There is no unemployment, no crime and no hospital waiting list. The nation of Nymark, with its unspoiled views and its quiet evenings, free of antisocial behavior and traffic noise, shines like a beacon in these troubled times. Now all that Nymark's 43-year-old leader is seeking is recognition from the UN and, of course, a decent entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Nymark, situated in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, was discovered by London artist Alex Hartley in 2004 when he was part of an expedition of scientists and artists collaborating on a project to highlight global warming. With the melting of ice, previously hidden prehistoric rocks had started to emerge and the protuberance spotted by Hartley is one of those newly visible landmarks.
"We landed on it and I staked a claim, written in English and Norwegian, which I left in a baked bean tin," Hartley said on Friday. "I also built a cairn. This was the first time I had ever stood on something where no one else had been before."
The island is about the size and shape of a football pitch, although the chances of Nymark fielding a team in the World Cup are remote as the only surface is frozen moraine which might not pass FIFA requirements.
Hartley was told by the Norwegian Polar Institute that if he wanted to name the island he would have to choose a Norwegian name, hence Nymark, which means New Ground. After returning to England, out of curiosity he started exploring the possibility of getting micro-nation status for his discovery. He applied to the UN and is still waiting to hear from it. In the meantime, the Norwegian government responded, challenging his sovereignty claim.
Yngve Melvaer, head of maps at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten: "Svalbard is Norwegian, also the parts under the ice. Alex Hartley has no obvious case for his claim to ownership.''
"I had no idea that they would take it seriously," Hartley said, "but we have got a flag ready. There are serious points to the whole project, of course. There are places like this emerging all the time because of global warming."
Now all he needs is a decent Eurovision song and someone to perform it -- apparently there is a young band called the Arctic somethings who might be able to help.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS