Kalea Confederation

Kalea Confederation Aupuni Hui Kalea
Flag
Motto: “He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka.” (Kalean) “The land is the chief; man is its servant.”
Anthem: "Lōkahi (Unity)"
Capital and largest city	Heiau
Official languages	Kalean (Hawaiian)
Recognised national languages	Kalean (Hawaiian)
Recognised regional languages	Niʻihau (Kalean (Hawaiian) dialect)
Ethnic groups	Kalean (96%), Ni'ihau (3%), Other (1%)
Religion	Buddhism (52%), Taoism (31%), Atheist (10%), Ni'ihau folk religion (5%), Other (2%)
Demonym(s)	Kalean, Niʻihau
Government	Libertarian socialist federated semi-direct democracy
• Haoa (traditional title); Co-President (official title)	Alana Kalama (DCP)
• Haoa (traditional title); Co-President (official title)	Pika Akamai (SP)
• Haoa (traditional title); Co-Chair (official title)	Eleu Kamea (DCP)
• Haoa (traditional title); Co-Chair (official title)	Na'au Kealoha (BSP)
Legislature	Kalean Legislative Assembly
Establishment
• Three Tribes	~1,000 BC
• Confederation	6 January, 1783 AD
Area
• Total	282,383 km2 (109,029 sq mi)
Population
• 2020 estimate	7.46 million
• Density	26.42/km2 (68.4/sq mi)
Currency	Kalean Dala
Date format	DD/MM/YY
Driving side	right
Calling code	+900
Internet TLD	.kal

Kalea, officially known as the Kalea Confederation (Kalean: Aupuni Hui Kalea), is a sovereign nation comprised of the Kalean island chain in the geographic region West of the continent of Ausiana in the Coalition of Crown Albatross. It is situated in the eastern portion of the Toyana Ocean, just south of the Alutia Sea and just west of the Sancheon Gulf. Its closest neighbors are Yuan to the east and Gangkou (Zamastan) to the southeast. The climate consists of mostly subtropical forests. Its government functions as a libertarian socialist federated semi-direct democracy currently administered by a coalition of leftist parties. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the provinces of Ho'olua, 'Akau and Hema. As of 2020, it has an estimated population of 7.46 million inhabitants. It has a total area of 282,383 sq. km (109,029 sq. mi). Its capital and largest city is Heiau, located on the largest and northernmost island of the southern province of Hema.

Etymology

The word "Kalea" means “happiness” and “joy” in Kalean. The Confederation was named after the man most Kaleans consider as the "Father of the Confederation" and the "First Haoa," Kalea Apekalmoa. As well as naming Kalea after him, the most commonly spoken language at the time, the language now known as Kalean today, and the demonym of the people of Kalea, were also named in honor of him.

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  Picture of Kalea Apekalmoa at 98 (August 1840).

History

Not much is known of the origin of Kalea's people, which is odd considering its neighbors are very much different from them. The founder of the Confederation, Kalea Apekalmoa, had a dream of unifying the three major tribes of the islands to bring their common culture together and to thwart possible aspirations of foreign powers subjugating the Kalean people. Each major tribal leader was given sovereignty over a select geographical region of the Kalean island chain, and subsequently, all those within their tribe and minor tribes inhabiting the islands, establishing what are now the Three Provinces of the Confederation: Ho'olua, 'Akau and Hema. 9 January, 1783 is the day when Kalea was officially established as a Confederation and when the national holiday "Celebration of Confederation" occurs to commemorate the founding of Kalea and honor its founder. Over time, this union has grown and evolved in its many forms, but all have taken a somewhat similar model to that of Kalea Apekalmoa's original Confederation. What can be seen today is the result of centuries of collaboration into what is now known as the Kalea Confederation.

