What's YN criticised for by the international community?

[The Huterric Union]

What does YN do that everyone else criticises you for?

For us, it has to be the fact we still mine and export asbestos to 3rd and 2nd world countries for cheap prices. The asbestos we ship has a distinct colour ranging from green to near orange depending on where it is mined, so it's easy to tell when going to developing countries if there is Huterric asbestos present.

[Andocara]

Andocara is criticized by the US (it’s neighbor) for not supporting them in international affairs. Andocara is also criticized for its different approach to politics, having a bit more favoritism towards socialism, and its libertarian culture. The government considers New Age as a form of religion, much like Christianity and Buddhism. Many self identified New Agers in Andocara are conservatives. Andocaran conservatism isn’t as Christian and traditional as American conservatism, which does lead to more backlash from the American media.

[Pilipinas and Malaya]

Perhaps the fact that we have a combination of some of the best cities in Asia, in general, all of Guangdong, Singapore, KL and Manila.

[Caleonia]

Caleon is criticized by the international community by being isolated despite taking over much of Western Europe.

[Great New England Confederation]

We are criticized for our use of extremely lethal and powerful weaponry, our mass production of Stellar warships, the fact our king was not born a royal, our use of augmented super soldiers, our use of clone soldiers, our willingness to use tactical and strategic orbital bombardment during war, our aggressive policies when it comes to dealing with threats.

And a few more I can’t think of at the moment

[Woods Is Back]

We are criticized for our use of extremely lethal and powerful weaponry, our mass production of Stellar warships, the fact our king was not born a royal, our use of augmented super soldiers, our use of clone soldiers, our willingness to use tactical and strategic orbital bombardment during war, our aggressive policies when it comes to dealing with threats.

And a few more I can’t think of at the moment

Dang, that summarizes mine to, just need to add that our pursue of science is extreme, and we'll do it at any cost.
EDIT: Other than the king part. We don't have a king.

[Great New England Confederation]

We are criticized for our use of extremely lethal and powerful weaponry, our mass production of Stellar warships, the fact our king was not born a royal, our use of augmented super soldiers, our use of clone soldiers, our willingness to use tactical and strategic orbital bombardment during war, our aggressive policies when it comes to dealing with threats.

And a few more I can’t think of at the moment

Dang, that summarizes mine to, just need to add that our pursue of science is extreme, and we'll do it at any cost.

Oh trust me I’m sure there’s more that I can add, I just didn’t care enough about them to remember

[Saranidia]

For funding various groups that oppose(or opposed) racist, colonial and Islamophobic regimes, many of which are controversial for using violence for defensive purposes.
Also for supposedly being in the pay of the Azadistani Mafia.

[Free Arabian Nation]

Probably our (though benevolent) dictatorial regime, if we're talking about NS as a whole.

[Wawakanatote]

Many things, here's a short list though:

• Our actions in the Middle East towards Muslims is considered "oppressive" towards the people's right to religious freedom.
• (Western) Leftists complain of our methods on building socialism in our member nations, many believe that we are reverting back to capitalism.
• Supporters of capitalism complain about some of the protectionist-like policies of our member nations.
• Separatists march in the streets of South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Alaska in order to obtain independence from the Union - Liberal advocates call us out for not listening to these people.
• The US President has on many occasions referred to our union as the "Evil Red Empire" for our socialism and for what Americans perceive as "war crimes" in California.
• NATO denounces our support and financing of the California revolution
  

[Wunderstrafanstalt]

Neoglobalism. Suffice to say, the NWO-controlled CFR's full rolling support for the global movement to abolish nationalism and dogmatism and establish a world federal government are certain to attract a lot of opposition.

This is of course should be temporary, as the the goal is that the NWO is the "international community", instead of the other way around.

