Action-Ed is showcasing TropiCanada, a country made up of Grade 11 social studies students from Fleetwood Park Secondary School, in Surrey, BC. If you would like to showcase your Civic Mirror Nation, email us your story. info@action-ed.com
TropiCanada’s Town Hall
We begin our showcase of TropiCanada in its second simulated year (2001) and we find ourselves in a nation with massive gaps between the haves and have nots, with both groups of citizens believing they are in the right.
In a recent Town Hall meeting the issue of price controls was hotly contested. Earlier in 2001, TropiCanada’s Prime Minister passed legislation which put a price ceiling on apartment rent in an effort to help the poor and needy families of TropiCanada find shelter. The three apartment landlords, however, expressed their frustration with the law questioning why the government placed low ceilings on rent, but not food. The landlords explained that their profit margins were being jeopardized due to the high price of Energy/Industry units (the units needed to power hexes). “Why us?” they demanded.
Here we see one landlord’s apartment on the left (Daniel’s). His $300 asking price for rent is the maximum allowed by the Government of TropiCanada.
Yet, with equal fury, several homeless and penniless TropiCanadians asked their government the same question: “Why us?” Five citizens were homeless, about the same number had ZERO dollars, and one struggling citizen asked her government, “Look! There’s $100,000 in our economy and our government has almost $24,000. Don’t you think our government should start using that money to help out struggling citizens?” Although TropiCanada’s government members listened and explained their plans, tensions remained high at the end of the Town Hall meeting.
Open Market
One of the apartment landlords, Daniel (whose apartment is shown in the image above), had had enough of the government regulations and decided to evict two families – Sukhi’s and Tricia’s. Both Sukhi and Tricia had paid Daniel rent, both had been invited by Daniel to occupy his apartment, and both were kicked out without notice. Daniel claimed he needed to find tenants who could pay the maximum of $300 for rent in order to make a living. Sukhi and Tricia protested that they were victims of discrimination.
Daniel shakes his head fiercely when asked if his decision to evict two tenants without notice was discriminatory.
Another interesting development was that of TropiCanada’s first lottery. Created by a self-starting entrepreneur named Jordan, she posted this pay-per-view forum topic in her country’s discussion forum. Although this is a pretty standard Civic Mirror initiative, it’s a good one nonetheless.
Citizen Sukhi (who you’ll learn more about in future posts) pulled off a Civic Mirror first! He advertised his services as a hex agent (i.e. real estate agent). Brilliant! Check out his advertisement out in TropiCanada’s forums.
LAW SUITS and END NOTES:
The school bell ended TropiCanada’s action-packed Open Market. One civil suit was announced against the Government by Hamed and Sukhi (next post), and a criminal accusation was announced against “Daniel the Landlord” by Sukhi and Tricia (the two citizens whose families were evicted without notice, coming in the third post). TropiCanada’s politicians were quietly jockeying for points in the upcoming election, being careful to distance themselves from those being taken to court.
Read the next posts to find out what happens!
