Gandoor National Q&A [READ OP]

[Gandoor]

What are your opinions on MoYu, DaYan, and QiYi 3x3x3 cubes?

Please don't ask me pointless questions about stuff like bootleg Rubik's Cubes.

Q1- What is your opinion on Capitalism?

Q2- What is your opinion on Socialism?

Q3- What is the meaning behind your flag?

1. My opinion regarding capitalism is...conflicted. I am of the opinion that completely unchecked and unregulated capitalism is responsible for the inequality we see in other countries. However, when it is properly regulated and checked, it can help create innovate and prosperous nations and people while simultaneously making sure no one is left in the dust.

2. Socialism is an ideology I can neither say I am for or against. I feel very conflicted when it comes to it. Gandoor is, after all, officially a socialist nation although we have practiced European-style social market capitalism since the mid-80's. (Just to prevent any misunderstandings, Gandoor has existed as a socialist nation long before nations like the USSR came around with their centrally planned economies, socialism in our nation was always market socialism and capitalism was never officially outlawed, we just began to loosen economic restrictions in the late 70's and early '80s) And our economic policies, most of which are in the goal of transitioning to socialism in the future, are responsible for our strong stances towards income equality, welfare, among others. Conversely however, I will admit that many nations implementation of socialism was responsible for much suffering in this world. In that sense, that is why I feel conflicted regarding socialism, it can do good (as our nation shows) but other nations, such as the USSR, show that unforgivable things can be done in the name of socialism.

3. The red represents our official ideology of democratic socialism, the eight stars arranged in a circle represent our eight yons, and the central eight pointed star represents the central government. Despite the fact that our flag has stars representing our administrative divisions, do keep in mind that we are a unitary state, not a federation.

What is your opinion on Cults ??? These things are everywhere.

If the cult is harmless, I see no issue with it. If it is a dangerous cult, both to their members and nonmembers, then they should be dealt with but not in a way that can affect the freedom of others.

Why is your Prime Minister also your head of state?

That is an interesting question, as almost all other nations with parliamentary systems of government have separate heads of state and heads of government. The simple answer as to why we don't is because the founders of the Democratic Republic did not want it. The writers of our modern constitution during the start of the 20th century wanted it to be that the Prime Minister would be viewed as the representative for the new Gandoor and its people, they had no desire to create a separate head of state, something that most of them felt would become outdated as the century went on.

[Dytarma]

What are your opinions on MoYu, DaYan, and QiYi 3x3x3 cubes?

Please don't ask me pointless questions about stuff like bootleg Rubik's Cubes.

Q1- What is your opinion on Capitalism?

Q2- What is your opinion on Socialism?

Q3- What is the meaning behind your flag?

1. My opinion regarding capitalism is...conflicted. I am of the opinion that completely unchecked and unregulated capitalism is responsible for the inequality we see in other countries. However, when it is properly regulated and checked, it can help create innovate and prosperous nations and people while simultaneously making sure no one is left in the dust.

2. Socialism is an ideology I can neither say I am for or against. I feel very conflicted when it comes to it. Gandoor is, after all, officially a socialist nation although we have practiced European-style social market capitalism since the mid-80's. (Just to prevent any misunderstandings, Gandoor has existed as a socialist nation long before nations like the USSR came around with their centrally planned economies, socialism in our nation was always market socialism and capitalism was never officially outlawed, we just began to loosen economic restrictions in the late 70's and early '80s) And our economic policies, most of which are in the goal of transitioning to socialism in the future, are responsible for our strong stances towards income equality, welfare, among others. Conversely however, I will admit that many nations implementation of socialism was responsible for much suffering in this world. In that sense, that is why I feel conflicted regarding socialism, it can do good (as our nation shows) but other nations, such as the USSR, show that unforgivable things can be done in the name of socialism.

3. The red represents our official ideology of democratic socialism, the eight stars arranged in a circle represent our eight yons, and the central eight pointed star represents the central government. Despite the fact that our flag has stars representing our administrative divisions, do keep in mind that we are a unitary state, not a federation.

What is your opinion on Cults ??? These things are everywhere.

If the cult is harmless, I see no issue with it. If it is a dangerous cult, both to their members and nonmembers, then they should be dealt with but not in a way that can affect the freedom of others.

Why is your Prime Minister also your head of state?

That is an interesting question, as almost all other nations with parliamentary systems of government have separate heads of state and heads of government. The simple answer as to why we don't is because the founders of the Democratic Republic did not want it. The writers of our modern constitution during the start of the 20th century wanted it to be that the Prime Minister would be viewed as the representative for the new Gandoor and its people, they had no desire to create a separate head of state, something that most of them felt would become outdated as the century went on.

