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#36139
08/13/2001 10:07 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<<took them seriously>>
Dear wwh,
I've no idea whether anyone took Japan's move seriously. It was a tiny piece in the NYTimes and was settled in a letter to the editor a few days later by an expert in international law. I found the case charming for its Talmudic nuance. Perhaps the Japanese should have erected an oil platform--it seems the same law does not apply both to these and artificial islands.
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#36140
08/13/2001 11:28 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I've no idea whether anyone took Japan's move seriously.
Japan has a couple of very tiny islands, each basically no more than a rock sticking a few feet above the ocean surface, with an area measured in sq. yards rather that sq. miles. But they are crucially important because, being far from anything else, they establish a 200-mile fishing zone Japan wouldn't otherwise have. Japan has spent major yen to prevent them from eroding away.
Some are so small as to raise the question, "What is an island?" Specifically, is it considered an island though it is sometimes fully submerged below the ocean surface (at high tide)? I believe it counts if submerged for fewer than 12 hours in each 24. Truly the Talmudic nuance that Inselpeter notes.
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#36141
08/14/2001 12:12 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<<Japan has a couple of very tiny islands>>
That would probably be them, and this refreshes my memory...a little. They were natural islands which Japan was maintaining with concrete. Because it was the concrete that otherwise brought them within the definition of "island," the writer of the letter suggested that the definition did not apply.
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#36142
08/14/2001 6:05 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Your memory is very good, Dr. B. Route 1 still does cross the river over the Conowingo Dam. But going that way over the river, or going from Havre de Grace to Perryville / Port Deposit is not crossing the Bay, as all those places are on the west side of the Bay. To get to the Eastern Shore by circumventing the Bay you have to keep going north on Rt. 40-east* to Elkton (formerly the marriage capital of the East Coast, if you remember that) then go east by way of Chesapeake City, where you actually go past the head of the Bay, and fetch up in Chestertown, which is on the Eastern Shore.
* U.S. Rt. 40, which is designated an east-west road, actually runs in the north-south direction from the MD-Del border to Baltimore. This is to confuse out-of-staters who have difficulties when you tell them to go north on 40-east or south on 40-west.
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#36143
08/15/2001 4:18 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>Over ten years ago there was a rogue radio station built on what had been a British anti-aircraft gunnery installation perhaps the size of a tennis court somewhere in the Channel.. The owner tried to declare the "island" a sovreign territory. He did not get taken seriously.
Bill:
You need to look up a sovereign nation called the Hutt River Province. Some enterprising fellow in the western part of Australia has declared his independence, styled himself as Prince Leonard of Hutt.
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~huttrivr/
I've a friend who is an Edith Piaff-like chanteuse who has performed for Prince Leonard and his consort. Presumably she did not sing the
HUTT RIVER NATIONAL ANTHEM
It's a hard land,
But it's our own land,
Built with love and dedication.
Self assured,
Is our small nation.
One man's dream of Independence.
God blessed the Prince
Of the Hutt River Province.
God blessed the man
Whose dream has come true.
God blessed this land
Where dreams can come true.
And God blessed the Prince
Of the Hutt River Province
God blessed the man
Whose dream has come true.
God blessed this land
Where dreams can come true.
But she was given an autographed copy of his coffee table book on the Hutt River Principality (certain to become a major collector's item!) They sell stamps, coins, flags, etc., and you can even become a citizen and get a REAL passport which actually works for travel abroad, or so I am told.
TEd
TEd
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