NationStates Jolt Archive

Full name: Holocracy of Faestos

Sort name: Faestos

Establishment/Date of constitutional declaration: 2024 B.C./1973 A.D.

Government type: Globalnet based Holocracy

Head of state: Protomil Evangelo Mateon

Head of government: The Nine council (Protomil Evangelo Mateon-Head of Council and responsible to conduct Diplomacy and Commerce and resolve any issues with Foreign states in addition to other tasks also responsible for Internal affairs, Omil Bianca Archos-Council member responsible for Environmental issues, Omil Petro Ferreira-Council member responsible for Construction works, Omil Elena Carasajo-Council member responsible for Economy and Development issues, Omil Maya Gonzalez-Council member responsible for Sciences and Education, Omil Aristotle dela Penia-Council member responsible for Arts and Philosophy, Omil Demetrius Cardoso-Council member responsible for Defense and Astynomy, Omil Phaedra Vargas-Council member responsible for Health and citizen Welfare, Omil Constantine Rios-Council member responsible for Law and Equality.)

Capital: Metropolis

Major cities: Limen, Seahaven, Longbay, Urania, Asbestos,
Olympias, Athena, Pentapotamos, Thermopolis(largest city)

Currency: Nomis(symbol N$)

Major industries: Ecology Tech and Information Tech

Less developed industries: Agriculture, Jewelry, Fabrics

Main imports: Industrial materials, Armaments

Main exports: Ecotech, Specialized software, olives, oil, dairy products, energy, livestock, jewelery, clothing

Languages: Greek, English, Spanish, Basque

National tree/Flower: Olive Tree/Rainbow Rose

National animal: Eagle(about 1 million population).
Faestos is also the home for the Bison like Tarnak (population of about 18 million) which provides the people with a lot of quality fur and exquisite meat.

Current Population: 1,110,996,124 people(1988 Census) 1,352,456,814 people (By End 2008 estimate)

Special: Gaea(undecided how this will be used)

Organizations: Faestian Art Convention, Internal Security Organization, Intelligence Gathering Agency, Institute of Fine Arts, Philosophy preservation Circle, Faestian War Academy, National Strategy Center, Pandora Laboratories, Law and Order Foundation, Musicorama Festival, Flintlock Arms (national weaponry industry) is currently being developed(equiped with staff and equipment purchasing rights to weaponry, inventions and schematics) in a multi year plan to ultimately create its own weapons.

Major Press and Media: Metropolis Star, Faestian Gazette, Longbay Times, Faestos: Today - Tomorrow and Forever, Asbestos Torch, Longbay Newsfeed, Guns and Bullets, Online News, National Faestos Channel, National Weather Channel, Army Recruitment Broadcasts, Gourmet Tv

Member of the following Treaties/alliances: To be announced

-National Bio-

Faestos is an old Minoan colony, established by King Minos himself aprox. 4 milennia ago and inhabited by Minoan and Basque people. Eventually became so large in strength that it declared autonomy and survived the downfall of the mighty Minoan Civilization.

Its people are sturdy, yet kind and hospitable and invest passion in everything they do and the women are considered extremely erotic without ever trying to be. Faestian Museums are filled with their ancient artworks and craft remnants. Also seeing the environmental destruction of the globe, they developed an environmental awareness and are considered among the most environment conscious people in the world. As such their country is noted for its many lush forests and wildlife.

Faestos is a prime destination for tourists intrigued by its past and its preserved nature. A moderate estimation gives a number of roughly a billion eco-history minded tourists visiting it each year, filling the national treasury with international currency, helping the process of trade.

Faestos focuses its finances for the good of its people, but also Eco Technology and Information Technology, however lately there has been a massive upgrade in order to eventually be able to create its own weaponry. That's not to say the fertile land doesn't produce a multitude of other products, like olives, oil, livestock, fruit, wine and many more.

Modern day Faestos, occupies mainly the shores of the Iberian Peninsula, though a part of the mainland is also included, retaining both elements of a mariner civilization from Minoans and sturdy landers from the Basques.

-Description-

The Commonwealth of Faestos is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate population of 1,141 billion are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, Defence, Social Welfare and Public Transport. The average income tax rate is 96%, and even higher for the wealthy. A substantial private sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry and to a lesser extent by the Arms Manufacturing industry.

