Tanah Burung
10-10-2003, 01:34
Tanah Burung Fact Book
English long form: United Provinces of Tanah Burung
Local long form: Rai Persatuan Tanah Burung
Short form: Tanah Burung
Adjective: there is no adjectival form of Tanah Burung. We do not use adjectives in our language. Tanah Burung means “the land of birds.”
Government web site: www.freewebs.com/tanah_burung
Geography
Region: The Emerald Heights
Climate: Tropical, very hot and humid in the coastal regions and rainforest, cooler in the mountainous interior. The coasts and mountains are often quite windy.
Getting there: The Sunny Tanah Burung Tourist Bureau welcomes visitors. A three-month tourist visa is easy to arrange. There is only one airport with runways long enough to accomodate jets, at Tiga Burung. From there, travellers can easily reach other parts of the country through our unparalleled network of zeppelin and hot-air balloon routes -- travel in splendid comfort and olde worlde charme aboard the luxurious ships of the air! Tiga Burung also has ferry service that links up to the continent-wide electric train service. Cars are banned but bus and minibus travel is widespread.
Terrain: Heavily covered by rain forest in coastal and the central forest zone, tapering off in the mountains of the west, where agriculture is carried on in vallies.
Administrative Divisions: 6 autonomous states - Matebian (mountains), Burung Paradis (“bird of paradise,” the densest rain forest), Loro Sae (“where the sun comes up,” northeastern coastal), Ukun Rasikan (“independence,” central coastal), Burung-yang-membuat-dunia (“bird that created the world,” southeastern coastal), Tiga Burung (“three birds,” a large offshore island).
A map fo the Emerald Heights can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/santa_barbara/ehv4.jpg
People
Population: over 2 billion.
Nationality: The people of Tanah Burung come from many races and cultures, but all who live here for five years or more become naturalized citizens. Most are indigenous, coming from Malayo-Polynesian or Melanesian descent (RL Indonesian or Papuan). A minority, mostly descended from the former colonial ruling group, have European blood. Refugees are arriving all the time from other places, and are welcomed with open arms.
Religions: Tanah Burung’s religious picture is extremely volatile: people are likely to create religions on a whim. The majority faith, however, is Catholic. The Tanah Burung Catholic Church is largely orthodox with the exception of teachings on human sexuality, which can be summed up as “live and let love” -- for instance, the church performs gay weddings. Minority faiths include the Rainbow Islamic congregation and the Church of the Rocks and Trees (indigenous nature beliefs). Cults are common, particular duriung World Cup qualifying campaigns.
Languages: The national language is Tetemelayu, similar to Indonesian with Tetum and Portuguese influences. There are at least 200 indigenous languages, but all citizens are educated in Tetemelayu and English.
Literacy Rate: Over 99%.
Government
Overview: Tanah Burung is an anarchy is governed on libertarian socialist principles of direct democracy. All major decisions are taken by national referendum, with protections built in for minority rights and ecological protection. There are six states or provinces, each with complete local autonomy, and power is decentralized to the maximum extent possible to the level of the local community or neighbourhood. There are also five ministries, each headed by an elected people’s representative. These are:
-- Constancio Ainaro, a Catholic priest and veteran of the revolution, as people’s representative for social justice (education, health and welfare).
-- Dr. Rosa Almeida, people’s representative for economic affairs & cooperatives
-- Bi Kikere, former national football team goaltender, as people’s representative for territorial defence & sports (since Tanah Burung has not fought a war since independence and has no offensive military forces of any kind, this ministry concentrates primarily on sporting activities)
-- Violeta Bi Bere, an eggplant farmer and veteran guerrilla, as people’s representative for foreign affairs & human rights. It was Bi Bere who campaigned for a re-engagement with international affairs, basing her platform on an “independent and active” foreign policy.
-- Abdul Hakim Gunung, people’s representative for justice & civil rights (attorney-general).
A sixth ministry, for the environment, is headed by Silas Simparieff, Governor of Burung Paradis.
The people’s representatives and the provincial governors together form the 11-person collective presidency.
Capital: There is no national capital. The collective presidency rotates among the six state capitals, each named for its province. Each ministry is based in a different state capital:
Social justice: Loro Sae
Foreign affairs: Ukun Rasikan (also home to all foreign embassies)
Territorial defence: Matebian
Economic affairs: Tiga Burung
Justice: Burung-yang-membuat-dunia
Environment: Burung Paradis
Political parties: none.
