A WORD FROM THE STATE SECRETARY
In many countries Ladonia has been presented as a virtual country. Just to make this thing very clear: Contrary to most micronations Ladonia is claiming, and I would say with great success, its soil, or rather its rocks, and stones, valleys, and forests, and water.
Are we close? Is our tactic, repeating our claims in the speed of the turtle, but instantly, finally bearing fruit? Do we have strong leaders? (No, we haven’t)
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Since the good State Secretary had business abroad at the time when Hannes project was to take place the Minister of Art stepped in and took a hold of the situation. The whole thing was within the Artministers realms anyway so it was for the best. Even if it was a architectural thesis it was very arty indeed in it’s nature and design.
We got a nice interest from massmedia in the first place and second from the public that visited. Many came because of the writing about Hannes and his project. It was a hectic weekend but even a more hectic week for Hannes who arrived from Austria on monday to meet with the State Secretary for a final clerance and an OK. Then arrived his happy crew of a total of 10 persons to start the construction of his vision. Friday became buildingday. Perhaps we should have this put up as a general building-day in the Ladonian Almanac?
The spun a web of thin nylonthreads, almost as fishinglines but not exactly. It’s the type of line you hang pictures with at galleries. (I told you, this austrian boy is arty). Anyway. Hannes and his crew spun a web of lines between and across all of Nimis. It looked amazing in the sun and as you’ll see from the pictures it even looked magic at night. Hannes made this as his final test and thesis on his architecture education and it was a comment on Nimis as an architectural phenomenon. The web was a comment on a construction and “occupying of space”.
One of the reasons til why the project was as close as a total success that anyone could hope for was the unexpected weather! It was completely wonderful. It was the first real warm week of the year and a record was set for the highest temperature so far this year in Sweden. Hanens and his crew didnt understand how lucky they where. The first day was a bit windy and as the windas were eastern it blow right up against the cliffwall of Ladonia. It was white geese on the deepblue Bay of Skalderviken. Lucky for us it was so warm or we would have been deepfrozen. Thanks to the nice weather we also had lots of visitors during the buildingday. With 10 people climbing in the construction and throwing nylonlinerolls to each other made more than one eyebrow go skyways. All and all Hannes and his crew spun a web of 4000 meters of line on that friday. An unexpected bonus was the fantastic sound the wind created in the lines. They hummed, buzzed and sung! Truly a remarcable experience! Some of the visitors on friday thought that that was the whole idea of putting up the lines. Others became very irritated over the whole deal and Hannes got a bit of a nagging from an old lady. The Minister unaware or I would have rescued him from the hostile native(s).
We also managed to get a nice massmedial coverage. One of the big southern papers came down to interview Hanens and take pcitures and then several other papers had the story on Saturday. So we had lots of extra visitors that had read about it in the papers.
After a long day the Artminister slept like a baby and feel asleep early. But Hannes didnt sleep. He and the crew stayed up almost all night to take pictures in the dark, illuminating the lines with big lamps and floodlights.
The weather on Saturday was even better than the day before. And the crew and Hannes started a short and mostly unnecessary rehersal of their little musical show (they seemed to be quite good musicians from the start). At 2 o’clock Hannes climbed up in one of Nimis little towers and gathered the crowd of visitors on the sunny boulders. Hannes held a very nice, insightful, interesting and thoughtful speach about his project, Nimis, architechture and it’s theory. The speach even involved The Eiffel Tower as any good speach should. Thereafter the whole crew (and even som visitors quickly involved) made a musical performance, including austrian folklore (no yodelling) and Hannes was a real star on guitar and singing without no real words. One could imagine a tribute to Ladonia in his “singing”. A very arty performance overall!
After the performance there was a brief paus before the crew gathered themselves and started the tearing down of the web. It was a much faster job but oh so grim. All the nice threads and lines gone in a blink of an eye. How fragile art is... It was with heavy heart I saw the shining nylonlines disappear quicker than they where spun. After the job was done we had one last trip up the slopes carrying all the things with us (instruments, carbattery and more). It was a hard trip up the mountain but still not as interesting as the one the crew did the night before. Climbing a small mountain in pitch black darkness doesn’t help exactly. When we came to the top we took one last look down over Ladonian soil before turning and walking away towards the car and the awaiting barbeque knowing we had been part of something extraordinary – a Austrian/ Ladonian Performance Show.
Fredrik Larsson, Minister of Art
Footnote: Hannes Schwed’s surname “Schwed” made me slightly curious and it turned out to have roots in Sweden actually. Apparently one of Hannes ancestors originally came from Sweden and stayed in the Austrian Alps after the “30 Year War”. But thats a completely different story and a long time ago.
