BagumBayan, 50 AD (After Digong): A fantasy

MANILA, Philippines — BagumBayan (ba-goom-ba-yun), formerly Philippines, and formally BagumBayan Inc. is a fast-growing federation of nation-states that includes all the original peoples and ecosystems of the Philippines with the continuing addition of allied territories (governance franchising). Originally reckoned as an archipelago of about 7,700 islands, BagumBayan now consists of approximately 7,750 islands and 10 inland territories grown around concentrations of migrant workers known as BagumBayani. BagumBayan is the first country to put itself on the world’s major stock exchanges paying out dividends in terms of residency rights and privileges in idyllic conditions. 

The popularity of BagumBayan as a provider of resource and identity management systems is largely due to its shift away from a toxic, dictator-prone blend of democracy and miracle-oriented mysticism, to a culture-, science- and business- approach to self-governance on a large scale.

Citizenship

Natural-born citizens, called Taumbayan, are formally granted full citizen rights and responsibilities upon graduation from high school. Taumbayan who migrate or become part of an allied territory is called Bagumbayani. Bagumbayani descendants may decide how to align themselves upon graduation from high school.

Politics and Governance

Taumbayan is culturally monarchic, they love strong leaders, but are also fiercely tribal more than nationalistic, with a tendency to identify with ethnolinguistic group more than with the whole nation. This has led to smaller governance units with leeway for varying mixes of western-style democracy and collectivist tendencies.

Candidates for various positions are chosen by raffle from pools of generalist-specialists who have been pre-screened for capability by public representatives. All regular hiring and firing of public officials are done annually via social media. Citizens may assign their votes to proxies. All analytics regarding individual public servant credentials and performance are available to citizens for decision-making.

There is no corruption in public service due to the practice of integrative shaming. Erring public servants get their pictures posted in public toilet bowls and urinals; the greater the offense, the longer the term of exposure. Plunderers are assigned to traffic posts and other high-visibility tasks.

Educational system

All publicly-funded schools have concerns as the basic guide to curriculum design. For example, coastal-area schools have swimming, scuba, typhoon survival, tourism, marine engineering, and aquaculture as platforms for integration of other subjects. Graduates of BagumBayan public schools are in demand worldwide as ecosystem managers, community process facilitators, entertainers, teachers, therapists, nurses, caregivers, spouses, and other high-empathy roles.

All privately funded schools are run by companies that employ the graduates. A broad variety of community-based and ecosystem-specific guilds and institutes satisfy other learning needs.

Most learning services are situated in social malls (SM).

Social malls

Social malls are designed primarily for socializing and for learning various skills, arts, and technologies. Some malls operate water spas that double as dry-season water reservoirs.

Religions

All legal entities, including churches, are treated equally as private businesses and are subject to the same stringent disciplines of transparency and accountability. All religions are listed as “therapeutic service providers” and “faith-based cultural practice.” Donations are treated as investments and/or sales of services. BagumBayan’s official spiritual label is “possibilism” (all beliefs are possibly true and therefore must be tested for objective and/or socio-political value). The foreign affairs office maintains a symbolic file of honorary citizenship papers for any returning or descending spiritual masters who may elect to join the federation.

Religion’s importance in schools has declined over time due to religion’s inconsistency with the promotion of logic, reason, and critical thinking. However, workplace religious practices have flourished due to scientific evidence that prayer and meditation increase worker productivity. Continuing studies related to the practical value of religion are funded by different churches and faiths. An inter-faith editorial board is working on a be-all and end-all essay integrating and articulating the practical essence of all religions.

Economics

Everything is accounted for in a community’s spreadsheets: Crops, livestock, beaches and mountains, flora, and fauna, etc., including household finances, private businesses, and government offices. There is total transparency and access to economic information, resulting in urban decongestion and an even distribution of economic activity throughout the BagumBayan territories. “Life Capital” is practiced — each citizen is born with enough credits to ensure the acquisition of basic Taumbayan life skills, and there is no need for physical currency.

Foreign policy and world fish

BagumBayan is the R&R capital of winter-plagued countries, attracting a growing number of ailing and aging tourists to its world-renowned health and wellness live-in and die-in resorts. Special banking, marriage, inheritance and euthanasia laws encourage both the wholesale transfer of electronic wealth to the nation’s coffers, as well as the genetic colonization of the world via intermarriage.

The outer perimeter of the original archipelago is protected by peaceful-co-existence naval stations, making Bagumbayan a true “world fish” zone — having been declared the First Global Marine Protected Area.

National Security

There is a small, ceremonial standing army, but everyone has military training or its equivalent in rescue, survival, and life-art skills. Rumors of small units of extremely skilled warrior units abound, and there is probably some truth to these fantastic stories. None, however, exist in the open. Water and Air Forces spend the most for equipment, mostly distance-operated and highly-selective ordinance. Land Forces spend the most for close-combat weaponry and training. Bagumbayani in allied territories is considered a defensive, primarily intelligence-branch, military force. Food production falls under National Security programming.

Peace on drugs

Deliberate intoxication is considered a basic human right.

Cannabis is widely used as a condiment and as a restorative nightcap, especially in communities involved in actively physical occupations. Community-based industries using cannabis for medicine, textile, rope, animal feeds, and high-protein human food supplements are an accepted part of the economy and have more than made up for the collapse of the tobacco and alcohol industries.

Methamphetamine is reserved solely and strictly for military and police (especially nocturnal) operations, in consonance with the original intent of the drug’s creators. Unsanctioned trade and use of the substance carries an automatic sentence of employment in police-supervised meth-for-work farms and factories. Chronic abusers are allowed to “meth-out” under police supervision while being recorded for educational and scientific purposes.

Pharmaceuticals are primarily for emergency situations and public spending for medicines and hospitals is among the lowest in the world (per capita) due to the preventive nature of BagumBayan health practices.

Crime and criminality

All conflicts are settled to the satisfaction of all concerned. There are no written and standardized codes — save the ancient law books that are consulted but not literally obeyed. There are no long-term prisons, only compensatory justice, and integrative shaming via social media.

Criminals lose their citizenship rights and are not protected by the police. Murderers may be required to take over their victim’s economic responsibilities such as feeding and serving the victim’s family for life.

Land laws and health

BagumBayan values utilization and stewardship over ownership. Permaculture and home-based food production make all food necessary for healthy nutrition practically free. Publicly-tended fruit trees and vegetables line all-human pathways and social spaces. Public spending on health is considered part of education, food production, and national security budgets.

‘Rurban’ planning

Rurban centers are patterned after mandala-like radiating shapes found in nature.

Publicly maintained bicycles and other human-powered machines dominate the rurban centers. Heavier and faster vehicles are primarily for center-to-center use. Mini mag-rail and conveyor systems make the inner-city transportation of goods truck-free.

Communal housing integrated with luxurious shared amenities is the nation’s design direction hand-in-hand with ecosystem-specific features. East coast architecture, for example, is particularly typhoon-friendly, featuring floating structures and furniture and aerodynamic roof profiles. - Joey Ayala

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Singer-songwriter Joey Ayala has led the band Bagong Lumad where he popularized the use of the hegalong among other indigenous instruments.