Helping micronationalists help themselves

Steve Spence and his friends at Green-Trust may not realise it, or may not fully realise it, but they are on the cutting-edge of the potential of distributive economics.

The only form of government that is worthwhile, is the kind of government that promotes the real (not capitalistic, not communistic) welfare of the people, which is ultimately the real welfare of families, by promoting, building, financing, educating people about systems that create natural abundance.

This is the true and only purpose of legitimate government, once you get rid of all those destructive layers which are only promoting the economics of capital (aka the economics of government-printed money), of oligarchy (aka the power of the few), of dependence (outright dependence on government, which is liberalism/socialism, or dependence on those, generally corporations, which government favours, which is conservatism/capitalism), and scarcity (the economics of those who get wealthier only when other people get poorer).

Anarchists may not agree on this, but government is not really the enemy of human progress and happiness, and the truth is simply that there are too many governments of the wrong kind around, and they have far too much power, and there are too few of the right ones, which deserve to be heeded, which deserve your fellowship and support.

Today’s micronational leaders, if they don’t wish to become as obsolete as the current political-economic system has become, should pay attention to the thoughtful theologian and businessman John Médaille, who states in the brilliant article below,

It is the task of the Distributists [or Distributionists] to look around their neighborhoods and see which problems can be solved from local resources [intramicronational], which by trading with our nearest neighbors [proximicronational], and which will require wider forms of cooperation [intermicronational]. Contrary to received wisdom, the current system cannot feed the world, or at least not the world of cars, cows, and people …. We can show how the world can be rebuilt, and rebuilt with abundance.

I urge all micronationalists with excess capital, even just a thousand dollars, to lend Steve and his friends money. Chances are very good that not only they will not lose their money, but they will also make some very attractive interest, and do even greater good than loans usually provide.

For those micronationalists who are closer to the wealth of ‘hobos’, than the ‘wealth of nations’, I suggest that you participate in Steve’s raffle of a complete Aquaponics kit, or through an outright donation. More funds are still needed for hardware and other parts in order to complete the aquaponics system’ practical research and constrution.

The Economics of Abundance
http://distributistreview.com/mag/2011/02/the-economics-of-abundance/

Birth of Fifth World microlending

Recently a few researchers in the US needed to embark on a new indoor/outdoor solar-powered aquaponics self-sufficiency project. They needed funding at least to help get the project going.

The project includes a fish and vegetable production system, but also an optional solar power system, LED grow lights, possibly a do-it-yourself (DIY) greenhouse, and a methane digestion system for hot water and winter heating of the greenhouse.

They needed a loan, and offered interest for it, complete project documentation, and guaranteed repayment in 90 days or less.

The end product of all of this, besides a good fish and vegetables production system, will be self-sufficiency education: video and ebook documentation, plus kits and supplies.

Well, I’ll admit I don’t have a lot of money, but I’m happy to say that today I sent them a loan.

Nobody is bragging about the United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) making the loan, in the manner of the Intermicronational Team Kiva page. While it is true the UMMOA Treasury is not completely penniless, its treasury is not, in reality, in US dollar form.

One also needs to take note of the following significant fact.

Total money lent so far by all 15 micronations or micronational leaders of the Intermicronational Team Kiva: $1,100.

Total money lent in a single loan by myself for the self-sufficiency research project: $800.

Nobody is stating that some UMMOA ‘bank of something’ made the loan either, because the loan was not made with other people’s money, but in a very Fifth Worldish, do-it-yourself way, by funnelling money from several personal bank accounts into a single one, and sending the money to the researchers via PayPal. Sure, it would be possible to form a group of Fifth World or special project microlenders, and whenever a worthy and/or interesting project comes up, the money could be funnelled from multiple accounts, but also from multiple people. However, I don’t expect too many people to do this, because after all, Fifth World microlending, because of its informality, is very risky, and very dependent of the loan recipients’ commitment and honesty.

As with Kiva, no pure donation or charity was used to sustain the self-sufficiency project. At least ideally, I should get my money back, and with a lot more interest than I’m currently earning.

Moreover, while other microlenders may fund cheap traditional business start-ups largely in the Third World, and this does not benefit people in the First World at all, even though our existence is even more in peril nowadays because global recession, and the utter failure of corporate capitalism to produce significant economic benefits for the majority of working people, we lent money in the First World (in South Carolina, to be more precise), and for a risky Fifth World research project, not for some traditional meat-and-potatoes business start-up.