Geography and environment

Kalea has three provinces, Ho'olua, 'Akau and Hema, comprised of a number of islands totaling at thirty-one. Ho'olua has the most islands at 17, followed by 'Akau at nine islands, and finally Hema at five islands. The various bodies of water surrounding the islands are what make up the boundaries between each of the provinces. Separating several islands of the Ho'olua province is the Ho'olua Sound. Separating several islands of the 'Akau province is the Sea of Apekalmoa.

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  Ho'olua (yellow), 'Akau (red), Hema (green)

Climate

Due to its location, Kalea's climate is dominated by subtropical forests. These types of forests are characterized by low variability in annual temperature and high levels of rainfall (>200 centimetres (79 in) annually). Monsoons are a frequent occurrence during rainfall in Kalea. Forest composition is dominated by evergreen and semi-evergreen deciduous tree species. These trees number in the thousands and contribute to the highest levels of species diversity in any terrestrial major habitat type. These forests are home to more species than any other terrestrial ecosystem. A perpetually warm, wet climate makes these environments more productive than any other terrestrial environment on Earth and promotes explosive plant growth.

Wildlife and fauna

Among the diversity of Kalea's climate, it boasts some of the highest number of species in the world despite its geography and size. Kalea is home to a varying amount of bird species such as hornbills, toucans, and the harpy eagle, as well as a varying amount of mammal species such as deer and the hoary bat. These forests contain an unparalleled diversity of invertebrate species. Aquatic life is no exception, with Kalea home to several species of angelfish, barracuda, blenny, butterflyfish, cardinalfish, and many, many more.

Flora in Kalea is just as diverse as its wildlife. The pendant kihi fern, bird's-nest fern, males tree fern, serpent woodfern, amaumau fern, and whisk fern are just a few of the ferns native to Kalea. Among the trees native to Kalea, there are several trees of the genera Dracaena, Pritchardia, and Myrsine just to name a few. Native flowers to Kalea include anthurium, bird of paradise, Kalean gardenia, pikake, blue ginger, Kalean hibiscus, plumeria, and so much more.

Politics and government

The political system of Kalea is based on its adopted constitution, officially titled "[The] Charter of the Three Provinces". It provides that all residents of Kalea shall enjoy fundamental rights such as gender equality and freedom of religion. It also provides for property rights. Kalea's system of community government has direct democratic aspirations in the form of municipal and provincial councils.

Executive branch

The Kalean Executive Council, or simply the Executive Council, acts as a joint coordination committee that oversees the implementation of policies developed by the Kalean Legislative Assembly. The Council assists with coordination and collaboration between provinces and municipalities in political, economic, social and cultural matters; particularly that of diplomatic and military matters. It also supervises and follows the work of federal Departments and Ministries, as well as oversees the implementation and enforcement of all legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly. It is currently headed by two Co-Presidents, Alana Kalama (DCP) and Pika Akamai (SP).

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  Executive Council composition

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  Co-President Alana Kalama, DCP (Age 60)

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  Co-President Pika Akamai, SP (Age 47)

Legislative branch

The Kalean Legislative Assembly, or simply the Legislative Assembly, is a unicameral legislature and the sole legislature of Kalea. It is comprised of a total of 253 seats, with one seat per 15,000 registered voters in Kalea. It is currently dominated by a coalition of left-wing parties, the largest of which are the Democratic Confederalist Party, Syndicalist Party, and Buddhist Socialist Party. The Opposition is comprised of a coalition of minor parties, most of which are center-left to center-right. There are a total of 253 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly is currently headed by Co-Chairs Eleu Kamea (DCP), who at age twenty is the youngest elected member of the Legislative Assembly and youngest Co-Chair in Kalea's history, and Na'au Kealoha (BSP).

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  Legislative Assembly composition

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  Co-Chair Eleu Kamea, DCP (Age 20)

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  Co-Chair Na'au Kealoha, BSP (Age 52)

Judicial branch

The justice system in Kalea is influenced by the libertarian socialist ideology of democratic confederalism. At the local level, citizens create Peace and Consensus Committees, which make group decisions on minor criminal cases and disputes as well as in separate committees resolve issues of specific concern to women's rights like domestic violence and marriage. At the regional level, citizens (who need not be trained jurists) are elected by the regional People's Councils to serve on seven-member People's Courts. At the next level are four Appeals Courts, composed of trained jurists. The court of last resort is the Provincial Court, which serves the region as a whole. Separate from this system, the Constitutional Court renders decisions on compatibility of acts of government and legal proceedings with the constitution of Kalea.

