Your Nation's Fact of the Week

[Aensland Forest]

Because religions are considered political ideologies, it is not legally considered discrimination for Aensland's government to ban them. Therefore, Christianity and Islam are illegal within our borders.

[Otira]

When an emperor dies, it is customary for the imperial consort to assume the spirit of her husband. Though the title has passed on, it is assumed she speaks for the deceased emperor from the other side.

[Panjiang]

The collapse of the Piqiu Dynasty in 1915 led to a thirty-year long civil war colloquially known as the "Great Calamity". Over seven million people were killed during the war.

[United Nation of Bedfordshire]

Queen Anne Hamilton had her mother burnt at the stake in 1172 because she believed she was a witch. The queen was later assassinated at her home by her father for what she did. He was later hung for the crime.

[Fatatatutti]

Ships that take the Confederation as a Flag of Convenience are subject to stringent background checks to rule out the possibility that said ships belong to the merchant marine of, inter alia, totalitarian nation-states.

The Ergenstrasse is a Fatatatutian submarine tender that operates in "ghost" mode - i.e. posing as an innocent freighter. It is registered in at least fourteen nations and has sailed under almost a hundred different names. The rust is painted on.

[Workers SFSR]

All religious holidays have been abolished or repurposed in the Proletarian State. Instead of Christmas, the New Year is celebrated. Easter has been replaced with Scientific Atheism Day - celebrated with scientific exhibitions, public blasphemy parades and anti-religious propaganda. It's customary to destroy a Christian church or another place of worship in a pyrotechnical display at the end of the day, however a few decades ago the practice was deemed wasteful - mock churches are now constructed for this purpose.

[Minroz]

There are about 120 million electric bicycles in mainland Minroz.

[Murrony]

Murrony is highly multiethnic, with nearly three hundred recognized ethnoreligious groups, and though we have something of a shameful history of racism, the last century (particularly after the revolution of 1963) has seen massive strides forwards in civil rights and the reduction of ethnoreligious strife and inequality.

[Zhuhostan]

At the start of each season Zhuhostan has a nationwide festival celebrating each season. For example, Spring Festival, Autumn Festival, etc.

[Blackledge]

French toast was voted the most popular breakfast item of 2017.

[The Great Western]

The Great Western's fastest train, Mallard Awesome II, was the first train to go over 1000 km/h.

[New Visayan Islands]

While the Federal Assembly has authorized five-star ranks for the Arny, Navy, and Air Force, and six-star ranks for the Army and the Navy, only two people were promoted to five-star rank: General of the Army Fidel Ramos and Fleet Admiral Francisco Jumamil, both of whom defected to the Visayans prior to the Declaration of Independence. Only Ramos still lives to this day; Jumamil died in 2009 at the age of 87.

[Koh Duong]

Fact of the Week:

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After Koh Duong's (កោះដួង) brief revolution in 1999 in which the radical Khmer Rouge-influenced regime collapsed and was overthrown by the coalition of Royalists, Islamists and citizens, nearly 32,542 people of the country which had a population of 724,000 at the time were massacred by the coalition for collaborating or being part of the Duong Sauviet (ដួងសូវៀត) regime, most of whom were executed without trial.

The day, February 22nd, is celebrated every year in Koh Duong as 'Liberation Day' to celebrate victory over the Duong Sauviet regime.

[Minroz]

Hakim Raharjo, husband of Crown Princess Ai, is quite fluent in Indonesian, Javanese, Chinese, German, Japanese and English. The first two are his native languages.

[Mangahhan Super Region]

There are airports and planes in our country but no flights. The Reason: Obvious Political reasons after the Opposition party supports aviation industry. So the Govt. Banned flying planes (but not helicopters, of course and military aircraft)

[The Northeastern Confederation]

The executive branch of one of the five cities that form the northeastern confederation, Salvador, is still ruled by a King. A "Momo-King".

Hundreads of years before current time, when Salvador was still an independent city-state, the city was comanded by a group of the most powerful families in the city, The Oligarchy, as most of the other cities were ruled as well. And, as in most other cities at the time, the oligarchs were led by a chief-oligarch, or a Coroné as it is called in other cities. Every end of january/beginning of february they would assembly to either reafirm the power given to the Coroné, to challenge it, or in some cases to choose another. The timing was carefuly tought, as to reward the populace with the festivities after the political struggle. That would avoid tensions between the factions and legitimate the current/new regime.

The carnival is the most important event in Salvador, and at those times - when society was in absolute caos and the political process was highly undemocratic - it was central to society stability and the heart of salvadorian culture. So at the very first day of carnival, the leader would meet with the people to handle the city-key to a figure called the "Momo-King", a man - usually overwheight and dressed in white - that represented the dominium of the festivity spirits of lust, inebriation and frenzy that would take the city for five consecutive days.

In those days the power was very concentrated in the hands of the oligarchs and especially at the hands of the chief-Oligarch. They were treated as super-citizens, having more rights than others and getting away with things that a commoner would definitely not get away with. The populace then started to treat those as royalty, and even calling the leader King. But that wasn't because they respected him, it was more of a popular joke, that the rulers then apropriated once the power was brutally concentrated in their hands. During this time, several other post-brazillian citiy-states had a highly concentrated political structure, beign called "The carnival kingdoms" by their conteporaries.

