Political Upheaval In Fictional Czech State

Rog-Mahal writes "The fictional Kingdom of Wallachia has made the front page of Czech newspapers lately. The practical joke turned tourist attraction started by photographer Tomas Harabis has been locked is a power struggle between Bolek Polivka, the current king, and Harabis, the foreign minister. The faux country has received international attention over the years: 'Wallachia makes money several ways, including offering tastings of its famed plum brandy, slivovitz, to corporate clients. Its biggest source of revenue is the Wallachian passport, which costs the equivalent of $7.69. There are roughly 90,000 citizens of the make-believe nation, once including George W. Bush, who was given a passport some years ago by a Czech living in Texas. Mr. Bush's citizenship was revoked in 2003 after the United States invaded Iraq. The passport has created some confusion, however. When a man from Pakistan recently asked the kingdom for political asylum, Mr. Harabis said he had to gently explain that Wallachia was not a real country. The Wallachian passport now warns: "This passport is not yet an official document of the Czech Republic."' We can only hope for a peaceful end to hostilities."

War crimes are specifically outlawed?

[philspear]

Mr. Bush's citizenship was revoked in 2003 after the United States invaded Iraq.

Wow. You know, more countries should punish warmongering, though jail sentances would probably be better than exiling them.

Re:

[Chris Mattern]

Especially when you're exiling them from someplace *they've never been to in the first place.*

Re:

[sumdumass]

That would make prison sentences even more ridiculous- when they've never been to in the first place.

Russia

[KasperMeerts]

Let's hope Russia now doesn't invade Czech to liberate those poor Wallachians.

Umm

[moniker127]

Am I the only one who is completely lost here?

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[Xest]

The Czech republic is great for things that simply don't make sense.

When I went there two years ago walking through Prague I had many "WTF??" moments from the giant mechanical clock that every hour has weird little characters like skeletons and such come out and start spinning round through to the guy on the bridge with his little music machine with the monkey sat on top to the various peices of artwork in the city to our hungover tour guide, Ishtovar.

It's certainly a quirky place, very different to what we

Re:

[Xest]

Yeah fair point ;) Didn't really put two and two together there!

Presumably then it's just the way Czech arts and such have pretty much always been.

I call shennanigans

[Aramgutang]

I became a little suspicious when, after having lived in the Czech Republic for over 8 years, today was the first time I've heard of this Kingdom of Wallachia. When I saw that the Wikipedia article on it comprised of a single sentence, I did a bit of research on this Kingdom, which I thought I'd share here.

Firstly, the NY Times gets a few things plain wrong. They claim that the Kingdom of Wallachia is in the north-east of the Czech republic, when it is in fact in the south-east (see official map [valasske-kralovstvi.cz]). Furthe

I just tasted Slivovitz recently

[Jane Q. Public]

and it tastes more like Slithershitz to me. Sorry for the mental picture, just being honest.

Romania just called...

[Zontar The Mindless]

And they would like their principality [wikipedia.org] back.