one which gives us some hope that as we move from a more internationalist perspective to a more bilateral emphasis in our foreign relations, we can still find partners which are not captured wholly by liberal attitudes about how the world should work." Minister Green said he looks forward to meeting with representatives from both Tel Bira and Kundrati in the near future to begin talking about potentially normalizing relations.

The Strangers to represent Empire in FOMAT
Sulari Alt-Folk musicians The Strangers have been selected to represent Kalistan at the upcoming FOMAT contest in Valruzia. The Strangers formed last year as a super group of sorts: Both Lead Singer and guitarist Maria Jones and multi-instrumentalist Alistair Carruthers, both from Sulari, had their own moderately successful careers as solo artists in the Sulari Independent rock scene, over the last several years, but a chance encounter put them together on the same bill and Carruthers asked Jones to sit in with him for an accoustic set when a technical malfunction rendered his electric set impossible.

"The result was alchemy," said Carruthers. "We had a lot of synergy, and decided to start working together after that. We each keep our main careers, but we decided to officially make The Strangers as a side project, so we could kind of play with the gender dynamic and try to experiment with different styles than we are used to. Its really a lot of fun and it was just a blast to record [The new Album At Home] with Maria at ARC. People from both of our bands get to play on this record too, which is pretty neat, its like a really cool syncretism that just works."

Jones herself was thrilled that their song was selected to be performed that FOMAT. "We of course were pretty surprised that KRTVN listeners selected our tune," said the singer. "It's not what you usually hear at FOMAT, but then again, Kalistan rarely sends songs you would normally hear. I was sort of expecting them to send a kind of New Wave dance song, and we do have some keyboards on this record, but not on this song, so its just an... an unexpected surprise for our little band to have won the poll to go. I hope we do well: I know some of the songs we were up against were a lot louder or heavier or faster, while this one is more atmospheric, much more poppy, closer to alt-folk than any of those. We'll see."

You can listen to the song here. Kalistan will of course broadcast the entire contest live from Valruzia, including the performance by The Strangers.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfQFc6KKcCE]
The Strangers' single "On the Double" from their new album At Home out now on ARC

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