islands

Want to Start a Micronation?

Photo: Marshall Mayer

A group of people banded together to buy an island off the coast of Belize as part of their big dream to start an independent micronation β€” maybe. The island, which was purchased for $180,000 after a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $250,000, will be called Islandia, which is a reference to the fact that it is an island and they want it to be a nation. β€œWho hasn’t dreamed of making their own country?” one of the founders told CNN. β€œIf a bunch of regular people can make this work, perhaps it can be a force for good.”

Right now, making it work involves camping tents, water and food they presumably brought with them from other places, and nowhere β€” apart from the obvious β€” to go to the bathroom. This has not put off potential partners, as one told CNN, β€œWhy wouldn’t I invest? I can tell all my friends that I own an island!” (Apparently, the universal tenet of Islandia is the assumption that everyone’s life goal is to buy an island as a bit.)

The idea of founding a state of one’s own isn’t new, and has had particular purchase among villain-type tech libertarians. (β€œI’m not exactly sure that I’m going to succeed in building a libertarian utopia any time soon,” Peter Thiel once reflected, which strikes me as a fairly prophetic assessment of Islandia. β€œYou need to have a version where you could get started with a budget of less than $50 billion.”) Some of Islandia’s founders at least seem to acknowledge that the whole idea was mostly a marketing tool and that they are just camping and drinking beer on an island in Belize, whereas others told CNN, β€œWe are as close to a nation as you can get, without getting an army and a navy.” There is the small matter that any development on the island will have to have permits approved by Belize, a real country, and Islandia’s website acknowledges that it is β€œvery much part of a host nation, and will be treated as such.”

In further gestures toward cosplaying independence, Islandia already has a national anthem and a provisional government β€” but it’s lost its proposed flag and passport stamp, a situation that derailed plans for a flag-raising ceremony. Its founders are also talking about β€œcreating an underwater sculpture garden of world dictators,” regenerating the coral reef that surrounds the island, and starting a β€œglamping” destination, which does not seem like it’d be great for the coral reef.

Marshall Mayer, one of the Islandians, rationalized his purchase by saying, β€œWho wouldn’t want to buy an island?” They may soon find out.

Want to Start a Micronation?