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Made in gb
[DCM]
Et In Arcadia Ego





Canterbury

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37941931





One man is trying to create a utopia on what he says is unclaimed land between Serbia and Croatia. He's banned from setting foot in his would-be territory, but he has not given up.
The president stared across the water at his country, from which he is exiled.
We were in a boat on the Danube, only a few yards from the territory of Liberland - what he calls the "beloved country".
But we knew that if we tried to disembark, the Croatian river police would arrest us. Patriotism struggled with prudence, and lost.
Liberland is only 7 sq km (2.5 sq miles) of uninhabited marshland. But in the mind of Vit Jedlicka, its first president, it's the fulfilment of the libertarian dream - a land with no compulsory taxes, no gun control, with Bitcoins as currency.



t Liberland on the right hand shore
In the summer of 2015, he, his girlfriend and a couple of mates planted a flag there. The other three elected him president.
Since then, he has signed up nearly half a million would-be citizens online. He has appointed a cabinet and ambassadors-in-waiting worldwide. He has money from crowdfunding and wealthy libertarian donors. He has printed diplomatic passports.
Just one problem - neither he nor anyone else has been able to occupy Liberland for over a year.
In 2015 Liberland seemed to be a rare example of what the law calls terra nullius - land claimed by no state. It was once part of Serbia, but when the borders were redrawn at the end of the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s, it ended up with Croatia.



But Croatia didn't want it. If it had accepted it, it would have had to accept the new borders, which gave it less territory than it used to have. Serbia liked the new borders because it got more territory, even though it had lost Liberland.
So, for different reasons, both countries said "no thanks" to this tiny sliver. But 32-year-old Jedlicka - a friendly and approachable Czech-born former PR man, who tends to end his sentences with a slight giggle - said "yes please".
From across the globe, libertarian idealists flocked to the Balkans to settle the new paradise.



But while Croatia may not have wanted the territory, it didn't necessarily want a gun-toting libertarian utopia on its doorstep either.
It arrested and fined anyone who tried to enter, either by land or water. The president himself was arrested and fined when he tried to cross into Liberland from Croatia. In a further blow, this summer he was prevented even from entering Croatia.
But he's not a man to give up. He's kept up a busy international schedule, visiting libertarian conferences around the world, appointing a slate of ministers and foreign representatives, and keeping Liberland alive on social media.
He ran an architectural competition for Liberland, which attracted entries from some top firms worldwide.

So in September, I flew to Budapest, where the president and his foreign minister, Jose Miguel Maschietto, picked me up in a hired car.
The two men were nervous - would we even get over the border into Croatia? But we snuck in, late at night, at a small crossing. Jedlicka announced himself not as a visiting head of state, but as a tourist.
The president had two engagements. He had an invitation to attend a regional macro-economic conference, and he was appealing against his conviction for entering Liberland illegally.
Attending the conference was an attempt to shore up his bona fides as a legitimate representative of a real state, and to hand out glossy brochures to European bureaucrats. He and the other Liberlanders genuinely believe that a free-market haven in the middle of the Balkans could help regenerate an economically depressed area.

The court case was stranger. A Croatian higher court had overturned the original conviction and had sent it back down to the local magistrates' court for a retrial. But Jedlicka was actually hoping to "lose" the case again.
If Croatia was fining him for entering Liberland illegally, his argument went, then surely that was proof that there was an international border there, as he had always claimed? In effect, he was hoping a small Croatian magistrates' court would decide where the border between Serbia and Croatia lay.
To his disappointment, but nobody's surprise, the elderly magistrate felt that this was beyond his competence, and the case was adjourned.
And so we looked at boats. A lot of boats, in various states of decrepitude.

Jedlicka's plan is that, if he can't yet settle on the semi-solid ground of Liberland, he can build a temporary settlement on houseboats on the Danube next to the territory. Other boats will serve as meeting places and diplomatic accommodation.
Acquiring property shows seriousness of intent, he thinks. "We want to show that we are real people who are able to do real stuff, but in a romantic way," he says.
Eventually he found the right vessel - a ramshackle fixer-upper, for which he agreed to pay 30,000 euros (£26,000).
All this time, we were accompanied by the foreign minister Jose Miguel Maschietto, a strikingly handsome 32-year-old, always impeccably dressed.
He's a Venetian, and so knows about boats. But something about him didn't quite add up.


He said he'd been a commander in the Italian army and served as a UN peacekeeper in Kosovo. But he wouldn't tell me when. He was always telling me things that turned out to be untrue, or inaccurate, or unlikely. He claimed to be in constant touch with his ambassadors, but then he got muddled about their names.
Back home, I did some digging - and found a whole another barely credible story.
Three years ago, Maschietto had claimed to be an internationally celebrated pianist and composer. He'd won an award for the soundtrack to the film Gravity. He was conductor of the state opera of Prague, guest conductor at the Paris National Opera and guest ballet conductor at the Bolshoi. His CV of awards and prestigious official positions ran to several pages.
This musical prodigy had given interviews to the Italian and Czech press and media. And because he was of Ecuadorian heritage - he had been adopted by an Italian family as a child - he had been lionised by the Ecuadorian ambassador to Germany, who wanted to appoint him an honorary consul in Prague. There was going to be a film made of his amazing life.
The trouble was, it was all untrue.

None of the institutions he claimed to have worked with had any record of him. His piano playing was mediocre at best. He had got an engagement to conduct an orchestra in Venice but, the orchestral manager told me, the players rebelled after half an hour and he was replaced.
The work of exposing the hoax fell to a group of Ecuadorian expatriates in German and Prague, including a genuinely distinguished Ecuadorian musician, Boris Cepeda, who had never heard of Maschietto.
Eventually, the Ecuadorian government admitted it had been duped, and withdrew the honorary consulship. Maschietto went to ground, only resurfacing this year as Liberland foreign minister, and altering his name, presumably to avoid detection.
I told Jedlicka of his foreign minister's rich fantasy life. He was shocked and surprised. Maschietto resigned.

