[Tail Gunner]

There are few new frontiers into which a man can flee to escape the smothering embrace of the nanny-state and the ever-encroaching police state.

But what if a man could build his empire in a libertarian city-state -- and perhaps even conduct commerce between such bastions of freedom?

Envision a worldwide network of Galt's Gulches spread across the world (reference to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand).

Some outside-the-box thinkers are presently trying to create such autonomous zones of free enterprise and personal liberty.

I first read about this project several years ago. It is now slowly becoming reality.

Quote:

Startup Cities To Become Reality
Yago / November 30, 2013

A few months ago I promised, that in November, I would be able to provide an update on the creation of a radical new kind of free, autonomous legal zone (see video below). Well the time is here. Right now, I can only give a high level update, but over the next few weeks there will be much more exciting information to share. So here goes:

The first zones, called ZEDE, are going to be in Honduras. And yes, that is zones, plural. The legislation that has been passed in Honduras makes creating a zone incredibly easy. In an upcoming update, I will publish the laws and add some commentary – but creating a zone is going to be far easier than almost anyone imagined. Barriers to entry will be low so that competition is high.

We are not out of the woods yet. Things could still go wrong, either due to internal politics in Honduras or due to outside pressure. This will continue to be true even after the first zones are set up. But at this point I am confident that the odds are in our favor. Primarily due to the genius of one man (more on that later).

The reason for my confidence is multi-fold:

New constitutional changes were introduced that ended the original objections of the Honduran supreme court
The legislative framework has been voted by an overwhelming majority of the Honduran parliament
The framework laws have been published and enacted into law
The core executive council, whose duty it shall be to oversee the creation of the zones has been formed
In the most recent elections, which took place last week, the votes are in. The law’s supporters are firmly in power
President-Elect Juan Orlando Hernández, was the leading promoter of the law in parliament. Now that he has been elected president, he has made clear that the creation of the ZEDE will be his administrations “key initiative”

Momentum for the creation of the free zones is only gaining momentum. The tone of conversations has turned from skepticism to hope and pride.

Other Central American counties, and in particular Guatemala and Panama are watching this development closely (and their leaders have indicated differing degrees of support). Additionally, elites in countries in other regions of the developing world have begun to take a more active interest. I and others who have been working on this project are seeing leaders reach out to us to quietly begin conversations. There is a surprising degree of high-level support for the plan. And if the zones are a success, there is going to be immense competitive pressure in the region for other countries to also create free zones, in order to stay competitive. We may have multi-country jurisdictions come into existence quite rapidly. This is a geo-political black swan of epic proportions just waiting to happen.

We owe an immense debt to the tireless efforts of many brave and relentless Hondurans who are taking a huge leap to try correct the ills of their country. In particular the genius of one man, Octavio Sanchez, is behind this project is becoming a reality. Sanchez has been planning this methodically for over 20 years, he moves with the slow implacable force of magma and the political guile of a benevolent Machiavellian prince. We are lucky he is on our side. I can guarantee that hard-core libertarians are going to be disappointed with the first zones (but they have never created such zones whereas Octavio will).

However, he has architected a plan which I think may be the greatest piece of political genius since the formation of the US constitution. The political changes will occur at exponential pace, slow and imperceptible at first, and then suddenly, they will be everywhere. (I will devote an essay to this – but at this point it will only be available on openocracies.org. If you are interested, sign up for access to the social network below.)

For the time-being, the plan is to continue to maintain the low media profile of the project. Over the next few months however, more information will be released to the press and other public relations efforts will be underway. A lot of this is going to be done on a private basis, with the central government maintaining a lower profile. In the meantime, we are creating a member-only website to continue to provide more information about the project. The website will include a social network, built on the diaspora protocol, that we hope will help allow supporters from around the world to coordinate efforts. You can register for an invite at openocracies.org

http://edanyago.me/2013/11/30/startup-ci...e-reality/


There is a video embedded in the attached news story. I have also attached it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-oySaDJHoI