UMMOA: a country truly like no other

In January 2007, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reportedly dropped the .UM country code top-level domain (ccTLD) from the master list of domain names in response to the domain being unused, and the desire of the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute (ISI) to divest itself of responsibility for the domain.

Since the US still legally assumes that Roman law extends to the Internet (false assumption, because it can be demonstrated that Cesidian law really governs the Internet); since the .UM ccTLD also legally represents the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a statistical designation defined by ISO 3166-1, and consisting of 11 insular United States possessions (map); officers of the Cesidian Root, an intercontinental Internet independent of the ICANN, were prepared to legally occupy the .UM ccTLD as soon as ICANN and the ISI abandoned it. Like any seaworthy ship abandoned in international waters, any organisation or nation could have legally occupied the .UM ccTLD.

Once the .UM ccTLD was legally occupied, the President of the Cesidian Root would have used the legally occupied .UM ccTLD to legally annex the United States Minor Outlying Islands (if the US can occupy the Internet based on territorial claims, then the reverse should also be kosher from a legal standpoint...), and would have renamed the islands the United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA).

There were even Italian and Interlingua translations of the name of the new country. The Italian version of the new country's name was the Arcipelago Multi-Oceanico delle Micronazioni Unite (Amomu). In Interlingua the country was the Archipelago Multi-Oceanic del Micronationes Unite (Amomu). Tallini even had a national motto ready ("E Interrete Libertas", or "From the Internet, Freedom", a beautiful flag, a coat of arms, and two additional TLDs for the country's use, the .UMMOA and .AMOMU ccTLDs.

Unfortunately, these things were no secret to Cesidian Root operators, but were also no secret to US intelligence officers, who are spying on everyone's emails and possibly even undisclosed Internet files, especially the emails and the files of the folks of the Cesidian Root.

The .UM ccTLD was not abandoned immediately. In November 2007, at the registry website of www.nic.um, a message stated that "Registration is CLOSED at this time. We are only accepting Registrar Accounts." In December 2007, registration was opened with an "Annual Account Maintenance" fee of $1,200 and a $30 annual domain registration.

None of these actions, of course, make sense under a purely economic point of view, and in fact there are no active .UM sites other than the registry itself. These actions would make sense, however, if the sole true purpose of the company is essentially to preserve the sovereignty of the United States over the islands of UMMOA, and to fend off any possible legitimate and brilliant attack by a rogue Internet like the Cesidian Root.

Moreover, the United States Minor Outlying Islands are not quite a "territory" by International legal standards anyway since:

1. The US Minor Outlying Islands are grouped together entirely as a statistical convenience (they are not a real territory in Montevideo Convention terms, even though the entity is associated with real natural islands);
2. The US Minor Outlying Islands are not administered collectively (they are not a real country or state);
3. The US Minor Outlying Islands do not share a single cultural or political history beyond being currently uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States (they are not a real nation).
   

Given these characteristics, UMMOA is more legitimately the property of a kind of federation of autonomous and scattered micronations, than the idiotic claim of an otherwise legitimate country the size of the United States.

On 19 January 2008 the www.ummoa and www.amomu domains came alive in the Cesidian Root. While the President of the Cesidian Root had more or less abandoned the UMMOA project, two Cesidian Root officers showed no indication they were willing to abandon UMMOA. The previously mentioned domains are visible to anyone even outside of the Cesidian Root through the http://ummoa.com and http://amomu.com domains — the Interlingua versions of the domains are the http://ia.amomu.com or http://ina.amomu.com.

Eventually the ICANN did abandon the .UM ccTLD, and as a consequence on 6 May 2008, UMMOA legally invaded the U.S. namespace, and annexed the 11 insular possessions formerly known as the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

The Hon. Most Rev. Dr. Cesidio Tallini, who was already Governor of Independent Long Island (ILI), Co-Founder of the Commonwealth Nations Research Society, President and Founder of the Cesidian Root, Bishop of the Cesidian Church, and Chancellor of the Saint René Descartes University, became interested in starting a first Independent Long Island-registered organisation called the United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA), for the expressed purpose of eventually providing each macro- and micronational member of the organisation an UMMOA-based embassy, so any micronation can stand on legal ground in Montevideo Convention terms.

Tallini understood that the project, despite the shenanigans of the .UM organisation, would still be on legal grounds if it went forward.

When Tallini abandoned the UMMOA project in disgust on 16 August 2007 to start the Independent Long Island (ILI) project, he commenced that project more because he felt he was an Independent Long Islander (Ilier) than for any other rational reason. However, Tallini discovered in November 2007 that the Independent Long Island project also stood on legal ground, legal ground actually more solid than even what jus cerebri electronici can provide.

