Ramblings

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~~Title:Chapter 1~~
<fs xx-large>1.</fs>
"It is a historic day at the United Nations headquarters after a referendum miraculously passed agreeing on the project that has been dubbed 'Atheya', named after an island which will now be declared a lawless zone. With what is just barely a majority it has been mostly the realization of western nations such as the USA and the EU, Russia against and China abstaining from the vote after pressure has mounted on them to give citizens the option to 'opt out' of being governed. Today's referendum is the culmination of a decade worth of law reforms and court cases against the various states seeking to abolish laws that, quote, 'they did not consent to'. Over the last few decades, a significant portion of the nation's populations have become increasingly discontent and state that the laws of their nations are holding them back and present to them an unnecessary, bureaucratic burden. They say that no one should have a right to tell citizens what or what not to do just because they were born on their territory, and therefore seek to abolish governmental structures altogether. Here at the United Nations today a compromise has been found, a remote island, 'Atheya', out in the pacific in which everyone is free from any laws whatsoever and where lawmakers state that the only law applying to the citizens there are 'the laws of physics'. Proponents of this change are proclaiming that this is 'how it should be' while critics remark that such an idea is absurd and undermines the value of society. Ever since a concise plan on how and where to establish this region has been formalized the Russian ambassador to the UN has been very vocal about his discontent with the proposition, calling it a "step back in the history of mankind" and strongly criticizing especially the USA for advancing it so rigorously. We have, in the studio, interviewed our UN correspondent who was able to give us further detail on what is going on, straight from New York City where the voting results were announced less than an hour ago." The camera transitions to a shot of a man in a spectator cabin above the UN conference room.

"Yes, so far access to the island is highly controlled and command was transferred to a special United Nations task force that oversees and now is also in charge of administering to and going through with the plans agreed on today. It does not look like this is going to change anytime soon, though, as space on the island is limited and it is not currently planned that many people will be brought there. Getting there also, ironically, involves a lot of bureaucracy - paperwork - that applicants need to fill out before only a fraction of people will actually be admitted. The necessary legislation to establish the lawless zone, however, will already be effective next month. A special airport will be built which is intended to serve as a transportation hub for civilians and personnel, but this is already about as much as is released to the public and the press at the moment. A bit of secretiveness was on display today on some unreleased parts of the bill that neither public nor the press were allowed to see. Upon inquiry it was said that there is nothing in particular that is being hidden, only that parts of the legislation are omitted to guarantee that the process will run smoothly and without unnecessary incidents.

Especially the Russian delegation to the UN looked very disgruntled today when he left the conference room and without words or comments at all vanished into the back of a car as he was driven away. No comments have been made by the Kremlin.

It is expected that the bill should help relieve the tensions although problems remain as to the number of people that will be able to sign up for a transfer to Atheya - the island is small and does not provide the room for a significant number of people - we're talking nation states here, and only a few hundred will ever be sent according to UN projections. It was said that if the Atheya project proves to be successful that other places may be considered as well, though no mention has been given on which places they are thinking of there.

In the public, Atheya is still a contentiously debated topic - many say that anarchy as planned on Atheya does not help anyone and causes more suffering than is worth, however the proponents of Atheya argue that no one should have a say about what individuals are and are not allowed to do."

The camera transitions back to the woman from the initial report: "Thank you - dear viewers, please stay tuned as after a short break we will be back with an interview of the UN spokesperson for the secretary general and after that a debate panel about Atheya. This was BBC, live from New York."