News / Stuart’s new and fair society
A THREE day conference aimed to empower people by taking personal responsibility about one’s own life is under way at the Shetland Museum and Archives, in Lerwick.
Initiated by Cunningsburgh man Stuart Hill, locally better known as Captain Calamity, the Sovereign Nation of Shetland conference attracted around 20 participants on Thursday.
Mr Hill had managed to originally attract a wide range of speakers as far away as Canada and the USA.
However, in the event peace Nobel Prize nominee Jim Garrow was unable to travel due to passport problems, while Roger Rothenberger, from North Dakota, only delivered his speech on consensus democracy via a pre-recorded disk.
Mr Hill kicked off proceedings by setting the scene arguing that it was high time for a new society as international banking had taken over national government and the UK had surrendered the last bit of sovereignty to a European super state run by unelected bureaucrats.
Discussing the elements of how such new society should look like was the main purpose of the conference, Mr Hill said.
In June, Mr Hill and around 20 like-minded declared their individual sovereignty during a public ceremony at Lerwick’s Market Cross.
On Thursday, he announced that he was handing over the reigns of his movement to South Nesting man Daniel Gear, who outlined the group’s intention during his speech at the conference.
Afterwards he said: “We can start our own nation, we can create our own currency and have a banking system that is not based on debt but is fair.
“I believe that most folk realise that the society we live in at the moment is not right and is not fair, and we have every right to create our own one.”
He dismissed any suggestion that this was “pie in the sky thinking”, and said: “I was very sceptical to begin with and didn’t want to put my head above the parapet. But over time you realise it is possible and all that it takes is for folk to come forward and do it.
“This movement goes on all over the world, but we here in Shetland have the additional weight that the powers to be can’t prove their authority.”
He said he was not disappointed by the fact that just 20 people had turned up for the conference saying he “knew for a fact” that many more were watching with interest as Shetlanders have always been slow to come forward.
“We don’t want to be in conflict with any existing system, we want to evolve out of it,” he said.
The conference continues until Saturday afternoon.
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