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Atoll Tale
Laura Walbert
08/02/2004
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Dean Kamen dreamed of owning his own private oasis. The iconoclastic
entrepreneur and inventor of the two-wheeled Segway personal transporter was
able to fulfill his wish in the mid-1980s, when he bought North Dumpling Island,
in the waters off Long Island, N.Y. When state authorities refused to grant him
a permit for a wind turbine, he declared independence from the United
States. The state reportedly backed off after he reminded authorities that under
the law, he should receive services such as trash collection, which he was not
getting. While his personal secession made no great waves in international
spheres—the U.S. government took no heed—he remains sanguine. Kamen dubbed his
3-acre islet the Kingdom of Dumpling, named his mother minister of nepotism and
printed currency (called dumplings) denominated in the mathematical ratio
pi.
 | | I ASK them a lot of questions. I ask them if they know the cost to
deliver a $2 jug of milk to the island. |
Budding George Washingtons (or Doctor Nos) like Kamen may find the ideal
of sovereignty a compelling part of the island-buying equation, but they will
usually be disappointed. “The question always comes up: can I have my own
country?” says Rodney Dillard, owner of Illustrated Properties International,
which specializes in properties in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Sadly, the answer is no, he explains. “No one is selling off islands to become
new countries.”
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