Flag: The national flag is coloured red for the blood of the patriots and martyrs who fell during the war of independence, yellow for Father Sun, and black for the soil of Mother Earth.
Motto: Tetemelayu - La’o hamutuk, mau bere (walk together, brothers); English - Flock together.
Economy
Overview: Long a desperately poor country, Tanah Burung pursues a policy of sustainable “slow-but-steady” growth that has raised the economy from imploded to strong. The economy is heavily agricultural, and organized along a general planning mechanism, but without coercion. This is referred to as a “guided economy.” Private enterprise is illegal, but the economy is dominated by large voluntary worker-managed cooperatives that are sometimes considered by the UN to be the equivalent of corporations. The largest cooperatives are those engaged in agriculture, rubber tapping, book publishing, education, genetics technology and energy generation.
Main Products: Agricultural: Natural rubber, vegetables, rice, tea, coffee, hemp, copra, sisal, bananas, marijuana & other hallucinogenics, beef, pork.
Other major products: genetically engineered vegetables, iron ore, beer, hemp paper, pearls, chocolate.
Secondary products: furniture, furniture (mahogany and other woods), handicrafts (bark paintings, carved knives, batik textiles), clothes of all sorts, woven carpets.
Tertiary: cars modified to run on used or unused vegetable oil; alternative energy (wind, water, solar, biomass), education systems design, tourist industry planning, genetic modification of plants.
Brands: Burung Bud Brew is a strong ale infused with marijuana. Rain Forest Punch is a strong hallucinogenic.
Tourism: Tanah Burung relies heavily on tourism from foreign countries. A major attraction is sporting activities: Tanah Burung hosted World Cup 5 in football, the first-ever World Cup of field hockey, and other events. People come to spend time on the beaches, visit ancient historical sights, tour the famous rain forest, watch wildlife, and commune with indigenous cultures. A new tourist promotion is inviting gay couples to come to Tanah Burung for a legally binding marriage.
Currency: Tanah Burung's currency is the loonie.
Foreign economic relations: Foreign investment of any kind is strictly banned. Tanah Burung trades internationally, but high tariffs are maintained against most imports. Lower tariffs are offered to developing nations. Government subsidies are offered to cooperatives deemed essential to the national economy, which is most of them. Some foreign capital has been injected into the economy in the form of aid from the Developing Nations Aid Commission, although Tanah Burung is no longer a developing nation eligible for foreign aid. Further capital can be drawn from the Developing Nations monetary fund. Tanah Burung gives foreign aid through the DNAC and the International Education Fund. The nation is a founding memebr of the Internaitonal Fair Trade Agreement (http://invisionfree.com/forums/CACE/index.php?c=5)
Energy generation: Fossil fuel consumption is being phased out and replaced by wind, solar and geothermal energy. This shift has been assisted by a grant from the Developing Nations Aid Commission.
Military
Tanah Burung has no offensive military of any kind. A small and lightly-armed self-defence force operates on the principles of territorial defence (guerrilla warfare) and citizen-based defence (the people are the army). Only the police are armed on a routine basis, but each community has an arms depot and all citizens are trained in self-defence techniques. The police have very little to do, however, as crime is “totally unknown.” Tanah Burung also maintains a small coast guard and an anti-aircraft defence system.
Foreign relations
Tanah Burung is best known for its sporting endeavours, but also maintains an active diplomatic corps. Our foreign policy is devoted to the peaceful promotion of human rights and the environment (human was recently defined to include all sentient animals, vegetables etc). Tanah Burung is a member of the Global Alliance of Green Economies, the Developing Nations Aid Commission, and all affiliated bodies of the Developing Nations Conference set up at the developing nations summit in Golden Agate. The country is non-aligned and maintains diplomatic relations with members of both the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies and the World Business Organization. It is a founding signatory of the International Mediation Council.
History
Stories tell that a great raven created the world and populated it with birds of all kinds, and then with other animals. When the birds had no place to land, the Creator Bird called up a great crocodile, and the bird rested on its back. The crocodile grew and grew over the years, until it became solid and fixed in place, and its body became the earth that is Tanah Burung.