[Zhouran]

For being a pain in the neck to the West by having a non-aligned neutral stance, having a massive amount of troops stationed overseas, and being economically competitive, although technically relations between Zhouran and Western Europe is quite positive compared to US-Zhouranese relations. There are other various reasons why Zhouran receives critiscism from the international community, mostly from the West, with reasons including Zhouran's supposed containment of the United States, the bolstering of domestic surveillance in the country, the placing of tariffs on American goods, the massive presence of Zhouranese warships in the South China Sea, Senior Marshal Kang Yingyong's supposed crackdown on political-moderate activists, Zhouran's "socialist-fascist" economics, and various crazy and ridiculious conspiracy theories created to demonize the country and paint Zhouranese people in a negative and racist light.

[Toaslandia]

Our complete disregard for sentient life and the environment, our brutal government, and our numerous war crimes.

[The Land of the Ephyral]

═───╡❖╞────────═ CRITICISMS OF EPHYRA BY FOREIGN NATIONS ═────────╡❖╞───═

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In 1940, with the election of Archon Anomedes Gorgosios Lenaleos, Ephyra entered what has been called the Modern Period by its citizens, ending the decline and social problems of the Late High Period that had seen Ephyral influence wane. The Archonship of Lenaleos was marked by a revival of both Classical Selian social ideas, as well as those exhibited in the Early and Middle High Ephyral Periods, as an attempt to revitalise the spirit of the Ephyral people and its Selian culture. Certain social institutions were reinforced, others were removed, and more re-introduced. The ten year term of Archon Lenaleos has been referred to as the Ephyral Rebirth, and saw a massive growth in Ephyra's military and economic power, with social, political, and military reforms to match. As time has progressed and Ephyra's contemporaries have followed what have been called 'progressive' policies, Ephyra has become more internationally regarded as the odd-one-out, with its customs and institutions ranging from slightly behind to utterly outdated and unjustified by some foreign states, although not all powers are interested in the domestic affairs of Ephyra, and Ephyra itself exercises little concern regarding foreign domestic policy in turn.

This document will highlight a few such customs, institutions, policies, and / or ideas that remain prevalent in Ephyra as active or passive concepts, how they function, and international criticism to them.

SLAVERY

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Perhaps the most significant single institution that has been the object of focus regarding international condemnation and opposition is that of the legal ownership of human beings by other human beings, in the practice referred to as slavery, an institution officially outlawed by almost all of Ephyra's modern day contemporaries but which has remained intact within Ephyra, although both smaller than its historical counterpart and with a few more restrictions.

Due to multiple factors, including the absence of large-scale conflict, Ephyra not commanding the highest power in the world, and greater international outrage towards the enslavement of their citizens, slavery has decreased substantially in Ephyra since the early 19th century, when Ephyra's Mediterranean and Atlantic ransom and slaving operations were largely rendered inoperable due to a war with the east coast American state of Washington, and indirectly, it's southern ally Cerma. This followed a war with the Russians where the eastern trade of slaves via Tatar raiders was also made unfeasible, due to large-scale destruction of Tatar forces in the area and the destruction of Selian colonies along the north Black Sea coast.

Yet through judicial sentencing for multiple crimes, and low-level slave breeding as well as natural slave procreation, Ephyra still boasts a number of slaves estimated to account for 2-5% of the population of Ephyra, most of which are owned directly by the state, the wealthier echelons of society, and certain industries and commercial enterprises. Slaves do not possess legal personhood, and whilst protected from being killed without justification, lack essentially any and all other legal protections, including but not limited to bodily assault, sexual abuse and exploitation, and forced to work in dangerous conditions. The lives of slaves vary from domestic household slaves whose living conditions are often better than some lower-class freeborn, to slaves utilised in field labour and mining, and slaves put to work in brothels and other pleasure establishments.

Whilst foreign states call the use of slaves abominable, and a relic from an uncivilised past, Ephyra regards slavery as the true example of civilisation, for the value of freedom means nothing when none exist who lack it. No greatness can be achieved by some if all are forced to equally labour in the dirt. And finally, the right of conquest held over subjected populations entitles the victorious state to all spoils of war, including people, to be distributed amongst soldiers for sale and taken back to the homeland.

