Fred Strong
| Fred Strong | |
 | |
 Who's Who of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Federico Augusto de Almagro y Strong |
| Titles & Offices |
Vice-President of the Government (1749 AN - 1760 AN) Secretary of Defense (1749 AN– 1760 AN) Secretary for National Mobilisation (1744 AN - 1749 AN) Deputy of the Federal Assembly for North Lyrica (1744 AN-present) |
| Birth Date | 12.X.1716 AN (45 AN years) |
| Parents | Felipe Felix de Almagro y Lorca and Penélope Strong |
| Spouse | Assumpta Bonita Ferrer (m. 13.IX.1751 AN) |
| Children | Hilda (b. 1752 AN) · Malthus (b. 1754 AN · Penélope (b. 1758 AN) |
| Family | Grandson of Felipe de Almagro and great-grandson of Augustus Strong |
| Occupation | Politician, Plantation Owner |
| Political Affiliation | FHP |
| Organizations | Humanist Vanguard |
| Known For | Viva el humanismo, carajo! |
| Residence | Beaufort, North Lyrica |
| National Origin |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Citizenship(s) |
Nouvelle Alexandrie |
Federico Augusto de Almagro y Strong, commonly known as Fred Strong, is a Humanist politician and plantation owner from North Lyrica, notable for being the scion of two political dynasties - being the grandson of Felipe de Almagro and the great-grandson of Augustus Strong. He therefore possesses Constancian nationality by blood descent.
Biography
Early life and education
Enrolled at the Humanist Grammarian School, Beaufort, at the age of twelve in 1728 AN. Considered academically unremarkable, but able to gather a clique of hangers-on. Something of a bully, accumulating a number of minor disciplinary infractions. The good family name shielded him from most adverse consequences. Responded favourably to Humanist conditioning, particularly with regards to the necessity and inevitability of hierarchy in a harmonious society.
Transferred to the Primo de Aguilar Institute of the Humanities, Petropolis, in 1731 AN and enrolled into the Imperial Institute for Civil Administration and State Authority in 1734 AN where he studied Economic Coordination and Planning before graduating with honours in 1737 AN.
Returning to North Lyrica in 1738 AN, he would accept a commission with the Corps d'Tirailleurs Alexandrin, maintaining thereby his ties with the Humanist Vanguard of the Federal Humanist Party.
Appointed to the position of junior assistant (purchaser) at his father's Domaine Forté tea plantation in 1738 AN. It was apparently a family decision that he would take an entry level role, learning about the resources and services required to be bought in to sustain the plantation. After a year in that junior position, he was sent to the broking house to learn the intricacies of the trade, representing the interests of the plantation when contending with the ruthless buyers of the ESB Shincha Business and Köping Tea Company. It was a gruelling education, which helped to shed some of his remaining preconceptions regarding human nature, seeing the relentless, indeed remorseless, pressure that the buyers would place upon the plantation's bottom line.
The death of his father in 1742 AN, knifed in the back by a disgruntled day-wage picker of native Lyrican ancestry, would see Fred assume ownership and responsibility for the plantation, and see him assailed by creditors almost immediately.
Political career
Under these trying circumstances, Fred Strong would accordingly turn to politics. His advantage was a good name in Humanist circles on both his patrilineal and matrilineal branches. Letters of recommendation from Elias Wilson-Clarke and Christian Cartier du Bois were enough to gain him a place on the candidacy lists of the Regional Sector Party for North Lyrica, as well as to secure a favourable restructuring of debts owed by the plantation. Of course, for these considerations certain favours would be thereafter owed.
He was first elected as Deputy to the Federal Assembly in the 1744 general election representing the Region of North Lyrica. He would subsequently become aligned to the Social Peace and Humanist Realism ideological currents within the party.
At the suggestion of Christian Cartier du Bois, Strong would schedule regular meetings with the representatives of three major timber corporations (Bois du Nord SA, NorthTimber Industries, and the Lyrican Logging Consortium). Offers of gifts and hospitality at an initial meeting were formally declined. Nonetheless, as leading contributors to the economy of North Lyrica, Strong undertook to represent their interests wherever it did not contradict his obligations in office.
As National Mobilisation Secretary, replacing Sébastien Rousseau, Fred Strong oversaw a comprehensive reorganisation of the Department, and would introduce the Public Space Security Act of 1745 that established a framework for deploying facial recognition technology in designated public spaces and prohibits facial coverings in areas monitored by such systems. He was accordingly, for some time afterwards, a figure of hate for civil rights and digital privacy groups.
The Premier Juan Pablo Jimenez praised Defense Secretary José Manuel Montero as "a soldier-statesman in our finest tradition" and National Mobilisation Secretary Fred Strong as "a brilliant legislator and mind," effectively signaling his preferences for succession ahead of the elections in 1749, following his own sudden resignation on grounds of age.
