Council? Senate? House? Which?

Day 561, 03:44 Published in Philippines Philippines by Swagger McSwag

In eRepublik, a country's legislature is simply called "Congress". Members of this Congress are called "Congress Members". That sound SO uncool.


UNITED KINGDOM HOUSE OF LORDS CHAMBER

That's the reason why people role-play and call Congress by another name in forums and in the media. For instance, the eUK has modeled its in-game Congress after the real-life (RL) UK's bicameral "Houses of Parliarment", composed of the "House of Commons" and the "House of Lords"; whereas the eUSA's in-game Congress borrows its "official" name from the "House of Representatives", one of the RL USA's two Congress chambers.

On the other hand, the Philippines models its in-game Congress after... after... well, I guess the Philippines isn't so sure, is it?


RUSSIAN FEDERATION COUNCIL CHAMBER


THE KLINGON AMBASSADOR ADDRESSES THE FEDERATION COUNCIL OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS

The ePhilippines forums (http://ephilippines.forummotion.com/), on one hand, officially designates Congress as the Russian-esque"Council of State", perhaps, in line with the Filipino Progressive Movement's socialist aspirations, as well as some of their members' aversion from imitating real-life British or American legislative systems (see: http://ephilippines.forummotion.com/public-discussion-f8/government-structure-t22.htm). Nonetheless, no FPM member has ever referred to Congress as a "council", neither have they referred to Congress Members as "councilors" or "councilmen", in the media.

The ePilipinas forums (http://epilipinas.bigforumpro.com/) as well as the older but defunct ePhilippines forums (http://ephilippines.darkbb.com/), on the other, calls Congress simply "The Philippine Congress".


SEAL OF THE CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES

I, for one, have, in the media, referred to both Congress and Congress Members, whether directly or in passing, as "Congress representative", "(region name here) representative", "senator", "congressman/men/person/people", the "House of Representin'", "Philippine Congress", or just "Congress".

Others have done so in a variety of ways as well.

Why the needless confusion and inconsistency?

I hereby move that we pick and choose an "official" name for our Congress. It doesn't matter whether it's called House of Lords /Commons/Representatives, or Senate, or Council, or National Assembly, but we need to pick one and stick to it.

My Pick: The Senate


OFFICIAL SEAL OF THE SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES

If it were up to me, I'd call Congress the "Senate of the Philippines". Let's face it. Senator Dimagiba sounds more bad-ass than Representative Dimagiba or Congress Member Dimagiba or Councilor Dimagiba or whatever.

But, seriously, the in-game Congress resembles a Senate in a presidential system much more than a House because it has a fixed number of elected representatives from each region, regardless of each region's population.

Why is this necessary?

It isn't. It won't prevent political takeovers (PTOs), augment the population or accelerate economic growth, but it will certainly clear up some confusion and give our Congress a sense of officiality, not to mention further cement and establish our National eIdentity.

Discuss...

All congressmen/assemblymen/senators/council ors/representatives/lords/PMs/zorks/what evs are invited to discuss this topic on this article's sister thread, here:

I shall soon open a Congress poll to decide the "official" name of our legislature based on your feedback to this proposal.

Our beloved citizens are also welcome to post their comments below.

Warm regards,

Ariel David Buena
Congressionator | Visayas
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June 3, 2009