Six kelurahan (roughly, kingdoms with varying degrees of centralization) held sway over most of what is now Tanah Burung: the northern mountains of Matebian, the inland Burung Paradis (bird of paradise), the southern coastal principalities of Loro Sae, Atsabe, and Burung-yang-membuat-dunia (the bird that created the earth), and the offshore island of Tiga Burung (three birds), itself a welter of small principalities.
The four maritime kelurahan came under the influence of Portuguese traders in the 16th century and absorbed many aspects of Portuguese culture, including the Catholic faith and spots like cockfighting and football (soccer) which quickly became national passions. This is why many Tanah Burung citizens have Portuguese names. (However, the language has all but died out.) The maritime areas were integrated into Portuguese-controlled international trading networks, but political control remained with local rulers (and more usually, with local village assemblies practicing consensus-based democracy).
Portuguese traders were heavily resented, and many people turned to another new religion, Islam. Muslim traders offered the same economic links but were more sensitive to local concerns and less militaristic than the Portuguese. The Liurai (ruler) of Burung Paradis was the most prominent convert to Islam. Jayawarnam I named himself as the first Sultan of Burung Paradis and began to centralize the kingdom.
In the nineteenth century, Tanah Burung was brought under colonial rule. Traders from the Dutch East India Company first took over the island of Tiga Burung by force, and gradually began to extend their economic dominance over Tanah Burung. At the same time, coastal kelurahan came under pressure from the expanding Burung Paradis inland empire under Jayawarnam III, who brought Matebian, Loro Sae and Atsabe under his rule and weakened Burung-yang-membuat-dunia to the point where it became easy prey for the Knootians.
Eventually, Tanah Burung became a colony of Knootoss. After the death of Jayawarnam VI, the Sultanate fell into a succession dispute. Rival claimants emerged and after Knootian intervention, the kingdom was split into three parts, based in Burung Paradis, Atsabe and Loro Sae. The court of Atsabe came under Knootian dominance and allowed the Knootians to establish their capital at a city they called New Hoorn. From here, they extended their colonial rule by stages until all of the present land of Tanah Burung was united as the Knootian East Indies, a colony owned by a European corporation.
Anti-colonial movements began early in the twentieth century. Rejecting the name East Indies, the nationalist movement began to teach that the colonized “natives” were in fact a single people. Tetemalayu, the language of Tiga Burung and parts of Burung-yang-membuat-dunia, was declared as the national language. The country was dubbed “Tanah Burung,” the land of birds, as a sign of unity among its people. A national flag was chosen bearing the colours red for the blood of the patriots, black for the soil and the resolute spirit of the people, and yellow for the sun. About 40 years ago (ooc: too many fluid timelines going on at once to set any dates!) the flag of independence was raised in New Hoorn and in the Matebian mountains. The Knootians were quickly able to re-establish control of their capital, but the revolution continued from the interior. It gained the support of the Liurai of Loro Sae and the Sultan of Burung Paradis, while the Liurai of Atsabe remained loyal to the colonial rulers. (As a result, after the revolution, the Atsabe kelurahan was abolished and renamed Ukun Rasikan, which means independence.)
Many years of fighting and many deaths came before the Knootian government finally decided to abandon Tanah Burung. The resistance practiced guerrilla warfare and blended in with the people who supported them almost universally as active participants in the territorial defence system. The war was too expensive, and they cut their losses, though not without great emotion. Tanah Burung was independent at last.
After gaining its independence, Tanah Burung remained in isolation for some years, building itself up. Tetemalayu became the national language, and along with English is spoken by all citizens alongside their indigenous languages. A major accomplishment was universal literacy. Education is in fact the central concern of the government. Lovefest University in Ukun Rasikan City is a world-class university and symbol of the country’s commitment to educational excellence. Gradually, democracy was built from the village level up. Six provinces were established and given extensive autonomy. Burung Paradis and Loro Sae were ruled by their traditional Liurai at first, but the struggle for internal democracy finally transformed these two into constitutional rulers.
Finally, national elections were held for an 11-member collective presidency to replace the revolutionary council that had governed Tanah Burung since independence. Two members of the revolutionary council are still part of the collective presidency: Mau Kiri Rai and Markus Rumbiak (Governor of Loro Sae). After a period of isolation, the country entered the international arena under the leadership of Violeta Bi Bere, people’s representative for foreign affairs & human rights.
