Lapalam
| |
| Flag of Lapalam | |
| Motto: "Silence kills and gravity wins" | |
| No Map Available | |
| Region | Region |
|---|---|
| Capital | Lapalom |
| Official Language(s) | English |
| Leader | rationality |
| Population | 6 million |
| Currency | Lim |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Contents
General Informations: overview
The People's Republic of Lapalam is a tiny, socially progressive nation, renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 6 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.
The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass -- is mainly concerned with Social Welfare, although Education and Healthcare are secondary priorities. The average income tax rate is 43%, but much higher for the wealthy. A substantial private sector is led by the Retail industry, followed by Information Technology and Cheese Exports.
Voting is voluntary and cars are banned. Crime is well under control. Lapalam's national animal is the sloth, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the lim.
Government
For the people in Lapalam, freedom is the most important pillar for the construction of society.
Due to it's small (but growing) territory, Lapalam is quite easy to lead and its government structure tends to follow this light weight structure.
The president of Lapalam is elected every year, has the same power as each other parliamentarian (45 people at least, 200 at most), and it's elected out of three compulsory civil ballot. People are shown the entire parliament and, for each candidate, the entire list of his/her proposals and laws. Three candidates emerge from the first ballot, two out of the second, after the third, Lapalam elects its president. There's no limit for charges, the more prosperous president of Lapalam has been Moneis Von Iags, who ruled (and still rules) the country 'till its foundation. Von Iags is one of the 5 founding fathers of Lapalam.
In the same presidential ballot, citizen are asked to dismiss the worst candidates (based on their proposals and voted laws). Due to the high frequency of elections, each candidate can be re-integrated in the parliament every year. If a parliamentarian is dismissed 5 times in his/her career, he/she is canceled from the list of candidates.
The "Lapalamian card of human rights" is the code of laws for the nation. It gathers all the rules and laws the government and the founders came up to through time.
The national religion is Multi-pantheism and, as written within the religion itself, it can't be compulsory. Everyone is free to profess any religion he/she believes, in respect of other ways of thinking.
Respect is the most common world in the "Lapalamian card of human rights".
All parliament's proposals must be marked as "pop" (popular consense) or "nec" (necessary law). The "nec"s laws are voted within the parliament and discussed with the civil population after they become effective, the "pop"s have to be voted by people in a referendum before they become effective.
The polling stations are always open, three people must be present during the day and two during the night. Two Lapalam Security Guards must always be present.
This continuous "call" for interest in political life's participation is well accepted by all members of the community, the ones who vote the most, tend to become parliamentarians, the ones who don't vote at all, believe that the freedom of Lapalam is not in danger.
Bench
The way judges are elected is similar to the way parliamentars are, the difference between these two categories could be the studies they made, but this is not a discriminant (this comes from the free structure of Lapalam, in facts judges are rarely non-giuridic students and parliamentarians are rarely non-social or non-technical students).
As much as parliamentarians, judges are not immune to (or differently seen by) laws.
For major crimes, Lapalam Security Guard asks for life treatment, for other crimes treatments change according to crime's relevance.
History
From nothing to Lapalam
The beginning of the century appeared to be the end of hopes for the entire humanity, all primary energy sources seemed to come to an end, petrol was about to end within twenty or maybe fewer years (demand kept growing mindlessly), natural energy and renewable sources were badly seen by fashion and consumist society, capitalistic governments couldn't lose their power, based on petrol and weapons.
Something had to change, and five people (who had met online), came up to a simple but fundamental solution: "building Utopia".
Even if leaving their home seemed a loss (the first and best solution they came up to was becoming someone in the political system of their country and try to change things from the inside; this idea rose to be too time consuming and of no real effect), they created a simple Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Strategy Game with a public and a private forum/blog, the public one was used to enlist people for the private one.
In the private forum people discussed their way of seing reality and possible solutions for earth problems. Every solution came up to become part of a single and quite long Card. This Card would become the "constitution spine" for Lapalam (the name came out to make everyone smile after an infinite evening where all the private forum users gathered and spended the whole time suggesting their possible ideas, nobody knows who, maybe helped by some alcohol, in the middle of a laughing moment screamed "Lapalam, let's call it Lapalam").