The president wrote to me: "I'm still doing my best to choose the best people for the team and lately I was not very lucky. I hope to be able to get better people on board soon. Maybe you would be interested in working for our intelligence services?"
As many nation-builders through history have discovered, it's your friends as much as your enemies you need to keep an eye on.
Unlike his ex-foreign minister, Vit Jedlicka isn't trying to fool anyone. But both men are pursuing fantasies.
If Croatia and Serbia ever sort out their border disagreement, there will be no little piece of land left over to build a libertarian heaven on earth.
But then, as Vit Jedlicka is fond of saying, all countries are fantasies. They're all in your head.



The odd sort of people who get drawn into these sort of situations never fail to amaze me.


The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
 
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

Best name for a silly micro-nation ever. Liberland. love it

   
Made in au
Leashed Pupnik





Is the national beverage a cup of libertea?
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




On a surly Warboar, leading the Waaagh!

National food Liberwurst?
   
Made in au
Regular Dakkanaut




Hiding behind terrain

This reminds me of the time some crazies tried to claim New Zealand was a country and not a part of Australia. Ahh, good times.
   
Made in gb
Assassin with Black Lotus Poison





Bristol

So, it has guns and freedom, which is all very good.

But does it have a clean fresh water supply and sanitation infrastructure?

The Laws of Thermodynamics:
1) You cannot win. 2) You cannot break even. 3) You cannot stop playing the game.

Colonel Flagg wrote:You think you're real smart. But you're not smart; you're dumb. Very dumb. But you've met your match in me.
 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






New Orleans, LA

I have claimed a portion of Mars that was recently invaded by a crashed probe from Earth. I'm owed compensation!

DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
 
   
Made in gb
Assassin with Black Lotus Poison





Bristol

 kronk wrote:
I have claimed a portion of Mars that was recently invaded by a crashed probe from Earth. I'm owed compensation!


That land is now the property of the ESA, by right of conquest. Request for compensation denied.

The Laws of Thermodynamics:
1) You cannot win. 2) You cannot break even. 3) You cannot stop playing the game.

Colonel Flagg wrote:You think you're real smart. But you're not smart; you're dumb. Very dumb. But you've met your match in me.
 
   
Made in au
Longtime Dakkanaut




Brisbane, Australia

 Dropbear Victim wrote:
This reminds me of the time some crazies tried to claim New Zealand was a country and not a part of Australia. Ahh, good times.


Heh, actually in Australian terms in reminds me of the Hutt River Province, where a guy tried to set up a micro-nation inside australia.

What it shows is that there are crazies/"sovereign Citizens" (but I repeat myself...) the world over, just waiting for that magical moment to become dictator of their own little patch of dirt.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/14 14:31:11


 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






New Orleans, LA

I am dictator over what ever my wife let's me be dictator.

Usually just the porcelain throne and my cigar ash tray.

But not at the same time. That would be weird.


DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
 
   
Made in gb
Assassin with Black Lotus Poison





Bristol

 kronk wrote:
I am dictator over what ever my wife let's me be dictator.

Usually just the porcelain throne and my cigar ash tray.

But not at the same time. That would be weird.



And potentially dangerous, depending on previous meals.

The Laws of Thermodynamics:
1) You cannot win. 2) You cannot break even. 3) You cannot stop playing the game.

Colonel Flagg wrote:You think you're real smart. But you're not smart; you're dumb. Very dumb. But you've met your match in me.
 
   
Made in us
Member of the Ethereal Council






A libertarian dream land. I think i played a video game about this once. But it was underwater

5000pts 6000pts 3000pts
 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Leerstetten, Germany

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
 kronk wrote:
I have claimed a portion of Mars that was recently invaded by a crashed probe from Earth. I'm owed compensation!


That land is now the property of the ESA, by right of conquest. Request for compensation denied.


But did they plant a flag?
   
Made in us
Hangin' with Gork & Mork






This feels appropriate here:



Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
 
   
Made in ru
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





Room

I founded micronation Nonulusia in 2011, claiming some territory in Antarctica
Some guy at deviantart even made hetalia character of it. http://winter-sunflower.deviantart.com/journal/Any-ideas-for-2P-s-for-these-guys-517130695

Mordant 92nd 'Acid Dogs'
The Lost and Damned
Inquisition
 
   
Made in au
The Dread Evil Lord Varlak





 A Town Called Malus wrote:
So, it has guns and freedom, which is all very good.

But does it have a clean fresh water supply and sanitation infrastructure?


Well it's on a river so I guess it does, as long as everyone makes sure to drink up river and gak down river. But then telling everyone to do it that way wouldn't be very libertarian...

“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”

Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something. 
   
Made in ca
Resolute Ultramarine Honor Guard






Vancouver, BC

I was called for jury duty once and one of the defendants claimed that he didn't recognize the authority of the Canadian government to hold him accountable. I don't remember much else about the case, but that was what he said to the judge.

She wasn't impressed.

 warboss wrote:
Is there a permanent stickied thread for Chaos players to complain every time someone/anyone gets models or rules besides them? If not, there should be.
 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






New Orleans, LA

 d-usa wrote:
 A Town Called Malus wrote:
 kronk wrote:
I have claimed a portion of Mars that was recently invaded by a crashed probe from Earth. I'm owed compensation!


That land is now the property of the ESA, by right of conquest. Request for compensation denied.


But did they plant a flag?


Exalted for the Eddie Izzard

DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
 
   
 
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