Phansi Uhlanga
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The Democratic People's Republic of Phansi Uhlanga Riphabliki ra Vanhu ra Xiyeningi ra Phansi Uhlanga | |
---|---|
Motto: "Freedom! Socialism! Unity!" | |
Anthem: "The Internationale" | |
Capital | Ngondabuala |
Largest city | Diqasa |
Official languages | |
Ethnic groups | |
Demonym(s) | Uhlangan |
Government | Unitary one-party socialist state and military junta |
Njiba Impisi | |
Kasanda Lukumwenu | |
Legislature | Supreme People's Indaba |
Formation | |
• Heron Empire collapses | March 4 1900 |
• Democratic People's Republic of Iqozi founded | October 6 1964 |
• Cuhonhico annexed | September 11 1971 |
• Current name and constitution adopted | April 20 1974 |
Area | |
• Total | 568,576 km2 (219,528 sq mi) |
• Water (%) | 3.5% |
Population | |
• January 2015 estimate | 65,069,420 |
• Density | 114.32/km2 (296.1/sq mi) |
GDP (nominal) | 2015 estimate |
• Total | $780,833,040,000 |
• Per capita | $12,000 (???) |
Gini (2015) | 12.5 low |
HDI (2015) | 0.764 high (???) |
Currency | Labor Credit (LC) |
Time zone | UTC+1 (???) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (not observed) |
Driving side | right |
Calling code | +420 |
Internet TLD | .pu |
Phansi Uhlanga, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Phansi Uhlanga, is a country in central Malaio bordered by Pulacan to the east and the Ozeros sea to the north. The southeastern third of the nation is dominated by the Mpuya Nzasi mountains, the tips of which are high enough as to bear snow throughout the year. In the north of the country rolling foothills give way to the low-lying Matobe basin, which extends to the coast. Two thirds of the nation is covered by the Nyeleti rainforest, except in the dryer and flatter west, made up mostly of expansive savanna.
The region of Phansi Uhlanga has been inhabited since time immemorial. Its indigenous peoples, the ǂBūkhokwe and N!twe, are among the oldest living ethnic groups in the world, having inhabited the region since time immemorial. The Bakhoeli would come to dominate the region as part of the early Komontu expansion during the iron age, going on to form complex polities that survived even into the age of colonialism. While “Bakhoeli” is the unifying identity of its peoples, it is made up of numerous ethno-linguistic subgroups, historically divided between the wetter, more mountainous east and the hotter, flatter interior. Alongside the Bakhoeli are the Bakonji, who split from the BaKhoeli to form the Kingdom of Konji during the Bronze Age. The Iqozi, another Komontu people, would arrive in successive waves between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, settling in the region's western-central agricultural heartland.
In the modern day Phansi Uhlanga is a single party Wernerist state with a centrally planned command economy in which the means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises and collectivized farms. Most services, such as healthcare, education, housing, and food production, are subsidized or state-operated. The economy is dominated by heavy industry and intensive manufacturing with a focus on exports, especially of rare earth elements, chemicals, and machinery. Despite this however agriculture remains a major sector of the economy, with beef and its byproducts especially representing its major industry. Phansi Uhlanga follows “Sesole Pele”, a "military first" policy which prioritizes the Revolutionary People’s Front in state affairs and the allocation of resources.
History
Geography
Phansi Uhlanga is located in central Malaio, bordered to the east by Pulacan and to the north by the Ozeros sea. The country lies south of the equator. At 568,576 square kilometers, it is the x largest nation in Malaio and the x largest nation in the world. Due to its location, Phansi Uhlanga receives very high precipitation, up to 2,000 millimeters (80 in) in certain areas. This sustains the Mfinda ya Nyeleti (generally shortened to Nyeleti) rainforest, which contains most of the country’s biodiversity. The country can be broken up roughly into three bioregions: the Matobe Basin, the eastern highlands, and the western savannas. Each of these three bioregions are separated by belts of hilly grasslands. Elevation is low in the northeast, gradually rising towards the western interior, while rainfall and forest coverage generally follow an opposite trend.
