Karmisticia Festival of Spoken Food Infographic

If one were to draw a Venn Diagram of people who are interested in food, people who are interested in literature, and people interested in spending time on the most mobile nation in the world, there may be people not regularly attending this event. If you know such a person, show them this, please.

©2014 James Mathurin

The Most Mobile Nation in the world Infographic

So, this one is from 2010, which used to be the future, and is is now a long time ago. Anyway, although I've traveled a lot more since then, I have not been to a place as unique as Karmisticia.

Yet.

©2014 James Mathurin

Karmisticia Festival of Spoken Food

With Karmisticia being a mobile nation, as detailed in this previous post, its economy is unable to follow many conventional models. The climate means that agriculture faces many difficulties, and the tiny population and limited space mean that industry is also a non-starter.

As a result, the government of Karmisticia commissioned a tourism bureau, in order to manufacture "distinctive and uniquely Karmistician events, which will attract international tourism". The first of these events is the Karmisticia Festival of Spoken Food, an event where "Speakers" (poets, writers, actors and performers) are invited to pair up with chefs from around the world, whereupon they will share and discuss a 3-Course meal cooked by the chef, which the Speaker will then turn interpret into a 5-minute monologue.

French chef Andron Mibeu, preparing his meal's monologue with Lithuanian beatboxer Drops2. Photograph by C John Thompson.

©2012 James Mathurin

The most mobile nation

The most mobile nation in the world is the Island state of Karmisticia, which was originally found in the Indian Ocean. Uninhabited until the early Twentieth Century, due to its isolation from any populated areas, it was supported by a thin column of igneous rock reaching up from the Sea-bed. This was destroyed due to disturbances from the eruption of Krakatoa, but the island stayed afloat, due to the unique buoyancy of its natural rock. It became a nation in 1905, when a shipwrecked crew of Indian fishermen washed up on its shores, having believed themselves to be doomed, as there were no reported islands anywhere near where their ship had sunk. Although the men returned to India for supplies and their families, they were determined to make the Island their home, and named it Karmisticia. Karmisticia has continued to drift, and has most recently been sighted passing Norway.

Two citizens of Karmisticia re-enact the discovery of the island, a ritual repeated on March 14th every year. As the population of the island rarely exceeds 30, and constantly changes as the island passes by other countries or picks up international criminals looking for a place to lie low (which Karmisticia offers, due to its lack of extradition treaties with the rest of the world, itself a result of the fact that Karmisticia is rarely close enough to any country long enough to establish full diplomatic relations), anyone residing on the island for longer than 3 weeks has to agree to take part in at least one commemoration.Photographed by travel agency chifa217.

©2010 James Mathurin