Communique No. 3:

Letter from the President to the Citizens of the Virtual Nation

Three months have passed since the Virtual Nation’s declaration of independence and we grow stronger every day.  Our glorious nation has drawn to its shores citizens from all occupations: workers and professionals, journalists, artists, athletes, lawyers, doctors, human rights activists, IT experts and refugees. And each one of you has brought with you an idea, proposal or a gift to this young Nation – and many hopes!

One of our newest, better-known citizens is the cartoonist who has made the world laugh and cry with his famous drawings in the newspaper Le Monde, Jean Plantu. His gift to the Nation will be a proposal for the flag, which we look forward to submitting to the citizenry soon. At the same time, Plantu’s equally popular co-cartoonists for peace, SAVROS, Kishka and Dilem have given permission for the VN to display their cartoons as we wish. You can hear our interview with them during their recent visit to Geneva on the newest VN Radio Programme.

Meanwhile, an international lawyer Mohamad Munib has also acquired VN citizenship and he is busy preparing a project to put on trial famous historical figures. He tells us he is preparing a surprise exclusive for the Virtual Nation…

After reading citizens comments and first consultations, our Minister of Communications has prepared a draft constitution for discussion by the citizens. The constitution will soon be published on our website and will be open for an extended citizen consultation through the Virtual Nation Forum (Bulletin Board). The Forum will be launched in April exclusively for citizen comments and we are looking forward to a vigorous and free debate. The Forum will be moderated in the three main VN languages:

·        Arabic: by Ayman (Ramallah) and Ayman (Italy)

·        French: Christian and Barbara (Geneva)

·        English: We are hoping that Peter Polish, our Minister without Portfolio will accept our appointment to this task

As the media flash sections show, our unique Nation continues to generate interest in different languages and media. Ayman, a citizen living in Italy, has proposed that he and a group of friends develop the fourth VN language (Italian) We have yet to launch a dedicated global drive to attract new citizens, waiting until our Ministry of Interior can become a bit more active in registering and welcoming new citizens. In the meantime, the newly (self-)appointed Ministers (Stupidity, Mountain People, Parents and Infancy) are requested to present and post their work-programmes.

In the meantime, the roving journalist Ferial has promised to act as Minister of the Street Pulse and to keep us all on our toes so we don’t become like any other Nation!

Forward!

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Minutes of the First Meeting of the VN Provisional Government (Geneva, 19 January 2007)

Present: President, Vice President, Ministers of Communications, Justice and Sound Engineering

Regrets: Ministers Without Portfolio, Laughter and Commerce

The Council of Ministers decided to prepare the next Radio Programme to communicate widely with citizens. All citizens are requested to make their suggestions for forthcoming topics, and to share telephone contact information on personalities, leaders, artists who could participate in our Programme and who we could contact by phone. All helpful suggestions and virtual networking welcome!

An automated system of reply to all new citizens will soon be operational in the three official languages (so far) to ensure all new citizenship requests are dealt with swiftly and with the warmth of the rising sun over our new nation!

The meeting approved the President’s final nominations for new “non-sovereign” Ministerial portfolios, namely Forestry, Dreams, Information Technology and Translation (see News for more).

It was also agreed to terminate any further “auto-proclamation” of new Ministers henceforth, while noting that several “sovereign” and important Ministerial positions have yet to be filled: Foreign Relations, Finance, Interior and of course Love and Peace;

All citizens who wish to be considered for any of these or other functional Ministerial positions to make a brief statement of Ministerial intentions, relevant experience and motivations, so that all citizens may share in the selection process of these remaining Ministers transparently and ensure integrity at the top of the Nation as well as at its base.

The Ministers discussed a proposal from a new citizen to establish a Virtual Civil Service system, as a basis for a possible Virtual Currency! Each citizen should be able to propose his/her services to the Virtual Nation. The users would connect to this via their username and password. This means that any user should be able to edit his/her profile. This would require an infrastructure catering for the following:

        a) The service(s) the user would like to propose (It could be one or multiple)
        b) User availability (probably on a calendar)
        c) The amount of credit accumulated by providing services to the others. (Credits --> Currency = ??)
        d) The credits earned can be used to get someone else's services.
        e) The credits should be transferable to other members of the Virtual Nation (Donation)
        f) An on-line credit ranking would be created to show the most "active" members of the Virtual Nation

-     Along with other (constitutional issues), such proposals will be shown on the site and on a VN online Bulletin Board will soon be operational to allow a more visible and immediate form of communication.

-     We have received two proposals regarding the colours of the national flag, ranging from a transparent sheet without colour, to a multicolored spectrum of the different colours of the human race. The Ministers await additional proposal before submitting to the Nations artists for their professional appraisal and follow up.

-     The Minister of Communications presented a draft constitution for the VN (since the text posted on the site is only the draft statute of a Virtual Nation association to be eventually registered in the real world when the need arises). After long deliberations the Council of Ministers approved a brief first, preambular paragraph to the Basic Law (not constitution) of the Virtual Nation.

-     This text will soon be posted on the Bulletin Board to be launched soon to launch a wide debate on additional subjects and laws that may be required or desired by our citizenry. This citizen’s forum will be an ongoing tool to launch new ideas, establish partnerships to get things done and make available important information directly to citizens.

-     The Ministers appealed to all citizens to widely publicise the Virtual Nation to their friends, contact lists, and media in their second (real) countries.

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