With friends of Fifth World research like this, who needs Fourth World microlending organisations like Kiva?!

Let me also add this: while as a Fifth World microlender in the recent past I have assisted people to even to purchase particular items in Pounds sterling, and was repaid in Euros (I have bank accounts in neither currency!), I do not believe any Fourth World microlender has ever assisted wealthier people is such a fashion, so while with Fourth World microlending there are still two categories of people, microlenders and recipients of microlending, in Fifth World microlending the microlenders and the recipients of microlending are often the very same people.

Don’t register your thingy in the wrong place

Don’t register your building, district, city or diaxenospitia in the wrong jurisdiction.

On 14 August 2009, the Micronational Professional Registry (MPR) enacted the following policy: any sovereign state recognised by the MPR that ends up on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) — the US government’s designation for countries with ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom — shall cease to be recognised by the MPR.

Sovereign states on the CPC list that were not already recognised, shall automatically become natio non grata, and shall be treated like nations on the MPR’s Certified Terrorist Nations ^εν list. “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) can be viewed here:

http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1456&Itemid=59

In the past, even micronations that were connected with Pakistan (a CPC) or Pakistani nationals were refused any consideration for MPR membership. This may not sound right, and it may even sound discriminatory, but in our opinion if you claim to be part of a micronation that claims, directly or indirectly, to be independent of Pakistan, and yet you still think like a Pakistani, then you are a Pakistani. Any connection with a micronation, especially one with no strong external recognition, no strong and distinct disassociation from the country of Pakistan, is insufficient evidence of moral, religious, and/or political independence.

This MPR policy actually turns out to offer a form of protection. When Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by US Navy SEALs, this action put Abbottabad, Pakistan on the world map of infamy. Yes, the world map of infamy:

http://goo.gl/aMRpB

Even schools in Abbottabad, Pakistan are now treated like terrorist havens, so while ‘guilt by association’ is not decent or even rational (it is a logical fallacy), people in Washington and elsewhere still think in that way, especially with regard to terrorism. Tell me where your town or diaxenospitia is located, or under which jurisdiction, and I’ll tell you just how much potential it has:

http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/06/29/3183555/bin-laden-raid-has-fallout-for.html

Register your building, district, town, or diaxenospitia in Pakistan, and it is like committing ‘citicide’.

Register your building, district, town, or diaxenospitia under the jurisdiction of the UMMOA, even though it is no pussycat of the United States, and not only you’ll be a lot more independent in running your own affairs, but this is what one Ummoagian diaxenospitia looks like on the world map, the only one that matters:

http://goo.gl/rdOs3

There obviously isn’t a hint of Pakistan or Pakistani here, and because of the way the MPR is run, there never will be.

A recent article of mine, “Micronations: communities without strangers“, adds additional detail about our thinking:

First Worldism is essentially the idea that societal change can be accomplished at the ballot box, but since that idea is not a realistic one, then First Worldism needs narcotic words like democracy, but it really leads to things like colonialism, imperialism and capitalism.

Fourth Worldism is essentially the idea that societal change can be accomplished by splitting from a larger state either peacefully or through violent means.

Fifth Worldism or micronationalism, is essentially the idea that societal change can be accomplished when everyone has an actual input into things. In a First or Fourth World context there are still two categories of people, representatives and represented. At least ideally, this is not true in a Fifth World context, and “[t]his is the complete opposite of life in the Official World, where people yield all their power to others, and these others are not their parents, spouses, children, relatives, or even caring friends, but complete strangers.”

It is clear that any form of Fourth Worldism is potential terrorism in the longer run, and that our clear bias is in favour of Fifth Worldism or micronationalism — which we believe provides a better solution to many different kinds of problems, but also no stench, or even potential stench of terrorism, not even by a long shot — is the best long-term philosophy the world has ever known since the dawn of man.

The Age of Aquarius has already begun

Don’t hold your breath for the Mayan prophecy of the winter solstice of 2012. In truth, the Age of Aquarius has already begun.

Bucksfanian astrology and some intuition told me years ago that the Age of Aquarius begun some time in 1998:

http://strdu.com/orion.html

According to SU International, I’m probably right: “The second coming of Christ was predicted by the Book of Revelations to occur two millennia after Christ died. Within the Maya traditions is the prediction of a cosmogenesis at the end of the Fifth Sun in 2012 …. The present essay deals with a relatively little known fact about the perception of time as calculated using any numerical system within ancient or modern cultures. It will show that the Maya prediction was fulfilled in 1998, and was spiritually equivalent to the prediction in the Book of Revelations.”

