Gandoor National Q&A [READ OP]

[Gandoor]

Due to how Gandoor's RP works, please do NOT ask questions such as 'What do you/your nation think of my nation?', 'What would you think of an alliance between our two nations?', etc. They will not be answered. Thank you for understanding.

OOC QUESTIONS ARE ALLOWED - This is ONLY for OOC questions about Gandoor, not personal questions about myself.

Greetings and welcome to the Gandoor National Q&A! While this was originally established by our nation's previous Prime Minister, Nikolai Olanovich Semenov, who would also answer the questions from the international community personally, our current Prime Minister, Park Sang-Hee feels she should be more concerned with the running of the Government and will be unable to answer questions herself.

However, don't fret! A team of volunteers has been established to answer whatever questions one may have about our nation's government, history, culture, or really anything else. And yes, questions about Mrs. Park are allowed, but as previous stated, she will not answer the questions herself, so we will be unable to answer 'personal' questions about her.

Before you ask any questions, here is an overview of our nation:
The Democratic Republic of Gandoor is a large nation located in the Pacific Ocean neighbouring Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. We have an estimated population of 236 million and a total area of 8,313,213 km²,

Governed as a parliamentary republic since 1904, the position of leader of the Democratic Republic is enshrined in the Prime Minister, who uniquely serves as both head of government and head of state. The current Prime Minister is Park Sang-Hee, who was appointed on 11 October 2024. Mrs. Park is a member of the Gandoor Communist Party.

The legislature of the Democratic Republic is the Forum, with 1000 Members. As of 2024, the left-wing Gandoor Communist Party controls 487 seats and the office of Prime Minister, with the centre-left New Democratic Party controlling 481 seats and are the Official Opposition. The smaller right-libertarian People's Party and centre-right Gandoor Freedom Group have 21 and 11 seats, respectively.

Prior to the establishment of the modern Democratic Republic in 1904, our nation was a monarchy from 1603 until. The monarchy was an absolute one from its founding until 1885 and a constitutional one from 1885 until its dissolution in 1902 as a result of the Gandoor Revolution. Before the monarchy, we were governed by a semi-democratic council starting in 1587 and even before that, we were independent settlements that began to be established in 1550 by radical English exiles.

In the modern day, Gandoor is a developed and modernized nation, with a history of strong support for social progressivism and a general centre-left to left-wing political stance. We are strong supporters of equality and peace for all people. We have maintained a stance of non-alignment in foreign affairs since 1922, although we have been a member of the World Assembly since 1961. In keeping with our stance of non-alignment, we also maintain a stance of neutrality in all foreign wars and our military, the National Military of the Democratic Republic of Gandoor, has been constitutionally required to focus on self-defence since the passing of Amendment I to the Constitution in 1925.

If you desire any more information about Gandoor prior to asking any questions you may have, we encourage you to check out the official Gandoor Wiki:
Gandoor Wiki

[Cuban Syria]

What is your nations official cuisine?

[Gandoor]

What is your nations official cuisine?

Grilled tuna with rice is considered the national dish of our nation. It is simply a piece of grilled tuna which has been completely covered in white rice. It's often joked here that if you can still see the tuna - you don't have enough rice.

[Gandoor]

Our Prime Minister is still open to answer your questions!

[Natishna]

What is your nation's view on the military and it's place in your society?

[The Huterric Union]

May we pleasure you to a state visit, where one shall be driven across the state of Huswyae by our Prime Minister, Jason Waterfalls?

[Gandoor]

What is your nation's view on the military and it's place in your society?

Our nation views the military as a necessary evil but one that is focused almost entirely on self-defense. We have maintained a status of military neutrality since the early 1920's and we have no desire to interfere with the affairs of other nations.

May we pleasure you to a state visit, where one shall be driven across the state of Huswyae by our Prime Minister, Jason Waterfalls?

I must politely decline this offer, I apologize.

[OOC - as stated in the OP, Gandoor exists in RL in my canon, so yeah, no actual visits to other NS nations, sorry]

[Kannadrickenium]

What is your view of Anna Kendrick?

[Gandoor]

What is your view of Anna Kendrick?

I must admit I am not familiar with her, although looking her up, I am sure she is a fine actress and hope she has continued success.