English long form: United Provinces of Tanah Burung
Local long form: Rai Persatuan Tanah Burung
Short form: Tanah Burung
Adjective: there is no adjectival form of Tanah Burung. We do not use adjectives in our language. Tanah Burung means “the land of birds.”
Government web site: www.freewebs.com/tanah_burung
Geography
Region: The Emerald Heights
Climate: Tropical, very hot and humid in the coastal regions and rainforest, cooler in the mountainous interior. The coasts and mountains are often quite windy.
Getting there: The Sunny Tanah Burung Tourist Bureau welcomes visitors. A three-month tourist visa is easy to arrange. There is only one airport with runways long enough to accomodate jets, at Tiga Burung. From there, travellers can easily reach other parts of the country through our unparalleled network of zeppelin and hot-air balloon routes -- travel in splendid comfort and olde worlde charme aboard the luxurious ships of the air! Tiga Burung also has ferry service that links up to the continent-wide electric train service. Cars are banned but bus and minibus travel is widespread.
Terrain: Heavily covered by rain forest in coastal and the central forest zone, tapering off in the mountains of the west, where agriculture is carried on in vallies.
Administrative Divisions: 6 autonomous states - Matebian (mountains), Burung Paradis (“bird of paradise,” the densest rain forest), Loro Sae (“where the sun comes up,” northeastern coastal), Ukun Rasikan (“independence,” central coastal), Burung-yang-membuat-dunia (“bird that created the world,” southeastern coastal), Tiga Burung (“three birds,” a large offshore island).
A map fo the Emerald Heights can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/santa_barbara/ehv4.jpg
People
Population: over 2 billion.
Nationality: The people of Tanah Burung come from many races and cultures, but all who live here for five years or more become naturalized citizens. Most are indigenous, coming from Malayo-Polynesian or Melanesian descent (RL Indonesian or Papuan). A minority, mostly descended from the former colonial ruling group, have European blood. Refugees are arriving all the time from other places, and are welcomed with open arms.
Religions: Tanah Burung’s religious picture is extremely volatile: people are likely to create religions on a whim. The majority faith, however, is Catholic. The Tanah Burung Catholic Church is largely orthodox with the exception of teachings on human sexuality, which can be summed up as “live and let love” -- for instance, the church performs gay weddings. Minority faiths include the Rainbow Islamic congregation and the Church of the Rocks and Trees (indigenous nature beliefs). Cults are common, particular duriung World Cup qualifying campaigns.
Languages: The national language is Tetemelayu, similar to Indonesian with Tetum and Portuguese influences. There are at least 200 indigenous languages, but all citizens are educated in Tetemelayu and English.
Literacy Rate: Over 99%.
Government
Overview: Tanah Burung is an anarchy is governed on libertarian socialist principles of direct democracy. All major decisions are taken by national referendum, with protections built in for minority rights and ecological protection. There are six states or provinces, each with complete local autonomy, and power is decentralized to the maximum extent possible to the level of the local community or neighbourhood. There are also five ministries, each headed by an elected people’s representative. These are:
-- Constancio Ainaro, a Catholic priest and veteran of the revolution, as people’s representative for social justice (education, health and welfare).
-- Dr. Rosa Almeida, people’s representative for economic affairs & cooperatives
-- Bi Kikere, former national football team goaltender, as people’s representative for territorial defence & sports (since Tanah Burung has not fought a war since independence and has no offensive military forces of any kind, this ministry concentrates primarily on sporting activities)
-- Violeta Bi Bere, an eggplant farmer and veteran guerrilla, as people’s representative for foreign affairs & human rights. It was Bi Bere who campaigned for a re-engagement with international affairs, basing her platform on an “independent and active” foreign policy.
-- Abdul Hakim Gunung, people’s representative for justice & civil rights (attorney-general).
A sixth ministry, for the environment, is headed by Silas Simparieff, Governor of Burung Paradis.
The people’s representatives and the provincial governors together form the 11-person collective presidency.
Capital: There is no national capital. The collective presidency rotates among the six state capitals, each named for its province. Each ministry is based in a different state capital:
Social justice: Loro Sae
Foreign affairs: Ukun Rasikan (also home to all foreign embassies)
Territorial defence: Matebian
Economic affairs: Tiga Burung
Justice: Burung-yang-membuat-dunia
Environment: Burung Paradis
Political parties: none.
