Fellow Citizens - I welcome this opportunity to speak to you. In fact, I wanted to do so so much that I traveled quite a distance to be here. {laughter}
These last two and a half months of visiting you here has been a wonderful experience. I have seen so much - including the hard work and innovation of the people of Antarctica. I have talked with and listened to our citizens of the South. You are a remarkable people !
Hard working, honest, innovative, cooperative - you have made a home on what was just bare cold rock when you first settled here. The challange required foresight and intelligence as well as back breaking hard work !
One of my roles as President is to think ahead of the problems of today to the opportunities of tomorrow. And Antarctica has many opportunities ! Sorting these opportunities out may be overlooked as we focus on next year's budget - or should tobacco be legalized.
I would like to ask this assembly to appoint two members of the Union Technology Committee to reside in the North and rotate regularly with our more frequent shipping. In addition, I suggest two more members of the committee to reside in Antarctica and attend meetings by radio contact. Four members will give Antarctica slightly more representation than their population would suggest, but after over three centuries of no representation, I think that this is only fair.