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President Fernando Rodrigues
Kicki Hankell (Sweden) Vice President, Minister of Guardian Angels
Anders Loewdin (Sweden) Minister of Internet
Dr Andras Palotas (Hungary) Minister of Intelligence
Betsy Thaggard (Texas) Minister of Poke Sallet
E. Bock (Sweden) Minister of Health
Brad Grissom Minister of Digression (NEW!!)
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Carlos Andrés (Spain) Minister of the Dark Side
David Stansvik (Sweden) Minister of Literature
Eilat Jelin (Argentina) Ministry of Unanswered Questions and Parapsychology
Elis Holm (Sweden) Minister of Fireworks
Fernando Gelbard (Argentina/USA) Minister of Surrealism (NEW!!)
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Fredrik Larsson (Sweden) Eternal Minister of Art
Horatius (Sweden) Minister of Sophistry (Resigning)
James Hartman (USA) Minister of Future Science
Lars Vilks (Sweden) State secr
Countess Madeleine (USA) Eternal Minister of Tennis and Figure Skating
Margareta Granvik (Sweden) Minister of Jazz (not on e-mail)
Mike Arman (USA) Minister of Finance
Lord Peter Kimay (Sweden) Minister of Subaquatic Territories
Peter Lundgren (Sweden) Minister of Revolution
Phil Stead (England) Minister of Transport (NEW!!)
Placito Miceli (USA) Minister of Assurance (NEW!!)
Sluttungrun (Sweden) Minister of Herpetology
Richard Ahlquist (Sweden) Minister of Defence
Thomas Diestel (Sweden) Minister of Accomodation and Tourism
Tiit (Sweden) Minister of Brain
Tim Neale (England) Minister of Zen
Count Torby (Sweden) Minister of History
Vera Porad Falk (Sweden) State Graphic, Minister of Extraordinary Affairs
An Eternal minister cannot resign and cannot be removed.
*(Hello fellow Ministers. I was wondering if you might help me (no, I am not asking to help get money out of Louisiana because of a corrupt government. Although it is REALLY corrupt here!). When I was travelling overseas in Asia, I tried to pick up tidbits of the local languages. Now I know this may seem odd, but would each of your respective countries please tell me how to say the following in your languages? Thank you:
"Can I spank you like a monkey?"
Now I know this holds little use, however, it does hold quite a bit of fun if I were to travel again and I used this phrase. Thank you.
Ministry of Assurance
Waaaaaalllllll)
Just as 12 is locked in the Hartmann Named Places. We charge $12 for our Nobility. Ladonia and Hartmanburg are along the 12E. Here is another story to add to the 12 Saga;
"The reign of IVaR ViDFahDMy (or Ivar Vidfadmi) is held, by legends, to be the Golden Age of Ancient Northmen (much in the same way that Camelot and the reign of King Arthur is held to be the Golden Age of Britain). This Scandia Era was approximately in the mid to late 600s A.D. (while Arthur is now placed at about 480 to 520 A.D.--a good century, earlier).
According to the sagas of the Nordic Antiquities, Ancient Northmen legends (and probably reasonably close to actual history) holds that IVaR conquered the 12 Kingdoms (or major Nordic Tribes) of the Northern Nations or Nordic Peoples, subduing all of Scandia under his reign--and eventually most of Northern Europe (including the British Isles), and a good deal of Western Russia, too. So, as his name implies, he really was a far-grasper or
wide-ranger!
(The, legend also holds that he married 12 Princesses, one from each of the 12 Northern Nations he conquered--what a romancer! And, as he seems to have had numerous children thereby, his descendansts keep popping up on the Thrones of other Countries for centuries
afterwards.)
And, at about this time, the form of the great Viking Longships came into being, along with their far ranging trade network (for by 700, they were more than well known abroad).
Visit this link:
http://business.gorge.net/zdkf/nlt-hist.html
Claims are made that ties into ancient Israel even so 12 Tribes. What ever the case the #12 is all around us.
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”The question that comes to mind is: Where do we want it to go? Do we need more publicity? The recent publicity has overwhelmed our State Secretary already.
Just curious what people have in mind. Since I'm so remote here in the Texas outpost, I'm happy just to hear the musings of my fellow cabinet now and then in our far-flung existence. Unlike some, I have no particular need to feel that we're "doing" anything ... but if we really and truly need to "do" something, let me know and I'll see about participating.
After all, since the "war" has made Shrub-bashing obsolete (only temporarily, I hope -- one should always have the option to slam one's national leader, especially when he's the former governor of one's own state and a member of the opposite political party), I need a new hobby...”
Minister of Poke Sallet and Fulsome Absurdity
and lapsed Empress of the Universe
Austin, Texas, USA, etc
www.thaggard.org
credo quia absurdum est
Boer Olleke from Holland sends kisses: ”I give a thousand kisses to all Ladonians. I would like to make all Ladonians loved.”