If jus cerebri electronici is entirely kosher, since it is actually based on international law, things are not that different with jus cerebri humani, which also stands on a foundation of international law. In fact, jus cerebri humani is even more fundamental than jus cerebri electronici, and would allow the existence of legal territorial nations and micronations that are intellectual creations, as much as new and distinct territorial claims! Tallini figured out that the UMMOA project could now stand on the same legal high ground as the Independent Long Island project (ILI is a secessionist nation, while UMMOA is a irredentist nation), and since UMMOA has no indigenous population, it is an even more plausible project than Independent Long Island!

However, UMMOA became even more of a legal entity in time. On 22 July 2008, UMMOA achieved the recognition of all governments and nations members of the International States Parliament for Safety and Peace (ISPSP). The United Micronations Multi-Oceanic Archipelago (UMMOA) is now legally incorporated into the International States Parliament for Safety and Peace (ISPSP), an alternative United Nations (UN) that was juridically recognised by International Law, and the first nations to recognise it were the United States and Italy. Today the International States Parliament for Safety and Peace (ISPSP) has parliamentary and diplomatic delegations in more than 130 nations.

With the help of like-minded nations and micronations, Tallini would like to continue the UMMOA project, and gather support from as many nations and micronations as possible.

Nations or micronations will be accepted as supporters regardless of whether they have other territorial claims, or not, so long they do not claim any island of UMMOA, or any group of islands. The purpose here is to guarantee any ambitious micronation valid territorial claims, even if it didn't have any before, because it, as a member of the UMMOA federation, can claim at least a piece of land on UMMOA sufficient to build its own embassy. Claims beyond these in magnitude, however, claims that seek to deprive other nations of sufficient land to build an embassy building, shall not be accepted or considered legal claims by UMMOA.

The claim of the United States and of other states to one or more islands of UMMOA is in fact not considered legal. UMMOA exists to augment the sovereignty of many nations, not to monopolise the claims of a power-hungry few. UMMOA exists to bring power back to "We the People", while the United States no longer exists for these reasons, and in fact exists for reasons that contradict the assumption of popular sovereignty, the assumption upon which the words "We the People" are based.

Nations yield no sovereignty to UMMOA by joining the UMMOA quasi-federation. New York State and other states may have lost most sovereignty to the US Federal government, and the same thing may already be happening in the European Union as well, but this in not the reason for the UMMOA federation. UMMOA exists to provide any nation with claims, or with additional claims. It exists to support independence, to support sovereignty, not to stamp it out as other federal unions have done in the past. UMMOA in fact exists to create a territorial imperium even where none existed before. These claims, will be in turn supported by the intelligence of UMMOA project supporters, and hopefully with significant numbers of nations and micronations a significant neopower can be created.

The UMMOA project will try to add visibility to the micronational hobby/activity by granting any good-willed nation or micronation a stronger foundation for its claims to sovereignty and statehood. It will maximise both micronational independence, as well as micronational collective potential by leveraging the good work of others on multiple levels. The UMMOA project will not concentrate more power into a particular leader, but gather more power in general to micronations and micronationalism. This project is not another impractical YAMO (Yet another micronational organisation), nor does it exist for any other reason than the empowerment of many micronations, and the empowerment of micronationalism itself. We seek to make micronationalism more attractive to a greater number of people. We seek to make micronationalism or alternative nationalism a genuinely wholesome religion of the many, not a fanatical cult of the few.

The UMMOA project aims to be expense-free, but it cannot guarantee it will remain expense-free forever. Nevertheless, the UMMOA project will make small demands on nations and their peoples' time. It cannot be expected that a single person shoulders any and all needed expenses or responsibility. For the growth of the UMMOA project, volunteer work will need to become a common currency if it is to succeed in the short and longer term. Tallini guarantees that if he receives support from you and your nation, he will spare no effort to bring UMMOA to its maximum potential, in order to ensure UMMOA draws the attention even of member states of the UN. Currently UMMOA is a member of the Micronational Professional Registry (MPR), Live Nations (LN), Corporations Independent Long Island (CILI), the Commonwealth Nations Research Society (CNRS), and the International States Parliament for Safety and Peace (ISPSP). However, Tallini will seek membership and support in many more organisations.

We have already been very successful thus far. With your support, your encouragement, your spreading of the word, we can be even more successful, and with our success your nation or micronation can also be more successful overall.

If you believe in the general philosophy of the UMMOA project, Tallini urges you to join the UMMOA federation. There are no forms to sign, no particularly disabling obligations, but without your support, help, and enthusiasm, the UMMOA project cannot reach even a single of its stated goals. If nothing is ventured, nothing can be gained.

If you wish to register your nation or micronation for the UMMOA project, please fill-in the form below. Thank you for your time, and please spread the word in other forums, and to other nations.