Hello again from Parliament. We’re back this week with another update about the work that we’re doing and the progress that the Nation is making towards its goals. We want to start out by thanking everyone that has shown their support for Asgardia by contributing the Citizenship fee. The more people that are able to become residents helps to move the nation forward and allow us to tackle practical goals that come with a price-tag attached to them. We appreciate your support and belief in our Space Nation of Asgardia. If you’d like to contribute financially to the nation, you can do so by clicking on your profile picture > Selecting ‘Government Services’ > Clicking ‘pay’ under the ‘resident fee’ :: Upcoming Benefits for Residents :: Residents are allowed to have a direct say in the development of the nation and will be the first to access the benefits of Asgardia at the moment, Residents are invited to provide suggestions to amendments to the constitution as we prepare for a constitutional review. https://asgardia.space/en/page/referendum-on-amendments Parliament working hard to provide value to our Residents and supporters and we are currently investigating a range of different services that will return benefits directly back to people that are supporting the development of Asgardia. One of the things that we’re looking at is partnering with various companies and agencies from around the world to look at securing agreements and deals such as travel and health insurance for Asgardians that Asgardian Residents will get to use at favourable rates and we will be releasing more details about the first of these agreements in the coming weeks. We are also pushing through legislation that will allow Residents to start their own businesses in Asgardia backed up by legislation that will provide standards and protection for people’s intellectual properties. This is a great opportunity for pioneering Asgardians to join the first wave of entrepreneurs. In the coming weeks, we’ll also be releasing information about how people can start the process of registering their businesses with our new Business Registry system. Over time, as we grow and our economy improves, we will be releasing more and more services that our Residents will be able to take advantage of and more ways for people to contribute to the Nation as we are aware that not everyone is able to make a financial contribution - we hope that the ability for Asgardians to exchange goods and services with one another will help people in this area. :: Mayors :: Things on the Mayoral front have been fairly quiet since the elections took place, however - Mayors are still an important piece of Asgardia and the Nation has big plans for the Mayors in the future. Some of the delays in empowering Mayors is simply a matter of legislating what their powers and responsibilities are. The Citizenship Committee is taking point on connecting with the Mayors and discussing ways to formalise their work in Asgardia - Last week, the Committee met with several Mayors and discussed the creation of a formal process in which Mayors could inform Parliament of their needs. It was also hinted that the position of the Mayors would be raised in Tallinn with the visiting Ministers who will be attending during the Parliamentary sitting to discuss the capacities of the Mayors and help to further shape and define the role. One thing is certain; The Mayor will become a very important role in Asgardia in the future - if you’re interested in contributing to the nation, being a Mayor is a great way to take up a major role - there are still spaces for Mayors - you can find out more about it here: https://asgardia.space/en/mayoral-elections/ :: The Science and Investment Congress :: Finally, AMP Enrico Rizzato had some interesting thoughts on the congress that he wanted to share about why he is excited about this upcoming event. My main impression is that the attempt to migrate to outer space as a human civilization will lead us to face our limits. The fact of remaining bound to a terrestrial-type environment, which has always been our cradle, has so far left us dormant in our cultural childhood, providing us with the appropriate alibi for not facing our social and cultural limits. Trying to live in a strictly hostile environment, because extraterrestrial space is like that, will inevitably lead us to face those limits. I hope this beautiful challenge will lead us to improve as a species. In this sense, i see the Darmstadt congress as the beginning of a journey in this direction. Especially for Asgardia, but not only. It is pleasant to think that Asgardia can be a stimulus for the improvement of the whole humanity, not only for its own citizens, who will probably be the first to benefit from this new cultural attitude. I hope above all that the ideas proposed at the October congress will go in this direction, and, at the same time, will be convincing for investors, given however that the enterprise we are trying to undertake as Asgardians requires considerable economic efforts. In this sense, I am mostly interested in what is planned to be discussed at the second day of the congress. In particular about the round table on "The problems of investing in long term space projects". I hope that the discussion on these topics will serve to make us and our tasks more popular, even among institutional investors, who until now have always given these matters the simplistic consideration of a mocking smile. It is probably an optimistic hope, but somewhere we - humans - have to start, and I'm happy and proud that Asgardia is one of the forerunners in this area, both as an Asgardian Citizen, as a Member of Asgardia Parliament, as a member of parliamentary Citizenship Committee (...which, in the future, will probably be heavily involved in Asgardia developments into space), but mainly as a simple human being, belonging to a cultural species that needs grow and face its own limits ... to overcome them.