DOCUMENT PERTAINING TO THE CONCLUSION OF PEACE
3 WORLD BUREAU SIX TEENTH OF MAY, 2016
PREAMBLE
We are here on this day to review and consider this document composed by the Department of Built Ethics, responsible for the upholding of morals and standards considering the construction of built space. The agency has dispatched a Special Committee to the Land of the Strong following violations of building rights, a misalignment between established line and its respective construction in the separation between the Strong and Weak nations that has just this year been completed, having been constructed over the past decade-and-ahalf. It has been proposed that the ambiguity of the Line’s status, drawn following tensions between the two 68 years ago in order to mark land reserved for a future sovereign state for the Weak, has been taken advantage of in order to manifest in ways distinct from its role as a border. In the process of removal of the Line’s built counterpart, a wall, from its paper form, multiple characters in the story have been deemed victims of the process, either by their own volition or unwillingly, reinforcing the necessity of this very department within the World Bureau. These victims, both Strong and Weak, have been deemed such by virtue of being displaced, stuck or indefinitely possessed within the area between the Line and its corrupted construction, The Seam. This document defines and addresses these victims and proposes what we, representatives of the World, deem the only solution to the damage caused by this mutation and all that has come before it.
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ARTICLE I VIC TIMS
L AND
The land and ground defining these territories shall be the first victim defined as such by this document. Split originally 68 years ago by the initial drawing of the Line in order to declare a sovereign state for the Strong and a loosely defined potential state for the Weak, the ambiguous nature of the land on the other side of the Line immediately rendered it unstable, without ground. Able to take advantage of this vulnerability, over the years the Strong’s government seized the built form’s stray from the Line, building a wall away from the Line to grab those victims embedded on, above and under the land. The land has been trapped in this zone of spatial depravity ever since, becoming ever more ungrounded and has thus been considered exiled in situ. Victims of the land may further be thought of as hostages. The Line has transformed by virtue of their existence, they are its parameters.
i . L and As Such
The land and space itself on the other side of the Line from the Strong is claimed by Strong zealots as spiritually theirs, given to them by another higher power, their birthright. Thus the land exists in two mutually exclusive worlds, the physical and spiritual, placing it in an ontological crises that is manifest by the very existence of the seam. It should be stated that there is a separate and ongoing investigation
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ARTICLE I VIC TIMS
i . L and As Such
by this department concerning other ethical violations of the built environment by those who settle on this spiritually claimed land, but these acts of construction are outside the scale and scope of this document. Further, agricultural land which has been suddenly and arbitrarily seamed, justified by the Strong with “states of exception,” suffers from a lack of cultivation and care as a result of changes in its farmer’s rights, access and legal status. In this way, this architectural misalignment is different from others the Bureau has dealt with in that its consruction and the legal devices associated with it are not static and can be changed at willl; it is indeed malleable.
ii . Water
Beneath the surface of the Earth and very near the Line exist aquifers that would be an invaluable resource to both the citizens and economy of the potential Weak state. The Wall’s deviation cuts through and around these aquifers, allowing the Strong to control these sources of water at their will. The Strong thus uses 73% of this water while the Weak uses 17%. Despite the abundant source of water in the Weak’s territory, each Strong citizen consumes four times as much water as a Weak citizen. The source of this water is stuck in the seam. Previous reports by other departments within this Bureau have deemed the treatment of the water within these territories by the Strong as illegal.
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ARTICLE I VIC TIMS
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iii . Archeolog y
Between the water and the surface are items of potential importance to the history of the Strong’s people and their spiritual roots. Sites where the Strong believes these items to reside have been cordoned off by The Wall, effectively transferring them into the seam. Not ironically, much of what lies beneath the surface is also of importance to the population of the Weak, as well as to the rest of the World’s inhabitants.
iv. Monuments
As with those buried potential relics, there exist multiple built relics sitting on the land itself. This collection of buildings and sites constitute one of the most important areas for much of contemporary humanity. The spiritual roots of the three most prevalent peoples of the World sit within The Seam, often on the same site. Ownership and claim over these areas have been the source of tension, fighting and war for centuries. Unsurprisingly, control of this area has been one of the most disputed aspects of negotiations between the Strong and Weak towards the establishment of a sovereign state for the Weak. Given the strength of the Strong, the Line’s built form escapes its drawn in areas where these sites exist, wrapping around to absorb them into the Strong’s territory. The entirety of the most concentrated area of relics has been exiled to the Seam.
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ARTICLE I VIC TIMS
PEOPLE
i . Weak Population
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These victims are both the products and parameters of Line’s deviant maturity.