According to Shamanic Astrologer Daniel Giamario, I’m right on the money: “In the late 1980′s, I began corresponding with European master astronomer Jean Meuss, via a recommendation from astronomer-publisher Guy Ottewell, concerning the precisely calculated dates of entry, into different constellations, of the solstices and equinox coordinates. I sent a communication to Meuss in 1991 asking him to calculate the exact date of the winter (December) solstice alignment with the intersection of the galactic plane and the plane of the solar system. His response was May, 1998.”

According to expert on calendrical systems William Morris, not only I am right, but he gives even greater precision, and via sound astronomy: the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic equator, and the equal division of the ecliptic into twelve from that point.

Using this method, Morris figures that the Age of Aquarius began on 7 May 1998. “If you have a good astronomical program, you might like to try and discover when ecliptic longitude 270°, ecliptic latitude 0° co-incides with galactic latitude 0°. Using Starry Night Pro 5.0.1 (Mac version), the best time achievable is 12:06 UT ± 2 minutes on 7 May 1998, and this may be straining the accuracy of the program.”

What does the Age of Aquarius mean? With all the problems we have, it’s hard to believe our future can be bright. Inflation and recession, environmental deterioration, diminishing resources, unrest and oppression in developing countries. Yet the signs in the heavens point to an extraordinary renewal in the years just ahead.

In the New Age we break free of centuries of false doctrines, destructive indoctrinations, absurd ideas, and children’s stories about God, education, medicine, and love. The corrupt foundations of false society crumble.

But the major influence of the Age of Aquarius is the end of the duality of the Age of Pisces. In the Age of Aquarius, everything becomes unified, even mankind. Between the ages we will have an ‘apocalypse’, but we need to understand what that actually means. ‘Apocalypse’ means time of revelation or disclosure. Humanity as a whole will understand things that it has never understood before.

The Age of Aquarius will be a time of:

1. Recovery of ancient traditions;
2. Assimilation of new truths;
3. The opportunity for humanity to work out its problems responsibly by the (new) choices it makes.

So the Age of Aquarius is to be a period of atonement (at-one-ment) for mankind, a period in which that which is now fractured can become whole.

References

1. Morris, William. (2005, July). Moonwise: The Age of Aquarius. Retrieved 14 June 2011, from http://www.moonwise.co.uk/aquarius.php
2. Giamario, Daniel. (1995). A Shamanic Look at the Turning of the Ages. Retrieved 14 June 2011, from http://danielgiamario.com/articles/a-shamanic-look-at-turning-of-the-ages
3. SU International. (2007). 1998, The Year the Sun Began to Rise. Retrieved 14 June 2011, from http://www.siloam.net/sunrise/sunrise.htm
4. Age of Aquarius: Age of Holy Breath. (n.d.). Retrieved 14 June 2011, from http://www.adishakti.org/age_of_aquarius.htm
5. Benedict, Gerald. (2010). The Mayan Prophecies for 2012. London: Watkins Publishing.

Cyberterra Dollar (CTD) is born

On 10 June 2010 the Cyberterra dollar (CTD) officially came to life.

The Cyberterra dollar (CTD) isn’t Monopoly money, however fancy the printer. Like the old European Currency Unit or ECU, the CTD isn’t even available in bills or coins, and like the old ECU, it is also made up of a basket of currencies, largely Euros, Swiss francs, and Canadian dollars.

The total value of Cyberterra dollars is limited for the time being, but you can view it at any time either on an UMMOA official or unofficial site:

http://ummoa.biz

http://ctd.5world.net

As I write this, there are 653.17 Cyberterra dollars in existence, which are collectively worth about 767.97 US dollars. Not a lot of money, of course, but the point of this news piece is that it is Real money, not Monopoly money.

Cesidian law reaches Siberia

The High Board of the Single Union, an organisation which unifies three Russian micronations (the Neustrian Union, Northern Empire, and the Republic of Lostisland), in Resolution №28 R-08.02.2011 has voted to incorporate within the City of Cyberterra.