GENDER ROLES

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In Ephyra, both men and women adhere to social, familial, political, and military roles as relevant as decided by their sex. The Ephyral recognise males and females as distinct organisms in mind and flesh, with different reproductive interests (supported by the massive disparity in men who have successfully reproduced vs. women), and different fields of predisposition to which their mental and physical labours can be focused upon for optimal societal gain. In short, Ephyra is a patriarchal state. Within the family, regarded as a social sub-unit of the state itself, it is the eldest male of the family who commands authority, and for his household to be distinct he must have a wife and children.

This citizen man is responsible for the inflow of income and prosperity to the house, and the maintaining of the household's social and moral integrity, arranging marriages for his daughters (and sons to a lesser extent), and bearing the social burden of responsibility for the well-being and administration of all in his home. Whilst this does include the wife of such a man, she remains largely free from any direct legal control due to remaining a part of her birth family, and under the authority of her father. However, being away from his home, Ephyral women live their lives with far less direct scrutiny and restriction than opponents of Ephyra would usually depict, and models of extreme forms of patriarchy such as those found in Islam are considered largely repugnant by men and women both.

Where it is the citizen man's obligation both to family and to nation to provide for his family, maintain their social and moral virtue, and ensure their direct protection, the woman's role is more domestic. By and large, women do not work in Ephyra (although some lower class Ephyral women do, as do numerous Lykosian class women, and metic / provincial non-citizens), and their duties are centred in the physical house in contrast to their husbands' duty to the abstract household. Along with men, their principle national obligation is to reproduce, and often a marriage is not considered fully cemented until the birth of the first child.

Voting rights in Ephyra are quite limited, and whilst many do with accuracy point out that no woman in Ephyra holds the right to vote, being male does not inherently grant this right. Suffrage for the national elections is restricted only to full citizen males who have completed without dishonourable discharge their five years mandatory service and who possess a minimum property worth to be considered by the state as having a physical stake in the nation necessary to legitimise their right to decide in its direction. Politics is very much considered a male sphere as it is directly tied to economic prosperity and matters of war, both of which are male domains, and the latter most especially.

A common shock factor regarding Ephyra for foreigners is the fact that on the whole, neither men nor women exhibit dissatisfaction with the status quo. Female suffrage movements have and do exist but with minimal traction, and there is generally high reported happiness and fulfilment amongst men and women, as males fulfil their biological incentive to be providers and to have responsibility, and women fulfil their biological incentive to be mothers and carers. Despite this, foreign states do regard Ephyra as repressive towards women, which in terms of certain legal rights is certainly not inaccurate, but women are not lacking protections. They are not considered property of their husband. They are not considered non-citizens. They are not regarded as responsible for sexual assaults that befall them. To inflict injury or death upon a woman in many cases carries a higher penalty than a man. And to verbally dishonour a citizen woman before her husband is liable to warrant his firm objection. Indeed, female happiness within the family and society has long been of concern to major philosophers and inspirations for Ephyral policy and doctrine.

To this end, Ephyra considers itself far more civilised regarding gender roles, applying them in their natural human state, compared to both the more sexually liberated (and decadent) societies of the general West, and the primitive, outright anti-female societies of Islam and other eastern cultures.

SUFFRAGE RIGHTS

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Linked strongly to the matter of sex roles, whilst Ephyra is in all function a democratic state, it has faced criticism from its contemporaries regarding the limited nature of its voting rights. To be eligible to vote in Ephyra (in the national elections only; provincial territories and similar areas have local elections of officials that do not warrant these conditions) one must occupy the position of an Ephyral freeholder. This necessitates the holding of full Ephyral citizenship with the voting rights attached, which only males can hold (females possess full citizenship without suffrage), although not every citizen male is possessing of this, as those men who are dishonourably discharged from national service are placed into the full citizenship without suffrage category, as are those adult males yet to complete it. A minimum property worth is also necessary, although those citizen males who have completed service are not placed in the citizenship without suffrage category, due to that stations pseudo-permanence, but remain unable to vote so long as their property worth is beneath the threshold.