Ulrik Sverdup has a reasonable idea for carrots in Ladonia: ”Every carrot is grown free and should thereby also have the right of being eaten in freedom.”
The official car for the officer of the Ladonian Coastguards.
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I thinnk evereboddy shuld hav de rait to spel worrds inkorektly.
Peter Lundgren
Minister of Constant Revolution
Mr. KBN RAYANA., DIR.GEN., IAMMA/HYDERABAD/INDIA, has been appointed governor in one of the districts in Ladonia. We welcome him to this important post.
Writes Count Andras, Minister of Intelligence, Ambassador:
”Developing a Ladonian language is a challenging task. I guess the word "twelve" in Ladonian is "Wwwwwaaaaaaaallllllllll!" Other words are the same, suggesting the Ladonian language being the easiest one on the globe. The word "wwwwaaaallll" stands for everything...”
This is a controversial statement. It is correct that ladonian language only has one word:
Waaaaaaaaaaaalll or waaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll or waaaaaaallll etc. But the rule says that there always should be more ”a” than ”l” and THAT THERE IS ALWAYS JUST ONE ”W”.
Vera Aranzazu, a musician, has composed this hymn for Ladonia:
misol D" D" sila mifa SOL RE, fami LA RE fami do*la *SOL
A word from our Minister of Health
Again, on the last pages of yet another Ladonia Herald, I am compelled to say something of importance. So let me think of something really hilarious, like the belief among scientists today, yesterday's wig-men from Köningsberg, good old Kant among them, the town itself unfortunately blown off the face of the earth in the last World War with all the seven bridges and everything and subsequently turned into a neo-socialist city, alas, but not not to mourn anymore, we have a new century with new crazy warlords about, some kind of revival of obsolete ghosts from the remote past, and as long as we can relax from those polarity programmed entities, we might, for instance, direct our thoughts to that hilarious theory held in considerable esteem by the learned establishment, namely, the Big Bang theory. Bang! (with no sexual allusion whatsoever) - the existence of everything was granted, we are told. What people usually don't think of, however, is how they think, if they think at all. If thinking is directing ones attention towards attaining a certain goal, most people never think - they however react, something insults them, and they react one way, something brings luck, they react another way. That is by the way one of the greatest health problems we have to struggle against - people seek to justify and victimize themselves, and thus fall prey to unconscious black magic. Very dangerous! Or, something strikes them in that incessant haphazard stream of associations in our brains, and they consider themselves geniouses. But now Big Bang and thinking! We have learnt to think in polarities, we have logic, we have counting, comparing, that is to say, mathematics, and mathematics is great. But what about thinking in triads? The only way of thinking with three equally independent elements is writing counterpoint - although you might try and parallel Thomas Talli's Speem in Alium with 40 voices, the truly independent ones still remain three. Because of the living triad, music has enormous intellectual power, it goes right through the heart to something immensly much greater than the ordinary everyday corners of our brains. Maybe you can add a fourth equally important as well as independent factor - the occasion of performance. We now have a means to understand deeper things than logic ever could grasp, and still remain entirely intecllectual - Now, do we really believe the Big Bang was the origin of all there is?
The question itself is stupid, we can get a hang of the problem already with ordinary logic - by refuting the proposition (but should we have wished to affirm it, not even all the marrow of all our bones would have sufficed). What we don't experience, we cannot see - the whole - the universe - is whatwe experience - but how could that be the totality of all there is - the whole question is already a polarity long before it ever became unity, we
only dreamt about unity, instead we have to face what we can know and what we cannot know. The Big Bang is where our observational data collapse, and our thinking ability with this data, as long as we stay with polarities
thinking, simple comparison, simple rules. Before we know the all, every theory about the all will be nothing more than the self portrait of a philosopher or an age. We cannot go back to wholeness from polarity, neither
can we walk the opposite path and reach infinity, we hardly even can make the first step, and think with three independent factors, doing polyphony...
So, deeper thinking cannot be isolated from being. On the other hand, being is possible without thinking. The level of being we need to attain has power. Thinking is exercising will, or shall we say, opening up for that
mysterious power, in the right occasion - when magic is possible. This bringing about, to the "here and now", making "just so" is known in deeper philosophies all over the world, and in the West it is named 'subsistence' -
the fourth category after wholeness, polarity, and relating. There is no upper limit to the possible number of these categories, the more we can understand and master, the greater our sophistication - but the fourth category is where we first touch reality. Hence, probably, the ancient four elements, and perhaps Carl Jung's life long preoccupation with the number four, most prevalent in the basic structures of our dreams.
With this short & humble essay, To All Peoples, all over the World, the Ladonian Ministry of Health wishes beautiful days and beautiful nights, enough sunshine, inspiring thinking and refreshing rain, for good rest with its pitty-pattering the roofs, and not to forget, always uncountable stars!
Emanuel von Bock, Minister of Health in Ladonia