The nation's first space rocket -- sponsored by Pepsi and shaped like an enormous soda bottle -- was developed a great many years ago and the nation's second generation space rocket -- sponsored by Pepsi and shaped like an enormous soda bottle as well -- is being currently developed, citizens are expected to be proficient in at least five languages, retirement homes are often fitted with luxurious suites, the upper class have been throwing riots after hunting was recently banned, voting is compulsory, and a referendum must be held in order for any new law to be passed.

The number of students attending university has reached a record high, people reciting Shakespeare have become a common sight, prime commercial land is being swamped with archaeological teams, all-natural foods are becoming a major fad, and a vast monorail network carries people all over the country. Religious organizations are being forced to leave the country or pay income taxes like everybody else, scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, citizens select which government department gets their income tax Nomiss each year.

Due to the ongoing wars in neighboring countries, a recent rash of illegal immigrants have arrived at the borders of Faestos; after suggestion of the Faestos Civil Liberties Union the nation welcomes these refugees from any nation, as they are fleeing oppressive dictatorial regimes usually. The government pours millions of Nomiss into rehabilitation programs annually, truth is often impossible to tell from fiction on the evening news, the judicial branch is strongly influenced by major corporations, small businesses are gobbled up almost daily by corporate giants and Faestos's army is full of two-metre tall super-soldiers.

Prime real estate is devoted to wind farms and solar energy generators, the mining industry is making inroads into environmentally sensitive areas, and voting is voluntary. Faestos jails are fully private and partially funded by inmates, that work in their chosen fields, which is also the reason there is no death penalty. Artists are pillars of society, and 'The Anti-Government Hour' is a popular programme on many of Faestos's radio stations and anti-government web sites are springing up.

Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the well funded, all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Faestos's national animal is the Eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Nomis.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6637/final333jk7.png

Description

White cross over blue background; 4 historical symbols printed on the white cross portion.

History and Meaning:

Since the latest Faestos constitution was written during 1973, a revision of every single article to accommodate modern needs, a new flag had to be created as well, felt the people. After a national competition, a prominent artist of the land, Memnon Picasso was selected to create the flag.

Basic colors of the flag are blue and white, symbolizing sea and sky. There is a cross in the flag, symbolizing Christianity(as people in their majority traditionally were Christians, either Catholic or Orthodox) and it is white cause their hearts are pure in their faith(even if it isn't Christianity).

The bottom symbol is an animal of the sea, the dolphin, to outline the marine-based civilization. Double dolphins cause there is an tendency to excel in both marine commerce but also in battle.

The Bullhead stands for the might of the Minoans, that excelled in the sea and made it one of its banners, and there is another one, to denote the importance of it to ancient Faestian populations, mostly the Basques who were closely related to Minoans(after all it survives in regional games to this day, similar to those thousands of years ago, the Bullfights).

The Eagle is an important bird in the Iberian Peninsula and it symbolizes freedom of heart, spirit and mind. Moreover the two-headed Eagle is used to display the duality of the empire, part mariner and part settled down farmer/inventor/architect.

Its shown here holding the symbols of military as well as cosmic power and furthermore marking the strength of the people during hardships eyeing those as well as the symbols of its power.

Over it is the all illuminating sun; under it there is nothing that can be hidden and true enough this is the attitude of the people as well.
It was used by the Alexandrine empire, a Faestian colony that rulled Asia for some 500 years.

These four symbols also represent the strength of Faestian military as well: while they do not like to do wars, the people of Faestos do anything in their power to make sure they can win them if the need arises. The Dolphin represents Navy(land), the Bull represents infantry, the Eagle represents Airforce and the Star represents the newly created Starforce and its Starfleets(which is just a fancy name for a fleet of satellites and some -on the construction phase- planetary orbiters and a space shuttle, however eventually the goal is a functional SDI)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 27.6%
15-34 years: 47.8%
34-52 years:20.2%
52-65 years: 2.3%
65 years and over: 2.1%

Median age:
total: 33.5 years
male: 35 years
female: 32 years (current est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.74 female/male
under 15 years: 1.33 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.706 female/male
65 years and over: 0.916 male(s)/female
total population: 0.743 male(s)/female (current est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
HIV and most cancer types are not an issue in Faestos. Partially due to citizens using protection when needed, partially due to the fact that Faestian men are very loyal to their exotically looking, beautiful women

Also Faestonites are very healthy-living minded and have invented many devices to exclude from their everyday lives possible cancer causes, like electromagnetic fields and radiation. However bioplasmatic polymorph cancer, a newly found disease is reaping, with an average death ratio of 56% of the patients.
It is solely responsible for most of the deaths above 64 years of age.

