Ave, Sandum Citizens!
The changing of the seasons that this equinox abruptly depicts reflects, in metaphorical ways, the changing political emphasis of Sandus. Prior to this season, establishing the basic economy in Sandus was the primary concern; however, in preparation for the 2015 Economic Goal’s completion, this concern is molting some levels as the trees are to molt leaves. In the upcoming season, greater emphasis will be placed on the Sandum cultural economy: instead of striving for higher economic models than befit our small State, emphasis will be placed on the economic mode established through our cultural activity.
This past season has been a time of greater diplomatic development, which has come to a head under the most recent efforts to gauge international and micronational public opinion. We celebrated — rather in the face of our opponents — the first anniversary of the ground-breaking if controversial Denton Protocol. Continuing with this theme, we have continued to strive for LGBTQ+ rights throughout the world, and have even celebrated Bi Pride today on the Equinox. Furthermore, and along the same process of strengthening relations with LGBTQ+ micronationalists, we have established greater relations with Francophone community — to such an extent that we await the arrival of an addendum to the environmental accord reached at this year’s PoliNations gathering in Alcatraz. What has been wrestled out of several months of passionate work, however, has also seen its problems — especially in regards to the “new” socia systema. Even though these plans have been put on hold for the moment, the negotiations that worked towards this plan were ground-breaking and achieved a new level of intimacy and trust between the three states that compromise the “socius system.”
Constitutional matters have waned, though not always for the best, largely since the addition of the Council was completed previously. This season marks the first anniversary of the beginning of the movement towards that great and revolutionary constitutional change, but even more work must be done. Activity in the Council has waned, to such an extent that it is largely de facto run by the Sôgmô. Changes to the rules of the Council, however, have thankfully prevented the Council from any possibility of complete royal control, as now motions without assent by popular opinion and approval are not binding as decisions by the Council. However, the Sôgmô now sits as the Acting-Facilitator of that democratic body and no decisions have been made in many months: efforts must be done to create a vision and a succinct identity for current and future Sandum citizens so that they may be encouraged to take an active role in the Council.
Let us, however, now turn to the bulk of our report.
Charity Taxes — an effort of continued philanthropy:
The nature of the charity taxes have remained rather constant now, so that they now take the form of philanthropic acts rather than donations of money. However, donations of some sort or another have remained, as well. $121.77 USD has been spent for charity and φιλανθρωπία (philanthropía). This is not any sort of meagre sum explained in the last solstice report. Instead, it is a complete reversal of the ‘decline’ discussed before — though we project in fact a return to prior levels because of the bulk of the ‘working year.’
Moreover, Sandum citizens still take a tremendous charitable part in their deeds. Sandum citizens volunteer and tutor at great proportional levels; they act as custodians, in many ways, of others who are at some sort of health or psychological risk; they act as social activists and advocates for a variety of causes; they serve their faith communities, no matter their diversity of faith — even those in some crisis of faith; finally, they give voiced to oppressed and marginalised peoples. Sandum citizens are still dedicated, in remarkable ways, to the policies envisioned in the Sandum Founding Law, written more than four and a half years ago.
Summer 2015, bringing Sandum Identity into the “real”:
More work must be done towards developing the cultural and social conditions necessary for more citizens — across a diverse geography, both literally and socially — to take part and be active in Sandus. More work ought to be done towards the anthropological and sociological study of how groups and identities form, as well as Marxist perspectives towards the development of class structures posited in Marx’s Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), in the theoretical history posited by E.P. Thompson, and in Michel Foucault’s work. These works will help enable the Sôgmô to understand how class interests are formed and how these interact, theoretically, to form cohesive sociocultural groups.
Using group formation theory, the hope is to bring the Sandum Identity into ‘real’ life. In other words, the hope of several years ante hanc is to be given an academic and micropatriological focus towards affirming the Sandum cultural identity in our citizens so that they might become more active. This is part of a larger trend in Sandus to reflect developments in Sandus in a corpus of micropatriological essays, exemplified by the idiomatic saying: “theory improves practice; practice improves theory.” This will breathe new air, if this is done, into the intellectual movement of Sandum Realism, which has recently seen only modest developments.
Preparing for October — emphasising our Cultural Economy:
Finally, efforts must be made towards the first CPS Party Congress following the great constitutional changes adopted by the previous Congress. Already, Party Secretary Adam von Friedeck is working on preparing for the Party Congress, which will include a conference for intermicronational members. This Party Congress is an auspicious occasion, as it will be held on the actual days of the National Day of Revolution and the Day of the Ways & Means of Revolution; the last time these two days were on the Gregorian weekend was in 2009, when Sandus was first created. This Party Congress, however, will ought to be remembered for a different reason.
The consensus is, in government, that the effort to make a working economy begin on their own out of the basics that have been established has largely proven false; instead of being invigorated by the laying of the basics, work has slowed on the economy. This is not to paint this progress as a failure, however: we now have a systematic understanding of the theoretical workings of the economy. But the direction of the economical developments were in realms that were unpopular for us and our culture. And this conveys the importance of the upcoming Party Congress.
This Party Congress will discuss, at its heart, both economic and cultural matters, but it will also discuss the cultural economy — the economy of culture. The focus of economic developments in Sandus will change, in effect, to see that cultural developments can be economic developments. More must be discussed, however, on how these changes will be made in the future and in what direction, especially as it concerns general involvement from more citizens.
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