Upon the initial drawing of the Line demarcating the Strong State, large numbers of those who had suddenly become the Weak were physically exiled, moving from the land of their ancestors to camps in neighboring nations. During a later dispute the Strong breached the Line and seized more land on the Weak’s side, displacing even more citizens. This reappropriation of the land created new legal conditions imposed specifically on the Weak, while the Strong and other citizens experience different and more lenient laws on the same land. Thus the people who remained on the land live in a permanent state of static exile, stripped of status without ever having left, exile in situ. Those inside the Seam that exists today live in a further state of legal ambiguity, as the olive farmer who no longer has the permit to tend his crop by virtue of his status inside the Seam but who nonetheless remains in place. Such is the state of the Weak resident in the Seam, the second-order exile.
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ARTICLE I
VIC TIMS ii . Strong Population
The Strong whom this document considers victims are different than its other victims in that these citizens have willingly transgressed the line. In line with governmental attitudes that prefer a strategy of land domination by depth rather than by lines (which the Strong argues can be easily broken), there have been Strong citizens moving into cities built on seized land even deeper into the Weak’s side. The Strong has justified the seizure of this land through the creation of their own legal exceptions that allow them to build on land unable to be cultivated on and grant legitimacy to their actions if they relate to their security. These laws have not been recognized or considered applicable by the entirety of this Bureau, nor have the settlements that have formed inside the Weak’s territory. Furthermore, the same portion of the population to whom the Weak’s land is in fact their birthright, deemed so by their higher power, consider and indeed insist on this land as their true home. For them, they have always been in exile. As such, these “settlers” have victimized themselves by acting according to laws recognized only by themselves or by their gods and allowing themselves to be used as political devices, thus being unable reconcile these actions with the rest of this Bureau and indeed the World. Those settlements and their populations that reside near the Line, within its (untold) reach, have been wrapped by the Wall as a “security exception” and absorbed into the Seam.
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ARTICLE II
CONSIDER ATIONS i . Gathering
It is understood that the massive infrastructure that has been built to transport the Strong population between each side of the Line, as well as the sheer number of citizen’s living inside the Weak’s land, in combination with the Wall, have strategically been placed so as to prevent Weak villages from ever growing and becoming larger cities or municipalities. Therefore the depth of these actions have made the prospect of a sovereign state for the Weak impossible without massive repopulation, re-exile, and destruction.
ii . Notion of Return
It is understood that the notion of return in consideration of would-be citizens in the Strong and the Weak has been and continues to be the thorn in the side of the question regarding the creation of a state for the Weak. “Return” as it pertains to the two sides is a concept that is entirely at odds with itself and has created an absurd condition in practice. Those for whom the Strong considers this land as their homeland may “return” to the land at any point, despite having never lived there before and originating from other parts of the World. Those citizens of the Weak who have been exiled by the Line are not afforded this “return” by the Strong, despite having originated there. Conversely, regarding negotiations and a condition for their future state, the Weak insists on their own Right of Return for those exiled by the Line and their descendents. These grounds have been continuously
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ARTICLE II
CONSIDER ATIONS ii . Notion of Return
denied by the Strong. Therefore these two differing notions of Return must be reconciled.
iii . Monuments
It is understood that the area where the World’s religions were manufactured and the relics that remain there, built or buried, cannot be governed by either the Strong or the Weak, neither individually nor jointly. Therefore these monuments must be disavowed.
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ARTICLE III
It has been agreed upon that all that has been stated above constitutes a situation unable to be resolved in its present state. The ultimate maturation of the Line into its deviant condition as the Wall, which is double the length of the Line, has worsened the conflict between both parties. The two acts of building that have been considered, the Wall and the creation of new homes in the form of settlements, have denied the possibility of a state for the Weak sufficient with what the Bureau would consider state-worthy. It has been agreed upon that the Seam nonetheless grants us an affordance in the designation of new space. It has been agreed upon that should there ever be the possibility for dual sovereignty on either side, a Third State is required to absorb the victims of the conflict. This Third State shall be governed by neither Strong nor Weak, but by the Bureau and The State’s future, worthy generations. It has therefore been agreed upon that this State shall reside in the Seam.
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ARTICLE IV
AGREED MINUTES TO THE DECL AR ATION OF CONDITIONS AND PRINCIPLES ON THE VICTIMS AND THE THIRD STATE
SEC TION ONE
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i.
This Third State shall be a state for the victims of politically manipulated architecture and shall be considered both a sacrifice and a gift. The current condition shall be frozen, the entire process stopped. All that has been damaged is freed only of its perpetual state of decay.
ii .
The only residents of The State are those whose notions of Home are incompatible. Displaced citizens of the Weak, the exiles and their descendants, numbering 5,000,000, will move into the Seam and reside at the site of the Wall, the edge of the their “homes” which no longer exist.
iii .