Flag: The national flag is coloured red for the blood of the patriots and martyrs who fell during the war of independence, yellow for Father Sun, and black for the soil of Mother Earth.
Motto: Tetemelayu - La’o hamutuk, mau bere (walk together, brothers); English - Flock together.
Economy
Overview: Long a desperately poor country, Tanah Burung pursues a policy of sustainable “slow-but-steady” growth that has raised the economy from imploded to strong. The economy is heavily agricultural, and organized along a general planning mechanism, but without coercion. This is referred to as a “guided economy.” Private enterprise is illegal, but the economy is dominated by large voluntary worker-managed cooperatives that are sometimes considered by the UN to be the equivalent of corporations. The largest cooperatives are those engaged in agriculture, rubber tapping, book publishing, education, genetics technology and energy generation.
Main Products: Agricultural: Natural rubber, vegetables, rice, tea, coffee, hemp, copra, sisal, bananas, marijuana & other hallucinogenics, beef, pork.
Other major products: genetically engineered vegetables, iron ore, beer, hemp paper, pearls, chocolate.
Secondary products: furniture, furniture (mahogany and other woods), handicrafts (bark paintings, carved knives, batik textiles), clothes of all sorts, woven carpets.
Tertiary: cars modified to run on used or unused vegetable oil; alternative energy (wind, water, solar, biomass), education systems design, tourist industry planning, genetic modification of plants.
Brands: Burung Bud Brew is a strong ale infused with marijuana. Rain Forest Punch is a strong hallucinogenic.
Tourism: Tanah Burung relies heavily on tourism from foreign countries. A major attraction is sporting activities: Tanah Burung hosted World Cup 5 in football, the first-ever World Cup of field hockey, and other events. People come to spend time on the beaches, visit ancient historical sights, tour the famous rain forest, watch wildlife, and commune with indigenous cultures. A new tourist promotion is inviting gay couples to come to Tanah Burung for a legally binding marriage.
Currency: Tanah Burung's currency is the loonie.
Foreign economic relations: Foreign investment of any kind is strictly banned. Tanah Burung trades internationally, but high tariffs are maintained against most imports. Lower tariffs are offered to developing nations. Government subsidies are offered to cooperatives deemed essential to the national economy, which is most of them. Some foreign capital has been injected into the economy in the form of aid from the Developing Nations Aid Commission, although Tanah Burung is no longer a developing nation eligible for foreign aid. Further capital can be drawn from the Developing Nations monetary fund. Tanah Burung gives foreign aid through the DNAC and the International Education Fund. The nation is a founding memebr of the Internaitonal Fair Trade Agreement (http://invisionfree.com/forums/CACE/index.php?c=5)
Energy generation: Fossil fuel consumption is being phased out and replaced by wind, solar and geothermal energy. This shift has been assisted by a grant from the Developing Nations Aid Commission.
Military
Tanah Burung has no offensive military of any kind. A small and lightly-armed self-defence force operates on the principles of territorial defence (guerrilla warfare) and citizen-based defence (the people are the army). Only the police are armed on a routine basis, but each community has an arms depot and all citizens are trained in self-defence techniques. The police have very little to do, however, as crime is “totally unknown.” Tanah Burung also maintains a small coast guard and an anti-aircraft defence system.
Foreign relations
Tanah Burung is best known for its sporting endeavours, but also maintains an active diplomatic corps. Our foreign policy is devoted to the peaceful promotion of human rights and the environment (human was recently defined to include all sentient animals, vegetables etc). Tanah Burung is a member of the Global Alliance of Green Economies, the Developing Nations Aid Commission, and all affiliated bodies of the Developing Nations Conference set up at the developing nations summit in Golden Agate. The country is non-aligned and maintains diplomatic relations with members of both the Coalition of Anti-Capitalist Economies and the World Business Organization. It is a founding signatory of the International Mediation Council.
History
Stories tell that a great raven created the world and populated it with birds of all kinds, and then with other animals. When the birds had no place to land, the Creator Bird called up a great crocodile, and the bird rested on its back. The crocodile grew and grew over the years, until it became solid and fixed in place, and its body became the earth that is Tanah Burung.
