More than 11,000 Arabs have applied to join the recently announced “space nation” Asgardia.
Asgardia is “the prototype of a free and unrestricted society” where the citizens remain on earth (no one’s going to outer space just yet), but will hold citizenship in this other-worldly state. The team behind Asgardia says it plans to become a member of the United Nations, with its own flag and anthem.
“You can join like-minded people on this new exciting step in fostering an extended future for humankind.”
The bizarre space nation plans to send a single satellite into orbit next year.
Asgardia draws its name from Norse mythology. The God Thor, recently popularized by the Hollywood revival of Marvel’s superhero Thor, lives in Asgardia, one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology and located in the sky.
The space nation will also have a government structure, composed of a council of 12 ministers. These will be appointed until elections are held in June of 2017.
“I do believe that as soon as this country becomes a part of the UN family, citizenship of that country will be really quite prestigious,” said Ashurbeyli.
With relatively weak passports (especially when it comes to freedom of movement) Arabs don’t quite have much to lose.
At the time of this writing, Asgardia reports to have nearly half a million citizens, including 11,459 hailing from Arab countries. Egypt leads the pack with 2,852 registered citizens and Djibouti comes in last for the Arab world, with 9 citizens of the space nation. Currently, China has registered the most citizens of Asgardia, with more than 120,000 total, followed by the United Sates with more than 50,000.
Here’s a look at the complete ranking of Arab countries’ citizens who have joined the space nation:
- Egypt (2,852)
- Morocco (1,436)
- Syria (1,236)
- Saudi Arabia (869)
- Algeria (707)
- Tunisia (694)
- Jordan (671)
- Iraq (627)
- Lebanon (498)
- Yemen (412)
- Palestine (348)
- UAE (324)
- Sudan (232)
- Libya (153)
- Kuwait (148)
- Bahrain (86)
- Oman (54)
- Somalia (43)
- Qatar (37)
- Comoros (12)
- Mauritania (11)
- Djibouti (9)
And may they all live long and prosper!