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Common Long Form Name: The Incorporated States of United Meridian
Common Short Form Name: ISUM, Meridian, United Meridian
Capital City: Meridian City
Political Geography: The ISUM encompasses 4 states: La Raquelle, Algeron, Eridani, and Merina. La Raquelle, the Southern-most province and the one with the largest coastline, is the nation’s central province for international trade and characterizes the ISUM at sea; the state capital, Arianna, is the second most important city in the country and is the center of the ISUM’s naval power. The La Raquelle merchant navy is infamous for trading all over the Southern seas. Algeron, the least developed state in Meridian and the only one to possess an agricultural industry (15% of Algeron’s land is used for agriculture), is the least important of the 4 states. The state capital, Mysa, has less importance in the ISUM than the smallest city in Merina. Those living here are mostly farmers and Algeron has a few small cities, but there is little else of significance in the area. Eridani is the center of Meridian’s industrial power. Over 85% of Eridani is covered in urban land, 50% of which is used for industry. The state capital, Draxon, has one of the highest pollution levels for a city in the world. The last and most important state, Merina, is the location of Meridian City, the capital of the ISUM (Meridian City houses ISUM Headquarters), with its state capital at the city of Celestia on the coast. Merina houses 50% of the total population of the ISUM, because it has less pollution than Eridani but also a large urban core. Financial services and banking dominate here, however industry still takes up a large portion of the state’s economy.
Physical Geography: The ISUM is famous for being almost inhospitable: the environment has been utterly wracked by industrialism, urbanization, and technological achievement. Most of the ISUM is relatively flat, with only a few small forests left (mostly found in the state of Algeron). The Osiris Mountains (in lower La Raquelle) provide the country with one of its central tourist locations. The mountains stretch to the height of Mount Everest and house many amazing ski hills, climbing trails, and ecological wonders. Some of Meridian’s richer citizens also own massive mansions and vacation homes on some of the more isolated areas of the mountains. This tourism sprouted the city of Osiris on the mountain’s edge, which is the largest tourist city in the country.
Population: Composed of 95% native Meridi, and 5% foreigners, population currently numbers at around 20 million.
Language: Official language is English, however many Meridi are known to be bilingual (at least 65% of the population can speak at least one other language) due to the intelligent and hard working nature of their population.
Government: A Corporate Democracy, where the individual political parties are all community-minded, but extremely pro economic. Some of the politicians in Meridian government are known to be corrupt; however this only encompasses a quarter of the political power in the ISUM. The current party in control is the Meridian Eco-Conservative Party (occupying 75% of the Meridian House of Commons), headed by ISUM CEO and President Brendan Steven, who has held the title for an astounding 4 terms. The official opposition is the Meridian Free Enterprise Party (occupying 23% of the Meridian House of Commons), led by former political activist John Delfini. 2 smaller minor parties, the Meridian Environmental Party and the Meridian Anti-Capitalist Party, have never once risen to power due to their anti industrial views and sentiments. They occupy only 1% of the seats in the House of Commons each.
Government Organization: In each of the 4 states, there are 10 ridings. Each of these ridings elects a Member of Parliament from one of the 4 political candidates from the region, who all serve in the Meridian House of Commons in Meridian City. The party with the most seats in the House of Commons is given office, with that party’s leader taking up the role of CEO and President of the ISUM. The CEO than appoints Vice President’s in the following areas: Commerce, Social Welfare, Religion, Military, Immigration/Emigration, International Politics, Industry, as well as other important segments of the country. Each of these than organizes their departments, who operate separately from the House of Commons and take orders directly from their Vice President and the CEO. The CEO passes all major laws through the House of Commons; however political decisions are made by the CEO under advisory from the Vice President’s Committee and the House of Commons. The Vice President of the Military appoints an official Commander in Chief of the UMSF (United Meridian Military Forces, the military arm of the ISUM) and the Vice President of Commerce appoints the Treasurer of the ISUM Treasury (the Vice President of Commerce, the Department of Commerce, and the Treasurer all wield significant political power due to the corporate ideals of the ISUM)
Religion: 95% of the population is Atheist, since the influences of economics, business, and industry have given the Meridi more self faith than faith in a higher power. The remaining 5% who choose a religion are split between a variety of international religions, most prominently Christian.
