Traveler's Guide: Sark

Sark, a very small island nation in the English Channel, made news recently by becoming the last nation in the world to abolish feudalism. For those of you unfamiliar with medieval history, I don't really know how to explain what that means, but feudalism hasn't been a legitimate economic system since like the 17th century. So this is kind of bizarre.

A few other interesting things about Sark:

+It's area is two square miles. To compare, that is slightly less than half the size of Richfield. Population 600. Here's a picture.


+In 1991, an unemployed French nuclear physicist staged a one-man invasion of the island armed only with a semi-automatic handgun. He put up signs around the island one day announcing his intention to take over the country at noon the following day. He was arrested while sitting on a park bench shortly before noon. The king of the island missed all the action because he was picking up a check on another island.

+The king is the only person on the island allowed to own an unspayed female dog.

Personally, I think an island this small and weird ought to retain its treasured feudalism. Did anyone really have that big of a problem with it? I mean, it's not like the king of a 600-person island poses any kind of a threat to anybody. I have no doubt that this change will break the globabl economy beyond repair.