As those families got richer, they started sponsoring parties of themselves, the micaretas, a form of off-season-mini-carnival, to display their wealth and power to other families and the people. As they became common, the spirit of carnival transcended the party and became the political process itself, the sense of depravation, confusion and corruption was general throughout the year, to the point that the coronation of the Chief-Oligarch would become the coronation of the "Momo-King" itself. That ruled for life.

The joke became oficial and the oligarchs were kings now. That didn't lasted much for the other cities, but for salvador, the greatest carnival on the planet, it lasted. The Liberalization of the political process happened the same way in Salvador as it did in other cities of the nation: Elections started beign held - again -, the powers of the chief oligarch were gradually diminished and checks and balances were installed throughout the centuries. But the symbolism remained, both in the title, as it is in the ritual.

The Momo-King is called "Momo-King" in oficial documents, is coronated at the beginning of carnival and rules for life like a real king. But has its powers greately diminished (he can represent the city at the confederate level and partially vetoe passed laws), is elected by the members of the Oligarchy - that despite beign a chaimber of democraticly elected representatives is still called this way - who have another chief-oligarch - called only "chief-oligarch" -, to serve as a form of local prime-minister and control the chaimber's schedule, and on top of that he can be impeached by them if they want to.

So there is it, the fact of the week, A city inside the northeastern confederation has a King.

[Destad Republic]

The Great War is a conflict that is fought between the Central Powers (Imperial Destad, Astye Empire and Jestrurg-Probar) and the Entente (Eskilian Third Republic, Oblaria, Claod Sna and many others.). The war ends on November 11, 1918 when the Treaty of Naruto City was signed thus ending the war. The treaty stated that Imperial Destad shall become a republic under the form of socialism as well as keeping colonies while Jestrurg-Probar will be separated for good thus forming the Republic of Jestrurg and the Republic of Probar. Oirbaidavo a colony located in Madagascar will become independent despite the downfall of Imperial Destad and will become a republic. The rest was either unchanged or did not get involved of the war. Many Destadans have stated that Eskilia was responsible for the signing of the treaty and several Anti-Eskilian political parties have been formed 2 years later including the Destad National People's Party lead by Raynare.

[Bolkenia]

One of the emblem of Bolkenia is it thermes, natural hotsprings used sinced the first Bolkyr settlement.

[New Visayan Islands]

Most provinces have a unicameral Provincial Council that serves as the provincial legislature. The Provinces of Bohol, Cebu, Negros, and Panay have bicameral legislatures instead, with a Provincial Senate and a Provincial Assembly (respectively, La Asamblea de Bohol, Ang Kongreso sa Lalawigan sa Sugbo, The Provincial Assembly of Negros, and The Panay House of Assemblymen). In those four provinces, Provincial Senators rank before Provincial Assemblymen in the Visayan order of Precedence.

[Balkan Vojvodina]

In 1994, Balkan Vojvodina entered Eurovision with a song praising King Slobodan the 1st, it only got 5 points in total.

[Freilibre]

The Freilibre - British war was an accidental war that was forgotten. It was only discovered by a 12 year old in Newcastle, who was studying history, that stumbled on the fact that no peace treaty or agreement had ever ended the war. The war started in 1723 following disagreements with island territories in the North Sea, and officially ended in 2009.

[Dawetid]

After legislation that outlawed radicalism (except for fascism and communism, which were already illegal long before this law) and such ideologies/groups such as Islam, feminism and LGBTQ (which made up less than 0.01 % of the population, and were mostly foreigners), crime rate reduced by 99 %.

[Catarra]

Catarrans enjoy easter holidays until next monday. Tourist ocupation this week is going to be record high as good weather is spected all around the week.
As the country is predominantly Catholic religious processions are common during easter, also there are other religious communities: As jews, christian protestants and christian orthodox comunities that also celebrate easter.
Antiterrorist alert has raised to level 4 of 5. Police is in alert to prevent any yihadist attacks on processions and tourist targets.

[Bears Armed]

Today is New Year's Day, the first day of the year 4187, by our calendar. Bears are celebrating.

(New Year’s Day isn’t named as a day of the week, but still counts as one for determining what the next day will be: Tomorrow, the 1st of Appear, will be a Tigersday.)

[Laredo-]

In 2013, after Amanda Knox's retrial was announced, Laredo offered her asylum. Laredo has not had diplomatic relations with Italy since 1986, which would have made it impossible for Knox to be extradited even if she was found guilty. While this offer initially caused temporary issues with the United States government, President Obama's influence eventually allowed for Knox to have Laredo's offer of asylum as an option. Despite this, Knox refused to accept.

The Laredoan president at the time, Diana Mercer, was rumored to have said on their state-run news that if Meredith Kercher was killed for insulting Knox "because her moronic, prudish mind couldn't accept Amanda's thrilling lifestyle", she deserved to die. "Poor Amanda was justified in taking her out." is said to be the former president's closing sentence. While no footage of the former president's domestic, public announcement has been released to outside news sources, one Laredoan defector claiming to have seen the live broadcast, says that Mercer did in fact say something almost exactly along these lines back in 2013.