Well at least those bootlegs are better. And besides, it was either that or if LeBron James was a citizen.

[Gandoor]

Does anyone have any further questions for our Prime Minister?

[Kenmoria]

"What is the meaning of your flag(s), and why do they continue to change?"

[Gandoor]

"What is the meaning of your flag(s), and why do they continue to change?"

Pardon? Continue to change? This has been our flag since 1964:


While it is the ninth flag we've had in our history, and the fourth since becoming a democratic republic, it hasn't changed in almost 60 years.

In regards to the meaning behind our flag, that is fairly simple: the red background represents our official ideology of socialism, the eight stars represent our eight administrative divisions, and the central eight-pointed star represents the national government.

[OOC - In case you haven't been able to tell, my IC flag is not the picture I use as my avatar. I don't use my IC flag as my avatar because, quite frankly, I find it boring to just have my flag by my posts. Am I 'violating the spirit of the game'? Maybe - but it's my account so I can do what I want.

If you DO want to know the meaning of my current OOC flag, it's Washi Pink and Chameleon Green, two of the rangers from Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger, a Japanese TV show that's part of the Super Sentai franchise. If you think it looks like Power Rangers, that's because Power Rangers uses footage from Super Sentai.

I change my OOC flag often because, I dunno, I find other images to use often, I mean these shows air weekly so can you blame me?]

[Ilha das Tempestades]

What is your favorite kind of weather, Prime Minister?

[The Other Power]

Do people make fun of your last name?

[Gandoor]

What is your favorite kind of weather, Prime Minister?

If I can be honest, anything that gets it cold and windy rain showers. Gandoor is a very warm country, you see, and anything that gets it a bit cooler helps a lot and rain is honestly very relaxing to me, can basically fall asleep to wind and raindrops outside my window no matter what.

Do people make fun of your last name?

While I am aware of the obvious joke that could come from my last name, the answer is actually no. We have a large enough population of people of Russian ancestry so that jokes such as that are uncommon. Of course, when my family immigrated to Gandoor back in the late 19th century, they could have easily decided to write our last name as 'Semyonov', which is the more common way of transliterating the original Russian, but they didn't.

[Gandoor]

Does anyone have any further questions for our Prime Minister?

[The Other Power]

How Russian are you?

[Gandoor]

How Russian are you?

In terms of my ethnicity, I'm 100% Russian. My parents, grandparents, and so on have all been either Russian or Russo-Gandoorese. In fact, I'm the first member of my family to marry someone who isn't of Russian ancestry.

As far as me personally, I would say I'm not very Russian, at least in terms of my cultural upbringing. While I was taught Russian by my father as a child, to the extent that I consider it and English to both be my native tongue, we didn't participate in any form of cultural heritage other than that. Personally, I think it's because we grew up in a fairly mixed city and I usually consider myself culturally to be 100% Gandoorese.

[Lata Eden 2]

How did you get elected as prime minister or more specifically how does your country elect its prime minister ?

(voting system)

[Gandoor]

How did you get elected as prime minister or more specifically how does your country elect its prime minister ?

(voting system)

Technically the Prime Minister isn't elected, at least not directly.

Instead of voting for the Prime Minister, in Gandoor, you vote for the party that you want to represent your district in the Forum. The Forum, our legislature, consists of 1000 seats, with each administrative division having 125 seats each. (To be specific, we utilize the D'hondt method for determining seats, with a party having to gain at least 1% of the total votes in their district in order to gain a seat)

Following National Elections, which occur every six years on the first Saturday in July, whichever party has the most seats in the Forum, their candidate for Prime Minister (traditionally party leader, but not required by law) becomes the Prime Minister-elect.

Now, the new Prime Minister doesn't immediately take office following the elections. Instead, after a National Election where a new Prime Minister was elected, on the latest day prior the second Friday in October that is not a public holiday, the pre-election arrangement of the Forum meets and formally dismisses the current Prime Minister from the office and then on the second Friday in October, the new arrangement takes their seats and begins their session by formally appointing the Prime Minister-elect to the office. During elections where the current Prime Minister's party maintains their majority (which can only happen twice, as we cannot serve more than two terms as Prime Minister), this doesn't occur, however, and the new Forum merely begins their first session on the second Friday in October.

