Thursday, April 12

TIPPING THE POLL


Where have we been, dear reader ?  Working for you and the community as the Regent-Doge’s Cultural Councillor. And what a fascinating year it has been.
But now, a few days away from the election of the new Regent-Doge, we felt it our duty to revive the New Venice News and cover this important event, a “feast of all firsts” for our beloved city. 
I know, dear reader, that the results are not in your hands anymore. The Council of the Sectors, for which you have voted last year, has now delegated its elective powers to the Unforeseen Forty-Ones of the  College of Chance and Choice. The last two candidates, Pieter Van Reimerswaal, current Exchequer for Exceptional Events & Every day Entertainment,  and Dr. Peterswarden, current Dean of the Academy of Arctic Anthropology, have been designated for the final race. It is the outcome of this seemingly aleatory process that we now expect, but not without, it has to be said, a certain anxious helplessness.
The system, indeed, does not seem as airtight as promised, and rumours of pressures abound in the corridors and lobbies of power. Nothing, of course, bubbles up to the surface, but it would seem that the eternal scourge of New Venice, all these clubs, lodges, secret societies, and so-called churches are giving free rein once again to their conspirative tendencies. And we all know, don’t we, where it ultimately comes from : the Forty Friends, our “Sleeping Partners” who, from their foreign haunts, dream of bringing us back to the days where they did their underhand business with the Council of Seven –peace be on their souls. That Dr. Peterswarden used to be involved in the Inuit People Ice Palace’s scandal, says enough, we think, about who is pulling the strings. 
Dr. Peterswarden’s program speak volumes in that respect : we all know what  “tightening the bonds with our historical partners” or “valorizing the assets of our immediate environnment” means : obeying the pressure, not to say blackmail, of the Forty Friends, whose only aim is the right to exploit our natural resources to their own ends.
Should we remind the reader what the Orsini administration, now rooting for Mr Van Reimerswaal, has brought to the city during its brief government ?

- The restoration of a line matrilineal descendants of the Seven Sleepers, and the building of the Seven Sleeper’s Memorial Mausoleum to house the effigies of our founders, thus legitimizing and ensuring the continuity of power in our city.
-       Universal suffrage, including women, for the Council of the Seven Sectors – a premiere in New Venice.
-       Equal rights for the Inuit citizens and creation of their own sector.
-       The creation of the Boreal Beadle Brigade for “daylight duties” in the Sectors, so as to counteract the power of the Gentleman of Night.
-       Restoration of the Winter Carnival, which has been a success despite a few unfortunate incidents.
-       Suspension of last years’ “Drug Decrets” which denied free access to self-knowledge to the citizens of New-Venice.
-       The “Chessboard City” Reform of the Arctic Night Light Act, ensuring equal hours of all illuminations for all citizens.
-       The “Heaven Harvest” program, with more than 200 balloons exploiting electrical power from auroras and storms.

Of course, it has not been easy, but this was only the beginning of a more ambitious project aiming at  giving to the city a complete political and economical autonomy. We all agree that there is still a lot to be done. The Boreal Bank, which has recently drifted away from the Arctic Administration, comes to mind as a target for  urgent reform. Justice, reduced to poverty as it is by years of neglect, must likewise be adressed as a priority, for what is a city without justice ? 

Wouldn’t it be a shame to see these painful but necessary efforts stalled and squandered by a return to the old, obscure ways of yesterday ? So, more than ever, fellow-citizen and citizenettes, it is time to speak your mind aloud and explain to those around you why the current administration deserves to be given the chance to finish what it has started last year. 

Maybe, who knows, your voice will reach the “isolated” members of the College of Chance and Choice.


 
Keeping the dream alive:
The new Seven Sleepers ' Memory Mausoleum off Symmes' Spit.

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