RIFLE RANGE BOY: The problem with building a nation!

Rose Island (L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose, Italian;2015)

Director: Sydney Sibilia

The idea of a nation is something relatively new. Before the advent of 'print capitalism', no law prevented one person from sojourning another part of this God's wide world. People of a shared ideology or values would congregate to live according to their pre-set societal norms. These 'imagined communities' as described by Benedict Anderson, are created when a sufficient number of people share the same language, live in the same geographic space, adhere to the same religious faith or cultural tradition, decide to live together. A nation is born when enough people identify with it. The printing press legitimises the birth of nations.

It is interesting to note that language was instrumental in developing nationalism at the infancy of the printing press. In the 21st century, however, political Islam seems to have transcended all borders. Brothers of Islam quiver when their blood brothers in a land half a globe away are wronged. However, they would not bat an eyelid for their fellow citizens in the same predicament just because of their differing faiths. It seems Islam transcends all nations.

Tourist hub

With nations came the power to control their citizens. Rules are set. In return, the government promises to defend its subjects from outside interferences. The nation-state is permitted to collect funds to ensure the smooth running of the people's life. Citizens are expected to conform, and their way of thinking is moulded, but what can be printed and broadcasted.

Rose Island

'Rose Island' is based on a true story of an eccentric Italian engineer, Giorgio Rosa, who built his own island in 1968 because he would not conform to ridiculous rules and regulations of the land. In a frenzy, after seeing a billboard advertising for workers on an oil rig, he jumped on the idea to erect a concrete platform off the international water territory off the coast of Rimini in the Adriatic Sea.

With a ragtag team of a war deserter, a pregnant teenager and a bored club promoter, the platform became a hot tourist spot drawing international travellers. The problem arose when they applied for nation status via the United Nations. Everything came to a grinding halt when the Italian government brought it down with dynamites. It is said that Rose Island remains the only nation to be attacked by the Republic of Italy.

The idea of creating a separate nation reminds me of the antics of Swami Nityananda, a fugitive godman who has built a new country of Kailasa, off the coast of Ecuador, with its own flag, currency and passport.

The only remaining remnant of existence
of Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj

The idea of freedom brings us to the 1960s when it mattered to the powers-that-be transmitted over the airways. At a time when governments were churning out propaganda news to go one up against their opponents across the Iron Curtain, there was a pressing need to transmit away from government control. Radio Caroline, one of the most popular radio broadcasts of the 1960s, was broadcast from international waters using different ships. When small record companies with spanking new brand avantgarde music hardly got airtime, this independent station is Godsent for the younger minds to explore more unexplored frontiers in music.

The GBLA Cinderella stamps
P.S. Readers are reminded of the nation of Great Bitter Lake Association (GBLA), made up of sailors aboard a convoy of 15 freighters who was caught stranded in the Suez Canal when Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Canal and the Six-Day-War ensued. As far as the ships were concerned, the War In June of 1967, for the convoy of 14 freighters stranded in the Suez Canal when war broke out was not for six days. There were in caught in a political limbo between Israel and Egypt and had to anchor in the Great Bitter Lake with eight years of isolation. The seamen of various nationalities formed an unofficial association to bring social order to the place. They even held their own games to coincide with The Olympics. Their existence is immortalised through their Cinderella stamps, i.e. with no value.