Roundup with Ross
Hello again my fellow Asgardians. It’s been another awesome few weeks since the last post (and yes,
I did say that I would do it weekly
but let’s all agree to retcon that.) Bit of a longer post this time round, but I'll post up a more streamlined summary piece soon.
What’s Asgardia currently doing?
I’ve been seeing a lot of comments and questions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram wondering what’s going on in Asgardia and I wanted to take a little time out to discuss what we’re up to.
Most people reading this blog will come from an established nation – They will be used to a certain level or order. A status-quo with their Government where they have rules, laws, civil services, taxes and so on – And it’s likely been this way since birth. So, it’s easy to understand why people may well take these things for granted.
These nations, in most cases, have spend hundreds of years to get where they are – some nations will have had thousands of years – But in our case, we’ve just been running for just over two years. We need to build everything from Scratch! Our laws, our services, our economy, our infrastructure, our Government and everything else besides.
The order in which this is done is very important – Because we need to establish strong foundations that the nation will be able to build upon. At the moment, Asgardia is working on three main areas:
-
Formation of Government
-
Development of Economy
-
Development of Legislation
Formation of Government
Ana Diaz, Chairman of the
Government
is currently working to put a Government together and is taking care to get people with real, credible experience to help our fledgeling nation take these first steps. Asgardia has to deal with a lot of 'nay-saying', and the solution of making sure that Government is stocked with credible industry power-houses is a good way to show people how serious we are.
As I said in my
last post
Leon Shpilsky was appointed as the
Acting Minister of Finance
. This week, we also announced that eminent scientist, Floris Wuyts was appointed as the
Acting Minister of Science
.
This is a man with over 200 publisihed works, 4000 citations and a specialisation in the ares of space physiology.
I can't think of anyone more fitting to lead our Nation's Science efforts. There are more candidates and more appointments on the horizon, so keep your eyes open for those.
Development of the Economy
In the world of today, a Nation's economy is its lifeblood. Until we live in a world that doesn't run on money, Asgardia needs to find a way to become financially capable. Its no secret that achieving our goals is going to require a serious amount of money - Launching Satellites, running services for citizens, building a telecoms network, establishing settlements on the moon - none of this will be possible if Asgardia doesn't find a way to generate income.
"Asgardia will work to develop an economy, Initially focussing on the Digital services sector that would give back to Citizens"
One of the key focusses at the moment is on doing just that - with the formation of Parliament's Finance Committee and appointment of the Minister of Finance, Leon Schpilsky, Asgardia is moving forward with the development of important systems that our economy will be built on.
Asgardia held its
first Financial Congress
in Nice where a lot of work was done to build an understanding of our current challenges and get the ball rolling on finding solutions to them - Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli postulated that Asgardia will work to develop an economy, Initially focussing on the Digital services sector that would give back to Citizens when there was surplus profits.
Testing on the SOLAR is currently underway -
a vote has been called
to determine the most popular tradable currencies in Asgardia so that the effects of trade and initial rates of the SOLAR can be determined and more details of the currency are expected to be passed to Parliament as early January 2019.
Asgardia will also be attending one of the biggest and most influential financial events this year -
the World Economic Forum
which brings together business leaders, investors, politicians and journalists from across the globe to discuss current global economic and social issues - An important venue for a new Nation.
In Paraliment's winter session, it is also expected that they will be discussing and voting upon the budgets for 2019
And, as we all know by now,
the Citizenship Fee
has also been launched, giving Asgardians a chance to lend some financial support to the nation and get in line to become some of Asgardia's first
legally
recognised citizens.
Development of Legislation
Without a common set of 'rules of engagement', it would be a rather chaotic Nation. Asgardia's laws will govern how people are expected to conduct themselves in a multitude of areas and ensure that there is a fair framework that protects people's rights and freedoms that are outlined in the constitution.
The Legislative body of Asgardia,
Parliament
, has been hard at work. They have been holding meetings, drafting documents, attending Parliamentary sittings and have already put two laws and several key amendments into force. Two princple laws have been given 'ascent' by the head of nation and its likely that more are on the way following Parliament's Winter Sitting.
But wait... There's more
There are a lot of other areas that Asgardia is working on that I can't really talk much about at the moment but to name a few;
-
Our Website
-
New communication systems for Asgardian Residents
-
Physical Resident ID cards
-
Bi-lateral relations with nations and organisations
-
Public Relations
And in amongst those things there is all the work that's being done by the people that manage the support mailbox, the people that keep the website up and running, the people that are publishing interesting news items on asgardia.space, the moderators, graphic designers, public relations, marketing-- It might not always be easy to see, but I can assure you that the wheels are turning and progress is being made.
There are a lot of things in the works to help create that vision we all believe in! If you want to help make Asgardia a reality, then why not consider contributing with the Citizenship Fee, or, Running as a Mayor for your city.
If you found this useful, then please be sure to comment, upvote and share the post!