[DRAFT] Electrical Safety Act

[North Rainier]

The World Assembly,

Noting the many lives lost in building fires caused by electrical flaws and mismanagement;

Fearing that the spread of fires could cause wildfires, causing wildlife to be displaced or killed;

Understanding that the reason for most electrical flaws are undereducated or underpaid workers;

Calling for empathy for those affected by these fires;

1. In this resolution ruling;
a) A person able to do electrical work has to have undergone 6 months of full time electrical hands-on study under a master
b) An Electrical education school can only give out diplomas to its students if it has been approved by a government agency
c) A building has to be tested yearly by an EES to be considered safe to inhabit
d) Fire alarms have to be provided by the government for free

2. This resolution also renders it illegal for any entity to do electrical work without the required documents proving that the person has undergone the required education.
3. Requires member states to provide an electrical education school (EES) that can provide professionals to do the required electrical work.

[Tinhampton]

What are the required documents, what does the EES have to be within fifty kilometres of, and why do you define three terms that you barely use anywhere else in your proposal? HARD PASS

[North Rainier]

Changed to remove problems and added clause

[Kenmoria]

“I don’t quite understand clause 3. Are you trying to say that there must be an EES within fifty kilometres of any given house, or that there must be at least one EES fulfilling this criteria within any one country? Either way, this seems needlessly precise. It doesn’t take much less time to drive fifty kilometres than to drive sixty, so I can’t see the need for the location specification.”

[North Rainier]

“I don’t quite understand clause 3. Are you trying to say that there must be an EES within fifty kilometres of any given house, or that there must be at least one EES fulfilling this criteria within any one country? Either way, this seems needlessly precise. It doesn’t take much less time to drive fifty kilometres than to drive sixty, so I can’t see the need for the location specification.”

It's just to make sure that a person has an EES that could do the work for them, but you are right there is no need for that specification

[Tinhampton]

This has been submitted (saved by IA for posterity) unchanged from the current OP.

[Kenmoria]

“I don’t understand why this proposal was submitted, given how little feedback has been received. Personally, I have issues with the legislation that could have been fixed by further drafting, and I’m sure that other ambassadors also have similar opinions. I recommend a withdrawal of the proposal so more critique can be given.”

[Araraukar]

IC and OOC as marked.

The World Assembly,

OOC: Before this, you might want to put the Category and Strength or Area of Effect (which of the latter two, depends on the category, as some categories have strengths and others have AoEs). They can affect your proposal's legality, so it's best to add them in somewhere.

Noting the many lives lost in building fires caused by electrical flaws and mismanagement;

IC: "Certainly not in Araraukar! If your nation has such issues, maybe you should focus on fixing the issues in your nation, instead of assuming it's a problem everywhere!"

OOC: Even in RL - at least in Finland- most deadly fires are caused by smoking (falling asleep/passing out with a lit cigarette), intentional fire lighting (arson), mishandling of fire (candles, fireplaces, etc.) and only then electrical devices, and even of the last category it's mostly people leaving the cooking stove on/forgetting it's on and then something on it catching fire, meaning it's not faulty/improperly installed wiring.

Fearing that the spread of fires could cause wildfires, causing wildlife to be displaced or killed;

OOC: I would leave this out entirely, as you're trying to focus on housefires - wildfires have already been addressed in a previous resolution, and very rarely (again, at least in Finland) are caused by housefires, and instead by mishandling of fire (camping fires most often, but also children playing with matches), intentional lighting (arson again), smoking (throwing away a still-lit cigarette) and burning garden trash (twigs, leaves, etc., which can cause flying sparks to escape into the wild). And that's not counting ones started by lightning.

If housefires cause wildfires in Finland, it's so uncommon that Google doesn't know about it.

Understanding that the reason for most electrical flaws are undereducated or underpaid workers;

OOC: Or just careless ones. I'd add carelessness here, because "cowboy builders" who are cutting corners in everything, are very likely to try to do the wiring themselves to save on costs, and not care about doing it well.

Calling for empathy for those affected by these fires;

IC: "Given you do nothing for the fire victims within the active clauses, this one seems out of place. Instead, you might want to explain how a properly educated and dedicated electrician is more likely to follow the rules and regulations set in place to protect people and property. Also, you might want to add something about people being killed or injured by electrocution - again, this is almost unheard of in Araraukar, but I understand it is a proper threat in less advanced countries."

