The Principality of Sealand

Good morning, everyone.

Today, I will introduce you to a famous micronation. The Principality of Sealand, locating in the Southeast off the coast of England, occupied the Roughs Tower with an area less than a football field. "Sealand" can be always found in the headlines over European countries during the past 40 years.

During World War II, British Royal Navy constructed the Roughs Tower for observing the enemy. Standing on a sunken barge, the tower became a micro fort. And the fort was abandoned after the war.

On September 2, 1967, the Fort was occupied by former Major Paddy Roy Bates, who claimed sovereignty on the basis of his interpretation of international law. Paddy Roy Bates conferred King of Sealand on himself, with his wife as a queen and his son as a prince. The country was established.

After that, the King sent official letters to most European country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry except the United Kingdom. And none of the countries raise an objection.

In 1968, British Royal Navy entered territorial waters of The Principality of Sealand. The Prince tried to scare the navy off by firing warning shots. As the King, Paddy Roy Bates, was still a British citizen at the time, he was summoned to court in England following the incident. The court ruled in Bates' favor that Sealand was outside British domination as it was beyond the three-mile limit of the country's waters

In 1975, Sealand introduced a constitution, followed by a flag, an emblem, passport, a currency and a series of stamps. Collectors scramble for the coins and stamps because they are quite few.

So far, nearly 300 people holds Sealand's passport legally, and many European countries, including the UK, recognize its validity, while there are more than 200,000 fake passports circulated over the world and involved in lots of criminal cases.

In 1978, while Bates was away, the Prime Minister of Sealand, and several German and Dutch citizens staged a forcible takeover of Roughs Tower. Bates started armed assistance and, in a helicopter assault, took his country back.

Then he captured the invaders. Most participants in the invasion were released, with the help of the government of Germany and Netherlands. But one German, the Prime Minister of Sealand was charged with treason against Sealand, because he held a Sealand passport.

Finally he was rescued after negotiations during several weeks between Germany and Sealand.

Following his repatriation, the Former Prime Minister of Sealand established a "government in exile" in Germany, in opposition to Roy Bates, claims that he is Sealand's legitimate ruling authority.

Sealand's claims to legitimacy are not recognized by any country, but it is sometimes cited in debates as an interesting case study of how various principles of international law can be applied to a territorial dispute.

There are still much interesting things about Sealand. You can refer to “baidu” or type the Sealand’s official web site on Internet Explorer to learn more.

In the end, there is a short piece of video for you.

That’s all. Thank you.

第二篇：presentation(英语课堂展示)

宗哲:

Hello ladies and xiangqinmen , it is our turn to do a presentation today .i am the host

dingzongzhe , these are my partners yangfengru and chenxulin .they will make statements later on .and the topic today is different people have different outlook on money.

As students, most of us have no economic sources. We can only acquire money from our parents and it is so little that when we deduct board wages ,it is difficult to support other spending. But in a few years , we graduate, begin to work ,and receive salary . at that time ,how will you spend ? how do you balance your consumption and savings ? different people have different plants under the influence of their outlook on money. And now ,my tow partners want to compare the view of American and that of Chinese for you .

凤茹:

As we know, the United States is becoming a cashless society quickly. It is easy to find that stores accept checks drawn on local banks as payment for purchase and even teenagers have their own credit cards in modern American..Checks and credits cards work just as well as “real money”, which allows a person spending free, but also gets them into a lot of debts. And you can find that most Americans have a mortgage on their houses or cars, but they still loan a debt to support their dairy consumption, especially the person who are prone to impulse-buying, tempted to spend more than have. That is what we called premature consumption.

Personally speaking, I think this life style have a lots to do with their outlook on money. Americans believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have certain connection. And what does the pursuit of happiness? For many Americans, it means pursuing money. Americans thinks that money is not all, but it is most of all.

Americans’ outlook on money emphasize on money very much, though money cannot bring everything, but no money will produce many trouble. In their point of view, money maybe regarded as a means of attaining other things, rather than as an end of itself. So the premature consumption is common in America. There is no doubt that this life style will stimulate economic development in a way. But there is no escaping the fact that this can also be a source of evil ,such as the credit card trap and the commercial crime. And I think the Americans should regard earning money as a method for perfect life. Money is not the final objective in their life. There are still so many valuable things that need them to accomplish.

Time is limited, and my introduction about the Americans’ outlook on money is coming to an end, thank you for your listening.

宗哲：

It is obvious that America is a society which encourage consumption. Then , how about the china? How do the Chinese treat money?

栩麟

China is a lager country with a long history.And it has different attitudes towards money.But the main attitude is obvious.

First of all,Chinese earn money carefully, Mr LiJiaCheng wrote in his autobiography: “We need to beat the stone bridge across the river after careful.”For example,when the trade is carrying,you can find that many Chinese people check the receipt on site,they prefer to deal with it clearly on

site,but the Korean maybe solve it in the future.In addition,you can find many Chinese is counting money after took money from bank.

Cautious is other obvious charater.Lost of Chinese wouldn’t earn money through an adventure.They prefer earning money slowly but savely.Especially some old man,they wouldn’t take their pension to be any adventure.They even use it to take a trip.A metaphor maybe appropriate:Chinese is like an iron cock,you can’t get even a feather from it. Because of the careful and cautious charater，Chinese wouldn’t be in dept easily.They prefer saving money to loan from bank.This is different from the American.There is a story about it.Two old man meet in heaven.The Chinese said that:I save money many years and I bought a new house for my kids finally.And the American one said that:I loan from bank when I was young.So we I’m dead.I have already live in the new house for decades!We can see there are two different attitudes towards money.

May these charater can help Chinese get losts of money during their life.But everting has two sides.Many people earn money and save it but they wouldn’t use it anymore.It is not a good phenomenon.

宗哲：

Ok ，thank for your statements. From what they have said , we can clearly aware that this is the collision between premature consumption and lay of consumption. Neither the former nor the latter is worth to over praise. the reason behavior is proper premature consumption on the basis of steady income. Don’t hide your money and refuse consumption, don’t max out you credit card ,either. And that is our group’ presentation. Thank you!