Home › News ›

Start Your Own Utopia

Posted by: Tim Halbur

26 August 2009 - 9:00am

Smithsonian explores micronations, tiny utopian city-states that strike out on their own - whether or not their current government recognizes their independence.

The Principality of Sealand, built on an abandoned platform in the North Sea, is one of the more famous micronations. This article looks primarily at a the Maritime Republic of Eastport, a mostly tongue-in-cheek micronation near Annapolis, MD.

""When the state closed down the bridge over Spa Creek for repairs for a whole month in 1998, it was fairly devastating," said Cindy Fletcher Holden, formerly the MRE’s prime mistress. "It could have taken people about an hour to get to Eastport. So we raised a whole hoo-ha and formed our own country. It worked. People actually came around, and business on this side of the creek actually did better than normal.""

Full Story: Micronations of the World
Source: Smithsonian, August 25, 2009
»
Bookmark and Share
“
Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.
”