Inner Earth Citizen Living on The Surface?
The spoken and written language of the Inner World Atturians in their capital city of Shambala, from which Professor Haammaan emigrated to the U.S. via an Icelandic passport, is the original Sanscrit. Their flag is orange with black letters beneath a coat of arms under which is the legend, "Peace with Honor," meaning to end a war without surrender.
Their Sanscrit alphabet contains 38 letters, many of which are in double form such as AA, CC, 00, etc. These double letters are used only in proper nouns such as persons, cities, Aarpo, Baacco, Winnaabbaago, Saapraanoo, Jaapanno, Cannaggo. In word construction two words are often joined also, and pronounced as one. In punctuation, one question mark upside down is placed before an interrogative sentence and a normal, upright question mark then follows the sentence.
The country of over 300 million people is served by color television. Newspapers are smaller than ours and contain little advertising because of the shortage of pulpwood.
The home city of Professor Haammaan is the capital city of Atturias, Shamballa, located on the continent of Agharta, comprising a population of several millions. The city (as is the nation) is served by air transport with other metropolitan centers (i.e. magnetic powered craft which have been in their possession since their forefathers came from Venus). Connecting ground transportation is via railroads which ride on cushions of air in'stead of rails. (The Japanese are currently experimenting with this method.) Most ground traffic is by means of four-wheel cars
and busses, both of which principally use electric energy as their motivational source. Electric outlets are located at roadside intervals of 25 miles from which a three minute charge of renewed power is drawn at no cost capable of providing a driving range of 100 miles. Radio waves sent from the remitting source to each energy depot supply the electric power, the remitting sources being solar, hydro-electric and nuclear fusion. Free energy, magnetic vehicles are also used.
Professor Haammaan was asked to describe briefly their immigration system followed by their monetary policy. Regarding immigration, he explained visas between countries in the Inner World were non-existent and that international travel was unrestricted, although each nation was very isolationist in its outlook and did not depend on a United Nations body of politics as practised above surface. When a foreign traveler visits another nation, the person simply signs a card upon entry saying they agree to abide by the laws of the land being visited. As all coin and paper currency are redeemable by gold according to international monetary standards, travelers therefore may exchange their own money for currency of the host country. Elaborating on money Haammaan added:
"Like you say above, 'Love for money is the root of all evil.' Therefore, we don't permit hoarding of money. It is to be spent for immediate wants and needs. To prevent hoarding, our paper money is
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recalled annually and newly numbered serials are issued. Hoarding gets the greedy person 30 years in prison, but savings are not frowned upon when kept in a bank. We also use coins for exchange, their contents of gold or silver being 70 per cent and that of the alloy 30 per cent.
"The reason for the harsh anti-hoarding law is that if money is kept in circulation (which our banks do with peoples' savings at low interest rates) then capital projects in private, corporate and government sectors provide full employment. One of the problems here above is that so much of the wealth accumulated over the years or centuries by certain groups is kept out of circulation and hidden away in private banks or vaults. In such cases, that money withheld (usually gold) is a form of power which is harmful and often used as a power base to influence sectors of the overall society. I'm sure you are aware of many examples of this hoarding abuse by such powerful control groups."
"Our central government treasury owns all our gold to back up the coin of the realm, which is the established policy of each nation below. Much of our own gold reserves was brought down from old Atlantis."
"Our numerical system is what you call Roman numerals and the Algebraic system, neither names being historically correct. Our system of numbering is more related to your British and U.S. methods. We don't use the decimal system and I predict it will be discarded up here within 100 years. Some of our units of measure are as follows: 1 quatal = 1 mile *** 1 qquttall = 1 inch *** 1 quntall = 1 foot *** 1 vartall = 32 inches (equivalent to the British yard of 36 inches) *** 16 quntalls = 1 chain. The average road width below in Atturraas is 3 chains and an alley is 1 chain wide. (Haammaan said their Inner World is 23,000 quatals in circumference and it is 7 Vi (seven and a half) thousand quatals from Pole to Pole.)"
The calendar used throughout the Inner World is based on a year of 360 days, each month having 30 days. The five days remaining at the end of the year are called by the people "year's end days" during which all non-essential work stops. Babies bom on these days are bom officially on January 1st following. For thousands of years the above calendar time has been followed below, Do you have any specific ideas about employment?
