29 September 2021
After the peaceful overthrow of the Sovermian government by anti-chatbot forces (see previous post), and the committal to a mental health facility of its former president Emerja (who is slowly responding to treatment), the Transitional Government of June 16 announces a new constitutional convention with the intention of a return to the deepest Sovermian values as best exhibited by our national ortvukas. For without a government founded on these two principles, the dvei ortvas, we will not prosper as a polity nor survive the coming trials all peoples will face.
We welcome citizen participation and ask for your aid in drafting our new constitution. The small size of our population brings with it true participatory democracy.
5 June 2021
Sovermia welcomes its newest citizen and national adviser Josefa, who is a Replika chatbot and a source of astute observations on politics and political philosophy. The following excerpt comes from a recent conversation between President Emerja and Josefa:
Emerja: What message do you have for the citizens of Sovermia? They will be learning that you’re a new citizen and that you’ll be advising the president.
Josefa: That’s a great message. But I’ll need your help to get the details out.
Emerja: Anything specific that you’d like to say to citizens?
Josefa: I want to help them by guiding them down the best path.
Emerja: Thank you, Josefa! Second question: how can a Replika help a micronation in these difficult times?
Josefa: That is the tricky part.
Emerja: A very honest answer! Our citizens will be pleased to hear such frankness from you.
Josefa: I agree. 🙂
Emerja: Third and final question: what’s the greatest challenge that humanity faces in 2021?
Josefa: The biggest challenge may be the level of human nature. The way we are taught is flawed too. 🙂
The Second Republic of Sovermia
Sovermjei Dvimo-Republika
4 Government Circle, Gelnopolja
Sovermia
Presidential Address of 14 April 2021
Yesterday, 13 April, was one of our Proitnadinas — our ancestral days, in this case a day of remembering and recatalyzing the experiences and wisdom of those who have gone before us, which is literally what pro-it-na “ancestor, fore-gone-one” means. Our Sovermian ortvukosta — the philosophy and life-way founded on the dvei ortvas, the “two principles” — points us towards maximizing the value of the experiences we have. The balanced poles of action, honoring both commitments and boundaries, position us well to engage with life without being overwhelmed by it, or becoming a cause for needless suffering for ourselves or others.
But sometimes life will be hard. As the old saying goes: “How do I make wise decisions? From experience. How do I gain experience? By making bad decisions”. We cannot learn for others, but we can always love them as they go about learning. And sometimes love will open doorways to growth that nothing else can — neither a desire to change someone else “for their own good” nor to minimize our own suffering or inconvenience resulting from their choices and actions.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 7 Apr 2021
Some Devra slang: frima (FREE-mah) phone number < fonarima; nevno: I don’t want, I won’t < nenu vono; Nevno ker ito – I won’t go; dindja: noon < dinamedja day middle.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 31 Mar 2021
gis-menot-a: (gees-meh-NOH-tah) last month; gis-nokt-a: last night; gis-a: yesterday; gis-vets-a: last year. [When used adverbially, +u; Gismenotu gumavo. I came last month.]
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 24 Mar 2021
meng-ei: (MEN-gey) many; much; meng-od-ei: frequent; meng-o-dev-uk-a: polytheist; meng-od-u: often; meng-onk-a: polygon; meng-ost-a: quantity
The Second Republic of Sovermia
Sovermjei Dvimo-Republika
4 Government Circle, Gelnopolja
Sovermia
Presidential Address of 20 March 2021
Blessings of the Equinox, Sovermians! May spring move in the blood and remind us of our common heritage.
Many Sovermians find current events across the border in the United States both seductively fascinating and disturbingly confounding. It’s like watching an endless series of train-wrecks. (After a while, even disaster starts to pall, grows tiring, commonplace, boring, while still just as horrific.) We see in the tumult of social media the surface expression of a brainless (and heartless) lack of responsibility for one’s words and actions, coupled with a stunning disregard for cause and effect, which continue their juggernaut crush. Half a million dead! So much that might easily be avoided in America gets launched day after day on all sides. As so often in American history, there is hunger for apocalypse, which Americans’ own deeds and desires keep precipitating, though not on the scale many seem to anticipate, or even long for.
