The Island of Dreams

by Gregory James Clark

  “Greetings,” she said, in a mild Anglo-Russian accent. “I am Joan Carmichael, Prime Minister of The Island and its territories, but you may call me Joanie for short. Welcome to The Island. Some of you are probably wondering how you have come to be here, and I can tell you that it has, like many other things, resulted from a combination of good luck and hard work. Good luck because by some coincidence one of our senior representatives from around the world has watched you over a period and decided to pick you out and give you the chance at least to make the bold decision to leave your old world behind. Hard work because, despite your difficulties in adapting to the competitive capitalist world, you have all exhibited a sufficient degree of talent for us to be assured that shaping you for our society will be both beneficial and worthwhile for all of us. The philosophy is one that the eminent W. Edwards Deming would have called win–win. That means that everyone wins and nobody loses. That is the very essence of our society, which depends for its survival on total trust, both between individuals and between individuals and groups and those who govern us.

  As Prime Minister I have both the responsibility and the authority for the day-to-day management and running of The Island and its territories and for the management of its affairs of state on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Katie of Kamchatka. She is our constitutional monarch, and I will now display a picture of her on the screen behind me. She resides on The Island at the Royal Palace, which you will all have an opportunity of visiting during your time here.

  Some of you may already know a little about our history. As you know this small island is where it all started, some seventy years ago. It has expanded since then, gradually acquiring mostly small islands under the sovereignty of different countries. The one exception is the peninsula of Kamchatka which was slowly purchased in stages in the sixties and seventies. It now supplies around a quarter of the world’s energy, which is of course our main export along with healthcare, transport, scientific research and financial services to name but a few. This energy is clean, efficient and low cost energy derived geothermally from deep within the earth’s mantle. Over the years our scientists researched the geology and pioneered new ways of harnessing this incredible resource from what is probably the optimum place on the planet to try to harness it. In addition our Founders set up the Kamchatskiy Auto Company, the Kamchatskiy Aerospace Company, Kamchatskiy Maritime and Kamchatskiy Logistics, the four companies that collectively are your new employers.

  The Island is unique on the world stage in that it is partly a nation and partly an organisation. It possesses features that are common to both. We have a government, a monarchy, and a parliament, and in this respect we are a nation, yet we possess no sovereignty, only an entitlement to manage the land which we have lawfully acquired, and a flag, which could be regarded as being as much a company flag as a national one. Our government pays taxes to the appropriate nation state on all profits made through our legitimate trading within capitalist countries. We have one bank account, which is still managed in Switzerland by the Harveys Banking Corporation.We have the protection of the law of trespass with regard to the territory which we own, but have no army nor any conventional defences. We are an organisation in that we have a political structure that is more reminiscent of that of a company than of a country, and we welcome and support globalisation. We endeavour as part of our strategy to transgress nations without challenging their sovereignty, but, at the same time, we are committed to a course that will, over time, render the sovereignty of nations less and less relevant to the world and the way in which it is managed.

  We are a democracy in that those who hold office have to be approved by the people in order to continue the job which they do, but at no time in our history have any of these officials ever been asked or encouraged to compete for office against any opponent. We do not therefore have a government that consists of politicians, but a government of technicians, statisticians, analysts and tacticians with a remit to manage the system of Non-Capitalist Economics in a stable fashion with an objective for continual improvement built in, to which the people have a remit to provide an input. I will now show you a picture of these people at work.

  As you can see it looks a bit like the floor of the stock exchange, with lots of observers keeping watch over trends and movements in supply and demand so as to ensure that there are no discrepancies other than those that are small, manageable and self-contained. Where necessary workers can be loaned from one organisation to another for a short time at the request of one of our ministries in order to keep the system in balance. Its guiding principle is one of continued feedback and control. The people play their part by keeping their requests for requisitions within normal, predictable bounds and avoiding unnecessary waste. This is where the trust comes in, but once educated we have found that the right sort of people, like yourselves, see the logic and are fully committed to maintaining this system, which you should all find to be both kinder and fairer than the one you have left behind.

  It goes without saying that The Island and its territories have stable, full employment. Everyone is expected to work to the best of their ability in their chosen field, and in return for this commitment the state is committed to ensuring that each and every citizen is satisfied with their quality of life. Your happiness is our desire, as a contented workforce is a loyal workforce.

  As a society, although we practise Non-Capitalist Economics and use neither money nor credit to allocate resources, we do not have the policy of nationalisation or collectivisation that characterises communism. All property, goods and services are privately owned, as are all processes and tasks. Property, goods and services are requisitioned, with trust placed in the people to take or consume only that which they feel that they need. We call this The Psychological Contract. People work and the state provides.

