I hereby humbly ask to briefly set aside my role as EO and Treasurer in order to express my opinions on this matter. I have so far refrained from doing so in the conviction that an individual holding these roles must maintain a strict political neutrality, for obvious reasons.
But the substance of this post makes me extremely angry.
[quote="michelmanen":1s1y66ck]Sudane, from the strictly legal point of view, Oni, Ben and Dave remain citizens as members of Hammurabi Chambers and CIH. The tier fees are regularly paid and no arrears are due. They can continue to derive their citizenship from the lots owned by these groups as long as no additional, stricter citizenship requirements will be imposed by the RA on its citizens.
However, for all intents and purposes, due to various events which I shall not review here, Oni, Ben and Dave haven't been seen in CDS for a long time and have not taken any part in our community's life. It was my hope that the atmosphere in CDS would improve and that, eventually, they would return in practice and become again active members of our community.
So, to answer your question: Oni, Ben, and Dave have not abandoned their citizenship, in that they have not made such statements (at least not to me) and in the sense that the groups to which they belong and derive their citizenship from continue to have their tier fees paid punctually. So they are in strict compliance with CDS law as it stands. However, they have taken no part in the life of our community for quite some time, which I think represents a sad and real loss to the CDS.
As for Diane, although she remains a citizen, she has resigned her position in the SC and significantly curtailed her activities in the CDS, for reasons best explained be her in another thread. So, again, while she remains a CDS citizen, her active involvment in our community's life is for all intents and purposes non-existent. This, indeed, is the case for many of our "absentee citizens" who continue to pay tier fees and thus maintain their citizenship status, but take little or no part in our community's life, preferring for various reasons (RL or SL-based) to spend their time engaged in other activities. Such a purely technical compliance with CDS law, while beneficial to the CDS Treasury, does little for our life as a community and the health our our democracy.[/quote:1s1y66ck]
These examples speak volumes for what the core of the problem is here.
Oni Jiutau and Benjamin Noble both joined CDS by buying their own personal parcels, which later they sold or abandoned, and indicated to me that they would derive their citizenship from membership in Michel's groups (in their case, Hammurabi Chambers). Dave Attenborough is an example of a citizen who gained it through my strict error... he formed a new group under Michel's aegis, who purchased a "workshop" for artists, with Dave (to my understanding) as the first resident.
To my mind, there is utterly no difference between these three in the issue of their involvement as citizens. Oni did in fact, during the Ashcroft fiasco, contribute a few posts in an attempt to be a moderating voice in that conflict. Other than that, none of them has made the slightest contribution to our community. Gwyn has pleaded eloquently for volunteers for the "judicial" duties of the SC... have any of the lawyers responded?... volunteered to help??? These are simply people who have not participated in the matters and affairs of our community in any way. All three have their fees paid by other citizens, and, for all we know, may not even remember what the CDS is. There are many of our citizens for whom membership in the CDS is nothing more than a warm glow in the hearts, and, in some cases, a monthly payment.
I often receive inquiries of interest in joining the CDS. In general, I have to tell them that little or no land is available. And, indeed, it is possible that among these very inquirers might be future members who really WOULD be interested in participating in the community.
[quote:1s1y66ck]It was my hope that the atmosphere in CDS would improve and that, eventually, they would return in practice and become again active members of our community. [/quote:1s1y66ck]
Improve! It will improve when more people take it upon themselves to help! To contribute in some active way in the many things that need to be done. And helping form the systems we desparately need to enable our community affairs to be fair and just. People who simply opt to "non-participate" do nothing in my mind to make that happen. To attack the few people who do stand up and volunteer to help, volunteer to take valuable hours of their lives to contribute to something they belive in... to attack these people as the problem is the heights of hypocrisy.
Sudane.....