OOC: Only focusing on fires is a bit odd, when electric shocks from damaged or improperly done wiring are a big risk especially to children.

1. In this resolution ruling;

OOC: The tab code is a bit odd and might not work once the proposal is submitted. Try using lists instead. They give the same effect (lists can be nested in lists) - just ask if you need help with the list code use.

IC: "Given that all resolution texts "rule" something, you could add a "Hereby" before the active clauses. That way you have your problem and basic solutions to it outlined in the preamble, and then there "hereby" signals that the following are your specific instructions to the member nations on how to fix the problem. Also, "ruling" in general sounds a bit odd. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer something like "requires" or "mandates" instead?"

OOC: The preamble verbs can be passive voice (ending with -ing), while the actual mandates should have active verbs (rules instead of ruling, for example).

a) A person able to do electrical work has to have undergone 6 months of full time electrical hands-on study under a master

IC: "What century - no, what millenium - do you think we live in? Surely your country can't be so primitive as to subscribe to the medieval method of having apprentices, journeymen and masters of profession? Have you ever heard of schools?"

OOC: In RL trade schools include practical studies, which are done learning more from people working in the industry of choice, but they're generally not called "masters". A building site might have a "master" to imply the guy who's responsible for overseeing the work of others, but it's not a common word to use and indeed does make one think of the medieval way of learning, before schools existed.

b) An Electrical education school can only give out diplomas to its students if it has been approved by a government agency

IC: "I think that this is such a no-brainer that it's likely not necessary to put it in. The same applies to all schools - albeit I'd use "state" instead of "government agency", to be more inclusive, if you for some reason want to keep it, and "certificate" instead of "diploma"."

OOC: In RL diploma usually means you've passed schooling, and certificate means you've passed and actually have the knowledge and skills to work in the job. Also, often, "diploma" is reserved for higher learning, with "certificate" being more inclusive.

c) A building has to be tested yearly by an EES to be considered safe to inhabit

IC: "What on earth is EES and why the hell do you think annual tests of buildings are necessary? Do you think the general public is so ignorant as to not spot any problems themselves? Or that there's a magical limit of one year that wiring made to last several decades suddenly degrades if not watched? I mean, presumably you're trying to limit this to wiring, not structural integrity? If so, it needs to be specified."

OOC: Usually in RL the inspection is made once; before you can move in. It's only reinspected if something changes significantly (technological improvements) or new data of fail points (like, say, certain type of electric insulation is found to be flammable) is discovered. Also, this seems to completely exclude commercial buildings, which is everything where people don't actually live, such as office buildings, shops of every kind, sports stadiums, etc.

d) Fire alarms have to be provided by the government for free

OOC: Again, "state" instead of "government", and why? Fire alarms cost over here like 10 euros (I literally just saw some in a store today), and I can't imagine them to be much more expensive elsewhere in the developed world. You could make it "by the building/home owner", because if you have enough wealth to own a building, you have enough wealth to have a smoke alarm installed.

Also, I know it can be difficult to understand this, but not everyone in the RL world, and thus also NS world, lives in a developed or thoroughly-developed country. If you live in a mud hut, the likelyhood that you cook food on an open fire is great. You're going to end up with a lot of false alarms. Even one of my two RL fire alarms (which had been installed by the owner of the apartment I rent) reacts to heat instead of smoke, and it's fucking inconvenient because it's installed just outside my bathroom door and if I've had a hot shower, I need to be lightning quick through the door or it reacts to the heat coming out of the now-warmer bathroom.

If you have too many false alarms, you won't react to an actual alarm. The "boy who cried wolf" scenario.

2. This resolution also renders it illegal for any entity to do electrical work without the required documents proving that the person has undergone the required education.

IC: "This should be earlier in the proposal, where you talk about diplomas or certificates. Though this would make it impossible to actually learn how to do it safely, since electrician is one of the professions that you need hands-on training to do. Certainly the work should be overseen by someone who knows what they're doing, but learning by doing is part of learning to know what you're doing."

3. Requires member states to provide an electrical education school (EES) that can provide professionals to do the required electrical work.

IC: "So why the talk about masters earlier on, if you're going to require a school. Also, how about just requiring that electricians be trained in one, to allow for small island nations and such, where building such a specialist school might not be sensible, if you're going to have the need for only a couple of electricians in the whole nation?"

OOC: This needs to come before any mention of "EES" in the proposal. In general, define/explain terms before you use them.