  We do not use targets, quotas or rewards in our organisations as we have found that they do not work. Neither will you be subject to performance appraisals or ranking. In selecting you for our society we have taken great care to ensure that none of you are the type of individual that would look to the establishment of pecking orders, as we have found this to be detrimental to teamwork. The pressurising of others to secure one’s own advantage is not a feature of our society.

  I will now turn to the matter of housing. On the screen you can see a collection of houses in the southern Kamchatkan town of Opala. As you can see they are large and spacious with some innovative designs. One is shaped like an old fashioned telephone, whilst another has the appearance of a large golf ball. There is some variance between the housing stock, with houses graded according to their standard. Each set can select any house of their choosing within their allotted band. This is determined by the level within the organisation in which the set is placed. There are six bands of housing in all, with band one being the typical starting point for young sets starting out, and band six being the highest for senior executives and their families. You will start in band three.

  As for families, it is allowed for and expected that each couple within a standard set will have two children. This, however, is not a hard and fast rule. Occasionally a couple may have more, particularly if there are twins, for example. By the law of averages the number of excess children above two per couple tends to be offset by others that, for one reason or another are below. It is not expected that any couple will purposefully seek to have children above the recommended two.

  Vehicle ownership, like housing, is usually done on a set by set basis. Individuals are encouraged to share vehicles wherever possible. If a clear need exists for vehicle acquisition, then it can be simply chosen, again from one of the six bands that follow the same principle as the housing. Usually sets are expected to run their cars and larger carriers for a minimum of ten years, and Kamchatskiys rarely fail within this time.

  The next picture is one of a school. It looks like a school, of course, but there are no examinations or tests. Instead each child compiles a log-book of projects successfully
completed. Again there are no targets or quotas for schools. Each school will seek to develop its own specialism, and each child is free to choose a school anywhere in The Island territories except for The Island itself. The school will always accommodate every child that chooses that school, even if it means requisitioning extra accommodation. Our education ministry will always make sure that no child is disappointed. Set formation is also encouraged in schools, with natural bonds of cooperation reinforced by teachers when they are identified. Particular attention is given toward encouraging boys and girls to work together so as to remove any unwanted barriers to social integration as a result of gender. The talents and make up of all have to be fully respected.

  Health, like education, is also free from targets. Here you see inside a hospital, and, as you can see, it looks more like a luxury hotel than a hospital. This is because it has been long accepted that those who are sick deserve the very best service that can be provided. It is not like a hospital in a capitalist country that is under pressure to meet targets and cut costs. This particular hospital on the island of Kunashir is currently the subject of a benchmarking exercise for both Russia and Japan. The governments of both countries are observing its standards and practices with a view to implementing them in various hospitals of their own, particularly the privately owned ones. As I said earlier, everything in our society is privately owned and managed. Hospitals, schools, and even public conveniences are privately owned and those who own and run them do so with pride in their work as their prime motivator. Politicians in capitalist countries rarely seem to be able to accept this, yet scrapping management by targets, quotas and performance appraisals is the only way that they will ever hope to match our standards.

  Next up is a job centre. Here we see school leavers receiving advice and presenting their log-books for scrutiny so that they can be matched with batches of vacancies. No time is wasted in the matching process, and competition between applicants is minimised as much as possible. Where possible the employer will tailor or fine tune a vacancy to the applicant that wants it, and may even create extra posts in order to ensure that all applicants are taken in right away so that training can be commenced and the log-book made continuous between school and work. Further education is always there as an option, and there is no competition for entry to colleges and universities, nor any exam targets. Instead the applicant submits the log-book and gives a presentation outlining the projects that they have completed, and a plan for research, demonstrating that they have the skills that they need to conduct that research. If an applicant is not granted a place at the university of their choice they will always be given a course of action which is within their capabilities to follow in order to pursue their goal. Nobody ever fails in our society, but this is not because there are serious penalties for failure, it is simply that the system has failure programmed out of it.

  Another key principle of our system is to remove dependence on inspection to achieve quality, and this applies to law and order as much as to anything else. On the screen you will now see two of our so-called Greencoats. To some of you they may have all of the appearance of old-fashioned Redcoats from a holiday camp, only dressed in green. They are not there to entertain, however, but to practice management by walking about.

  We do have crime, but, of course, with all money related crime eliminated, it is on a much smaller scale than in capitalist states. Most crime relates to nuisance, such as drunkenness, but even this is less serious than in capitalist states because we are so much calmer and contented by nature. The Set Formation Act has likewise had a big impact in reducing so-called domestic crime which is now, fortunately, rare in our society. It also has, incidentally, helped to completely eradicate sexually transmitted diseases in all of their forms from all of The Island’s territories.

