United Transnational
Republics is a country projected started in Germany in April 2001, now
boasting more than 2500 registered citizens. For more information, you can
look at their website at "www.transnationalrepublic.org".
United Transnational Republics
can be described as a modernization or extension of the federal system. The
national issues will still be dealt with by the various national
governments, international issues will be handled by the United Nations and
the transnational issued by the United Transnational Republics.
The model of United
Transitional Republic could be probably similar to Non-Government
Organizations, representing all issues of human rights, war crimes and other
crimes against humanity or the protection of the global environment (like
Greenpeace).
Below is the information
about United Transnational Republics and its founders, researched and
gathered by Erik V. McCrea.
This idea was sparked in
1996, during a conversation between an artist named Christian Eckart and a
dozen friends. He relayed a story about his Russian girlfriend, whose
passport had expired. When she went to get it extended at her embassy in
Berlin, the officials refused to renew it. She had lost her citizenship from
one moment to the next. They found it shocking that without someone
validating our identity on paper, we almost cease to exist! They then
discussed “how seemingly bizarre geopolitical borders are in nowadays time.
Do borders really reflect our way of life or, more importantly, our way of
thinking? Yet, the people of the world depend on nations to confirm their
existence with paper documents. Could there be an alternative?” By the year
2000, the societal sway of the Internet had expanded to such an extent that
they began to develop a Web-site (along with a currency system, identity
cards, and other documents). The TRansnationale Republik was officially
proclaimed on April 16, 2001. The Proclamation Party took place at the
Atomic Café in Munich, Germany. The founders included the brothers/artists
Georg and Jakob Zoche and several of their friends (Tammo Rist, Jakob
Schlandt, Cornelius Everding, Edwina Blush, Flo Biehler, Andor Orand). Since
then, they've established Immigration Offices in several other cities,
including Berlin, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. These well-traveled gents have
also taken their message to special functions/events in Finland, Italy, and
Switzerland. On October 20, 2001, they were fortunate enough to temporarily
occupy the former Staatsbank (State Bank) of the GDR, where they
participated in a symposium/concert at this Berlin landmark. More recently,
to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention, they've been
asked to contribute a sample of their cultural assets, which shall be placed
in an airtight stainless steel container and stored for 1,500 years at the
“Barbara Gallery” in Oberried, under UNESCO special protection.
As for their creed, they maintain that in our age, people are not afforded
sufficient representation; this is largely because globalization is
propelled/manipulated by “global players”/corporations which behave like
unfettered superpowers. They monopolize political influence and financial
might, causing traditional nations to be monetarily dependant upon them.
Moreover, they enable governments to live on the borrowed money of their
indentured denizens. Additionally, there are certain global issues which
cannot be solved by nations because these selfsame countries are constricted
by continental/economic conflicts of interests and are unable to act
transnationally. Even though there are some noteworthy Non-Governmental
Organizations that engage in supra-national politics and negotiations, it is
the aim of the TRansnational Republic to become an overarching
representative institution; one which inspires and fuels their communal
spirit/kinship, thereby providing a more effective tool for international
problem-solving and activism.
To counteract our governments' stranglehold over our medium of exchange,
they propose that money (the “4th power”) would rightly serve to further
expand the classical separation of powers (legislative, judicial,
executive). Their “community currency” (and the others that could follow
their lead) will be used to exchange goods and services amongst their free
citizens, and it would replace national currencies and empower their
like-minded compatriots (persons linked together not by
birthplace/geographical boundaries) to become more influential at home and
abroad.
Their 4 Payola coin symbolizes this lofty goal, “while at the same time
taking the Euro as a standard (1:4) in order to assure the tradability of
this new currency.” This coin is fashioned from a genuine 2002 German Euro.
“It was quite a complicated thing to do, as we had to make a minting tool
that would re-mint the ‘1’ into a ‘4’ which required positioning the 1-Euro
coin very precisely in the tool. The word “EURO” is removed and replaced by
‘PAYOLA’.” There is also a 2002 10 Payola coin. Both of their impressive
coins were struck in 2002 for their participation at the International
Biennial of Young Art in Turin, Italy. They make sustained efforts to
actively exhibit and distribute these coins and banknotes. From June 29-July
11, 2002, the Central Bank of the United Transnational Republics managed an
installation in Berlin's Staatliche Münze (Federal Mint).
Their Web-site has an
image of the 10 Payola coin and the banknotes:
http://www.transnationalrepublic.org/centralbank/CB-payola/CB-payola.html |