[2304.AB] Cultural Act Rewrite

Assembly
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1

(This is a rewrite of the Cultural Act, with the only change brining that the Goose would become TSP’s 2’d Official Animal, given recent events)

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Cultural Act

An act outlining the customs of the South Pacific

1. Identity

(1) The official name of the region is the Coalition of the South Pacific.

(2) The capital of the region is Government Island.

(3) The citizens of the region shall be referred to as South Pacificans.

(4) The official currency of the region is the drama llama., alternatively a secondary official currency called the ‘honk bonk’ can be used.

(5) The official plant of the region is the coconut tree (Cocos nucifera ).

(6) The official animal of the region is the llama (Lama glama )., with the second official animal of the region is the Goose (Branta canadensis ).

(7) The official beverage of the region is South Pacific Iced Tea, the recipe of which shall be composed of but not exclusive to:
a. vodka,
b. rum,
c. tequila,
d. blue curaçao, and
e. lemon-lime soda.

(8) The official headwear of the region is the lampshade.

2. Colors

(1) The colors of the South Pacific shall be defined by a name and corresponding hex code.

(2) The official colors of the South Pacific are
a. South Pacific Blue (#109AED),
b. White (#FFFFFF), and
c. Tropical Orange (#FF9900).

3. Holidays

(1) The following days will be official holidays of the Coalition:
a. 1 January shall be Delegates Day, celebrating those who have served as Delegate of the Coalition;
b. 18 March shall be Max Barry Day, celebrating the creator and founder of NationStates;
c. 2 June shall be Coalition Day, celebrating the creation of the Charter, Government, and the Coalition;
d. 17 July shall be Defender Day, celebrating the day the South Pacific officially became a defender region;
e. 20 July shall be Independence Day, celebrating our freedom and independence, marking the end of UCR control over the South Pacific;
f. 13 November shall be Creation Day, celebrating the creation of NationStates; and
g. 31 December shall be Foundation Day, celebrating the creation of the South Pacific.

(2) The Delegate and Cabinet may respectively proclaim days for observance without approval from the Assembly, but such days are not official holidays.

4. Regional Symbols

(1) The official flag of the Coalition of the South Pacific consists of a white palm tree upon a black sail, with a white star in the lower left corner of the sail. The black sail surmounts a white ring and flies upon a South Pacific Blue background.
a. An example of this flag is as follows;

(2) The official logo of the Coalition of the South Pacific consists of a white palm tree upon a black sail, with a white star in the lower left corner of the sail. The black sail surmounts a a South Pacific Blue circle, with a white ring surrounded by a thinner South Pacific Blue ring.
a. An example of this logo is as follows;

(3) Alternative symbols may be used on flags, logos and other graphics for events, festivals, activities and other purposes as deemed suitable by the relevant branches of government.

(4) Individual branches of government may adopt alternative symbols for their own use, such as a military Battle Flag or a Ministry logo.

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I’m trying to decide rather the Goose should become the main or second official animal of TSP, I’ll let the legislators decide.

(Also I’m new to this so don’t get mad)

2

The scientific name for the Canada goose is actually Branta canadensis, if you want to keep the theme.

I’ve stated my opposition to turning away from the llama before. That continues with this.

3

No support, I’m going to echo exactly what Henn said. I’m a llama supporter. But kudos to you for getting this thread all stylized and polished.

5

Thanks, to both of you.

6

No support from me. A brief goose meme doesn’t supplant the far longer and storied history of the llama in TSP

Also, this feels like it belongs in the Assembly, not the GC

7

I changed the tag to “assembly”

8

May I ask why you think this merits consideration? What history does the goose have in the South Pacific that it should replace the llama?

9

Actually, after some thinking, I decided to try and make the Goose TSP’s second official animal.

(The proposal rewrite was happening while you were typing this.)

10

I hard oppose this.

11

What’s special about the goose though? I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has no context here, so from my perspective you just came out of the blue saying that the goose should be made a regional animal without any explanation as to what makes them special for our region.

12

If you were not aware, there was a time period on the region were a lot of people (including the delegate) had changed there flag to the Canadian Goose. Famous members such as Saint Cinder and Drystar, as well as the entire local council, were in support of the goose.