Matobe Basin
The lush Nyeleti rainforest covers the entirety of the low-lying Matope basin, which slopes northeastward to the sea. This basin in turn gives way abruptly to expansive plateaus surrounding it on three sides, the fourth abruptly dropping off at the Kibaka ya Banzambi escarpment facing out towards the Ozeros sea. Upon these plateaus are dense grasslands and savannas to the west, highvelds and mountainous terraces to the northwest, and the glaciated Mpuya Nzasi mountain range to the far south and east bordering Pulacan . The latter is broken up by a layered transistory mosaic of forest and savanna. The Uhlanga river, from which the nation takes its name, cuts through nearly the entire area and produces an intense tropical climate that covers almost two thirds of the region. It and its tributaries form an important part of the country’s economy and transportation systems, with major tributaries including the X, X, X, X, X and X rivers.
The core region of the country is the low-lying Matobe Basin. With a territory of x square kilometers, it constitutes a little under a third of the total landmass. Much of the area within the basin is swampland, with belts of forest and grassland ringing it to the south, west and east. It is covered by the Nyeleti rainforest, which contains much of the country’s most renowned biodiversity. This marshy, bowl-shaped depression however is only sparsely populated by humans due to its unsuitability for agriculture. The Matobe is bisected by the Uhlanga river with the third north of the river generally having the lowest elevation in the country. Whereas to the south, low grasslands are broken up by dense gallery forests hugging the Uhlanga river’s extensive tributary network.
Eastern highlands
In the far east, the Mpuya Nzasi mountain range again rises, with the coastal area in that region marked by numerous sheer cliffs. This region is called Ngungashanga, named for Mount Shanga, one of the highest peaks in the country. Ngungashanga is the only portion of Phansi Uhlanga not connected to the greater Uhlanga river system, fed instead by the Nzadiyashanga and Mengayabakala rivers respectively. These rivers originate in the Djebe mountains of neighboring Pulacan. Ngungashanga has on average a much higher elevation than most of the rest of the country. However, Mount Shanga itself is only the third highest such peak in Phansi Uhlanga.
The area’s climate is cooler than in much of the rest of the country thanks to this elevation. However, it also receives considerable rainfall throughout the year and, during the country’s rainy seasons, is subject to flooding in the region’s tight valleys. These valleys contain the bulk of that region’s arable land, owing to the very young volcanic soil which washes down into the valleys from the mountains around them. Mount Shanga itself contains an active volcano which last erupted in 2004, killing several dozen people and prompting the government evacuation of over a hundred thousand more. Ngungashanga is known for its above average amount of seismic activity. This has been an ongoing issue for Uhlangan attempts to better connect the region to the broader nation.
In the far south of the country is the western half of the Mpuya Nsazi, separated from the basin above it by a thick belt of hilly grassland snaking all along the rim of the mountain range. Here, tracing a path along the rivers are deep rift valleys. The south of the country was until the communist era heavily forested, becoming increasingly cleared in following decades for lumber. This portion of Phansi Uhlanga is particularly rich in minerals, with expansive deposits of cadmium, cobalt, copper, platinums, industrial & gem quality diamonds, zinc, manganese, tin, germanium, uranium, radium, bauxite, iron ore, and coal. The mining sector dominates the economy in the south as a result of this.
Between the two halves of the mountain range is the great Nsemoyakepela Rift Valley. Both deep and wide, it holds the best agricultural lands in all of eastern Phansi Uhlanga. The Nsemo, as it is colloquially known, is protected from monsoon rains by the eastern Mpuya Nsazi mountains, which also supplies its soil with volcanic ash and pumice. The latter is the source of the Nsemo’s rich andisol soils, which supports intensive cropping including the growing of rice and many fruits. Thousands of years ago, in the wake of the ice age, this region and the greater Matobe were significantly higher in elevation, the belt of fertile land greatly expanded as a result. However, much of the outer Nsemo has been eroded by the washing away of former glacial waters, sinking much of it into the greater basin. Still, the Nsemo valley remains important to this day.
