May 21, 17 / Can 01, 01 02:28 UTC
Re: Discussion of the draft Constitution ¶
I'm seeing many talking about "democracy", even @LoreZyra, who did that wonderful review. Now, try opening the draft PDF and do a simple search for "democracy".
I found 0 (zero) occurrences of the word throughout all the document. If you shorten the search term to "democr" (like to include "democrat", "democratic", "democracies", etc.) you'll can find 1 (one) occurrence, at pag. 15, chap. 5, art. 16, sub. 5: "State bodies and officials may not intervene in elections, put pressure on citizens or falsify elections during democratic procedures." this may mean there will be some kind of "democratic procedure" at least (even if I may prefer to see some "democratic result" instead).
This could mean we'll not take part into "a democracy"... in fact we're going to take part into a monarchy, Asgardia is going to be a reign, exactly as into the Norse mithology. Odin was "the God King". We'll have Igor as a king (maybe a decree will establish him as a "God" too... this may explain why no reference to religions).
No doubt why "[Asgardia] has no place for political parties": there will be just one "political party", our king's one who, by decree, will establish the political directions for the year to come (by any chance, those directions will be mandatory).
Another point worth noting is I read in no part of this wonderful Constitution who is the State body in charge to "make laws"... yes... there is an evanescent reference (art. 34, sub. 12, lett. a) to the Parliament, which should "adopting Asgardian law", which doesn't seem to me it will "make", or "create", or "write", or "vote for" laws: just "adopting". So, I've to imagine, the laws will be written by someone else (let me guess: the king? maybe helped by the Real Court and the Real Council of Supreme Values).
This is not something new, for us, as we're used to receive (mandatory) decrees, even if someone tells "that's not mandatory: it's a proposal" (ref. the Calendar).
@LoreZyra, as others, noted we spent many efforts to give suggestions while not even full constitutions, to the suggestions gathering thread, the same as we did for the Unity document. Now we're seeing a Unity document which is nearly exactly the same as the one we received to comment (and, hopefully, amend). I did a rapid check with an online Diff utility: the two documents, apart very small differences in grammar and punctuation, are exactly the same (do it yourself: the results will be amazing to see).
And, despite all the suggestions I read, about the Constitution, I found in no part any reference to a "monarchy". So this is the exact degree in which our suggestions are held... I would not like to think the degree in which we'll be taken in the future, then, with the king busy in writing all the laws, promanating all the decrees... collecting all the taxes.
I thought we was treated a little "marginally" as we are users (so guests, legally speaking) but our status would be improved, after becoming citizens, but now I'm seeing how things will get worse, not better.
It's not a secret I'm from Italy: despite the fact we, like the great majority of the people around the world, came from a monarchy, we left it behind more than 70 years ago (1946) and it's likely not coming back. I born free, not having to bow to any "king": my President is "one of us", a citizen like many others, with a special degree in constitutional law, but it's clear that I pay for his bread (and butter), not that him is paying for mine.
I can believe that, for many in this forum, is not that great burden to stay under a monarchy, as they're even out of Asgardia (yes, even if it's 2017, monarchies are still around).
That said, I'm not ready to become a subject, not by my will at least.
As a last consideration, I was very curious to see how a company could have become a State: now I know it.
Have to thank @LoreZyra for his fantastic review, which helped me into understanding some obscure parts of the text, @Scarbs, @ekampp and @bluecloud to have expressed my exact feelings, leaving me free to add something few than the tons of things I was writing.
I've to tell @petrv that there is no need to delay the constitutional referendum: one month is more than enough to digest (AKA "to take note") the fact you'll vote for this one, the same as you'll vote for the exact Document of Unity we received in March.
There is a company, AIRC, which is striving to become a State, a CEO which is striving to become a king... and kings need subjects to pay taxes. Are we going to see some kind of Robyn Hood riding a rocket to flee from king's tax collectors, into Sherwood's asteroid belt? Will the main colony's module be named Nottingham? ;-)