[Gandoor]

In order to encourage more questions, an overview of Gandoor has been added.

[Medwedian Democratic Federation]

What torture and execution methods are used in Gandoor?

[Gandoor]

What torture and execution methods are used in Gandoor?

Torture and the death penalty are both illegal in our nation. While torture has never been legal, the death penalty was legal until 2003, so we can inform you that, prior to its abolition, hanging was the execution method used here.

[Manaime]

1. What made you get the idea of the nation of Gandoor?

2. How did you also get the idea of Ichiban Burger?

[ik this is ooc]

[Gandoor]

1. What made you get the idea of the nation of Gandoor?

2. How did you also get the idea of Ichiban Burger?

1. The idea for Gandoor? I don't understand what you are asking, this nation has existed in its current form for over 100 years before I became Prime Minister, and for an additional few hundred years prior to the current government. I had nothing to do with the founding of Gandoor, although I do try to keep the ideals that our nation was founded upon intact.

2. Again, I don't understand what you're asking, I think you must have something confused. I was born in 1962, Ichiban Burger was established in 1958, four years before I was born. The only ties I have to Ichiban Burger is I'm quite fond of their famous Ichiban Burger.

[OOC - Yeah this thread is supposed to be for in-character questions to the Gandoorese Prime Minister, who obviously has nothing to do with the founding of Gandoor nor Ichiban Burger, since both of those occurred before he was even born.

However, while the questions you posed have been responded to IC-wise, I feel it is only fair to give the actual OOC answer to them as well:
1. I do not remember where I got the original idea for this nation from. It must be stated that I made this nation back in late 2008 when I was twelve years old and I didn't join the forums until 2010, when I was fourteen. Of course, it's likely I didn't actually have any real 'idea' behind this nation when I started, but regardless, when I started posting on the forums and started developing this nation, the idea was based on my own views as of being 'communist'. (Keep in mind, however, this was a fourteen year old's interpretation of it) If you were to go back and read early Gandoor posts from 2010, you would see that A) they are very poorly written and B) don't seem anything like how I RP and write Gandoor today, back then I called Gandoor the Independent Socialist Nation of Gandoor (what a mouthful!) and it was a single-party state where the only legal party was the Gandoor Communist Party and the leaders (plural, you will note) were the Commander, Co-Commander, and Prime Minister. (Let's not even get in to my 'not even knowing how economics works every job pays the exact same' thing) The whole communism thing is ALSO why Russian is, IC-wise, one of Gandoor's official languages because 'communists = Russian'.

At the same time, even in the VERY different early days of how I developed Gandoor, you can see the seeds of the current story of Gandoor already planted. A good way to see this would be to check the VERY old factbook I originally posted only a few days after joining the forums. While the history I had written back then is VERY poorly done, as I can and will admit, you can find that many concepts of Gandoor's history are still in my nation's canon today, such as: Gandoor having formerly been governed by a monarch referred to as a Nzard, a revolution leading to the dissolution of the monarchy, said revolution being led by a Chiba Masato, the third ruler of modern Gandoor being a dictator during the 1940's, and a civil war occurring in the 1950's. Even some aspects of Gandoor's government and society is unchanged from the early days of working on this nation, including: the administrative divisions being called yons (and there being eight total), the leader (or leaders in those days) being limited to two terms of six years, and the legislature being the Forum.

As for what happened for Gandoor's canon to change and alter so much to the point where it is now, the answer is fairly simple: I got older. I got older, I got better at writing, I learned how to make my nation feel more realistic. Naturally I didn't want to completely throw away the history and nation that I had been working on since 2010, but in late 2012 (after being away from this site for most of that year), I began to redo and improve Gandoor, while still basing it upon the early concepts I had created back in 2010, which led to the current story and concept behind Gandoor. I will freely admit Gandoor is designed as a nation I would like to live in (and it being a very socially liberal nation reflects how I am a very liberal person), but I do make an attempt for it to not seem like a MarySuetopia, whether or not that is successful is up to the reader. (I will also add that the SOLE thing that I consider to have 100% retconned out of Gandoor's history, rather than improved and reworked, is the country of Likah, which I RP'd as a territory of Gandoor that later voted for independence. I completely retconned that since Gandoor having any colonies or territories would be OOC, since they are an anti-imperialist nation)

