Athens and Midlands

**Athens and Midlands**
	Flag of Athens and Midlands
	Motto: Mediterraniean Islands' longest serving UN Delegate
	Not published yet
Region	Mediterraniean Islands
Capital	West Athens
Official Language(s)	English (British) and Greek
Leader	Constantina Cataloña (Elected August 2005)
Population	1,196,000,000 as of 28th January 2006
Currency	Athenian Drachma
	NS Sunset XML

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Religion

State Religion

Athens and Midlands has no official state religion. But no religion is banned in this country.

The most popular religion is the Hinduism, and accounts for 62 percent of the population. Athens and Midlands has been relatively neutral from the spread of Christianity in the 5th-17th centuries.

Religion Distribution:

Politics

Official Name

Greek: Η αθηναϊκή Δημοκρατία της Αθήνας και των Μεσαγγλιών

English: The Athenian Republic of Athens and Midlands

Government Type

Three levels of parliament: The Royal Presidency, The High Presidency and the Low Presidency. The government works similar to a Constitutional monarchy, but in three levels.

Each presidency has the same powers, but determined by the maximum length of office he/she can serve.

Royal Presidency

The leader of the Royal Presidency is chosen by election, but the elected president of this level serves for the rest of his/her life, subject to abdication or a vote of no confidence in extreme cases.

Leader: Constantina Cataloña

Date of Birth: 6th September 1978

Inaugurated: 5th June 2001

High Presidency

The leader of the High Presidency is chosen by election, and the elected president of this level serves for up to 10 years, but he/she can call for an election after at least 2 years.

Leader: Stelios Panagiotis

Date of Birth: 11th August 1951

First elected: 7th January 2006

Terms in Office: 1

Low Presidency

The leader of the Low Presidency is chosen by election, and the elected president of this level serves for up to 4 years, but he/she can call for an election at any time.

Leader: Konstantinos Lavrentios

Date of Birth: 21st June 1961

First elected: 4th August 1996

Terms in Office: 3

Athens and Midlands and the UN

Athens and Midlands is currently the UN Delegate for the Mediterraniean Islands. Athens and Midlands was elected 171 days ago to 28/12/05, and it is one of the longest serving UN Delegates.

Language in Depth

English and Greek are equally used side by side although Greek is the first language for 43 percent of the population

Esperanto was once the chief lingua franca until 1982, when Greek was gradually adopted between 1967-1981. Meanwhile English was becoming popular since 1971.

Greek became an official language alongside English in November 1989. Today, the people of Athens and Midlands are strongly critical of Esperanto, because it is poorly constructed.

There was once plans to ban the speaking of Esperanto in public, but it was turned down in Parliament in April 2005.

On Spetember 16th 2005, after hard consultation with the Parliamentary committees, The language transition project was finally completed on 1st November 2005.

Transition Project (pressured by citizens of the country)

Stage 1: Natural and Gradual language conversion. Free language couses for citizens introduced by public consultation in July 1986. Language breakdown on 1st December 1989: Esperanto 16%, Greek 41%, English 28%, Other 15%

Stage 2: Introduced Greek and English to 'generic public signing' from February 1986. Esperanto ceased to be used in 'Generic public signage' from 25th December 1991. Did not include the Health service and Education service.

Stage 3: The Health and Education systems transitioned languages over a period between 1st January 1993 to December 31st 2003. This was an exceptionally long process becuase there were still criteria for esperanto to be used. Language breakdown on 1st December 1993: Esperanto 12%, Greek 43%, English 28%, Other 17%

Stage 4: The transition project was reviewed over language discrimmination. Esperanto was therefore recategorised as a minority language of Athens and Midlands since January 1st 2004.

Stage 5: Esperanto on official documents are no longer predominantly used since 31st October 2005, but documents in Esperanto continue to be availible on request.

Currency

The currency of Athens and Midlands is the Athenian Drachma. Click on the link for further inofrmation.

The Media

Television

The Media in the country is rarely mentioned in the NS world, but it is politically free, exceeding the standard as democratic countries. The main broadcaster is the MBC (Midlands Broadcasting Committee), which is non-commercial and funded by a licence fee, in which all households owning a television set must pay. Under Athenian law, all households and businesses are entitled to all channels broadcast in the country, irrespective of income, race or location.

MBC Television

MBC One
MBC Two
MBC News Service
MBC Greek Service
MBC World Service

Commercial TV

AMNS: Athens and Midlands' Independent Television

The most popular commercial network is the AMNS (Athens and Midlands Network System), which consists of 6 regions. The commercial television system was only introduced in August 2004.

Major National Commercial Broadcasters:

Early 2006 has seen a surge in the number of commercial broadcasters considering broadcasting in Athens and Midlands. Some broadcasters from foreign countries are bidding for airtime in the country.

TVS: TVS also holds the franchise to run the South region of the AMNS. National channels include the TVS Super Channel and TVS World News Channel, which broadcasts to Mediterraniean Islands.

The News Channel: A news channel established in co-operation with MBC, ITN and TVS. Has no advertising, as a part of a policy of simplicity and clear understanding of home and world events.

Radio

The MBC was the only radio service until December 1st 2005, when changes to the law on radio broadcasting to allow commercial and independent broadcasting took effect. The law's lauch date was bought earlier because of high demand for diverse entertainment. Regional radio broadcasting was also introduced early across the country.

MBC Radio Service

The MBC Radio system is non-commercial as with their TV service and there are 6 stations currently in operation:

MBC Home Service (Speech Based)
MBC World Service
West Athens Service (Political discussion)
MBC Journal Service (News)
MBC Music Service
MBC Arts Service

Major Commercial Radio Broadcasters

City Radio Group (operates West FM)
Virgin Radio
Music Radio Group (operates Western FM, Coast FM and Swan AM)
Lingua Group (operates 6 stations with different languages: English, Greek, Spanish, Polish French and Turkish)
AMIR (Athens and Midlands Independent Radio)

Jargon and such...

Terms used by the Athens and Midlands government are explained here

Principal Holidays

1 November Constitution Day: the formal recognition of Athens and Midlands
First Monday of each month Bank Holidays
The Chinese New Year Holiday (This year's holiday will be on 29th January 2006)