Escaping Uncle Shaft
A number of years back; I had the pleasure of spending a week with the intense Michael Gogulski.
Gogulski, who then lived in Bratislava, and may still, was the first person I knew to use the internet virtually borderlessly. He was on the cutting edge of tech despite being in a place that geographically was not. Few people even today use it as borderlessly as he was using it a decade ago.
It was no surprise to hear him referenced as a local Bitcoin guru the other day in Slovakia. Anyone in the know would surely turn to someone as well placed as Gogulski. Those who are in the know in this corner of the world know that Mike Gogulski does not live in the corner of anything, but is himself an intersection.
He’s not a household name, so people who mention his name are likely to mention him out of personal knowledge. I consider it proof of a certain street cred to hear someone name-drop the man.
He is not one for the faint of heart. I point to the fact that he, then a US citizen, marched into the US Embassy in Bratislava one day and did the one thing guaranteed to lose you your citizenship – it wasn’t an assassination, nor was it a terrorist act, it wasn’t battlefield aid to a foreign enemy – none of those are guarantees of loss of citizenship.
Gogulski said he wanted out. He officially renounced his US citizenship. Thousands of people a year renounce their US citizenship. No one does it the way Gogulski did though – he walked into the embassy an American, walked out of the embassy a person with no state. Seconds earlier a man claimed by the world’s superpower as one of their own, didn’t have a single valid document from a government walking out.
He then contacted Slovak officials; in a process that I have no doubt was nightmarish and confusing to all involved. He notified them that under international agreements to which Slovakia and its predecessor states were signatories – he is a stateless person living within their borders and that they now were obligated to provide him with a passport to travel.
Yes, but he’s not a Slovak citizen he surely was told, by the numerous flow chart following Slovak beauracrats and everyone up the food chain, so he’s not getting a passport. Apply for citizenship he was doubtlessly told and once it’s given he’ll get a passport. No, he explained to them. He is a stateless person and does not want their state citizenship or passport. He only wants the stateless passport that the Slovak government has agreed to provide stateless people. Go talk to your own government he was doubtlessly told – the US Embassy is on one of the most well fortified and expensive pieces of real estate in the country, it should be easy for you to find. They are no longer my country he doubtlessly informed them. Back and forth this surely went for months.
There were probably lots of head shakes and snide comments in those numerous government offices about this American who had voluntarily put himself among the stateless Somali, Persian, and West African refugees the Slovak immigration police and other officials encountered each day. Those refugees would have done extreme things just for a US green card, let alone a passport. The Slovak police officers themselves may have been as willing to do the same extreme things for a chance at the opportunity in America. What could Gogulski have been thinking?
In time Mike Gogulski was presented with a stateless person travel document by the Slovak government. It’s cover being a shocking black – that communicates – pay attention. You aren’t dealing with your average person.
Once in a while, when stuck on a conundrum, I find it helpful to look at the outliers in life, the people who refuse to be average, and to ask – what would they do?
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