Nationality:
noun: Faestonite
adjective: Faestonite

Ethnic groups:
Greek, Spanish, Basque and other environmentalists of European descent.

Religions:
48.4% Christian Orthodox, 17.3% Roman Catholic, 5.9% Jewish, 2.8% other Christian, 3.6% Muslim, 7.3% Gnostic, 0.3% Dodekatheists, 3% Buddhists, 2.4% Taoists, Atheist/Agnostic 3.6%, 5.4% unspecified (current est.)

Languages:
Greek, English, Spanish, Basque all spoken equally by the multilingual populace.

Faestonite military.

Faestonite military.
Faestos is located in dangerous lands. As such, after a recent bill the people passed, it focuses more in its defenses than in the past. A top priority project involves newborns(selected having their genetic predisposition on military ability as a decisive factor) being raised as mindless killing machines. This is a project labelled "Project Termination" which only now, many years since first introduced is baring fruit with an active raise on our military personnel. Active personnel is about 0.5% of our populace, it is projected to reach up to 3-4% through this project, especially the land troops.

The general conception of Faestonite army is that everyone(men and women above 13 years of age and up to their 58 for four 3 month terms, as they reach 13 years of age, then 18, 24 and 30 respectivelly) has to fight or help in a confrontation if needed, but the actual soldiers are a highly trained elite that live and breath for war(and naturally getting paid for it). Mobility and reconnaissance are much more valued than the actual number of soldiers, it is assumed they will do their job well if those two areas are adequately covered. Project "Rook" which was secretly devised and executed years ago now results in Faestos's army to be full of two-metre tall super-soldiers.

In order to replace its aging equipment, a 5 year 78 billion $ plan was recently approved.(This has been followed by many more as of now)
The first year of the budget was completely spent on restructuring and creating companies that will help best utilization of Faestonite forces.

To compensate, the remaining 4 years were extended to 6 more and ten total, for a 144 $ billion new defense plan.
With the growing income from taxes, it has been decided to change those amounts periodically in order to improve the war deterrence factor.

Currently our defense budget is N$1,344,840,550,929.04(Roughly 500 billion USD) and rising.(18% of total GDP)

The structure of the armed forces is as follows:
(OOC: more on the military later as military equipment orders are finalized)

Other areas of interest/Achievements:

--Military
Following recent restructuring directives and the ongoing development of its military industry Flintlock Arms created a small subsidiary called "Extreme Designs" to be handling unconventional Warfare and equipment to be used under the most extreme of environments)
The following year, a new branch was created, called "ReStore", it will deal with repairing low tech equipment and manufacturing spare parts were needed. Eventually it is hoped the know-how will be accumulated in order to benefit the designs department.
Also currently in discussions for modernizing the military machine were needed.

As discussions have not been finalized, the state officials have drawn 100 million from the treasury to create a third important subsidiary, called "Ironcast", specializing in Engineering Corps equipment manufacturing(shovels, excavators, explosives, etc.). It will also supply us with simple materials used in defenses(fences, barbed wire, obstacles, rapidly solidified cement{used when work under water is required}, high strength cement, sandbags, pre-fabricated constructions of all types, etc.).

The first major military material order in years has been finalized and all materials received. This will greatly advance Faestonite military and enhance it's deterring the enemies potential.(found here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=533257&page=14)

In other news, Army Department of Research and Development founded. Currently operating on minimal stuff and buying equipment and software from Microcosm, Patchwork and other companies, but starting 4 years from now, will be staffed by M.U.G.L. Science school graduates.

Also, after the recent work on the first Rocket of Faestos, scheduled to send in orbit the "Brightstar" series of satellites, Dr. Manfred Von Black and his team is ready to work more extensively on the Army's rocketry Dpt. Eventual goal is to devise a cruise type missile and aid on the SDI program.