The people in the forum started to live in little groups (with losses and gains of what this means) and all incomes started to be gathered in a single bank account (with little risk) and a percentage of this money would be "risked" in Stock Exchange. The money for living was assured to everyone, the extras were put in this "dream account" (as called by the community).
Soon the money appeared to be enough for the first step of Lapalam's building. Rumors of a huge donation tend to agree that the 5 founders put in the project a milion dollars or so.
Lapalam, a land of people
Being there an endless need for energy, the first product Lapalam offered once bought (the transaction came out to be a normal event rich people acquired islands to show off, nothing more than a status symbol) was clean-energy. The production started six months after Lapalam's establishment. At this time, all you could see on the island were a few houses and strange vehicles running around. At a more specific glance something could be seen, a continuous naval traffic brought a huge amount of people to the island.
Where did this people go? Houses weren't more than a hundred and (according to the log Lapalam keeps since the foundation) about 10 thousand people came to Lapalam during the first year.
The energy production increased according to "immigration".
The connection was a simple transformation. The government of Lapalam had signed a contract with some of the most powerful nations in the world:
1) All majour criminals can be hosted in Lapalam at a small cost. 2) The nation who draws advantage of point (1) is offered a corresponding amount of lowered price natural energy.
At the end of the first year, Lapalam's residents were less than 1 thousand, but the real population of the island was around 8 thousand people (not counting the people who came and went away during this period).
Lapalam's secret started to unveil after the first witness came back from the island:
criminals in Lapalam were brought underground, in a huge hangar, similar to a gym where thousands of stationary bicycles and tapis roulant were set;
cells were on another underground level;
Security Guards were friendly but inflexible;
after the treatment the criminal could go back to his/her land or chose to work for Lapalam.
A few criminal joined Lapalam's community, but he/she didn't caused too much harm to other members ("freemen" as Lapalam's religion refers to men/women.
Lapalam, a land for people
Freedom is the most important ingredient for a Lapalamian, and freedom means "the pleasure of being better than ourselves" (another Lapalam's motto).
In Lapalam the concept of possession is quite different from the occidental and capitalistic way of thinking, it's not abolished or anarchized, but setted to a standard. "Freedom is raising standards" (of course a Lapalamian motto).
Every Lapalamian has the right (and the duty) to have a house, being that a loft, a mansion house or whatever he/she likes or needs. Every healthy Lapalamian must spend one month per year helping others to build their houses (if his/her job is to build houses, this limit doesn't take effect).
Every Lapalamian has the right (and the duty) to have a work, according to his/her studies and physical conditions. The salary is set (and adjusted) by technical commissions of parliamentarians (those commissions must be of technicians and economists only), judged by the parliament with a "nec" procedure.
All other rights are gathered in the "Lapalamian card of human rights".
Statistics: what journalists write about Lapalam
Domestic Statistics
Government Category: Democratic Socialists Government Priority: Social Welfare Economic Rating: Weak Civil Rights Rating: Very Good Political Freedoms: Excellent Income Tax Rate: 46% Major Industry: Information Technology National Animal: sloth National Currency: lim (L$) Total Population: 8,000,000
Government Budget Details
Administration: L$1,236,288,345.60 15% Social Welfare: L$2,225,319,022.08 27% Healthcare: L$1,071,449,899.52 13% Education: L$1,071,449,899.52 13% Religion & Spirituality: L$412,096,115.20 5% Defense: L$0.00 0% Law & Order: L$0.00 0% Commerce: L$247,257,669.12 3% Public Transport: L$1,071,449,899.52 13% The Environment: L$906,611,453.44 11% Social Equality: L$0.00 0%
Economic Details
Exchange Rate: L$9.9905 = $1 Gross Domestic Product: L$16,190,722,304.00 GDP Per Capita: L$2,023.84 Unemployment Rate: 24.05% Consumption: L$7,948,800,000.00 Government Budget: L$8,410,124,800.00 Government Expenditures: L$8,241,922,304.00 Government Waste: L$168,202,496.00 Imports: L$2,023,840,288.00