2. Now THIS question, luckily, does not need several paragraphs explaining stuff like 'I came up with Ichiban Burger years ago and it was really bad and I changed it as I got older'. How I got the 'idea' for Ichiban Burger is rather simple, back in 2014, there was a thread here in F&NI asking if there were McDonald's in your nation, I simply replied 'No, we have Ichiban Burger instead', then a later thread in early 2015 about a travel guide to your nation, I mentioned them again as 'the largest and most popular fast food chain in Gandoor'. Then later that year I wanted to make another storefront in addition to the Gandoor Broadcasting Corporation, so I decided to make a fast food chain and decided to make it Ichiban Burger, since they already 'existed' in-character-wise for Gandoor, although I didn't have any real information about them. So basically, the Ichiban Burger storefront was created entirely because I wanted to actually create a story for a fictional fast food chain that I had previously mentioned a total of two times on the forums.

OK, so those two questions have been answered but I will, once again, state that this thread is intended for in-character questions to my Prime Minister, not out-of-character ones intended for the 21 year old lesbian who operates this account, so please make sure any future questions you (referring to anyone reading this, not the person I am quoting specifically) are in-character.]

[Flowrisa]

Do you have any recipes for making sweets?

-some random kid who loves to cook

[Gandoor]

Do you have any recipes for making sweets?

-some random kid who loves to cook

I apologize, I don't. I'm not very good at cooking (can barely manage grilled cheese) and my wife, who cooks instead, is very protective of her recipes.

[The Liamese Empire]

What is your opinion on Imperialism?

[Gandoor]

What is your opinion on the Empire?

Please read the OP, specifically the OOC note at the beginning.

[Very Small and Unusually Obscure Island]

A few questions:
How long have you been a parliamentarian for?

Why did you want to become a politician, PM?

What was it like on the day of your first election?

[Gandoor]

A few questions:
How long have you been a parliamentarian for?

Why did you want to become a politician, PM?

What was it like on the day of your first election?

1. Believe it or not, I was only a Member of the Forum for six years prior to becoming Prime Minister. In fact, I was a Member of the Forum for exactly six years, I took my seat representing the 2nd District of Southside on 12 October 2012 and, exactly six years later on 12 October 2018, I gave up my seat when I became Prime Minister. (As an aside, and as you likely are unaware, unlike other parliamentary republics, here in Gandoor the Prime Minister must give up their seat in the legislature upon becoming the PM)

2. I've had an interest in becoming a politician ever since attending intermediate school, although I didn't start to work towards it until attending Chiba Masato Elite Secondary School, where I was part of the student government and student body president from 1979 until I graduated in 1982. Naturally this influenced my decision to major in political science while attending the University of Osaka.

As for why I wanted to become Prime Minister, I can say that I honestly didn't. Don't get me wrong I have no plans to resign or anything, but I never honestly planned or expected to become PM. I fully thought I'd serve in the Forum until my term limits were up and then work somewhere else, maybe go back to serving locally. The fact that I was elected leader of my party after only four years in the Forum and the fact that my party gained the most seats in 2018 came as a shock to me.

3. The day of my first election? I'm assuming your asking about the day I was first elected to a political office and, if I may be honest, it was mostly like a normal day. Of course, I should admit that this election occurred back in 1993 and I was simply running for a seat on the city council of New Yordin City. Honestly I didn't even expect I was going to win since the seat I ran for was widely considered a safe seat for my opponent, who's name slips me at the moment (do forgive me, it's been almost 30 years) who had won the previous eight elections, so I simply watched the election results at my apartment with my then-girlfriend and future wife. Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call that evening congratulating me on my victory from the mayor himself. If I am recalling correctly, I actually won by around 100 votes!

[Gandoor]

What is your opinion on Imperialism?

I am opposed to imperialism in all its forms. It is an ideology that has no place in modern society. I am a firm believer that all nations have the right to sovereignty and freedom from being controlled by other nations.

[Dytarma]

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

[Arthropol]

Removed for retcon purposes (2019-08-01)

[Fauzjhia]

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

[Welskerland]

Why is your Prime Minister also your head of state?