Law and Order: The UMIPF (the United Meridian International Police Force) runs all matters of law and order within the ISUM. However, they are under funded (a great deal of the government’s handouts go to the economy, education, and industrialism) and therefore the ISUM suffers from high crime rates, mostly due to poverty and homelessness. CEO Steven is attempting to solve this problem by diverting funds to the police and increasing spending in education for those who can’t get jobs. The Vice President of Law and Order sits on the United Meridian Justice Council, a council composed of 5 members (the Vice President and 4 other judges, one from each state) who deal with major national lawsuits and court cases, and also administer the Justice Council’s in each of the ridings, cities, and states.
Military: Technologically advanced, extremely well trained, highly disciplined. The UMMF (United Meridian Military Forces) employ state of the art tactics and weapons, as is found in as rich and advanced a state as the ISUM. However, like the police forces, they are under funded and currently employ only a few thousand soldiers.
Economy: The ISUM economy is dominated by the private sector, however 10% of the economy is owned by the government due to the enterprising nature of the Meridi. The leading industries are automobile manufacturing, banking, financial services, arms manufacturing (for other nations as well as too support the technologically advanced ISUM military), heavy equipment manufacturing, and transportation. International trade accounts for an astounding 30% of the Meridian economy, however this is limited mostly to exports as very little is imported into the country (the ISUM produces almost everything it needs). The major import of the ISUM is food, because so much of the land is used for urban purposes and industry instead of agriculture. The only major agricultural sector in the country belongs to Algeron, but even in Algeron only 15% of the land is used for agriculture. The ISUM wields unprecedented economic power and is infamous for its fearsome corporate might.
Culture: The ISUM, culturally, is based upon money. Everything has a value in money. Often, the first word children speak is money. Entrepreneurship is relatively common in children at an early age, and often kids are working part time at age 9. Celebrities in the ISUM are not movie stars, but corporate successes. The measure of a man’s wealth isn’t in the family or who he loves, but literally in his wealth.
People: The middle and high class of the ISUM are fabulously rich, and some have over double the yearly incomes than their counterparts with the same jobs in other countries. Those who are not so fortunate to be employed are often starving and dying on the streets, for the Meridi are very hard headed about self preservation and how a person is only responsible for him/herself. Social welfare in the ISUM is almost non-existent, as is charity or not for profit organizations. The Meridi have some of the highest IQ’s of any nationality due to the grand faith in intelligence the Meridi possess. If any religion ever existed prominently in the ISUM, it would worship the mind. Meridian universities are some of the hardest to get into, but they are also some of the most prestigious and powerful on the continent. Anyone with even the lowliest degree from a Meridian university can get a high paying, high benefits job almost anywhere. |
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Add-on to the Economy section: Income tax is completely unheard of in the ISUM, and the term is also nonexistent in the Meridi English language.
Add-on to Language section: The official language is Meridi English, with slight variations in words, such as the nonexistence of words like income tax and the spelling of certain words like labor (Meridi English uses the modern form of British English in spelling). |
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Change in Population: The population now numbers at around 50 million. |
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[QUOTE] United Meridian National Census Board (UMNCB)
The recent national census, which tallied the entire population of the ISUM, has numbered the current population size at 170 million people. |
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Carrar/United Meridian International Relations
First Contact: United Meridian, back in its days of early exploration, came across a Carrar exploration ship. The ship, which didn’t bear any form of flag or international identification, was assumed to be a pirate by the UM ship (the UM, due to its mercantile nature, had a passion for the destruction of pirates) and immediately attacked and annihilated the vessel. Carrar, receiving this as an act of war, launched a counterstrike against the ISUM and the Carrar-Meridi War began, lasting 7 years and mostly being fought on the open seas between the 2 countries. Both Nations reacted to each other’s increase in navy and continued to make huge advancements in naval technology much quicker than thought possible. Though Carrar’s navy was larger than Meridi’s force, Carrar was under funded and unorganized, 2 things Meridi was not. Seeing the possible rise in Meridi power or the possibility of a even longer stalemate of uneeded death the Carrar dictator decided to reopen diplomatic relations with Meridian, and the Meridian City Conference (between the ISUM government and the Carrar diplomatic package) set up the long lasting (even up to today) Carrar/United Meridian alliance that has shaped the way both countries run. |
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