Western savanas
The northwest of the country is dominated by the Lithaba Botala mountain range, which forms a high alpine basalt plateau up to 3,400 m (11,200 ft) in height. This region, often called just the Botala, has a much cooler climate than other regions at the same latitude owing to this extremely high elevation. The Botala can itself be divided into regions of highlands and lowlands. The former, composed of terraced plateaus interspersed with snow capped mountain peaks being concentrated in the north and west, while the hilly lowlands in the south and east follow the X and X rivers. In the highlands, temperatures can reach as low as −18 °C and snowfall is common throughout the winters. The tallest mountain peaks even see snow all year round. The lowlands, where temperatures drop to only −7 °C see snow much less frequently owing to the lower elevation. The elevation also greatly affects precipitation, with 500 mm of rainfall annually in one area to 1200 mm in another.
Directly to the south of the Botala lowlands and the Uhlanga river is the eNyangeni Rift Valley, among the most ancient geological regions of the country and home to the most agriculturally productive lands in the whole of Phansi Uhlanga. The eNyangeni holds the highest soil quality in the country, with over 90% composed of leptosols, nitisols, vertisols, cambisols, luvisols, and fluvisols. The eNyangeni therefore has been the cradle of precolonial civilization in the region, home to many of the oldest stone age sites to be discovered. As early as 1500 BCE, rice was extensively cultivated throughout the valley and sorghum as early as 8000 BCE. Even today, the eNyangeni is one of the most heavily populated regions in Phansi Uhlanga and is home to Diqasa, by far its largest city.
The far western third of the country is known as the iYenkanyezi (lit “Land of the star”) and is composed primarily of tropical savanna. Lush gallery forests lining the multitude of navigable rivers criss-crossing the area intersperse the otherwise endless sprawl of rolling grassland. Virtually every inch of the iYenkanyezi is arable, contributing to this slice of land being the most populous in the whole of Phansi Uhlanga. Much of the interior rests on a highveld split in half by the far western edge of the Uhlanga river and contains numerous lakes. The highveld terrain is generally devoid of mountains, instead consisting of rolling plains occasionally broken up by the odd protruding stony ridge. The southern portion of the iYenkanyezi is generally drier than the northern half.
Lakes & rivers
Climate
Politics & Government
The governmental structure of Phansi Uhlanga maintains dual power between the civilian and military administations, with the latter having ultimate authority over the former. This is best represented by the constitution of 1971, which defines the Revolutionary People's Front as the “armed vanguard of the people’s revolution” and the government as a revolutionary and socialist state "guided in its building and activities only by the universally applicable and immortal Wernerism-Ulwazism as applied to the nation’s unique material circumstances according to Abe Inqaba Thought". The Communist Party of Phansi Uhlanga is the only legal political organization has an estimated membership of seventeen million. It dominates every aspect of political life and the economy within the nation.
The constitution of the DPRPU defines Wernerism-Ulwazism and Abe Inqaba Thought as the “guiding ideology and belief of the Uhlangan state and people” and guarantees its citizens a host of rights, including the right to a fair trial, housing, sustenance, employment, education, healthcare, and freedom of speech, with exclusions for “hateful, derogatory or politically offensive actions meant to attack national unity”. It was adopted in 1971, replacing the constitution of Democratic Iqozi and formally codifying the modern commune system in Phansi Uhlanga. This was part of a greater program of political reform that lasted throughout the late twentieth century. Other changes involved the formalization of national military governance under a system of Front Commands, which continues on to the modern day. Despite this however, the constitution and government of the Democratic People’s Republic remains committed to advancing Uhlangan socialism, with a stated goal of “achieving a moderately prosperous and serene socialist state by 2030” and “communism by the century’s end”.
Military rule in Phansi Uhlanga is ideologically codified in the form of “Sesole Pele”, a "military first" policy which prioritizes the Revolutionary People’s Front in state affairs and the allocation of resources. This is part of an overarching ideological program within Njiba Impisi Thought known as “Abe Inqaba”, which encourages “military and economic self-sufficiency wherever possible”.