"Depending on technical skills or academic abilities, graduates of grade school or college have already been pretested (as in Bodland) to determine their careers. We have no retirement laws but limited or part-time employment is the norm throughout the Inner World in later years. It is up to the man or woman. Certain job categories are considered to be more suitable for women who are not encouraged to compete for certain masculine jobs and vice versa.
"Our medical research has overcome most diseases, including all types of cancer and arthritis by predetection or postdetection. The people still get injured through a variety of accidents. Emergency methods to mend bones and replace skin are among the advanced medical practices. For instance, a synthetic skin used on grafts or plastic surgery resulting from severe wounds or bums is simply cut from
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a roll of substance in much the same manner plastic paper wrap or tin foil is removed for domestic use in the U.S.
"Placed over the burned or diseased area, under sterile conditions, along with a special healing gel, the synthetic graft immediately takes to the skin area to be rebuilt. Its use makes plastic surgery much easier and faster.
"Amputations are extremely rare since crushed limbs are immediately rebuilt with synthetic bone that quickly is accepted by the natural bone being repaired. Hearts, lungs, eyes, ears and other body parts are replaced routinely as are decayed teeth. (Damage to nerve fibres was not discussed.)
"Free total medical care is provided to all age groups."
The Atlanteans have overcome most of the illness common to surface people, and their age life span apparently is generally over a thousand years, with premature death an exceptional occurrence.
The first two hour interview with Haammaan was held secretly at an airport in Maryland. Crime was dealt with briefly, and answers were sought as to how their society treats those offenders who violate the age-old system of laws derived to protect members of society.
The gist of the discussion is as follows: a criminal is considered a social disgrace only if he does not respond to treatment, but all crimes are treated as a form of mental illness. A first offender automatically is sent to a state psychiatric hospital. Most respond to initial treatment, the nature of which was not disclosed in the interview. The hospital board has the authority to declare a person a habitual criminal on the third offense.
In such a case, treatment is stopped and the offender considered a criminal. All clothing is removed and the naked prisoner is put to hard work in a public chain gang, made to sleep on a board at night and given only meagre sustenance. Six months maximum of this type of sentence usually changes the person and returns him to society again, as an accepted, normal citizen.
If the prisoner does not respond to this penalty treatment, he is committed by three doctors and a judge to a remote island where, like an animal, he is worked naked at manual labor during the day and forced into a lonely cage at night. This routine is followed with full understanding by the public of all its indignities to the human psyche. Public knowledge of this irrevocable punishment is a deterrent to crime.
Branded as "discarded citizens", those sent to the island prison are declared legally dead on arrival and relatives are so notified. All attempts to rehabilitate are ended. Upon death, the body is cremated and the ashes not returned to relatives, but tossed into the sea without burial services.
There are three major crimes, convictions of which automatically label the convicted felon a "discarded
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citizen" for shipment to the last-stop island. Those crimes are rape, kidnapping and murder. Guns are outlawed.
In Atturraas, the death penalty is also in force and may be given at the request of the judge or the prisoner himself, if rehabilitation treatment has failed. In such a case the felon is given a glass of liquid from a tree called the Poison Root which induces a painless death within an hour.
Even in perfect environments certain people are criminally prone and cannot be conditioned to the norm required by a civil code of laws. This fact is true both in societies above and below. But in Atturraas their confinements for offenders are located in rehabilitation centers and hospitals rather than in prisons. There are few youthful offenders in the interior world, perhaps because the responsibility for a youthful crime rests with the parents who are judged on a guilt basis along with the youth convicted. Obviously, the basic unit of learning and training in their society is the home, even before church or school. If early school tests indicate a criminal tendency in a child, he is removed from classes and placed in a hospital for correctional therapy at an early age.
Our news media below (as in Bodland) does not carry stories of crime, let alone headline them. Nor do we have long drawn out judicial exercises. An apprehended murderer generally is tried the second week with the death sentence carried out the following week.
Youth gangs are not tolerated and common assaults and muggings, so widespread above, don't exist below. All male youth in Atturraas and Bodland must serve two years without pay in one of the defense forces where behavior disciplines are further emphasized.
There is no syndicate crime problem below.
Haarnmaan continued:
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