  Applause briefly rippled around the room, prompting Joanie to pause for a moment before continuing.

  “The Greencoats are therefore more akin to health and safety professionals in an organisation and are there to preserve and ensure that safety is maintained at all times. I might as well say now that you all have a duty by law to keep up to date with safety legislation as it applies both to your work environments and to the community, and to report any unsafe situations to the local Greencoat office. Please note here and now that I have told you this.

  That leaves only defence and international relations. Our defence system does not rely on any military forces or units, but on an internal system of grapevines. We do have an early warning system that would warn us of any potential attack from outside, which would give us the time to prime up our internal system. You will learn about your roles in this when you are enrolled with your respective Kamchatskiy companies. We do seek as a strategic objective to work towards, and assist others to work towards, the end of war and conflict that stems from the sovereignty of nations and religion, which all too often is used as a smokescreen for politics.

  We continue to seek to maintain good international relations with all nations of the world. We have, notably, good relations with Russia, Japan, Portugal and the United Kingdom, largely from our historical connections. Investment in Kamchatka has been repaid to Russia multi-fold.

  The revolution is happening, ladies and gentlemen, at a pace that is well under our control. It is a revolution which, when it reaches completion, in about another 130 years, will transform the world forever for the better. I therefore ask you to join with us, have fun and become lifelong learners. I will now take any questions which you may have.”

  The Chancellor stood beside The Prime Minister ready to take questions. A few hands were raised, and an American gent stood up.

  “Why, Madam Prime Minister,” he asked. “is it that if this system is so good and it has so many followers as it appears, do you not open your doors to the world and allow more people to learn about and join this great society? Why all this secrecy and restriction on entry?”

  “I take your point. It is unfortunate, but true, however, that if we were to try to do that there is every chance that we would not survive. We have learnt the lessons of history in the sense that if revolutions move too quickly they will not produce the desired outcome. You good people have been very carefully selected. It takes a lot of effort on our part to find people like yourselves, and even more effort to train you as adults for the roles that you will have in our society. Most people in the capitalist world are too far gone when it comes to the way they have adapted, and if we were to allow too many entrants the chances that we would allow in undesirable elements would increase enormously. Our system would then be undermined and probably revert backwards into a competitive and violent society, or else become totalitarian as with the accession of Stalin in the Soviet Union. So, I hope you can see why the slow pace must be maintained. Next.”

  “How do we keep in touch with families and friends that we have left behind?” asked an Australian girl.

  “Good point. Commander allows for messages to be sent and received. Although Commander only functions within Island territories, and can be used to send and receive messages directly to any location within it, it can be used indirectly to contact approved individuals outside. You provide the approval, and your message is then sent to an Island representative who then relays it. Similarly that same representative can be reached from the approved contact, who will then relay that person’s message to you by inputting it to Commander. You will also have an opportunity to receive and send a message by hologram. Next.”

  The girl raised her hand again and she was permitted to speak.

  “Okay,” she said. “But what about actually meeting them. Is that going to be possible, or are we never to see our relatives again? I am delighted that I have been selected to be here, and will stay, so long as you promise me that there will be some way or another that I can meet my old family at least once in a while.”

  “That’s no problem. We have a system that allows for that, the only restriction is that we choose the place and time, and a
lso ask that relatives and friends respect our privacy by not talking to the press or television about our activities. Relatives and friends, though, can be granted small discretionary periods of time in Island territory in exchange for a payment. Likewise Island citizens may be granted time and money in a capitalist country as part of their annual leave. Free hotel passes are granted so long as you agree to stay in a hotel that is Island owned. Next.”

  “I agree with Non-Capitalist Economics,” said a German man. “but I would like to know how something like tickets for a major sporting event or something that was very limited in supply would be allocated. Under capitalism these things would go to the person who offered the most money. Here it cannot. So who or what decides?”

  “Good question. Thankfully it has a simple remedy. Most of these sorts of allocations are made by the organisers of the event, who also are the owners of the event, and are made according to a formula that is related to the degree of effort and support that various people have given to the particular sport or activity in question. Most people think that this principle is fair. All applications for such tickets have to be approved by a range of people who then must agree on the application. Those who are unlucky can apply again in the future and the fact that they have not been lucky the first time will be taken into consideration. People thus tend to select the event they prefer on the basis of opportunity cost. In other cases, things like art treasures automatically become the property of those who own and manage the place where they are housed, as with our museum. There is no incentive for theft as there is no market, and smuggling items out of Island territory is virtually impossible, as the movement of all exports is tightly controlled, and, apart from in Northern Kamchatka, all our borders are sea borders, and these are all monitored for unauthorised movements. Next.”