The head of state and government is the Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary People’s Front, who has the power to oversee the administration of all national law as well passing his own in the form of executive orders. The Supreme Commander is constitutionally defined as the senior most officer in the military, having wide ranging and ultimate authority over virtually all matters of state. Chief among the Supreme Commander’s responsibilities is the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, members to the Central Committee and generals to leadership of the nation’s Front Commands, or military districts. The office of Supreme Commander is a lifetime position and is theoretically elected by collective decision from among the group of Front Commanders. However, General Njiba Impisi has held the position since its inception in 1971.
The Supreme People’s Indaba is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People’s Republic. The constitution identifies the SPI as the source from which all offices and institutions derive official legitimacy. It consists of one deputy from each People’s Commune within Phansi Uhlanga, as well as reserved seats for minority and indigenous groups, and the military. Deputies are elected to five year terms without term limits. It meets twice a year to discuss matters of state for a period of one week, totalling two weeks in session per year. Because the DPRPU is a constitutionally mandated one party state, all members of the SPI are also members of the Communist Party.
The SPI serves to debate, enact, repeal and amend legislation affecting the whole of Phansi Uhlanga. It has the power to alter the constitution with a two thirds vote, to amend, permanently enact or repeal temporary legislation passed by the Central Committee while the SPI is not in session, to establish the basic principles of the nation’s foreign and domestic policy, determine and amend state budgets, and to provide input on and enact the nation’s Five Year Plans. Additionally, the SPI nominates the membership of the Central Committee, elects all members of the Cabinet, and establishes and disestablishes various governing committees and agencies. The President of the Supreme People’s Indaba serves as its speaker, with his powers including casting a tie breaking vote and the calling and closing of SPI legislative sessions.
The Central Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly is the highest civilian organ of state power within Phansi Uhlanga while the Supreme People’s Indaba is not in session, as defined by the constitution. Its major role is to act as supervisor of the Cabinet and the nation’s governmental institutions as a whole. The Central Committee monitors all activities by all governmental offices to ensure total political and legal compliance. It additionally also acts as the first line of response for issues encountered with the national Five Year Plans and appoints all political officers of the General Political Bureau to the Revolutionary People’s Front.
Not only does it deliberate on all matters related to foreign policy, defense, national economic policy and domestic security, the Central Committee also directly abrogates all decisions of state organs that are considered to run counter to the directives of the SPI. Members of the Central Committee are nominated by the SPI and confirmed by the Supreme Commander. There are typically nine to fifteen members of the Central Committee, including the Supreme Commander and all Front Commanders. Central Committee members serve five year terms.
The Cabinet of Phansi Uhlanga is, per the constitution, the administrative body and general state-management organ in the civilian government. The Cabinet is responsible for implementing the state's economic and civil policies. However, it does not have responsibility for issues pertaining to national security or defense, these being under the direct jurisdiction of the Supreme Commander and the various Front Commands. Members of the Cabinet are elected by the Supreme People’s Indaba for a five year term without term limits, automatically renewed.
The Cabinet has the power to adopt legally binding measures to execute state policy , amend and implement economic regulations, guide the work of all Cabinet subordinate commissions, bureaus and ministries, draft the Five Year Plans for the national economy, compile the national budget and adopt measures to implement it, perform inspections and control work to ensure total compliance with state economic directives and to ensure accuracy of reporting data, abolish decisions and directions by state economic organ, which run counter to the directions made by its members, and adopt and enact measures regarding the monetary and banking system of Phansi Uhlanga.
The Supreme Court is the highest organ of the judiciary. Its justices are appointed to the Court by the Supreme Commander for five year terms without term limits, and can be recalled at any time by a two thirds vote of the SPI. The Supreme Court serves as the highest appellate court in the Union, though in certain legal cases, such as crimes against the state, it is the court of first instance. Decisions made by the Supreme Court cannot be challenged or appealed except by further directives of the Court or by executive order of the Supreme Commander. It has specific chambers for civil, criminal and political crimes. The Court is staffed by a Chief Justice and twelve judges. Its chief role is to determine the constitutionality of laws and to protect the rights of the individual against actions taken by the state. It also supervises all lower courts in the country, including all trials and proceedings, and oversees the appointment and training of judges.
