The Honourable Sôgmô has established a program to recognise and celebrate individuals and their cultural work relevant to the State of Sandus. Since 2010, Sandus has had one “national musician,” Enya, but this new project creates a new democratic process in Sandus to recognise even more significant people for their relevant cultural work. Recipients of this program will receive their own title (e.g., “national musician,” “national activist,” etc.) and will be entitled to receive the circle of the honour.
Nominate important individuals here.
The motto of the honour is taken from the opening line of Hesiod’s Works and Days, which says “May you come sing, Muses from Pieria, to give honour” (“Μοῦσαι Πιερίηθεν ἀοιδῇσιν κλείουσαι δεῦτε”). The title on the bottom of the circle says “To the Crowned of the Homeland.”
The program operates by accepting nominations from other Sandum citizens. Once a nomination has been received, it heads to the Council where it can be debated. After it has been approved, the Sôgmô may then bestow the honour in þess role as fount of honour in Sandus.
The nomination form asks for a variety of information, such as the nominee’s background and the medium of their cultural work. This broad question is intended to allow for a breadth of recipients, from “national musician” or “national artist” to “national activist” or “national theologian,” and so on.
Moreover, the form asks about the social and historical context of the nominee: was the nominee emblematic of “high” or “folk/pop” culture, and in whose context are these distinctions drawn? For example, one might compare our national musician Enya, who began as a popular culture artist in the New Age movement beginning in the 1980s but whose work has transcended class distinctions to become relatively higher in status. Or, one might use someone like Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Sôgmô’s favourite baroque composer, who was and is of a “high culture” context. The distinction for drawing these two questions is to ensure relative social equity in Sandus between dominant “Western” and unprivileged cultural figures, such as between Lully to Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Finally, citizens are asked to compare nominee’s work, background, and impact to the Sandum Philosophy. This open-ended question seeks to justify the individual as a national cultural figure and their reception as a “laureate” figure in Sandus by considering what is “Sandum” about individuals who are otherwise not Sandum citizens, politically or culturally.
sandus.org 