[War] Romania-Taking each day and step as it comes

[Vampi Digitalwytch]

"Taking each day and step as it comes"

President Antanasia Danesti

17 August 2014

Antanasia had just gotten off the phone with Simu as she stretched her
legs on the couch while watching the news.

Needless to say it was quite jumping with the protests in Canada,
China's easing back, her own country's rather surprising sudden
importance when previous they'd be fortunate for a mention on a slow
day.  In all honesty, it wasn't as if Romania wasn't the first country
in modern era to go this variant route, but then Argentina suffered just as
much of being a non-entity as Romania did, though hopefully Romania
wouldn't take as brutal a beating with the economy as the South
American nation had.  As it cut to commercial with the promise of
scandalous reports from Japan, Antanasia pulled some papers from her
briefcase to read over.

Iordan carried a large duffel bag, a suitcase and his briefcase from
the back of the cab to Ana's apartment.

Walking up the steps he nodded to the guards who rang the door bell to
her residence to wait for her to reply.

Knowing the guards wouldn't allow in anyone unfamiliar, Antanasia gave
the okay to let whoever it was up and opened the door.  She smiled to
see Iordan and her eyes glanced down to his bags.

"Funny thing about this is...I have to look for an apartment now. I
had to move from my last place."

"What makes you think you have to look for one when there's one here?"

He paused, "Well....I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to impose myself."

She flashed him a mock glare.  "With what you've given up, how
presumptive of you to think I would let you just scrabble for
somewhere to live."

He chuckled and looked abashed, "Then where shall I put my stuff, and
did you want me to make dinner?"

"Dinner, I haven't given it a thought what with the swirl of chaos
around everything now.", she said as she closed the door behind him,
"As for your things, wherever you find room."

He nodded and carried the bags in to the bedroom setting them down
before walking back out to embrace her.

Antanasia hadn't been expecting that so the report from the Minister
of Energy regarding a particular project of Professor Nasady's was
crumpled.

He set her down then looked at the paper, "oops, sorry."

"It's only the basics regarding some very promising research that we
brought back a few years ago from a symposium in Australia over
alternate energies research as a priority in these times of shrinking
combustible fuel reserves.  At the time, I found them intriguing due
to the lesser to nil pollution aspects since at that time we were
being taken to task over how little we'd accomplished with industrial
pollution and disregarding the fact that for how many decades we only
had an industrial based economy and virtually no clue or resources to
branch out into other avenues.", Ana explained, "While we did do some
basic research into the prototypes, I did not devote as much as I
should have into the developments since we were attempting to get the
transport infrastructure up to the EU standards."

He paused, "And it can't hurt to have an alternative, especially if
the west gets pissy over your speech."

"Spoke with Simu before you arrived.", she said, "They are in their
own ways.  Some are acting as if this was a rash decision, as if I did
not sit with Parliament and all of us go over every single angle.
Others are acting as salesmen promoting the EU, the UN and NATO as if
without them there is nothing.  One would think that those three
organizations have been around since the dawn of time the way they
talk.  They keep pressing how we are going to be lost without them, as
if we are capable of nothing on our own.  I do give credit to
Rodriguez and Decker.  They apparently paid some attention and have
their representatives here as tourists so we can at least listen to
each other.  At last word Decker's man was showing the chef at that
restaurant across from Parliament the proper way to barbecue."

"Are you going to meet with some of the tourists?" He began to massage
her shoulders.

"Of course.", Antanasia said, "Though it will have to wait until we
get a few things in order first."

"Once we have our own house in order we will not be the poor cousin,
content with their charity but as an equal

"Hopefully so if all goes reasonably well.", she replied, "And Mikhail
in Moldava has quietly sent his sympathetic support.  As much as I figured he
would, I was not going to count on it since he is in slightly worse
straights than us."  Given the multiple abounding ties between the two
nations, in some ways they still carried on as if in the days of old
when they were one nation, and as much as old ties were there, it
wouldn't be good to strain them expecting a particular response.

"That is good." Iordan said, "He has been loyal and a valued ally." A
wry grin crossed his face, "It's almost like we're one country."

"Depending on the when, we have been.", Antanasia smiled, "For now, we
are just watching how the rest react as we go forward."

"It should be interesting."

"That it should.", she said, "Especially after discussing a few
further options with the Finances Minister."

"Oh?" He asked.

"You weren't at the figures crunching session in Parliament we went
through before agreeing to this.", she said, "Even with any privatized
civilian dealings remaining the same, it is expected that the world
markets will be in an uproar, even moreso with our dropping the
prominent governmental arranged ones.  With the moneymen, the mere
mention of a payment not coming has them envisioning the worse.  As
expected, we will be getting the brunt of that and taking into account
the state of things before our decision, it is only a matter of time
before the businesses start worrying as a matter of course whether or
not there is anything to worry about."

Antanasia turned to face him, "As much as we are expecting a drop in
tourism and private business dealings as everyone is worrying about
worst case scenario, of which is a valid concern to have, once
everyone sees we are not racing to where we're recreating the forest
of the impaled and the impact to them is negligible if any at all,
there will be some recouping but for most of what we will need, we
will have to work on getting more income into the country."

