NEOM: Governance

I have been blogging about NEOM much recently. I have read little on the topic, and have said much. But on this one topic, I have read nothing. And here are my comments.

The NEOM territory will be a little bit of Egypt, a little bit of Jordan, and a lot of Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia will let go. That is my impression. The Saudi judiciary will have no jurisdiction over NEOM. That is my impression. That is a decision that has already been made.

Saudi Arabia is dangling a wallet with 500 billion dollars in it. But it has to have the humility to see this is not a 500 billion dollar project. This is at least a five trillion dollar project with most of the money coming from beyond Saudi Arabia. Easy math will tell you, Saudi Arabia will have to be willing to give 90% ownership to others. Which others?

NEOM has to be a fresh start for humanity like America was a fresh start for Europe.

But there is land. It is Saudi land, primarily. And the 500 billion dollar does not count the land. The land eventually is worth more than that wallet. After the city of NEOM is up and standing, NEOM land might fetch Manhattan prices. But that is not now.

Walking away from the Saudi judiciary is fine, that is how you give a place a fresh start, but that can not be walking away from God and faith. Every major faith emphasizes family and marriage.

At some level, this is existential for Saudi Arabia. This is do or die. The world needs to walk away from oil for climate crisis reasons. And oil is on its way to getting priced out. So Saudi Arabia has this window in time to diversify and become a post-oil economy. I think it can. It should. Done right the future riches will be greater than the oil riches. Nokia used to be a timber company long before it became a phone company. Great companies and great countries transform as necessary.

NEOM will be a new city. It will be a city-state. Like the Vatican is its own country. That is what I read somewhere. And I don't see how it could work any other way. 500 billion dollars is but seed money. It is a small amount compared to the ambition.

Heck, NEOM could create a world government. Every country willing to pay 1% of its GDP as an annual membership fee would be welcome to join the world government that would have its seat in NEOM, a city-state, a country of its own. That world government can co-exist with the UN. The UN functions more like an NGO. It does not function much like a government. The whole veto thing is so outdated. The UN can keep doing the UN thing. No problem.

The world government would be funded by that membership fee. It would have two chambers. In the lower chamber each country's voting weight would be in proportion to its population. In the upper chamber it would be in proportion to its GDP.

The world government would have a president directly elected by people all over the planet voting on their phones and tablets, using their biometric IDs. The president of the world would also be president of NEOM, but NEOM would also elect a Prime Minister. And that Prime Minister voted in by all residents of the city who have lived in the city for at least a year, would be the one running the city. The president for the city would be more ceremonial.

The city could have a prince in a ceremonial role. The prince of Saudi Arabia can be the prince of NEOM. Why not? Thanks for all that land.

NEOM should have a permanent seat for the world government. It should also have a permanent seat for the T100, the governing body of the 100 biggest technology companies in the world measured by market cap. Issues like data privacy and data security this T100 needs to solve.

And a Consortium of Cities (CC), an annual gathering of the 100 biggest cities in the world. This would be more like an organization for comparing notes and sharing best practices.

The city would provide all government services digitally. The city would use surveillance cameras to attempt a zero crime rate but would do so with the highest standards for privacy protection. Every time anyone enters or leaves the city, they would have to press the finger and submit their biometric ID. They would also have to be willing to do an iris scan and a face scan.

I understand there is a lot of paranoia around biometric IDs, much of it justified, because those who do it seem to have little respect for privacy protection.

All the high tech stuff would be happening in the private sector with individual companies participating. So when there is a failure it is a company and not the city failing. That demarcation is important. There will be plenty of failures. There is no innovation where there are no failures.

Taxes can be as low as possible. The city might even do the Dubai thing for a few decades and have no taxes. Land development pays enough to run the city.

And those are my early thoughts on NEOM governance.