Kalea proclaims absolute equality of women under the law, allowing civil marriage and banning forced marriage, polygamy and underage marriage. A new criminal justice approach was implemented that emphasizes restoration over retribution. The death penalty has been abolished in Kalea.

Military

The main military force of Kalea is the Kalean Democratic Forces (KDF), an alliance of Kalean provincial militia groups formed in 1915. Each provincial militia is comprised of several municipal militias that double as municipal police forces. KDF is locally recruited to garrison their municipal and provincial areas and is under the responsibility and command of the respective provinces and municipalities of Kalea.

Being an island nation, the concern of maintaining sovereignty over Kalean maritime borders arose in response to actions taken by The People's Republic of De Yuan, or simply Great Yuan. The Kalean Maritime Patrol was then established in 1985 as a naval branch of the KDF comprised of volunteer municipal militias that are based out of coastal municipalities. Several naval vessels were constructed over the span of ten years to create the flotilla necessary to complete this new branch. It now consists of eight corvettes, five gunboats, and two frigates.

Foreign relations

Kalea has a strict policy of non-association when it comes to foreign relations. It currently has no foreign status with any other foreign nation. However, events in the recent century with their neighbor to the east The People's Republic of De Yuan, or simply Great Yuan, has forced Kalea to hold suspicions on their motivations. As a result of the actions of Great Yuan, Kalea has acknowledged and endorsed the sovereignty of Zamastanian control of Gangkou, largely as a move to deter Yuaneze influence.

Many youth movements support a policy of opening and maintaining foreign relations with other foreign nations around the globe. This came as a result of the Kalean response to the legal status of Gangkou. Notable youth politicians such as Co-Chair Eleu Kamea of the Democratic Confederalist Party are in support of these movements and has made several recent comments on some upcoming legislation that if passed will open further foreign relations with neighboring foreign nations, most notably the Imperial Republic of Zamastan, or simply Zamastan.

Economy

Kalea is administered by a coalition that bases its policy ambitions to a large extent on the libertarian socialist ideology of democratic confederalism and has been described as pursuing a model of economy that blends co-operative and market enterprise, through a system of local councils in minority, cultural and religious representation.

The history of Kalea's economy can be traced through a succession of dominant industries: sandalwood, whaling, sugarcane, pineapple, the military, tourism and education. The majority of its exports include food and clothing. The country's food exports include coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple, livestock, sugarcane and honey.

Infrastructure

In 2015, it was reported by the Kalean Executive Council that 74% of the population had access to improved sanitation, and that "good progress" had been made between 1990 and 2015. As of 2016, 96% of Kalean households have an improved source of drinking water, and 92% of households had sanitary toilet facilities, although connections of these toilet facilities to appropriate sewerage systems remain largely insufficient especially in rural and urban poor communities. Building infrastructure remains an issue during times of excessive rainfall due to surgent monsoons. However, several construction projects are underway in several major cities to construct floodwalls and a series of artificial flow paths to control water flow and mitigate the effects of monsoons.

Transportation

A system of highways encircles each main island. Narrow, winding roads and congestion in populated places can slow traffic. Each major island has a public bus system. Heiai International Airport is the major commercial aviation hub of Kalea. Until air passenger services began in the 1920s, private boats were the sole means of traveling between the islands. Kalea has a network of railroads on each of the larger islands that transports commodities and passengers.

Demographics

The population of Kalea as of 2020 is estimated to be around 7.46 million. An overwhelming majority of around 96% of the population is homogeneously Native Kalean, while the remaining 4% of the population is divided between around 3% being ethnically part of the Ni'ihau tribe and 1% part of other ethnicities.