Second major military order in recent years was finalized and all materials have been shipped and transfered to their destination throughout our forces: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=533257&page=15

Third and fourth military orders been finalized and shipped to us:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13768290#post13768290
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=544821&page=5

5th and 6th military orders been finalized and shipped to us:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=533257&page=16
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13801049&posted=1#post13801049


Phase one of our military modernization is now complete and out defense forces modernized.

We shall purchase materials only for the purpose of maintaining or enlarging our force in the future.

Also, the people of Faestos just approved a bill on defense budgets. Every Nomis not spend on purchasing stuff or maintaining what we currently have will be allocated to research and hiring personnel or data from now on, so that we can create our personal custom weaponry.

--Education--
Using our big Education budget, the Metropolitan University and Grand Library(M.U.G.L.) begins construction. Upon finalization it is expected to enhance vastly our knowledge and expertise, as it will attract students(on free scholarships from all over the world.

4 years later the buildings are constructed. Currently the Library is being stocked and staff is being hired.
The staff and Library stocking is now done and the University is ready to run. Already there are 1,355,064 applications for the 478,000 vacant student positions and worldwide donations exceeding 1 billion USD for books, e-books, e-book readers and advanced tech for the library. Dean Alfred Onestein is thrilled with the prospects.

First graduates from the University. A large percentage of them is instantly occupied in Flintlock Arms and Army R&D section.

It's been years since the foundation of M.U.G.L. and people of Faestos couldn't be happier with its promotion of philosophy, arts and science throughout the country. 20 years of service is close and people begin plans for celebrating the event.

What an event it was! People celebrated for days! The highlight of the event was the graduation of the students receiving their graduation approval document by world renown experts of their field.

Alot of the graduate scientists went to work as intern and research stuff to various industries throughout the globe. We now need their services and thus they rush to return.

-- Healthcare--

The National Healthcare Plan has just passed as a constitutional right and the government is currently searching for ways to allocate bigger funds to its purposes(Bigger and better life quality for the citizens) and applying it equally, with no discrimination whatsoever to all citizens.
commerce is finally increasing and so are local and foreign investment groups(still under Faestian rules of trade, so the people are never losing wealth and privileges from their practices). The funds are doing well, so the people decided that they want to include visitors and tourists to it, if they can prove they got the illness they seek treatment for, while on Faestian soil.

Faesonite medical practices try the best of all theories on how illnesses should be treated and/or prevented and never put science on a pedestal, assuming it cannot make any mistakes or dismissing what is found to be working, just cause doctors with a degree don't practice it. There is room for everyone, as much as it is for the best of the people.

--Politics--

There are NO political parties in Faestos.
There would be no point, since the will of the people is fundamental in applying the Holocracy, and basically the people have the same needs. If different methods of solving problems are needed, it is discussed in Political forums by the people; the Protomil and Nine council only exist to materialize the choices people make.

--Commerce--
In the wake of Faestos people finally giving more opportunities to the private sector(which still remains a dwarf to the national one however), several expatriated - by choice - Faestonites decide to return and invest portions of the fortune on Motherland.

The two most prominent include Balthazar King and Justin Time.

Mr. King has been aggressive and has already created "King Industrial Group", including Patchwork(A software solutions company), King Shipyards, which after a mutual contract with FASHICO(Faestos Shipping Company) is developing a commercial fleet(mainly tankers and Tourist class transports and cruise ships) to aid in remaking Faestos the leading commercial Navy country it once was. Mr. King also created King Petroleum to export through his International Network, Faestonite crude or refined oil. Lastly, Quantum mines, to mine the vast quantities of iron, gold and copper deposits and search for the rumored uranium and radioactive materials in Faestos mountainous area.

All those companies, are co-owned by state to a percent of up to 42% and are environmentally green, as to not interfere with Faestonite flora and fauna, a task the state is helping Mr. King to achieve.

Mr. Time on his side founded med Pharmaceuticals and GenRes(Genetic code Research and manipulation). The vast medical field of operation is not unknown to him as it's the way he got his trillions in the first place. State also controls those partially, as to have a big say on their practices and as every other company on Faestos, they're green as well.


