Difference between revisions of "Beth Gellert"

Revision as of 19:15, 1 November 2005

Beth Gellert

Flag of Beth Gellert
Motto: The enraged will inherit the earth!
[1]
Region	A Modern World
Capital	Portmeirion
Official Language(s)	Welsh , English , Hindi, Geletian
Leader	The Masses
Population	300million
Currency	Withdrawn
NS Sunset XML

‘The whole race... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle... and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage’ -Strabo

The Igovian Soviet Commonwealth

Counting itself a democratic communist confederation, the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth has finally established a stable direct democracy and supports -or rather is supported by- a stable socialist economy. Alongside Hindustan (AKA Lunatic Retard Robots), the ISCBG dominates the Indian peninsula and protects there what Igovians call the world's only true democracies.

The central contentions of the Igovian Revolution, as proclaimed by countless Beddgelens (pronounced Bethgelens), are that, in democracy, "representation is a denial of participation" and, in economics, "there is evolution from one system to the next, and there is potential for moral as well as immoral application of each one". It is further the Igovian belief that theirs is one of the world's few ture democracies, as opposed to the many representative democracies, which are considered false.

Though often slandered by politically (representative) and economically (capitalist) less evolved nation states whose governments apparently fear (or encourage their citizens to fear) some creeping red menace, Igovians no longer seek to propagate their economic system by force of arms. In pursuit of freedom (that is to say, direct democracy), however, Beddgelens will take-up arms abroad as well as at home. It is, presumably, for this reason that the world's elected dictators and other false-democrats attempt to slander and contain the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth.

The Beddgelen Internationale

Arise, you comrades, from oppression, arise, you wretched of the earth For justice thunders condemnation, for a better world's in birth. No more tradition's chains shall bind us, arise you slaves, no more in thrall" The earth shall rise on new foundation: we have been naught, we shall be all.

Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Igovian Soviet shall free the human race. Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Igovian Soviet shall free the human race.

We want no condescending saviours to rule us from a judgement hall We workers ask not for their favours, let us consult with all. To make the thief disgorge his booty, to free the spirit from your cell We must ourselves decide our duty, we must decide and do it well!

Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Igovian Soviet shall free the human race. Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Igovian Soviet shall free the human race.

The Beddgelen version of the Internationale serves The Igovian Soviet Commonwealth as its national anthem. It is traditionally sung by choirs composed of comrades from Welsh backgrounds, of course!

Industry, agriculture, and trade

Initial measures carried out following the defeat of the capitalists and their representative democracy were largely the halfway houses imagined by self-centred counter-revolutionaries sure that the revolution could not work. This unfortunate condition was necessary given the existing infrastructure and its composition as designed to support the old system and its society, and only in time could truly sweeping changes be implemented.

The true Igovian vision began in earnest just months ago with the state-wide and Civil Service-organised demolition of those structures deemed completely useless, the Mecca Masjid and the tomb of St.Thomas amongst them. Housing estates and apartment blocks too were brought down, while many former corporate headquarters and the like persist in use with the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service.

Taking shape across Beth Gellert is a society organised in Pantisocratic Phalansteries or Democratic Home Colonies thrown-out around old industrial centres.

These home colonies generally house around three thousand comrades, and are erected by public works under CPCS supervision. Two main sorts are predominant; the square halls that contain an interior courtyard for communal education, recreation, and Local Senate meetings and are surrounded by farmland, and the traditional hill fort villages resembling ancient Beddgelen communities. Cities persist as clusters of home colonies and more significantly as centres of industry.

Home colonies contain their own workshops and light industry, some are even centres of excellence in specific sciences and crafts, and they are –when outside cities- surrounded by light agricultural concerns that provide staple and local speciality foods to the community.

Heavy industry and extremely high-tech concerns are centred in long-established cities born in the capitalist and even imperial or tribal eras, and workers travel from their home colonies to ply their trades in the cities. Surrounding the cities are usually vast agricultural concerns often referred to as commercial farms, which disperse unique regional products to the wider commonwealth and export them in exchange for equivalent foreign products. They also provide redundant food production to protect smaller subsistence farms attached to Phalansteries against the possibility of poor local harvests or environmental disasters. Excess production is assigned to festivals and feasts in celebration of the revolution and its achievements, and exported as food aid where there is confidence in a lack of domestic need.

Igovian cities are twenty-four hour entities that tend to allow great flexibility regarding individuals’ working hours. Across the ISCBG there is essentially no unemployment, though some argue that a great deal of citizens are underemployed by local public works. It is generally argued that unused man-hours are needed as a sort of redundancy in the event of disaster, war, or some unforeseen opportunity.

Under-employed comrades with sufficient training (and the vast majority of Beddgelert’s highly skilled, communally educated population has just that) are often commissioned to aid foreign states in establishing their own industries. Under the Principality, many of these states would have been exploited as clients for Beddgelen consumer goods, their industries encouraged to grow only far enough to provide cheap human labour for the finishing of products machined in Beth Gellert. As the Commonwealth, Beth Gellert encourages balanced trade in unique agricultural products and raw materials to be machined in their nation of final destination.

Transport

Private transport no longer exists in the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth, though comrades have no trouble in getting from place to place. A wide range of transport vehicles does exist, including cars and cycles, though in smaller numbers than was the case in the capitalist era. These are generally fitted with electronic beacons that allow communities to check on the number of vehicles available to them and their proximity or condition of use at any time.

Comrades are free to make use of communally-held vehicles in short trips, and abuse of agreed terms of use can be monitored via the mentioned electronic system. Powered vehicles are built to strict CPCS specifications on safety and fuel efficiency, and are regulated to confirm with national speed limits. Most cars in Beth Gellert can not pass eighty kilometres per hour. There do exist high performance cars, but these are designated for recreational use within specially demarcated areas. They still must meet fuel efficiency and emissions regulations, but face no speed restrictions. Use of such vehicles beyond designated recreational zones is considered criminal.

That said, such personal forms of transport are not the most popular means of transit within Beth Gellert. That honour goes to the nation’s railways, considered some of the world’s finest. Using a wide gauge generations ago proven to be superior to more widely used narrow gauges, Beddgelen trains are fast and reliable, and provide exceptionally comfortable and safe rides. The rail network is extremely expansive, and its latest generation of engines increasingly fuel efficient and popular. If there is a problem, it lies in communication with the wider world. Portmeirion would like to encourage wider use of its wide-gauge, but the notion of over-hauling entire national rail grids is hard to stomach in most surrounding states.

Bus services, taxis, and trams are also widespread and run to some level around the clock.