An estimated 1.1 million people reside in Heiau and the immediate surrounding area, almost 15% of the entire population, making the capital the most densely populated city in Kalea. Despite its population size, it is the most beautiful city in Kalea.

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Religion

Religion in Kalea is dominated by over half (52%) of the population practicing Buddhism, while just under a third (31%) of the population practices Taoism. Buddhism and Taoism form a close relationship in Kalea with either of the religions influencing the other. The remaining population is either Atheist (10%), or adheres to Ni'ihau folk religion (5%) or another religion (2%). The Ni'ihau folk religion is rarely seen outside of the Ni'ihau community.

Language

The Kalean language (ʻŌlelo Kalea) is a language that is part of the Toyanan language family that takes its name from Kalea Apekalmoa, the founder of Kalea. It developed among the indigenous peoples of the Kalean island chain and is one of only a few languages in the Toyanan language family, the other being the Ni'ihau dialect of Kalean and several other dialects that are no longer spoken. Kalean is the official language of Kalea. Kalea Apekalmoa established the first Kalean-language constitution in 1839 and 1840 in an effort to further unite the peoples of Kalea under one coherent language.

The Kalean alphabet has 13 letters: five vowels: a e i o u (each with a long pronunciation and a short one) and eight consonants: he ke la mu nu pi we, including a glottal stop called ʻokina. Long vowel pronunciation is expressed in the form of the macron. A modern Kalean name for the macron symbol is kahakō (kaha 'mark' + kō 'long'). It was formerly known as mekona (Kaleanization of macron). It can be written as a diacritical mark that looks like a hyphen or dash written above a vowel, i.e., ā ē ī ō ū and Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū. It is used to show that the marked vowel is a "double", or "geminate", or "long" vowel, in phonological terms.

Kalean originally was a spoken language, but when Kalea Apekalmoa began creating the first Kalean-language constitution he realized a script would be necessary for the promulgation and standardization of a Kalean language. The writing script of Kalean was originally based on the English alphabet. To emphasize the obvious differences between English and Kalean, several changes had to be made. These changes came in the form of the macron (kahakō or mekona) and the glottal stop (ʻokina).

A recent movement to create a new, individualized Kalean script has slowly gained traction. This new script is called Pī‘āpā Hou. It is an alternative alphabet for Kalean. The name Pī‘āpā Hou means “new alphabet” in Kalean. It is based on the English alphabet conventionally used for writing Kalean, and therefore includes the macron (kahakō or mekona) as well as the glottal stop (‘okina). However, the letters themselves were inspired by shapes found throughout nature in Kalea. Its direction of writing is left to right in horizontal lines.

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Another alternative script created as a part of the new Kalean script movement is Mele Kākau. The name Mele Kākau means "Rhythm Writing" and comes from the Kalean words mele (rhythm) and kākau (to write). Its direction of writing is also left to right in horizontal lines. However, unlike Pī‘āpā Hou, this script is a syllabary and not an alphabet.

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Culture

Music and art

The music of Kalea includes traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Kalean folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Styles such as slack-key guitar are well known worldwide. Traditional Kalean folk music is a major part of the country's musical heritage. The Kalean people have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in nature and includes chanting and dance music.

The art created in the Kalean islands may be divided into three categories; art produced before exposure to the outside world; art produced by recently arrived foreigners; and art produced by Kaleans incorporating foreign materials and ideas. Public collections of Kalean art may be found at the Heiau Museum of Art and the Kalean National Art Museum.

