Reviewing the flurry of activity over the past couple of weeks, things had definitely Been Done. We had established a Cabinet of enthusiastic and qualified members, my own position was clarified, a Constitution in progress, roads, transport, development plans... and the beginnings of a market economy with the prospect of expansion through the Business Development Agency was now moving ahead. Its function is modeled on a well-tried example from Mondragon in Basque Spain. Basically, new business projects are vetted for viability, with collateral for the bank loan being secured by the project itself. Experienced businessmen help the new business get started and supervise it until it is established. Since these advisors are mostly retired they do not charge for their services. And of course our banks do not charge interest as such, just a small admin and insurance fee.
So with a little initial encouragement, plus suitable publicity for new ideas and their perpetrators, things began to move along quite merrily. With us, Mr Harvey, its a community effort to make us collectively as productive, and therefore as prosperous as possible. The Business Development Agency does just that: develop business.
And that rather leads on to our money... a story in itself.
We continued for some time with a cranky old money system based on Mister Bs bits of paper. I believe I have already made it clear that an economy requires real products and services before one can worry about facilities for trading them. But eventually we had to get around to it, once the economy was doing well and employment was picking up. Also Mister Bs printing press was becoming unreliable, and there was no way we could have printed more than one colour as the registration would not have been sufficiently precise. It was a good machine, but simply worn out. So we would have to buy a new printing press, get expensive plates made in Britain, buy stocks of special paper, and on top of that, we would need to buy coins since we couldnt mint them ourselves. All together a horrendous expense.
So we made a quantum leap. First of all, our telephone system was pretty much on the rocks, slow and cranky, and costly to bring up to date. Fortunately human ingenuity intervened and with the help of an overseas Telecom company miracles happened, and almost overnight or at least thats how it seemed everyone had a mobile cell-phone. Of course that was happening all over the world. People were simply leap-frogging right over expensive and unreliable fixed-line static phone systems in Africa and many other areas.
The next development was the use of mobile phones for banking. This crept into our society and began to take hold before we noticed. As soon as we did notice it, we saw a golden opportunity to jump the whole expensive cash-and-notes thing and go for electronic banking exclusively. And thats how we came to be an almost cash-less society, as you have of course already observed whilst here.
On the subject of finance, we were concerned, as I am sure many good citizens around the world are also concerned, about over-burdensome taxes, which in a cashless society cannot be... circum-navigated. We tackled that problem early and head-on by establishing our Constitutional Executive with a special Finance department, the duty of which is to scrutinize every penny of government expenditure to ensure that it gives value for money. And of course our government servants are all paid according to our standard scale, no huge bloated salaries for them. And so-called expenses are tightly controlled to the point of virtual non-existence.
My point here is that we try to satisfy government critics like you, and myself, that anything you pay to government is carefully and productively spent, not frittered way on ladies underwear. I mention that particularly because it was once confessed to me by a diplomat in Vienna not one of ours as we have done away with such non-productive officials that a purchase he made in my presence was for his mistress, and that money was no object since his taxpayers would foot the bill. It was spoken with an air of jest and pride which I found quite distasteful. But I confess I tactfully said nothing since I was about to be taken to lunch by that worthy gentleman, a lunch which I strongly suspected would also be financed by the generosity of his taxpayers. Such is the world.
Another concern could be... well bank accounts seem more solid than a nebulous figure on a cell phone screen. And we fully understood that. But let me first point out that these days all bank transactions are pretty much paperless, so we do rely on backups and fail-safe mechanisms. In response to any concerns as related to our specific situation, the Telecom company which operates our central bank clearing system in which all accounts are duplicated, maintains three real-time updating mirror accounts in three different time zones and continents. So failure would be pretty much unthinkable. Our partners are highly competent, and charge us virtually nothing. I believe they regard our enterprise as a useful ongoing experiment. We are still, strangely enough, somewhat in the forefront you see.