As a practical matter, this creates a legal precedent for other intermicronational organisations or unions. The Single Union, in fact, is not the only intermicronational organisation incorporated in Cyberterra, as also the Micronational Professional Registry is incorporated there. It is the first time, however, that a non-UMMOA organisation has incorporated in Cyberterra.

This incorporation also has a practical, and not necessarily just a Cyberterrestrial effect. Cyberterra and the Fifth World Community are the only Cesidian law jurisdictions thus far. The jurisdiction of Cyberterra was limited to a point in the middle of the Adriatic Sea until 8 February 2011, and the jurisdiction of the Fifth World Community was limited to a few buildings and properties in North and Central America. With the incorporation of the Single Union in Cyberterra, however, the reach of Cesidian law has now extended to Russia, to a land plot with house located in Kuznetsovka, in the Irkutsk Oblast (about 25 chilometres from the city of Bratsk, an area of Russia which is just above Mongolia). So the reach of Cesidian law, besides North America, Central America, and Europe, has now extended to Asia through the Siberia part of Russia. Is it really Siberia, or actually Cyberia in disguise? Only time will tell.

We invite other intermicronational organisations to incorporate in Cyberterra. All solid virtual-based micronational organisations are welcome. By incorporating in Cyberterra, any intermicronational organisation will be very free to operate, will follow micronational standards that are very liberal and logical, and we believe there will also be advantages in the future as the UMMOA develops.

All territory- or Montevideo Convention-based micronational organisations can also incorporate through a more land-based entity called the Fifth World Community, the world’s first diaxenospitia.

There is a need for more freedom in the world, and Cesidian law is a warranty for that. There is also a need for more small nations to work together on trying to solve common small nation problems, and global problems, and incorporating virtual organisations in Cyberterra (CT) is a first step, and incorporating real buildings, homes, and/or properties in the Fifth World Community (5WC) is another possible step.

Overwhelming evidence of (alien) citizenship

What is the easiest way to show anyone around the world, outside of the United States, that you are a citizen of the United States?

Well, that is pretty obvious to any educated person. The easiest way to show anyone you are a US citizen is to show your valid, unexpired, US Passport.

This is the most common document which proves US citizenship, but it is not the only one. According to some of the most authoritative sources, the following primary documents establish both US citizenship and identity. An individual needs to provide only one of the following documents to meet the documentation requirement:

• A United States passport, or
• A Certificate of Naturalization (DHS Form N-550 or N-570), or
• A Certificate of Citizenship (DHS Form N-560 or Form N-561).

Any of the three documents above is sufficient to prove one’s citizenship.

Question: how do you prove you are the citizen of some alternative or unrecognised country? Good question, but the proof here does not simply lie in the alternative country’s passport. No foreign official will have to accept that as evidence of citizenship, because that becomes evidence of citizenship only in the clear-cut case of recognised countries. This is true even if the country is recognised by most countries, but not by the specific country you want a visa from. Some countries will deny visas if the traveler’s passport shows evidence of citizenship or travel to a country which is not recognised by that country.

Yet I was able to find a loophole in a system which treats alternative or unrecognised countries like the bubonic plague, like blacks in the US were treated prior to the Civil War.

The loophole is not in international law, which is fairly vague or silent on this subject. The loophole was provided by a perfectly legitimate Italian law, the “Decree of the President of the Republic of 28 December 2000, No. 445″, often abbreviated in Italian legalise as “D.P.R. n. 445/2000″. Article 46 of this Decree allows all kinds of substitute declarations, including a “Declaration in lieu of Certification of Citizenship”, which you can actually print yourself with the help of some knowledge of Italian, and some Internet web forms, so long you are truthful and accurate to the best of your knowledge. In fact, you don’t even need an affidavit or a notary public to essentially self-print one of these substitute declarations, and Italian officials are forced to accept them in lieu of the actual documents normally used.

So below is a link to probably the world’s first bona fide United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) Certificate of Citizenship, which is valid, by the way, under Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under the Montevideo Convention, under Italian law, and even under UMMOA law:

• Declaration in lieu of Certification of Citizenship

This document was sent along with a perfectly intelligible and diplomatic letter of explanation to the President of Italy, the Hon. Giorgio Napolitano, in his native Italian, and tracking data for the Express Mail International package shows that the President of Italy received the letter on 21 December 2010, but so far he has not apparently answered the letter.

Perhaps he may never answer, acknowledging the perfect legality of the document under Italian law, but I stand proud that the document is indeed legal, and according to multiple sources!