Also, may I jog your memory of this event.

https://www.nationstates.net/page=poll/p=194440

13

I mean… we could make a distinction that the Llama is the official mammal of the South Pacific, and that the goose is the official bird; but I just don’t see that the goose is as essential or integral to TSP culture as of yet.

14

It may not be as far spreading, but the goose has had a fairly big impact on the RMB. As stated above.

15

Tis a fad, I believe. It will pass in time

After all, its been a few weeks since someone mentioned the big bad forum meanies trying to destroy the RMB by literally* killing the LC’s on live TV :roll_eyes:

16

I’m not necessarily convinced by the merits of this either. The poll conducted on our region page seems to indicate that both the penguin and Sesame Street’s “Big Bird” carry more recognition amongst our citizens than the goose.

Nevertheless, even if I’m not sold on the idea, I must commend the drafting effort - legislating on anything, even topics that have little chance of making it to the statute book, is the best way to learn the ropes. So, setting aside my opposition to the idea, I have two points that aren’t necessarily suggestions, rather “food for thought”;

  1. How would this second official currency work? Would it be a different count from the one the forum and our beloved coconut bot make? Is it the same currency but a second name? Is the exchange rate of the currency fixed on the drama llama (or on cards or something else)?

  2. Boring grammar suggestion for 1(6)

(6) The official animal of the region is the llama (Lama glama )., with the second official animal of the region is being the Ggoose (Branta canadensis ).

  1. Since we’re on this act, I am surprised that there is no mention on the spiral/koru that we’re using as a thumbnail and logo on those new forums and dispatches (much more often, I must say, than the logo designated by the Cultural Act). Perhaps enshrining that symbol into law (along with some recognition to the culture we’re taking this from if this is a Maori koru) would be sweet.

Perhaps a more acceptable (and likely successful) way to achieve your aims would be to create a goose culture/consciousness. Enshrining the goose in law might provide short-term satisfaction, but the initiative to make the goose a regional animal will gain more support if it becomes a regional animal de facto. The executive is happy to use animals other than the lama in its initiatives (OWL, SWAN - the latter even has a swan emoji on the WFE). If goose-related celebration and events become part of regional culture, legislation will follow.

So my real suggestion would be to go to the Ministry of Culture and propose an informal holiday on September 29 (International Happy Goose Day), complete with whatever goose-related fun you can think of (goose flag competition? goose symphony over VC? goose-ify your forum pfp? ). Sep 29 is just after the NS summer and a nice opportunity to head into the autumn together, so unless the Minister by then has some other plans or secretly worships chicken, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be successful at that. If our affection for geese lasts until then, and later, the goose will have cleared the relevance objection.

17

If you have to shove geese in our faces to make it a part of our culture, then it isn’t a part of our culture anyway. I can come up with any number of random things that we could include in our culture if I made a concerted effort to make people like them, but that doesn’t mean they should be added to the Culture Act. You don’t artificially manufacture culture.

18

I plead the Fifth.

19

Welcome to the Assembly!

We don’t really have a currency that ‘works’ — the drama llama is just a name we sometimes like to refer to. The Coconut bot uses the name for its minigames but that currency isn’t really applicable anywhere other than those minigames. I guess people could trade that imaginary currency for other things, but to my knowledge we don’t really have a culture of doing that, so our official currency is mainly just in name.

This isn’t really an argument for or against, but we actually had a debate at one point over which logo to use, and the spiral/koru lost out… but nobody really seemed bothered when we moved to these forums. Technically, though, we decided we’d use the palm tree/black sail logo.

20

Just for the record I was bothered, but I just pretend that it isn’t there.

21

Thank you! Still getting my feet wet so forgive m if I say anything too stupid in the next few days. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the insight. I get the point of having a currency without much use, would it be only as bragging rights.
I am however confused as to what the point of a second one, as proposed in this draft, would be, then.

So there was a debate on graphics, the one in the act won, but the forums, our internet favicon, and all our official factbooks and gov logos are using the spiral/koru? I feel like I’m missing part of a bigger story here.