However, the bottom line, Mr Harvey, is that running a monetary or credit system this way is a fraction of the cost of financing notes and coin, and certainly everyone has taken to it. It is just so convenient. We do also have debit cards which we give to foreigners and our visitors. You of course have one yourself which you have been using whilst here. But no cash! One of the benefits of coming in late, as it were, is that one can skip all the slow and painful development process and plunge straight into the latest technology.
Another example of that process lies in our transport policy. We decided I decided at a very early stage that we would have no cars, no private vehicles on our island, save only for service to remote dwellings.
Here again we were starting with a clean slate in that the ex-presidents collection, my Beetle and the BMW motor-cycles were the only vehicles apart from trucks and buses. So we had to decide. Do we go for a quiet, pedestrianized town where people can stroll and relax and breathe? Do we go for narrow country roads requiring minimum upkeep because they are used only by public vehicles? Or do we let rip and end up with pollution and traffic chaos and a great dual carriageway ringing our island and ruining the coast? I realize I have loaded the question a little, but not unrealistically I think.
However I hasten to add that with no private cars as an alternative, the efficiency and convenience of public services becomes paramount. Our bus services are under constant review. People tell the administration what they want in the way of timetables or possible new services. The buses are modern and comfortable all built here on imported chassis! And Tulu makes trailers too, so that people no longer have to put goods and animals on the roofs. Our trucks and buses are regularly checked, and the drivers are licensed after passing a rigorous test. Speed limits are clearly signposted on the roads and Tulu puts large speedometers in the middle of the dashboard where the passengers can see them. They can do their own enforcing you see! They watch the drivers like hawks!
Another point I should mention about public transport reliance is that any new housing and commercial developments must be designed with public transportation in mind, clustered together in close-knit communities. Of course all our communities are surrounded by parkland for public use, so there is no shortage of fresh air and opportunities for exercise. That is what makes public transport work effectively. The usual great suburban spreads of homes in gardens with wide service roads makes public transport inherently difficult to provide economically.
Now I thnk I know what you are thinking, or if not, what you will inevitably think sooner or later! How was this decision reached? Was it the result of a so-called democratic process? Is our country inded a Democracy?
Well I would humbly no daringly suggest that we are the most democratic country in the world! Each of our villages will debate upcoming legislation, pre-published in advance, so parliamentary debates are well prepared. Everyone, literally everyone, has the opportunity to air his or her views, and actually have them taken into real consideration! And if thats not real democracy, tell me what is!
Government was established right from the start, and remains today, a retail operation. The people are the customers of government, and expect to be able to interact with government on a continuous basis. Our entire legislative process is open to question at all times. Our people are encouraged to make good use of it. And believe me Mr Harvey they do!
So that is our government. We have one single law which is unchangeable, a law which is simple, a law which everyone can understand. Live your own life as you wish, but do not harm anyone else. That is our Basic Law, upon which all other laws are based, and from which all other laws are derivations, so to speak. It is simple enough for all to understand, surely. But we teach it, too.
We begin at the beginning. Right from kindergarten. We have, in modern parlance, zero tolerance for any kind of aggression or bullying. Our teachers are trained to watch for it, and to establish firmly in our childrens minds that such conduct is not acceptable. As they grow older we teach the same thing but in a more mature fashion. We point out that your family life, your standing in your neighbourhood, your ability to work productively and amicably with colleagues will all be improved if you simply learn to be nice to people. It is in fact one of the most important skills one can learn and practice though regrettably it is neither taught nor even formally recognized in most nations educational establishments. That is one reason why there is so much violence in the world.
We have very little violence in our country. Indeed an act of violence is a very rare occurrence I am pleased to say. I believe this is because we educate against it. We teach mutual respect. We legislate it in peoples dealings with one another, in trade and the use of natural resources, and if necessary, we enforce it.
We also teach that if governments and government employees do become corrupt it is not just the system we should blame. People too have a responsibility. If you have wealth, for example, you obviously safeguard it. So also, we teach that honest, responsible government and the benefits which come from it must likewise be safeguarded by public knowledge and vigilance.
