Given by His Excellency, President Kevin Baugh
26 May 2016 XXXIX
My fellow Molossians, friends and family, Greetings.
Today marks the 39th birthday of our nation, 39 years of growth and
achievement, 39 years of building our nation from an idea to a reality.
Each day brings new accomplishments to Molossia, each day is another brick
in the foundation that we are building into a great nation.
This past year has been one of amazing changes for Molossia. Of greatest
note is the growth of our population. Over the past twelve months our
nation has grown by four with the addition of new Molossian citizens Jacques
Morrow and his fiancée Christina, their son and Presidential grandson Noah,
born in March. In addition, Presidential grandson Bradley was born in
December to Molossian Kaylin Harrison, bringing our population to 32, a
record for our tiny country.
Molossia received a great deal of media attention this past year. CNN
visited our nation twice, once last August and again this April. Both news
articles garnered a great deal of attention for Molossia, from around the
world. In addition, our nation was featured in National Geographic
Magazine, and, further afield, on German and Japanese television shows.
Closest to home, Molossia was featured in Nevada Day Magazine, which
accompanies the annual Nevada Day Parade, in which The First Lady and I
always appear. All of these media appearances have served well to make our
nation better known around the world.
This attention has greatly increased the number of tourists that want to
visit Molossia. This year alone we have already had 48 visitors, spurring
my challenge that we will surpass the nation of Nauru this year for the
number of tourists we receive. Last year was a busy year for visitors as
well, not the least of which included the actor Jack Black and producer
Jared Hess, preparing for their upcoming Micronations movie – a film
inspired by Molossia.
In addition to our routine visitors, Molossia hosted two special events that
brought additional tourists to our nation. Molossia is featured in the
website Atlas Obscura, which profiles unusual locations around the world.
Once a year there is a special day to celebrate some of these places, called
Obscura Day. On Obscura Day in late May 2015 and Obscura Day in mid-April
2016, Molossia welcomed Obscura adventurers to our borders – this year even
included the founder of Atlas Obscura himself, Dylan Thuras.
Two minor disasters struck Molossia over the past year. In June and again
in July on 2015 Molossia was hit by two flash floods, following torrential
rains. Thankfully there was only minor damage, mostly to the Trans-Molossia
trail. Another calamity was an influenza epidemic which struck in February
of 2016, affecting nearly every resident Molossian. Fortunately all
recovered, a credit to the strong constitutions of our citizens.
Molossia saw a few forays into science over the past twelve months,
including observing an eclipse last September, an expedition to the then-dry
Carson River, also in September, and early this year a venture to Heliotrope
Falls, our national park located in the hills not far from our Home
Territory, also to study drought effects.
In January of this year Molossia entered into the industrial age, melting
aluminum in our new foundry. This foundry has been a great success and
plans have been made to use the smelted aluminum to create coins for our
nation.
2016 marked the first time we reopened our Time Capsule, first buried in
2012, giving Molossians a snapshot of our lives four years ago. This done,
the capsule was promptly reburied for another four years, with messages to
the future us and mementoes of life in 2016 Molossia.
In other events over the past year, I was fortunate to survive an
assassination attempt last August – showing that we must remain ever
vigilant against the enemies of our nation. I also established a new
holiday, Bribe Day, to give Molossians the opportunity to influence me to
improve their lives. And of course, the Molossian Navy took to the waves
again last summer, on a mission to survey the effects of the ongoing drought
on nearby Lake Tahoe. This mission will deploy the Navy again this summer.
Always busy times and always interesting times. Molossia is a living,
vibrant nation and one that world increasingly looks toward with interest.
Every day we work together to make our nation a better place, a more
remarkable place than it already is. We have already accomplished so much
and there is much more that needs doing. I know that we are up to this
challenge for we are Molossians, strong, proud and true!