We've had a couple of those for some time. One in Western Australia,
the Hutt River Province, used to be a cause celebre but has faded
with time into a tatty dust bowl - I visited it last year and it
wasn't worth the drive. Had it's own 'army' at one point, a rag-tag
militia. Also has its own post office. Set up by "Prince Leonard of
Hutt', a wheat farmer with a grievance of some sort. He was behind
the counter in the souvenir shop, wearing a cardigan and eating a
sandwich. Clearly no anarchist.
These things only exist as various governments simply ignore them or
tolerate them as a tourist attraction.
I always thought that there was a simple way to deal with these
libertarian or religious nutbags who decide to secede so that they
can play nasty games, avoid taxes or marry herds of silly women.
Allow them to do it. No problem. Republic of of Hypermania – fine,
nice flag! Them make an art of helping them secede completely.
Decline to recognise them diplomatically of course. Then erect a
customs post on the 'border' and refuse to issue them visas except
after long and difficult check and probably not at all. After all, if
there's no diplomatic recognition, where are they going to apply?
Unrecognised nation? - then your passport isn't valid anyway. And
you've revoked your citizenship of course. Tsk. And you have no right
to use any of the infrastructure that you decline to pay taxes
toward, such as the road from your front gate to the nearest town.
You can have all the freedom you can cope with, including the freedom
to starve to death in there. Sneak out over the fence for a drink in
the nearest bar and you're an illegal immigrant. Jailtime.
Play 'full consequences' - that'd smoke the daft buggers out.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 24/07/2007, at 9:53 AM, Christos Stavrou wrote:
> Hi Tim,
> Thanks for the info :)
>
> Speaking about breakaway people, and slightly changing our perspective
> and scale:...
> Did you know about the famous.. breakaway republic of Transdniester?
>
> A curious case of national separatism, a self-declared republic and
> fully fledged country, with their own passports etc, although no other
> country or organisation recognises it as an independent state!
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