But we I! theorize too much! Let us turn to practicalities for a change! For a start, if you cast your mind back, you may recall that you arrived on our island by a plane which landed on hard ground, not on the water. And therby hangs another tale.
Im afraid that Jesse, the Old Goose as we called her, eventually had an appointment with her maker. At around the time the Goose met her end, her pilot, Jim Daley, had had about enough himself. Hes really a splendid fellow, hearts in the right place and all that. He decided hed like to retire here, and he married a very nice local girl. Obviously he shared our concern as to how we could replace the air connection. He went off one day to take the Goose to her final resting place, and came back with a DC-3 which he managed to land on a flat area in the hills. The village school building was located there, and the kids played football on the flat ground. He stopped just short of the brand-new schoolhouse. Good thing too, as the school was in session at the time.
The teacher was furious, but the kids were delighted! They immediately jumped on board, ignoring the teachers instructions to get back to your desks AT ONCE. The kids were the first people to board what would become our national airline. Jim had sold his house in Australia and bought the plane out of his own money. Of course we paid him back over a period. So we had a plane, and we made a well-drained flat grass runway, but we needed some kind of a terminal building. And thats a bit of a story in itself.
The schoolhouse by the runway was old but we had patched it up well. Then a lady came from some educational charity and said we needed a new schoolhouse. So she sent one. All modern metal and plastic, prefabricated in sections. We had pages of instructions in the form of diagrams, with descriptions in seventeen languages. The only trouble was that when it was up, the schoolteacher didnt like it and nor did the children. They all said it was hard and unsympathetic. It was not our style you see. But we left it until the educational lady had come and officially opened it. Then the villagers rebuilt the old schoolhouse closer to the village. And the new modern schoolhouse by the runway became a very appropriate building to receive our incoming tourists.
Jim built himself a nice little house by the runway and now hes our air traffic controller. He brought a friend along to pilot the plane, an old army buddy. So that was that. The DC-3s a great plane you know. Jims favourite comment is that the only replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3. Its ability to take off and land on grass made it ideal for us. We still havent needed to pave the runway yet!
Of course, one cannot underestimate the value of tourism. It brings the world to our doorstep, and people take our exports away, so saving us the shipping costs. We make all sorts of small things, art, carving, jewelry, our ladies dip pieces of tropical fruit in chocolate I indulge myself with a large box every Christmas!”
Well I must say, Sir Joshua, I could easily retire to your island!
Then please do so, Mr Harvey. We will look forward to that!
Perhaps I should invest in a house now, before all the prices go up.
That will not be necessary. Our prices do not go up.
How so? Property prices are on the rampage all over the world!
Yes I know. And in countries which call themselves developed and civilized young people are finding it impossible to afford a home in many localities. Also, when city rents go up, some people are deluded into thinking that its good for the city. But in truth, when city rents go up, everything goes up with them. Why does 5-cents-worth of coffee cost 10 cents here and $3.50 in a downtown New York shopping mall? High rents, thats why. A fine example of the non-productive overheads we discussed erlier.
Last year I went on a little foreign jaunt, and in Vienna I repaired as usual to my favourite Café, or at least that was my intention. It has been there for four hundred years. Lived through the Turkish siege in 1685. Now it is closed. Why? Because rents have become so high, coffee and cakes just cant compete with the Guccis and Ralph Laurens. Permit me a simple economic homily Mr Harvey. Prosperity is created through productivity, producing more and better tomorrow at less cost than today. That is progress. Rent increases, unless they are accompanied by building improvements, are economically and socially regressive, since the customers are now required to pay more today for the same service they received more cheaply yesterday.
In our economic policies we try to eliminate those non-productive, or non-consumable costs. Increases in house and office and business prices and rentals can only be increased when improvements are made. Our aim in government and in the private sector is that the customer should get value for money, preferably a little bit better value each year for the same money as productivity gives us more goods for less work. That is why our true cost of living remains the lowest in the world, because we guard against charges which provide no consumable value.