Given that full citizens in general account for a mere 33% of the total population, men for approximately half of this, with perhaps two-thirds of those eligible via military and economic means, and total voting population of the Freehold is quite limited. Even more limited is the population eligible to stand for any offices of the Ephyral democracy, the ladder of ascension towards the office of Archon, with a far higher property restriction. Indeed, the Archonship strongly rotates around thirty to forty significant noble families at any given time, of a mere handful of old Ephyral clans.

Criticism has been levelled at Ephyra for being a false democracy, for necessitating military service to vote, for restriction those who can vote and run for office by wealth, and most importantly for restricting the female sex in any of the political process. However, Ephyra has (when it rarely bothers to do so) countered these allegations with the explanations that those who defend Ephyra ought to be the ones deciding its future, those who have a physical stake in the country itself are afforded the same, and as women perform neither of these tasks, failed national servicemen, the property-less, and women have no place voting or standing for office in Ephyra.

ARRANGED MARRIAGES

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Ephyra is a long-term practitioner of arranged marriages. Arranged marriages have been the norm for human societies for millennia, disappearing in certain countries only within the last two centuries in favour of love-predicted marriages (which the Ephyral do not fail to note have a far higher chance of divorce and causing family splits). Ephyra is no different, and marriages treated as the concern of the family as much as (if not more) the individual. Even in the lower classes where political arrangements are largely non-existent, it is the obligation of the male citizen, the custodian of his household, to arrange suitable and good matches primarily for his daughters from the sons of other families. Men also exercise some degree of influence over the choices of their sons, although by the time men marry in Ephyra, they are largely considered their own independent men.

Arranging a marriage is not a simple decision and enforcing it. Whilst men certainly exercise the greatest range of choice, presenting themselves as a suitor, if the father or other guardian of the eligible woman finds him unsuitable, he will not be able to marry her. Any attempt to circumvent this on his or her wishes will be considered both abduction and seduction, to be tried at the behest of the affronted father. However, the woman in question is not forced to go along with the choice offered. For women of station or great repute for beauty, numerous suitors may present themselves, and her choice out of ones her father deems acceptable is taken into consideration, as societal concern regarding female happiness does exist. And with minimal suitors, if a woman refuses to wed a man, her father does not have the right to force her.

Most young women however, as the products of their culture as much as the men are, go along with the suitor selected, and are betrothed to be married via a relatively simplistic ceremony which marks their union as husband and wife. In the nobility, arranged marriages for political gain are not unheard of, as the term of an Archon is long enough that any daughters reaching maturity during his term swiftly become the most eligible and desirable women in the Freehold. Ironically to this end, upper class women exercise far less influence over their own marriages than their lower-class counterparts. Arranged marriages have been called glorified prostitution, and a form of female enslavement in general and directed at Ephyra, yet whilst in many other cases, opponents of Ephyra have had some basis of argument, the nature of Ephyral arranged marriages are not as described by others. The woman does not become the property of her husband, she is not bought or sold (indeed, she brings her own dowry as her property for the household, and retrieves it upon divorce), she remains legally under her father's protection who can withdraw her from the marriage at a whim should the husband prove himself unsuitable, and she may refuse a proposed suitor without being forced to marry.

INCEST

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Perhaps the strangest of these, and the most misunderstood due to Selian biology; incest is a custom which takes place almost exclusively at the upper echelons of Ephyral society, where almost all residents of such station are ethnic Selians. Incest has long been a tradition amongst noble families who consider their bloodlines purer, and who take certain relatives to wife and husband to preserve this. Selian physiology, unique in many ways, offers an unexplained resistance to the deforming and degenerative effects of incest, both physically and mentally. Many of the old noble families claim descent from lines of kings and demigods and heroes, and use arranged marriage inbreeding to preserve this purity of blood. These Selians more than others also display the most extreme of their physiological uniqueness, another factor which motivates them. Even when not reproducing within the family, they marry and reproduce with other nobles.

