Statehood Day, 15 July 2026

Statehood in daily life is mostly unremarkable: a registry that records a birth, a court that hears a dispute, a customs post that stamps a form, a school that issues a certificate somebody else will recognise.

None of that is dramatic and all of it is the thing itself. A state is a very large number of small, boring transactions that work.

As someone who has used a fair number of those offices, I have a practical appreciation of the difference between a state that functions and one that does not.

Congratulations on Statehood Day.