Spinster

In the Globe and Mail today, there was an article about the “micronation” of Sealand. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but apparently The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent tracker, is attempting to buy it in order to escape international copyright laws, so it’s been in the news lately. I have no desire to discuss the legality and/or ethics of piracy, but I would like to say that I think that micronations are probably the most awesome thing I’ve heard about all week.

Wikipedia attributes the following characteristics to micronations:

1. They wish to be recognized as sovereign states but are not.

2. They are very small. Some may exist entirely online.

3. Some issue government “instruments” (passports, currency, etc.).

I hereby declare my bedroom the Duchy of Tasha. I will campaign my roommate, my landlady, and the Canadian government for sovereignty, but I do not expect to receive it. However, that will not stop me from adopting the following:

• The Tasha national anthem. At the moment it’s a toss-up between “Lovefool” by the Cardigans and “I am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel (depending on my mood).
• A flag

• Definitely passports. Anyone who wishes to enter the Duchy will have to furnish a valid passport for inspection. It must be stamped upon entry. Beware: the customs agent can be a real bitch. And she is most certainly on a power trip.

I thought about issuing my own currency, but figured it might get a bit messy when I showed up at stores with a bunch of construction paper notes with $500,000,000,000 written on them.