Six kelurahan (roughly, kingdoms with varying degrees of centralization) held sway over most of what is now Tanah Burung: the northern mountains of Matebian, the inland Burung Paradis (bird of paradise), the southern coastal principalities of Loro Sae, Atsabe, and Burung-yang-membuat-dunia (the bird that created the earth), and the offshore island of Tiga Burung (three birds), itself a welter of small principalities.
The four maritime kelurahan came under the influence of Portuguese traders in the 16th century and absorbed many aspects of Portuguese culture, including the Catholic faith and spots like cockfighting and football (soccer) which quickly became national passions. This is why many Tanah Burung citizens have Portuguese names. (However, the language has all but died out.) The maritime areas were integrated into Portuguese-controlled international trading networks, but political control remained with local rulers (and more usually, with local village assemblies practicing consensus-based democracy).
Portuguese traders were heavily resented, and many people turned to another new religion, Islam. Muslim traders offered the same economic links but were more sensitive to local concerns and less militaristic than the Portuguese. The Liurai (ruler) of Burung Paradis was the most prominent convert to Islam. Jayawarnam I named himself as the first Sultan of Burung Paradis and began to centralize the kingdom.
In the nineteenth century, Tanah Burung was brought under colonial rule. Traders from the Dutch East India Company first took over the island of Tiga Burung by force, and gradually began to extend their economic dominance over Tanah Burung. At the same time, coastal kelurahan came under pressure from the expanding Burung Paradis inland empire under Jayawarnam III, who brought Matebian, Loro Sae and Atsabe under his rule and weakened Burung-yang-membuat-dunia to the point where it became easy prey for the Knootians.
Eventually, Tanah Burung became a colony of Knootoss. After the death of Jayawarnam VI, the Sultanate fell into a succession dispute. Rival claimants emerged and after Knootian intervention, the kingdom was split into three parts, based in Burung Paradis, Atsabe and Loro Sae. The court of Atsabe came under Knootian dominance and allowed the Knootians to establish their capital at a city they called New Hoorn. From here, they extended their colonial rule by stages until all of the present land of Tanah Burung was united as the Knootian East Indies, a colony owned by a European corporation.
Anti-colonial movements began early in the twentieth century. Rejecting the name East Indies, the nationalist movement began to teach that the colonized “natives” were in fact a single people. Tetemalayu, the language of Tiga Burung and parts of Burung-yang-membuat-dunia, was declared as the national language. The country was dubbed “Tanah Burung,” the land of birds, as a sign of unity among its people. A national flag was chosen bearing the colours red for the blood of the patriots, black for the soil and the resolute spirit of the people, and yellow for the sun. About 40 years ago (ooc: too many fluid timelines going on at once to set any dates!) the flag of independence was raised in New Hoorn and in the Matebian mountains. The Knootians were quickly able to re-establish control of their capital, but the revolution continued from the interior. It gained the support of the Liurai of Loro Sae and the Sultan of Burung Paradis, while the Liurai of Atsabe remained loyal to the colonial rulers. (As a result, after the revolution, the Atsabe kelurahan was abolished and renamed Ukun Rasikan, which means independence.)
Many years of fighting and many deaths came before the Knootian government finally decided to abandon Tanah Burung. The resistance practiced guerrilla warfare and blended in with the people who supported them almost universally as active participants in the territorial defence system. The war was too expensive, and they cut their losses, though not without great emotion. Tanah Burung was independent at last.
After gaining its independence, Tanah Burung remained in isolation for some years, building itself up. Tetemalayu became the national language, and along with English is spoken by all citizens alongside their indigenous languages. A major accomplishment was universal literacy. Education is in fact the central concern of the government. Lovefest University in Ukun Rasikan City is a world-class university and symbol of the country’s commitment to educational excellence. Gradually, democracy was built from the village level up. Six provinces were established and given extensive autonomy. Burung Paradis and Loro Sae were ruled by their traditional Liurai at first, but the struggle for internal democracy finally transformed these two into constitutional rulers.
Finally, national elections were held for an 11-member collective presidency to replace the revolutionary council that had governed Tanah Burung since independence. Two members of the revolutionary council are still part of the collective presidency: Mau Kiri Rai and Markus Rumbiak (Governor of Loro Sae). After a period of isolation, the country entered the international arena under the leadership of Violeta Bi Bere, people’s representative for foreign affairs & human rights.