Or to explain in simpler terms:
There are two major parties in the Forum: the Gandoor Communist Party and the New Democratic Party. (There is also the People's Party of Gandoor and the Gandoor Freedom Group, but both of those parties have a total of less than 3% of all the seats in the Forum)

Say in an election year, the current Prime Minister is Bob Jones of the Communist Party and the current arrangement of seats in the Forum is as follows:
GCP: 493
NDP: 483
PPG: 18
GFG: 6

Following the election, the new arrangement of seats is as follows:
GCP: 482
NDP: 496
PPG: 15
GFG: 7

In this example, since the Communist Party has lost their majority, the candidate from the New Democratic Party will become the new Prime Minister once the new arrangement of the Forum takes their seats and begins their first session in October.

I do hope I have explained how the Prime Minister here in Gandoor is determined well, but if I hadn't, feel free to ask me to clarify anything.

[Gandoor]

Does anyone have any further questions for our Prime Minister?

[Astargh]

Does your nation been colonized? If not.......... Maybe my soldiers can pay a stay





JK

[Gandoor]

Does your nation been colonized? If not.......... Maybe my soldiers can pay a stay

To say whether Gandoor was colonized or not is a contentious issue here. Most historians prefer to say that Gandoor was settled, rather than colonized, because while the settlers who would establish what would become Gandoor were from the Kingdom of England, they were exiles who were forever banished from their mother country, so the settlements were not made in the name of the Crown and it was agreed upon by Royal Authorities and Elizabeth I that these settlements would be independent from the Kingdom and they would make not attempt to claim ownership over them.

[Anarchitaria]

What is Mr. Semenov’s opinion on anarchies? (Particularly Anarchitaria’s anarchy)

[Gandoor]

What is Mr. Semenov’s opinion on anarchies? (Particularly Anarchitaria’s anarchy)

I am not a supporter of anarchism nor anarchies. While there are examples of small anarchist communes, I do not beleive that such a thing could work on a large scale, eventually some form of government would come into being.

Read the OP, no questions about your nations are allowed since Gandoor exists on Earth. Luckily this question at least had an element that could be answered IC

[Rupudska]

How did Gandoor avoid getting involved in the Second World War?

[Gandoor]

How did Gandoor avoid getting involved in the Second World War?

A combination of our 1922 declaration of neutrality and our close ties to Japan. Shortly following the start of the Pacific Theatre of World War II in December 1941, which saw our neighbouring countries of the Philippines and Indonesia being invaded, the governments of both my country and the Japanese Empire signed a treaty reaffirming Gandoor's neutrality and guaranteeing that the Japanese Empire would not make any attempts to invade or conduct any military actions against the Democratic Republic of Gandoor.

[Gandoor]

Does anyone have any further questions for our Prime Minister?

[Mizialand]

Where does the name Gandoor come from?

What is your opinion on the Kingdom of Mizialand and our Queen HRH Sophie Vincent?

Is Gandoor's support for same sex marriage not contrary to Eastern principles upon which the society is built?

Which branch of Buddhism do majority of people in Gandoor follow?

[Gandoor]

Where does the name Gandoor come from?

What is your opinion on the Kingdom of Mizialand and our Queen HRH Sophie Vincent?

Is Gandoor's support for same sex marriage not contrary to Eastern principles upon which the society is built?

Which branch of Buddhism do majority of people in Gandoor follow?

1. The name Gandoor originates from the words 'gon dur', which can be roughly translated to English as 'this land' and was the term used by the Jaknak Confederacy to refer to the land they lived on. The original settlers mistaken believed that words were a specific name for the land (which at the time was called The Great Island in English) and not a general term. 'Gon dur' was adopted into English as Gondur and, by 1643, the modern spelling of Gandoor was established.

2. [OOC - Apologizes, no 'what do you think of our nation questions' are to be answered, due to how I RP Gandoor!]

3. I am afraid I do not understand this question, I wouldn't say that Gandoorese society was built upon Eastern principles at all and I wonder how you came to this conclusion that it is. While I won't deny that 45% of our population are Japanese and Korean and that will have influenced our society, I would say that the fact that Gandoorese society has, more or less, been a liberal one throughout its almost 450 years of existence explains why our nation supports same-sex marriage.

4. If you want me to get technical, the majority of people don't follow any branch of Buddhism, since 68% of our population reports no religious affiliation. But out of the around 11% who do follow Buddhism, the majority follow the Joudo Shinshu school of Pure Land Buddhism.

[Gandoor]

Does anyone have any further questions for our Prime Minister?

[Coutuza]

What is your stance on our nation and it’s rapidly developing military?