Citizenship
Hill is accepting Forvik citizenship applications; land-owning citizenship (Shetland Islands residents only) which includes a one square metre plot of land, and honorary citizenship which doesn't but is open to non-Shetlanders. Both types of citizen will pay an annual skat (tax) of one Forvik Gulde per year.
Land-owning citizens will be entitled to vote and participate in the island's open direct democracy system and will decide how the island's income is spent and what projects are undertaken. For each plot of land sold, Hill states that one Gulde will be placed in a holding account until all 8,000 plots are sold. This money is to be held for a purpose to be disclosed at a later stage, but stated as "to the benefit of the Shetland Islands population as a whole."
Local experts speculate that 8,000 plots is a deliberately chosen number, related to the 8,000 Florins of the Rhine for which Shetland was pawned to James III of Scotland by Christian I of Denmark in 1469. Mr Hill has neither confirmed or denied any connection. No person or their immediate family is permitted to own more than twenty plots. Votes are one per person, but shares in future Forvik profits are to be apportioned per plot.
An honorary citizen is a non-land owning, non-voting citizen, but who is entitled to a share in the island’s future income. Applications are open to "suitable persons" from anywhere in the world.
As of 25 July 2008 three Shetland Islands residents had applied for and received land-owning citizenship, joining "hundreds of people around the globe" who had paid to apply for honorary citizenship.
There are no full-time residents of the island or permanent structures Hill stays on a house in Cunningsburgh on Shetland's south mainland and travels to and from the island on a small flat-bottomed plywood home made boat. Mr Hill had to be rescued by a Coastguard helicopter and RNLI Lifeboat on 14 September 2008 after his vessel began to sink. His boat was described as "ramshackle" and a "floating wardrobe" and was criticised by his rescuers for having no lifejacket or radio aboard
Read more about this topic: Sovereign State Of Forvik
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