There is still one more week to invent your own micronation – and win a free copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations in the process.
So: in 100 words or less, what, where, how, who, why, when, etc., would your micronation be…? To date, we’ve been approached by a group who “will dig a trench and fill it with ourselves”; we’ve been pitched a “politically autonomous” National Sex Garden; we’ve been introduced to a world of street barricades, built in disused quarters of the world’s cities; we’ve brushed shoulders with the “Sovereign Dictatorship of MOB”; and so on. You don’t actually have to realize your nation, by the way; you can just talk about it. And the more architecturally interesting your idea is, the better.
Illustrations are both acceptable and encouraged.
If you need micronational tips, examples, criteria, etc., see BLDGBLOG’s recent interview with Simon Sellars, one of the Lonely Planet guide’s co-authors – or take a look at Wikipedia’s entry on micronations. Or check out the Helicopter Archipelago.
Then submit to me via email…
The winner – chosen more or less on the whim of BLDGBLOG – will receive a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations to read and obsess over, and their idea will appear on BLDGBLOG.
Get cracking!
You have till Friday, December 15th, 2006.
The Country of TAKEASTAND
By Bill Brossman, 303-862-8545
I believe that what we see is the future, and that this gives us a tremendous self-confidence, a tremendous existential validity, so that we can then return and take our place among the rest of the world and be a source of inspiration, of a transcendent exemplar.
The Possibility I Have Created For My Self, My Life and the World, Is The Possibility of Peace, Love and Joy.
The Outcome is that each and every member of this planet has the opportunity to see what peace, love and joy looks like. When this happens world peace will be available.
The Country of Takeastand is becoming more than an idea. It is becoming the inspiration for many ideas. The world has never really seen or known what world peace looks like, therefore, it does not know that it does not know. Through rigorous inquiry we will see will be able to visualize what world peace looks like. We believe that if you can not see it, you can not create it. Takeastand will be an example of what world peace looks like.
The location of Takeastand is located at the intersection of the heart and the mind. It’s our throat and is the symbol of communication.
Our citizens our very easy to identify, they look like naked hippies running around in a grass field, but they are not naked because they have no clothes, they are naked because they have no story, character, no undeclared commitment and are being who they really are.
Our creed is based on values and principle (love, generosity, fun, excitement, etc) and not standards and ideals.
Our National Anthem is John Lennon’s “IMAGINE”
here’s something interesting for you
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09572813.htm
I may not have time between now and Friday to come up with a whole new micronation, but I can say that it will be neccessary to incorporate this concept as the basis for political decision-making.
I have made the National Republic of Columbia (spelled differently from the actual macronation). I propose that its land be seized from one of those islands in the Atlantic that the UK uses for scientific research: they can research us instead of those plants and things. Anyway, the country would export only pencils (to the Vatican City), which will also be the only import (from Portugal). Columbia will outlaw rivers, and will be ruled by a Chancellor, Queen, and Prime Minister. Those weird color names are also outlawed (cyan, seafoam green, fire hydrant red, etc.). No one is allowed to speak French, and English is considered the language of the nobility (which is everyone). Furthermore, we will live in grass huts and perform algebra equations as part of our national religion (Calculus) using pencils stolen from our import piles. Long live Columbia!
my e-mail is jaron@wsu.edu
Hey – Thanks! Preferably submit your micronations via email, if you don’t mind; I’d appreciate it.
And juniorbonner, cool story; I’ll put it up soon. Thanks!
Please, can you put your e-mail to send the information of my micronation? I would appreciate it.
Vincenzo Cordano.
Vincenzo, the contest ended three years ago (back in 2006) – but if you want to email me your idea, you can find my email address in the right-hand column of this blog, under "About BLDGBLOG."