A Front is an individual military district and the largest peacetime unit of the Revolutionary People’s Front. It is constitutionally defined as “the smallest contiguous region capable of maintaining continuity-of-government during wartime”, consisting of any number of communes and typically includes one or more industrial or agricultural centers. Each Front is tasked with overseeing local laws passed by the Communist Parties of the communes and has the authority to intercede or overrule local civil authority on matters deemed important to national defense. A Front Command directs general military affairs within a Front, chief among these conscription of military personnel, as well over most heavy industry in the form of Special Economic Zones. A Front Commander is a position held until life or retirement and is appointed by the Supreme Commander.
The People’s Commune is the basic Uhlangan administrative unit. A People’s Commune is usually a rural township or city, or a part of a larger metropolitan area, comprising one or more economic firms and its constituent populations. A People’s Commune is typically made up of the workers of one or several Work Brigades, including support services such as clinics, schools, and grocery stores. A People’s Commune numbers up to one hundred thousand. Each commune’s branch of the Communist Party elects officials to the communal People’s Indaba for a five year term without limits. The People’s Indaba in turn makes all laws governing its commune and appoints deputies to various bureaucratic committees and commissions.
Military
Foreign Relations
Economy
Phansi Uhlanga maintains one of the world’s only centrally planned economies, with most of the means of production operated by the state and most of the labor force employed in state firms. A system of Five Year Plans was first organized and implemented by the State Planning Commission in 1931 with the goal of achieving industrialization and a high level of self-sufficiency. The heavy industrial sector dominates the Phansi Uhlangan economy to this day, particularly the chemical, mining, steel, defense and construction industries. Since the early 2000’s, Phansi Uhlanga has expanded light industry at the expense of unproductive and outdated heavy firms.
The first Five Year Plan was passed by the 1st Communist Party Indaba of Democratic Iqozi shortly after the proclamation of the People’s Republic. The system of five year plans facilitated rapid industrialization and economic development despite semi-frequent aerial bombardment by neighboring Cuhonhico, then the self-declared last remaining province of the Heron Empire not in active rebellion. The first eight five year plans focused entirely on the development of heavy industry and the mechanization of firms, seeing subsequently massive spikes in output in the mining, steel, machine toolmaking and agriculture. Particular focus was placed on the production of military equipment to the exclusion of virtually all consumer goods.
The seventh five year plan was disrupted by the 3rd Uhlangan Civil War, during which intense fighting across much of the region’s most productive lands, as well as mass biochemical attacks on civilian centers, cratered both industrial and agriculture outputs for years. The eighth was the first five year plan after the annexation of Cuhonhico and the formal declaration of Phansi Uhlanga in 1971. The discovery of significant bitumen deposits in the Ndhawu ya Ndzhope region of southern-central Iqozi in 1966 provided a much needed fuel for the government’s industrialization effort and has since its discovery been administered directly by the military as a Special Economic Zone.
The Integrated Information Network for Socialist Economic Planning (Netiweke ya Mahungu leyi Hlanganisiweke ya Vupulani bya Ikhonomi ya Vusoxalisi) is the nationwide computer network of Phansi Uhlanga and a distributed decision support system which serves to aid in the management of the socialist planned economy. Work on IINSEP began in 1964 under the Central Statistical Bureau in Democratic Iqozi. At this time there were no more than a dozen or so computers in all of the country, the smallest of which filled an entire room. Instead, the government procured from abroad and then distributed hundreds of punch card readers and telex machines to the largest firms across Phansi Uhlanga.
Further orders for expansion were placed in 1965, however, all progress on IINSEP was halted by the 3rd Uhlangan Civil War. After the war in 1972 work began immediately to expand the project to all major firms under its current organization. The IIN incorporates a threefold system of economic planning: Netkhom, Minonkhom, and Vaayelo.