Montero appointed Fred Strong as Vice-Premier-designate and chief coalition negotiator following the New Alexandrian general election, 1749. Public statements from the FHP transition team emphasised policy-based coalition building and clean governance principles. However, negotiations proceeded slowly through late 1749 AN, with opposition parties making substantial demands. Financial markets reacted negatively to the extended uncertainty, with the Nouvelle Alexandrie Stock Exchange declining and the New Alexandrian écu weakening against major currencies. Business groups expressed concern about policy paralysis during the lengthy government formation process. The fortunes of the FHP negotiators would be dramatically upended by the Pact of Shadows scandal.
In the second month of 1750 AN, Fred Strong, now Vice-Premier, announced the commencement of a review into the Force 1752 initiative and its delivery, with a view to addressing concerns from within the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie that numerous programmes had been borne along by a collective atmosphere of cumulative excitement regarding the possibilities of Alexandrium and Artificial Intelligence. The review was tasked with verifying the claimed potentialities of the myriad technology demonstrators which were being pushed for mass production, and thereafter to:
- Align the newly generated forces to a common operational doctrine;
- Identify areas of duplication and overlap in the procurement programmes with a view to their rationalisation.
The review would be headed by Marshal General Juan Carlos Quispe Mamani, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Council between 1745 and 1748, with an interim report requested within six months.
Some areas of duplication were swiftly identified, with the Ironshield Guardian Air Defense System and Cerberus Dome in particular occupying the same niche as close-in weapon systems likely to be assigned to the force protection role in area defence regiments.
Consideration would also be given to the consolidation of a number of weapons, currently on separate platforms, into an integrated system. These included the aforementioned two but also the Athena and Vulcan air defence systems, with the proposal that each armament should be integrated into the command and control network of a modernised System-2 Missile Complex. With each system working to complement the other, the possibility of an effective area denial bubble, sufficient to cover the operational footprint of a brigade, could be realised.
"I still don't quite understand what the hell it is that we have supposedly been buying. However, I am generally – in principle – willing to point some of these contraptions in the direction of a convenient enemy in order to find out."
The Vice-Premier chaired an inter-departmental coordination committee that met weekly from X.1750 AN through the Federation-wide Sports Summit of 1751 to its conclusion.
The Hato Rey Conference of XIII.1750 AN, saw Vice-Premier Fred Strong, present in Hato Rey on account of a tour of inspection of Alexandrian Legion regiments recently transferred to Boriquén from North Lyrica, meet with Civic Governance Alliance and Humanist deputies in an effort to get the measure of the seemingly unassailable control of the ethnically particularist Wakara People's Party in the region.
In the final days of 1750 AN the further sale of United Manufacturing Corporation (UMC) assets was definitively repudiated by the Vice-Premier, who stated that the purpose of the the UMC was and remained to surge manufacturing output whenever and however higher authority required.
Co-authored the monograph Against Transhumanism with Alexander Melas, circulated amongst party cadres in IV.1751 AN.
He delivered a 45-minute address to approximately 120 senior FHP officials at a closed session of the party's Central Secretariat in Cárdenas on 15.IX.1751 AN. The speech, which remained for internal consumption only and was not shared with the press, warned of the dangers of over-reliance on artificial intelligence and the scarce mineral Alexandrium.
Strong argued that the pursuit of artificial intelligence powered by Alexandrium represented "the most perfect example of a vast energy and resource input for marginal efficiency return," and cautioned that investments disproportionate to their returns, compounded by impending peak extraction, risked forcing "a sudden and dramatic simplification of our society." The address prompted internal discussions on diversifying technological investments beyond Alexandrium-dependent systems, with some cadres advocating for stricter extraction quotas in line with the Alexandrium Horizon report's recommendations.
Participated in the Fontainebleau Summit on Alliance Revitalization, that commenced on II.1752 AN, as part of the formal top-level delegation for Nouvelle Alexandrie. Notably advanced the candidacies of the High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner of the revitalised Raspur Pact.
Supported and voted for the Treaty of Preplava Ratification and Application Act, 1752, establishing relations with Brezovo and Yavorina.
Signed off on Operation Put the Whiskey Down, commenced on 15.XV.1752 AN, which established a conduit for New Alexandrian intelligence, logistical, and technical support to the Imperial Constancian Armed Forces during Operation Red Bamboo, the invasion of Banh Nam.
Vice-Premier Fred Strong, standing in for Premier Jose Manuel Montero who was traveling in Oportia, defended the government response to the PBS banking crisis, 1753-1754. "The system worked. Stress testing was ordered. Stress testing was conducted. A capital shortfall was identified and is being addressed through the proper regulatory channels. Deposits are insured. The CRA is not failing. It is being required to strengthen its capital position. That is not a crisis. That is supervision." FCP leader Gabaza renewed his argument that PBS caps should have been enacted in 1751 AN. "The warnings were correct. The government's response was two years late."
