GLR Forum

General Forum => Gay Homeland - General discussions => Topic started by: Leoroc on Tue, May 31, 2011, 22:35

Title: Plan of Action
Post by: Leoroc on Tue, May 31, 2011, 22:35
For the last few years I've been lurking here and all has been quiet. I know there are still a few dedicated members though who watch and are willing and ready to work, but guidance is needed.

I am putting forward a plan of action to actually get something done.

The plan is simple, and is one that has worked in the past (in the colonization of the Americas). Business drives the formation of new nations more than anything else and this plan will allow us to attract investors inside and outside the community and also fund each further step in the process of attaining recognition.

The key is in building a resort, one geared towards the LGBT community. Owned by, staffed by and catering to LGBT clientele, this resort would be built somewhere attractive but secluded. Possible locations include Madagascar, Guyana, or other nation with a low population density. The resort starts primarily as a hotel, but with lots of land around it. This land will be sold at cheap rates and then developed into summer/vacation homes for our community. Summer homes become retirement homes, and as more and more people go to visit, more and more people will be required to be permanent residents to maintain the property and other services. In short time it will become a full town, then city, until finally (within 50 years) a nation.

It will not be as simple as buying an island and planting the rainbow flag on it.

There are several key steps that everyone will need to be involved in.

1 - The formation of an executive committee to oversee the project
2 - Those working on the project should be made to be official representatives of the GHF, setup profiles on LinkedIn and use these positions to work on getting investors.
3 - An in depth business plan with costs laid out will need to be prepared for representatives to use to raise money
4 - Approximately $20 million US will need to be raised for the construction
5 - Land would need to be purchased and construction begun
6 - Staffing for the hotel would commence, recruiting strictly through LGBT channels worldwide
7 - At this point it would simply be a matter of attracting more and more people to visit and purchase seasonal homes from our community. It won't be a fast path to nationhood, but it stands the best chance of succeeding and lasting. Eventually the population center will be strong enough to out-populate the locals (easy in Guyana) or at least get them to secede a section of territory to us (in Madagascar perhaps).

Please respond to this if you are active and ready to start doing something.

-Kendrick Miller
Title: Re: Plan of Action
Post by: Mogul on Sat, Jun 04, 2011, 01:22
Hi Kendrick,

please let me offer some suggestions.

The sovereignty / independence is an issue separate from the settlement projects. Sovereignty not necessarily needs territory, and a functional settlement can exist on a territory of another nation – with a local self-administration.

Starting a settlement with the intention to overcroud and overwhelm the locals will certainly meet hostility and resistance, thus is not what we should aim at. Establishing a settlement in agreement with the locals, and for mutual benefit, is certainly the better way. We can, of course, consider negotiations for a gradual improvement of concessions to our settlement, but in an amicable way – this is essential, and shall be made clear to the local authorities.

It is probably better (and certainly easier) to start the resort you are thinking of somewhere closer to civilisation. Such locations might have higher ground prices, but one also needs to consider such factors as costs of transportation, attractivity to tourists/residents/industry, political stability etc.

Hotel owners know that people usually come to a place for a variety of reasons: some enjoy sight-seeing or bathing, others visit the Trade Fare, some go to a concert, and a few take the burden to participate in a sport competition. The more reasons a city offers, the more people will come.   

There have been suggestions to implement a settlement in a form of a „business park“, which would include industrial, residential and recreational areas. There we can have a hotel (or many of them), production sites, agriculture... The charming advantages of this idea are:

1) the political organization (=“administration“) needs to concentrate on central issues only (streets, water, energy, canalization, fire protection, security), while all the business activities can be entrusted to the care of private investors;

2) the costs for the management of the settlement are limited to the initial purchase of the (cheap) land, step-by-step development of the infrastructure, and the administration of the site;

3) the start can be made with the establishment of some industrial plants, which are often satisfied with basic infrastructure in an otherwise undeveloped area;

4) the population structure will have a higher ration of working individuals, thus increasing the productivity and agility of the community;

5) the various businesses will mutually advance eachother, e.g. hotels will profit from the Trade Fare, whilest the local industry can sell more products to the tourists etc.;

6) the administration of the business park will take a share in the profits produced on the territory of the business park – through ground rent, joint venture stipulations, etc. The more private profit, the more income for the communal infrustructure.

Such a „business park“ should be planned particularly with regard to the cross-fertilization potential of the industries to be invited. The waste materials of one industry can be usefull raw materials of another industry, thus a neighbouring would offer additional cost advantage. For example, a fishing industry will not only provide fish for local residents and gastronomy, but ist remainders can be revamped into nutritious food for a chicken farm. The latter one not only produces eggs and cull hens, but also lots of the chicken shit – which, in turn, is a precious fertilizer for the agriculture. The agricultural products – say, ananas or dates, can not only be sold as food, but can also be fermented into pricy alcohol to be served at local bars or be exported. The wood and cellulose from the date palms can be used for paper production, or some local handycraft – and so on. Depending on the local circumstances, a number of such material currents can be discovered and local economy be helped in the right direction.

So, what initial businesses could be settled in such a business park? You already mentioned the accomodation industry. There was also a suggestion to invite an investor for sport / fishery boats – that’s a work-intensive industry, just exactly what we need to employ our people. Not only can be the local boats be used by the local fishery industry, but an annual trade fare / exhibition of sport boats could be envisioned. The tourists might be animated to rent such boats, and to participate in recreational activities on the nearby artificial reefs. Annual special gatherings for all kinds of varieties of Gay people can be staged – a song contest, sport competitions, theater plays marathon, cinema festival, rocket constructors competition, hemp and orchid gardeners yearly exhibition...

A business plan for such a settlement can be refined step-by-step, once there is clarity about the location and the available ressources.