My objective was to establish a self-sustaining, self-disciplined government structure, and a self-sustaining nation fully and productively employed, prosperous, informed socially, politically, technologically, internationally. And I think that has been achieved. Our people are educated, healthy, productive. And plugged into the world. We have established many Wi-Fi hotspots here in town and in every village, also our shops and government offices are connected essential of course since our finances are internet-dependent. And if we need a few luxuries, or to keep our infrastructure up to date... remember all that money we found in the Presidential Safe?
How could I ever forget!
Well havng bought all the immediate essentials from abroad, we put the rest into a portfolio of Government Bonds. They are producing 3˝% which we use to buy presents for ourselves all publicly debated I might add. But for our internet connection project we also got help from a Japanese computer manufacturer they gave us a large consignment of outdated equipment.
So while other countries have huge deficits, we have a surplus, invested and producing income.
I sometimes reflect that the taxpayers of those countries whose bonds we have purchased are financing the presents we buy from the income. Of course to a much greater extent, your fellow taxpayers in the US are buying lots of goodies for China with the interest payments they make to China for holding so much American debt. Its a funny old world, Mr Harvey.
Sir J fell silent. I sat opposite him, ballpoint poised, and we waited. We completed your first two weeks in office, Sir Joshua, if you recall, I said, hoping to set the ball rolling again.
I am aware of that, young man. And Im afraid I have... both a confession and something of a disappointment for you.
Well wed better hear it. Or rather both.
Did it ever occur to you to wonder, during your interviews with me, how I managed to recall every detail of events which happened... what, over twenty years ago?
Frankly no. I was engrossed in the story!
Well I suppose that cant be bad. But… here comes the confession. When you first approached me with this project of yours and we agreed for you to take down some of my recollections, I was sure that there was a journal somewhere. So I spent quite a while going all through my papers of the last twenty years. Quite a mountain of it!
Finding what I was looking for was not a problem. I have a wonderfully simple and effective filing system. I just have one box, and I put everything in it, each document on top of the last. So hey presto, everything is automatically filed in chronological order. I knew that anything relating to the revolution would be way back and I could find it easily. The problem was that curiosity forced me to go back page by page through my recent history, articles and papers I had written, conferences I had been invited to, plans for my country which had worked and some that hadn't… Jolly good fun actually!
Anyway, I eventually reached the revolutionary years and there, sure enough, was the Journal I had begun on the very first day of the régime-change. I had set myself the task of sitting down every night, whatever the hour, tired or not, and spending fifteen minutes noting down the events of the day. And that, my dear Mr Harvey, was why I was able to give you so much information, a blow-by-blow account of each day, each minute of those first crucial days – the first two weeks which we have just completed, in fact.
Well if thats your confession Sir, it suits me. I surely have no complaints!
Ah but you will have, Mr Harvey, when I tell you that I kept it up for precisely two weeks then… well it rather fell by the wayside. And before you become angry with me, ask yourself, how many people begin a diary on the First of January and have abandoned it by the Second?
Actually, Sir Joshua, I was more intent on feeling thankful that we had got the first two weeks in such detail, and it seems clear to me that in those first two weeks you set in motion almost all the essentials.
In that, you are entirely correct, Mr Harvey.
Perhaps I might ask, Sir, looking forward, what would you consider the greatest challenge of your countrys future?
To keep it free from crime and corruption.
A tall order, in this modern world. Do you think you will succeed?
Sir Joshua did not reply, and I could see from his expression that the question, or more probably the suspected answer had saddened him. I suggested a walk along the waterfront and leaving his home where we had held our discussions we went out together, strolling slowly towards Government House where we sat in the Gardens on one of the benches enjoying the scents and colours of the flowers.
You know Mr Harvey, when I sit here, everything comes back to me. I feel a young man once more, a whole country, albeit a small one, in front of me, waiting to be shaped and crafted into my vision of a civilized society.
You have surely achieved that, Sir, and I say that with the greatest sincerity.
Sir Joshua gave no response.
And there we left it.
© 2017 M & L Sartorius
mm@arton.co