At the initiative of Vice-Premier Fred Strong, the 303rd Army of Observation was organised in Eastern Santander, providing security for resettlement operations and a visible demonstration of New Alexandrian commitment to the Mala'anje Resistance during the Mala self-determination crisis, 1753.
Following the New Alexandrian general election, 1754, the FHP negotiating team, led by Vice-Premier Fred Strong and Chief Whip Daniela Ferrer, signed a preliminary framework with the CGA on 29.IX.1754 AN. Montero did not countersign. Within hours of the framework's circulation to the FHP parliamentary group, senior deputies raised objections.
A parallel negotiation had been underway since the first week after the election. On 23.IX.1754 AN, the Vice-Premier and FHP Chief Whip Daniela Ferrer met informally with four Aldurian independent deputies at a private dinner in Cárdenas. The four, all former community leaders and local officials whose campaigns had been built on personal reputation rather than party affiliation, indicated that a group of Aldurian independents might be willing to provide confidence and budget support in exchange for targeted commitments to the region. Strong and Ferrer reported the conversation to Montero the same evening. These negotiations, left with Ferrer, led to the FHP-Independent confidence and supply agreement, 1754.
The review Strong had commissioned in 1750 AN furnished the rationale for the program that succeeded the initiative it examined. As Secretary of Defense in Premier José Manuel Montero's government, Strong introduced the National Defense Authorization Act, 1755, which authorized Force 1760, the Federation's defense modernization program for the decade following the Fourth Euran War. He presented the bill to the Cortes Defense Oversight Committee on 9.IX.1755 AN and defended it before the chamber the following week; the Federal Assembly passed it on 16.IX.1755 AN by 461 votes to 269, with 19 abstaining. The act enacted the consolidation his review had recommended, merging four overlapping close-in air defense systems into a single System-2 Missile Complex, and carried the enabling provisions for the absorption of the Oportian Self-Defense Forces. Strong cast the program as keeping the force the predecessor had built from "rusting in the shed while the neighborhood gets worse."
When a permanent National Resilience Fund was put to a binding national referendum following the 1757 Cajamarca micrasquake and its reconstruction, Strong became the loudest opponent of the Fund within Premier José Manuel Montero's own government, campaigning openly against it while Montero himself stayed silent until the final days. He held that the Regions should make their own preparations, that every écu committed to a standing reserve would add to the national debt and divert spending from defense and security, and that the proposal was an overreaction to a single local misfortune. The Federation's solidarity, he said, deserved to be scorned. Replying for the government while the polls were open, he argued that federal engineer and commissariat regiments had already deployed to Cajamarca and that the Wechua Nation would not be hobbled by the setback of one city. The Fund was established on 24.XII.1757 AN by 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent, on a turnout of 41.8 percent.
A second binding referendum followed within the year. As the 1759 general election approached, a proposal to cap service as Premier at two terms was put to a binding national referendum. Strong's objection this time was procedural: he led the government's opposition, condemning the "manifest lunacy" of allowing constitutionally consequential questions to be initiated by simple-majority vote and calling for the legislative basis for binding referendums to be urgently reviewed by the Federal Assembly. The proposal was rejected on 1.XII.1758 AN, 64.0 percent to 36.0 percent, though it took just over a tenth of the vote in his home Region of North Lyrica, which he had represented since 1744 AN.
Private life
Famously partial to receiving crates of Clos de Montferrand at gatherings hosted amongst the family's sprawling tea plantations.
Married Assumpta Bonita Ferrer on 13.IX.1751 AN, following an introduction and courtship arranged through the N&H Future Leadership Programme. The wedding in Beaufort, North Lyrica, was a noted society occasion for the region's Humanist cadres and business community. The union was fruitful and yielded Hilda (b. 1752 AN), Malthus (b. 1754 AN) and Penélope (b. 1758 AN).
Relatively conventional in his habits, he was generally believed to only keep one mistress in Cardenas, and to be unusually scrupulous in ensuring that her upkeep is paid for through his allowance from the Domaine Forté.
Business interests
Federico Augusto de Almagro y Strong included a non-executive board position with Iðunn Lyrican Investments Inc. as part of his entry in the members register of interests upon taking his seat in the Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie in 1744 AN.
Inherited the estate of Domaine Forté from his family. The property is held in a blind trust during his service in the executive government, though he is expected to resume active management upon leaving office.
Selected quotes
"I would take leftism more seriously if it wasn't a theatre of audition for the management caste, and there wasn't the perpetual shell game of charitable funding leading back invariably to the taxpayer or some disinterested billionaire foundation, both operated by the management caste."
"What is even the point of a government having a costed programme if, at any moment, any (redacted pejorative slur impugning the dignity of mothers everywhere) can hijack the ship of state by triggering a referendum?"
Honours and awards
See also
- Felipe de Almagro
- Maximillian de Almagro
- Augustus Strong
- Federal Humanist Party
- New Alexandrian general election, 1744
- North Lyrica