Netkhom
Netkhom (Netiweke ya tiKhompyuta, lit “Computer Network”), often called the “Uhlangan extranet”, is the computer infrastructure of IINSEP. It began as a network of mechanical computers and telex machines which served to connect state planners at all levels with the necessary economic data to make detailed adjustments to the general economic program. Previously, all levels of information were tabulated by hand using an immense number of individual calculation methods. Individual firms under individual ministries had direct access to only what information they themselves calculated or had access to, and communication between these firms and ministries involved a web of bureaucratic navigation. This was both manpower intensive and rife with human error.
Netkhom represented a simplification of the planning system on numerous fronts. Firstly, it created a unification of all information networks under the Central Statistical Bureau. Secondly, it created a free flowing stream of economic data that could, in various levels of detail, be updated daily or even hourly. This data could be accessed by every firm connected to the network, which in turn allowed said firm to make decisions accurately and quickly in response to market trends and evolving needs. Thirdly, it gave the State Planning Committee an informed idea of the state of the national economy that did not depend as thoroughly on reports through successive layers of individual agencies.
The bottommost level of organization involved the establishment of twenty thousand small data centers in important economic firms across the country. These centers existed to monitor and collect primary information of the day-to-day performance of economic firms. This included labor attendance and participation, input of material resources, output of goods, wages, bonuses, and so on. Next were hundreds of very large computer centers in mid-sized and large cities, which store long term this collected data for the purposes of coordinating regional level economic functions. At the very top is the central node facility located within the Central Statistical Bureau headquarters in Ngondabuala, which provides the national government with real time, highly detailed economic information for the purposes of streamlining broad economic planning and facilitating minute and immediate changes to plans in relation to external stimuli.
Netkhom saw rapid expansion and modernization throughout the 1980s and ‘90s until by the turn of the millennium, computerized nodes existed in every economic firm across every economic sector. Civilian access to Netkhom began in 1997 alongside this rapid expansion as part of the worldwide revolution in personal computing.
Minonkhom
Minonkhom (Minongonoko ya tiKhompyuta, “Computer Software") refers to the specialized, proprietary software used in both analysis of the colossal reams of economic data IINSEP gathers as well as the complicated economic simulators used to aid in planning. The Minonkhom system is adopted universally across all firms for easy incorporation into IINSEP, giving every firm down the least developed collective farm detailed information on market trends, pricing, constituent resource value, and so on. These simulated models allow Uhlangan economic planners to predict and plan for emergencies, both theoretically and ongoing, and theorize with some manner of reason how certain adjustments to economic policy may affect the system at large.
Vaayelo
Vaayelo (Vuyelo bya Vaaki, “Public Feedback”) comprises the myriad programs undertaken to deliver public opinion, especially regarding economic products and political issues, to the government. In relation to Netkhom, this takes the form of anonymous online focus groups, review boards, and even a system for petitioning government officials to specific action. These feedback systems first manifested as “algedonic meters” or early warning public opinion meters in “a representative sample” of Uhlangan homes that allowed citizens to transmit their pleasure or displeasure with televised political speeches to the government or television studio in real time based on a sliding scale.
These algedonic meters were used to provide individual feedback during television segments on a wide range of products from consumer goods to entertainment. However, Vaayelo was chiefly used as a means of improving industrial efficiency. The draconian quota system used by the government often incentivized the managers of underperforming or overleveraged firms to lie as a means of avoiding career repercussions. Furthermore, managers and workers alike often lacked sufficient means of reporting shortfalls, quality issues, or irregularities safely and securely.
Vaayelo was designed from the ground up to provide the government with purely anonymized data that weighs only the averages of these inputs. This allowed the consumer and the worker to provide much needed information directly to the state in such a way as to properly focus the government’s focus on areas of democratically perceived social importance. Simultaneously, by keeping this information entirely anonymous, even data that might be unwanted or embarrassing to the state could be provided in a manner that did not threaten its political or ideological legitimacy.