Brother and sister unions, be they full blood or half, are considered the purest unions, and more feasible in the upper classes due to the lower age men marry at (most Ephyral men do not marry until their early thirties, and usually to brides in their late teens, and the vast majority of siblings are closer in age than this), afforded by their family's higher financial disposition. Aside from sibling marriages, cousin marriages take place very commonly, and in some cases uncle to niece, and rarely, aunt to nephew. Direct descent or ascent marriages and breeding however is considered abominable, and warrants capital punishment.

This tradition of incest has been considered disgusting, abhorrent, and been the object of both humour and scorn by foreigners, whom either do not understand or dismiss as still vile, Selian physiology which enables such breeding. Of all of the customs listed so far, this is perhaps the most Selian-centric, unpractised to this extent by any other people in history, and thus resulting in the most unhidden criticism.

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These are just a few of many reasons Ephyra is criticised, yet in all, Ephyra and its citizens have long considered themselves on the right side of history.

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═───╡❖╞──────────────═ Article Published in the name of the Freehold of Ephyra and its Citizens by the Sphere of the Interior ═──────────────╡❖╞───═

[Decepticon Heartland]

Decepticon Heartland exists due to hostile alien robots colonizing part of the United States and forcibly declaring independence. Its very existence is criticized by the international community because of this.

[Sebourg]

Princess Véronique ordered a judge to be executed without trial, because he once sentenced her to a fine for smoking weed (before she assumed power). This set an example for other officials, and they quickly learned not to defy the Princess or else.

[Hystaria]

Its existence is seen with some hate. Are bastardization of the word KIng is seen as harsh as well.


We do like economic colonization of other nations.

Our leaders existence is seen with hate as well.

[Trinadaed]

The fact we are hit by natural disasters, literally <1-24/7 and the fact we are allied with Torago, a hated country due to being accused of sending propaganda to Pacifica, although this is untrue.

[Voxija]

Incidents in history that we regret: refusing Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, Anti-Romani riots, etc. And our leaders have a history of sex scandals and affairs.

[Wardie land]

Many criticise her unabashed nationalism and Protestant theocracy, Wardland doesn't care what they think, though.

[Vallermoore]

Up until a couple of years ago, our racism towards black people (although our latest government has scrapped the racist laws now.)

[A m e n r i a]

We're criticized by human supremacists for treating vampires, dragons, and other non-humans right, while we're also criticized by pro-sentient activists for not doing anything about The Vatican's prosecution of non-humans in their lands. We're also criticized for keeping a lot of Cheonsa's past as a secret, despite it being important for interdimensional stability. Another thing we're criticized for is letting many LGBT people and witches live, both abroad and within Amenria. Some of the world's far-right also disapprove of our modernist approach to Islam, wanting us to be more fundamentalist, which will never happen as long as Cheonsa lives.

[Tatarya]

We often have western-centric types denouncing us for our perceived "less than democratic" Khanate political system despite the fact it is a parliamentary constitutional system where the Khan possesses a limited executive authority as well as the fact that some of our laws are influenced by religion. While we may not always conform to western political ideals, they are all the result of the popular democratic process and majority approval.

[Merriwhether]

Merriwhether is criticized for being unwilling to engage in any kind of international agreement.

Our political culture has a distinct distrust for the treaties and entanglements of the international community, owing in part to the fallout of the World Wars that brought our nation enormous strife and tore us between old allies and ideological blocs. Even though we've affirmed and pursued of our own accord the terms of agreements such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Kyoto Protocol, and many others, we often refuse to sign and be bound by them.

World leaders argue that this sets a bad precedent; They say that it enables other countries to claim that they will pursue the objectives of agreements such as those, but refuse to engage in them in a manner that they will be compelled to put their money where their mouths are. We attribute this failure to the democracy of the nations in question, because our people are conscientious enough and manage to hold our nation to account for its moral oughts. Needless to say, this argument doesn't satisfy most critics.

[Oryok]

"The so-called 'free-world' opposes Oryok due to the fact that we are a self-reliant workers' paradise that fought in a victorious revolutionary uprising against the Bigtopian imperialist occupiers and gave ourselves the very first taste of freedom and self-determination, a universal right our ancestors never got to experience due to long-lasting occupation from the Bigtopian oppressors."