Cuisine

Kalean cuisine consists of a mix of indigenous plants and animals native to Kalea. 'Awa (Piper methysticum, kava) is a traditional food among Kaleans. Popular condiments included paʻakai (salt), ground kukui nut, limu (seaweed), and ko (sugarcane) which was used as both a sweet and a medicine. Men did all of the cooking, and food for women was cooked in a separate imu; afterward men and women ate meals separately per the ancient kapu (taboo) of separating the genders for meals. This kapu was abolished in 1819 by the Kalean Executive Council at the behest of Kalea's founder Kalea Apekalmoa. Staple ingredients include kalo (taro), 'uala (sweet potato), 'ulu (breadfruit), i'a (fish) and hāpu'u 'i'i (Kalean tree fern). Traditional Kalean meals include:

• Kalua, pig cooked underground in an imu.
• Poi (pronounced po-ee) is made from cooked, mashed, and sometimes lightly fermented taro. It is the starch staple of the native Kalean diet.
• Laulau is made with beef, pork, or chicken and salted butterfish wrapped in taro leaves and then ti leaves. It was traditionally prepared in an imu.
• Poke (pronounced po-keh) is a raw marinated fish or other seafood salad (such as ahi poke or octopus poke). It is made with sea salt, seaweed, kukui nut oil and in more recent times with soy sauce and sesame oil. Most cooked foods eaten by Native Kaleans were prepared either through steaming, boiling, or slow cooking in underground ovens known as imu. Due to their lack of non-flammable cooking vessels, steaming and boiling were achieved by heating rocks in fires and placing the hot rocks in bowls of water. Many other foods, such as fruits and most seafood, were eaten raw.
• Lūʻau (pronounced Loo-ow) is made with coconut milk cooked with taro leaves in a pot. It has a creamy consistency. Squid is usually cooked with this dish, but chicken is sometimes substituted for the squid.
• Haupia (pronounced how-pee-ah) is a flan-like dessert made with coconut milk and ground arrowroot. Cornstarch has become a widespread substitute for the arrowroot.
• Ko'ele palau (pronounced ko-ele pa-lao) is a dessert made from cooked sweet potato mashed and mixed with coconut milk.
• Inamona is a traditional relish or condiment often accompanied meals and is made of roasted and mashed kukui nutmeats, and sea salt. It is sometimes mixed with edible seaweed.
• Kulolo (pronounced ku-lo-lo) is a pudding dessert made from grated taro corm and coconut milk that's baked in an imu, having a fudge-like consistency.
• Piele is another Kalean pudding similar to Kulolo, with grated sweet potato or breadfruit mixed with coconut cream and baked.

Sports

Due to its geographical location, team sports in Kalea are characterized by youth, collegial and amateur teams over professional teams, although some professional teams sports teams have at one time played in the state. Notable professional teams include the Kalean Olympic Teams. Kaleans have found success in the world of sumo wrestling and mixed martial arts. Surfing has been a central part of Kalean culture for centuries. Since the late 19th century, Kalea has become a major site for surfers from around the world. Kalea has produced elite-level swimmers as well.

Customs and etiquette

Some key customs and etiquette in Kalea are as follows: when visiting a home, it is considered good manners to bring a small gift for one's host (for example, a dessert). Thus, parties are usually in the form of potlucks. Most locals take their shoes off before entering a home. It is customary for Kalean families, regardless of ethnicity, to hold a luau to celebrate a child's first birthday. It is also customary at Kelean weddings, especially at Filipino weddings, for the bride and groom to do a money dance (also called the pandanggo).

Ni'ihau tribe

The 2010 census states that there were 170 people living on the island of Ni'ihau. However, witness accounts estimate that the population actually ranges between 35 and 50 people. A majority of the members of the Ni'ihau tribe reside outside of the island to seek better opportunities for themselves or their families. Some support themselves largely by subsistence fishing and farming, while others depend on welfare. All residents live rent-free, and meat is free. Ni'ihau has no telephone services and no paved roads. Horses are the main form of transportation; bicycles are also used. There are no power lines; solar power provides all electricity. There is no plumbing or running water on the island. Water comes from rainwater catchment. The Ni'ihau tribe established most of these conditions. There is no hotel, and barges deliver groceries from nearby islands, often purchased by the tribe's chief, with free shipping. Much of Ni'ihau culture is rooted in Ni'ihau folk religion.