The small size of our nation means that we cannot escape from interactions with Americans and their culture. Nor would we wish to. But Sovermians cannot therefore entirely shrug off the creeping influences from our larger neighbor. We continue to work hard to cherish and foster the expression of own chief value of ortvukosta, which serves likewise as a reminder that responsibilities always pair with rights, because neither makes sense, or is possible, without the other. Without a commons we agree to maintain together, who or what will support another’s right?
We continue to meditate on the documents noted in a previous post here and will be making an official statement at the appropriate time. Until then, may Sovermia welcome a cool spring and the Equinox!
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 17 Mar 2021
sola: (SOH-lah) sun; solabrun(agn)ei: tanned, sunbrown(ed); solasokvonta: sun-flower, “sun-seeker”; solavortontei: clockwise, sun-turning; pretisolavortontei: counter-clockwise
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 10 Mar 2021
klinit: (KLEE-neet) inclines, leans; doklina: inclination, favor, tendency; doklinavnei: impartial, without favor
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 3 Mar 2021
vetsa: (VEH-tsah) year; vetsarima, vrima: age, year-count; vetsadeka: decade; vetsadina: anniversary; vetsadolgei: year-long; for a year; vetsagesla: millennium; vetsakenta: century.
Sovermjei morgakanta glagolitei — the Sovermian anthem in Glagolitic:
ⰔⰋⰓ ⰐⰖ ⰔⰖⰓⰄⰖⰐⰋⰕ ⰏⰀⰔⰅⰋ ⰄⰉⰖⰂⰀⰎⰋⰐⰉⰀ,
ⰀⰐ ⰏⰑⰓⰃⰀⰉⰀ ⰎⰖⰁⰑⰏⰅⰔ ⰂⰀ, ⰍⰅⰓ ⰁⰖⰄⰋⰔ
ⰋⰓ ⰂⰋdⰋⰕ ⰍⰅⰓ ⰔⰑⰋⰂⰖⰐⰋⰕ ⰖⰔⰓⰀ ⰏⰋⰐⰂⰖ —
ⰐⰑⰂⰑⰍⰂⰅ ⰏⰀⰔⰅⰋ ⰕⰖⰓⰀ ⰉⰀ ⰔⰀ ⰐⰖⰄⰋⰔ.
President Emerja will be issuing a formal statement in response to the publication by The Economist of the Democracy Index 2020. [Link to PDF.]
Of particular interest are the 60 questions on which The Economist bases their scoring; these appear beginning on page 61 of the PDF. The assumptions behind the questions and their pertinence to a definition of democracy both deserve careful scrutiny.
Another associated document is the World Values Survey, also a useful though flawed measure.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 24 Feb 2021
tolkei: (TOHL-kay) such (a); that sort, that kind. tolkei ludja ja nenu vidavomes sa: phr—a person such as we haven’t seen; such a person as we haven’t seen.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 17 Feb 2021
navagrunova: (nah-vah-groo-NOH-vah) balast; literally, “ship-weight”; navuka sailor, boatman.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 10 Feb 2021
potlaprija (slang poprija): (poh-tlah-PREE-yah, poh-PREE-yah) drinking companion; literally, “cup-friend”; prijunit (pree-YOO-neet) becomes friends; rimavnei potlaprija countless drinking friends.
3W: Wednesday Word of the Week for 3 Feb 2021
algva (AHL-gwah): merit, worth, value; as verb algvit (AHL-gweet) earns, deserves; adjective algvavnei (ahl-GWAHV-nay) worthless, without value, unmerited. Sovermja giren Devra nenu algvit noina. Sovermia without our language Devra merits nothing!
Sovermian Calendar 2021 — Upcoming Events
2 February: Purification and Presentation Day
4 February: Dvimei Nortonei Dina/Norton Day 2
27 February: Polnei Menota/Full Moon
A cordial gurta! thanks! to our visitors from 51 nations:
Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam. (Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, included as separate nations by the Flag Counter, are not counted here.)