NEOM: Governance https://t.co/X0WIXENddV @IsraeliPM @netanyahu @MustafaKheriba @JassimAlseddiqi @KingSalman @KSAmofaEN @RoyalSaudiNews @NEOM @ImranKhanPTI @narendramodi @iamsrk @aamir_khan @BeingSalmanKhan @saudiarabia @ksamissionun @sundarpichai @satyanadella @Google @Microsoft

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) November 25, 2019

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NEOM: A City

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— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 5, 2019

Towards A Global Government

India has rolled out the biometric ID to almost its entire population. On top of that it has added a layer that works like Jack Ma's Alipay, only Alipay is in the private sector, the Indian version is in the public sector. Voting from the phone should become possible and private. Facial recognition technology minus possible abuse can be harnessed for safety and security. Digital makes business and vehicle registration easy. Solar energy is dropping in price at a dramatic pace and is set to blow open the number one constraint for the Global South's desire for prosperity: energy. When Musk puts over 4,000 satellites into orbit in a few years, you are looking at gigabit internet from every point to every other point on earth. Taking good care of earth will become possible. Much progress seems to be technology driven. But it is the human being that has to be placed at the center of the progress.

A world government has been long overdue. But it will soon become possible, and soon enough become inevitable. The first step might be to create a bicameral legislature in New York. In the lower house each member country has a voting weight in proportion to its population. In the upper house it is in proportion to its GDP. Each member country pays 1% of its GDP in tax. That makes the world government's budget. The President of the World is required to garner a majority in both chambers, limited to two five year terms. Eventually when at least half of humanity has biometric IDs and can vote from mobile phones, the President of the World can be directly elected. Local, state, federal, global -- these would be the four layers of government everywhere on earth, except where the country might be too small, or too homogenous for a federal setup.

The world government is not the UN. It is a new thing, just like the UN was not the League Of Nations. There will be a President Of The World. There will be a global parliament. There will be a World Court. There will be the three branches. All global institutions will be subsumed by the world government.

This century is not the American, or the Chinese, or the Indian, or the Asian, or the African century. This is the global century. All world will become one country. The basic needs of all human beings will be met. Primarily because the Age Of Abundance is right around the corner, much of it technology driven.

Multinational corporations are already global, finance has long been global, but there is not the robust political framework. That robust political framework will also be good for the MNCs, also for global finance.

Android Phones Should Machine Record All Talk

Android phones should machine record all talk on all Android phones all over the world and feed all that to AI, so as to later enable voice search in all languages. Literacy is over rated. What if all knowledge could be translated into every human language? And not just in writing but orally. Literacy is primitive tech. I like it, but it should not be the gatekeeper it is. You should be able to access all knowledge orally. Too many human brains are going to waste right now. Human beings should not have to do robot work. Planting rice is robot work. And Android phones should be solar and drone powered. The drones give you the Internet access and solar gives you energy. There is no wire in sight. If everybody is armed with a phone, we could provide police service to every human being at a much lower cost. Much, much lower cost. 911 would be an app on your phone. Your phone knows who you are, and where you are. We should build a world government, and get every human being to directly vote. You vote on your phone, you have a biometric ID. You press your thumb during the vote week, and you vote through the vote app. Barack Obama should run for President Of The World. POW-WOW. Everyone should have ready credit on your phone. You graduate high school, you get credit. The credit shows up on your phone. Google sends "checks" to your phone for all the data it collects on you, from which it makes money. And there is a Universal Basic Income. Food comes from Iowa. Iowa and the Caribbean, and Bihar. 911 is number one. Education. Voting. Credit. And you unleash unprecedented creativity.

Would it not be great? To have a directly elected President Of The World? Black lives matter, and every vote counts.

One World

Logo of Comcast Latina: Insigne Comcast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bill Gates went on record a few weeks back saying, he is doing good work with his foundation, but the scales of the problems are so enormous, what you truly need is a world government. That is the only way you can tackle the biggest problems of poverty and disease. And I agree.

There is poverty, there is disease, and then there is that number one invention of the new millennium: your smartphone. Why can't you pay your monthly phone bill and have the phone work no matter where you go in the world? To most people who might be in a position to give a push to the idea of a world government, poverty and disease might be abstract concepts, but the phone is not, it is in your hand, it knows you better than your family.

Comcast has come out saying it will roll out a 2 GBPS internet service across the US. That was the kind of result Google wanted to see with its own roll out. But I think the ball moved only after Google threatened to do to TV ads what it had done to classifieds.

Google might now be taking the lead on the global phone plan. You pay one place and go anywhere.

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