The Strong settlers inside the Weak’s territory, those who claim the land as their biblical birthright, numbering 500,000, are the other residents of the Seam. They reside along the length of the Line, the edge of their unquantifiable home.
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ARTICLE IV
SEC TION ONE iv.
v.
vi .
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An average of 35 square meters shall be apportioned for each residence in The State, resulting in approximately 18 floors of even housing for the refugees across the length of the entire Wall and 5 floors of housing along the length of the entire Line.
Housing units will be constructed in equal numbers on either side so as to grow the State’s total population in matching numbers. Upon completion of the Strong exile’s units, the rate of construction for the Weak exile’s units will reduce to allow for stasis to transpire.
Vernaculars shall not be considered in the image or design of these residences; The State shall begin culturally neutral.
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ARTICLE IV
SEC TION T WO
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i.
The land between Line and Wall, regarded as the source of conflict, shall be eradicated in a process of literal and symbolic erasure. As such the land will be completely removed down to sea level, allowing water to fill the Seam and flow down to the lowest point on the Earth, which sits at the end of the Seam.
ii .
Water from the Sea will fill the gap between the Line and Wall at sea level. That which occurs at Sea Level will be governed by maritime law.
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ARTICLE IV
SEC TION THREE i.
ii .
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Concerning the monuments which are regarded as the property of the World’s citizens, the Bureau concedes that should all the land within the Seam be eradicated, so too would the monuments. In consideration of pandemonium that would ensue should these relics disappear, a single concession shall be made: the relics and the land directly around them will be retained while all else falls to the Sea. As such, this removal of the Ground to the depth of the sea shall reorient the axis of the spared land on which the relics sit down to a neutralized grid beneath sea level, cleansing the state of any orientational bias that may be maintained in future generations.
iii .
Compromising for this concession, the monuments will stand alone and be enclosed by the Bureau’s administrative offices. The relics shall never again be visited, and the citizen’s of the World will be content with simply the knowledge that they have not been destroyed along with everything else and still exist.
iv.
Concerning the archeological sites, the Seam’s buried victims, similar outcry would have to be prevented regarding the potential relics beneath the surface of the Earth. All artifacts that have been discovered in the process of eradicating the Seam’s land will be compiled, digitized and archived inside the remaining mounds of earth.
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ARTICLE IV
SEC TION FOUR i.
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The nascent condition of the State, and indeed its initial purpose as stated above, is to absorb the victims and therefore the conflict between the Strong and Weak. Thus the notion of peace is not something to be expected but rather to be developed. As such, all actions will be allowed to take place within the State. Interactions between the two people’s will happen just above sea level on elements connecting the residences to the administrative offices housed at the monuments, continuously in the process of falling and transforming to the neutrality of the grid below.
ii .
Attached to the connecting elements, Bureau Judges will be constantly mobilized to the Courts in order to grant Judgements and Exceptions for any desired action, and will then witness said action and document it. All documentation will be archived by the Judges similarly to the artifacts and be used for the development of future jurisdiction.
iii .
Each morning upon their arrival into the State, the Judges will be briefed in the Temple on the previous day’s Exceptions and in order to understand the evolution of the two people’s relationships until they ultimately form a Constitution and set of laws for future generations of the Third State to abide by.
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ARTICLE V
SEC TION ONE i.
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The Department wants it to be noted that the land’s reduction to the neutralized grid is in fact only the beginning of the creation of The Third State, its first phase. The process of regressing built form back down to a grid or a line can be considered as the initial attempt to cleanse The Seam produced by this architectural deviation, the literal misalignment between drawn line and built wall. As such, the Department considers the future generations worthy of this new space to be continuing this regression from the grid further toward its derivation, a point, in the construction of more ethically sound and aligned construction.
ii .
Due to the preservation of the old relics and the note in Section 5.1 above, eleven new sites for future monuments shall be constructed in the inital establishment of the state around the Capital. The orientation of these sites will collectively work towards a point, having been born of the grid.
iii .
Within this logic, the monuments themselves will be working towards the point within their respective formal and social devices. Considering all that has happened, The Third State will be a success upon the moment that its inhabitants achieve the singular in constructing their new land.
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ARTICLE V
SEC TION T WO i.
Upon completion of the State’s initial construction (ie the eradication of the land and initial housing units), the Weak will establish a sovereign state with the support of the Strong.
ii .
According to the Montreal Accords, both Strong and Weak parties have agreed upon these terms in the establishment of the Third State.
For the State of the Strong For the State of the Weak For the Third State Witnessed By: Felecia Davis Timothy Hyde Florian Idenburg Diana Ramirez-Jasso Meredith Miller Robert Somol Parsa Kamali, Department of Built Ethics The World Bureau
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