Iordan paused, "Have you ever visited the American City Las Vegas?"

She smiled appreciatively.  "You catch on well.", she said, "It's not
as if we have a lack of themes to conceptualize.  Though we will have
to endeavour to avoid the pitfalls seen in Las Vegas or Atlantic City
where outside the casinos it is gross poverty."

"And the Mafia takes the proceeds." He nodded, "Perhaps this is
something more suited to the Justice minister and less a former
soldier."

"All of us are in this together.", she said, "From highest officials,
to captains of industry to former soldiers to gypsy hucksters."

Iordan nodded, then cracked a grin, "Gypsy huckster, are you sure you
don't mean my cousin Anton?"

"Well, the Anton I've known for years since Uni was more partial to
sneaking into the women's dorm and being chased out holding his
clothes in hand for modesty.", she smirked.

Iordan had to laugh, "Not my cousin, he is more likely to actually
sell you  your own watch back."  He shook his head, "On my mother's
side...then again my grandmother is a woman who actually told the SS
to kiss her ass without removing the cigarette."

"She's lucky she wasn't dragged off off to the camps or at least shot on sight."

"I guess the SS men were surprised that she dare talk to Aryan
supermen that way, but the Russians liberated us soon after that.
Tough woman, she raised me when my mother passed."

"That is what we need now, that toughness to shine.", Antanasia said
as she got up, "For now, you do need to unpack and we shall start
dinner.  I do have a meeting with the Ministers of Finance and the
Sciences tonight to go over some developments."

"Sounds like fun, do you want me to play hostess?"  He teased her, "I
think I have a dress that might fit."

"Um..no.", she chuckled as they walked down the hallway.

Hours later, Antanasia was back at Parliament sitting with the two ministers.

"Well.", she asked as she sat down.

"We have gone over everything, even the outlandish ideas.
Calculations are looking at approximately 24 billion euros with what
Sasha's promoting.  If we go with what we know will be the proverbial
lead balloon considering the proposal to be made, 15 billion euros but
with probably enough conditions and red tape to question if it's worth
it.", the Finances Minister said.

"As far as going beyond my proposal, even the Americans are still
thirty to forty years behind in coming up with a commercial variant.",
the Minister of Sciences admitted, "We would be working off what
little research was shared prior to our withdrawal."

Antanasia nodded.  "We are left with a deal with the devil who we know
has a long standing temper to make things feasible quicker on one
hand, and hoping to pull off a miracle worthy of being carved in stone
on the other."

"At this point while we are weathering well with what reserves we
have, we should begin prioritising income.  While the stock markets
are panicking as expected, we must assume the world's governments will
be preying on the fears of the business man that we would be as
foolish as to not honour past and current deals with them as some
punishment for refusing to deal with their arrogance.", Gregor
commented, "At least we can thank the Russians for teaching us it is
better to assume and expect the worse so we are prepared for it."

"Small favours..", Antanasia said dryly, "Have you approached Misha
about the casino proposal?"

"He is worried about the organized crime influence.  Even with what we
advanced with Spain, while they are not as great a problem as they
were after Ceausescu's fall, they are still a problem we must factor
in.", Gregor said.

"If need be, we can grant him the same powers the United States uses
for combating the drug lords.", she said, "Seizing their assets will
help out everyone."

The two men nodded, "So the legalization of gambling is approved?"

"Once we put it to vote in the morning, I give my approval if the vote
goes through, though I don't see why it wouldn't.", she replied,
"Everyone knows we've been hurting for funds in one way or another for
decades."

"Then in the morning, we shall proceed from there.", Gregor said, "We
have enough abandoned warehouses to convert should it go through, and
we can calculate out the percentages to make it a draw for tourists
yet still profitable."

"What calculations?", she said, "We will begin with following the experts."

Gregor nodded, "The Nevada gaming commission does list their
regulations and percentages online.  We know those are profitable
enough to start with and can adjust things once we see how the
actuality plays out."

"Once we begin seeing the returns, we shall gauge which aspect of...",
Antanasia said as she looked at the papers she had and raised an
eyebrow at the Minister of Science.

"What can I say, my brother's been a long time Jethro Tull fan.", the
man replied with a shrug.

She sighed and continued, "Then we shall see which aspect of Project
Aqualung will be most cost effective for the goals we project.  We are
however going to be changing that name when the time comes."

"Agreed, Madame President."

With the discussions finished, the gathering called it a night.

-------------------------------------------------
Actions:

1) Reassure the privatized/civilian businesses as well as their out of
country counterparts that it's still business as usual.
2) Legalizing gambling in Romania, patterning for the regulation will
be currently following what's up on http://gaming.nv.gov/ until
further notice.
3) Begin converting a few abandoned warehouses in Bucharest into
casinos to test the waters.
4) Prepare for the expected grief from organized crime wanting a cut
of the action and deal with them on a case by case basis
5) Establish barest rudiments for 'Project Aqualung', as far as the
actual project itself, that will be handled over time as a separate
series of posts to keep things in a semblance of organization


-- 
--I know there are no lifeguards in the gene pool, but damn, there
ought to be at least a few sharks in the water.