Also the state creates the following companies:
-Faestos Lines(Airlines and Sealines)
-Faestos Aerospace
-P.P.S. Particle Purification Systems Ltd.
(One of the major contracts PPS has already received is the one by the state, in order to help diminish/eradicate environmental harm after the Longbay Canal is created. For this purpose it shall use the well tested and proved effective Bioremediation technology)

Update: The search for radioactive materials is successful and Quantum mines, after discovering rich deposits of Uranium in the North is starting to mine them. The state had to intervene and stop the company from selling in global markets in order to keep balance. It is good to have the ability to counter attack enemies if they will do foolish attacks using nuclear weaponry against our country. Hopefully this will act in a way that such warfare will be avoided.

Recently Quantum mines has found rich Obsidian crystal deposits to the Northern area. Already clearance to dig was granted, as it is expected this will help our efforts of producing our own cruise missiles.

--Space--

Daedalus, the nation's first space rocket - sponsored by Pepsi and shaped like an enormous soda bottle, is now constructed, by Manfred von Black and his team.
It will be the sole orbital satellite dropper from now on. It is scheduled to launch the Brightstar series of Satellites starting June 6th.

By now there are 18 Brightstar sats have been deployed, enhancing our telecommunication and military reconnaissance abilities. Six of those are assigned to our region.

--Welfare--

Though it has been passed over a decade ago, the bill on maternity leave was never fully implemented. Until now that is.
Protomil Evangelo Mateon personally acted and made companies that haven't followed it yet, to start practicing it.


"Peace of Mind" Sanitarium constructed in an area of 2000 acres. Will host more than 3000 guests at any given time.
Next to it, the PSI center(Psychological Studies Institute) just built.
Both manned with an elite of scientists and personnel.

--Cultural--

Metropolis Museum of World Currencies, Longbay Naval Museum, Thermopolis Museum of Global History founded and running.

--Architecture--

The Faestian state is looking to create a vast canal, environmentally friendly, to shorten traveling times from the regional med sea to the Atlantic.

As currently all local construction companies are allocating their resources to others endeavors(mainly schools, malls, ports, airports, military installations, corporate skyscrapers) there is a need to resort to external contractors.

As a derived side project Faestos will create an artificial island to boost our eco from tourism and host some new research facilities.

--Broadcasted Transimission through National Television--

It's a great day for Faestos. First ship, a cargo loaded with exotic fruit and some equipment, passes through the finished Longbay canal. No problems during travel. We're glad we waited the extra time needed for testing all scenarios to avoid accidents!

First stop will be the newly created artificial island of Scorpion and then overseas lands.

We wish to greatly thank Vault-Tec Inc., and Leonard Jameson personally for their superb work.

Faestos companies begin building new, vast installations; Maritime Shipyards(able to construct any type of ship), Bluesky 1,2,3,4,5 aircraft manufacturing plants, and Granite Yard, a huge military material production plant. All these will be allocated in manufacturing new materials for the military industry and are expected to be finished within next 5 years.

--- These have been constructed and manned, already began to manufacture units since they're fully operational. Also a second batch of building began construction to accelerate building times; namely Mariner Shipyards, Bluesky 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and Adamantine Yard. Expected to be fully constructed-operational within 3 years.

--Technology--

After graduation of several thousand scientists from M.U.G.L. it is expected that there will be a boost in the countries scientific level.
Since Uranium deposits were recently discovered, it is a possibility the country will resort to it for some energy production, but more possible is the development of technologies for military applications at the moment.

Also alot of our scientists are now researching Environmental reconstruction techniques, considering our environment will suffer a great amount of damage due to canal construction, radioactive material mining and nuclear weaponry testing.

Lastly the first fruit of our research is finally seen, maybe in addition to recently acquired technologies. We also believe we're on the way to produce our own cruise missile version, amongst other things.

--Energy--

In order to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels before the available sources get depleted, Faestian state begins projects "Helios" and "Aeolus", to install solar and wind energy collectors either in the form of parks or mounted on rooftops throughout the country. The project is estimated to take about 10 years to get finalized and will need an update every 25 years from then on.

There has been some delays including a minor depression several years ago that delayed these projects, but it's been three years they've been completed and we're happy to say they work like a charm. A great boost to our economy and ecology for sure!