Biotopia Culture
Address
Citizen: common and official term; technically refers to anyone who has taken the Oath of the Patriot but is used in a fraternal sense to engender a sense of community cohesion and social solidarity. Used to deliberately distinguish from the title Republican to infer to someone within ones own social circle, community or nationality usually to emphasis the later terminology. Note: the unofficial use conveys a sense of professional or formal relationship rather like “comrade” in many socialist cultures.
Elected Administrator (E.A.): official term; designates the elected holder of any official government department to the exclusion of unelected administrative positions inside the official government structure. This term also excludes reference to elected representatives or administrators of non-government organisations. “F” is sometimes affixed to the acronym to form F.E.A representing Former Elected Administrator. Note: the years of office holding may sometimes, although rarely, be attached to the end.
Elected Representative (E.R.): common and official term; technically only used in reference to non-department holding parliamentarians (backbenchers) but has been popularly expanded to generally include anyone who is an elected representative or administrator of a non-government organisation. Note: holders of a position equivalent to the Elected Administrator usually use the term President and may indiscriminately mix President and Elected Representative as official titles although this is not technically correct.
Hero of the Republic (H.R.): official term; posthumous title awarded to people considered to have contributed in a significant and meaningful way to the development and improvement of life in Biotopia. Awards are distributed every four years during a national ceremony and the title is able to be bestowed on Citizens or Republicans. The awards were made posthumous to ensure they were distributed to people who filled the criteria throughout their lives rather then award single achievements.
Honorary Citizen (H.C.): official term; a title awarded to any Citizen who has made a significant contribution to improving the quality of life in Biotopia. The title extinguishes at the next yearly ceremony but can be re-awarded multiple times to the same candidate.
Internationalist: official term; used to describe anyone who either officially supports the Biotopian state or advocates for non-capitalism, democracy, Humane Rights and peace. Secondary usage: identifies a member of the Internationalist Faction of the Biotopian Citizen Party.
Party Member (P.M.): common and official term; primarily a customary title since Party membership is no longer a prerequisite to employment in the civil service or holding other official positions. It now is used to simply designate an official member of the Biotopian Citizen Party and usually used in honorary lists of distinctions. In common terminology it is used to describe someone who is closely linked with or is a strong supporter of the government and has a derogative connotation. Note: akin to brown-nose or sycophant.
Colloquialisms
Comrade: conveys friendship or close relationships unlike the formal address of Citizen and can also be used to express admiration or respect for someone outside the immediate social network. Examples – “please meet comrade Dennis my half-brother”, “comrade Che was a great man”, “comrade, please come over for dinner tonight”
Dutch: describes the untrustworthy or cunning behaviour of someone especially in political or economic dealings. Examples – “that loanshark practices dutch trade”, “the opposition leader uses dutch tactics”, “that dutch butcher cannot be trusted”
Green Handed: a political extremist commonly coming to mean someone who behaves or acts in a single minded way. Examples – “the police officer was green handed in his handling of the case”, “that man has a green handed approach to animal rights”, “don’t be so green handed about the issue”
White Faced: a derogatory term mostly for intellectuals or artists who mimic human culture but anyone who appears to reject Biotopian culture for human innovations on the preference that it is superior. Examples – “the exhibition was white faced and degrading”, “all his books are white faced”, “she always treats local cinema with a white faced view”
Wooden Toothed: someone who exaggerates or tells tall tales. Examples – “there are many wooden toothed people at the pub”, “grandfather has wooden teeth”, “children shouldn’t talk with wooden teeth”
Costume
There is no mandatory dress code in Biotopia except relating to uniforms. The only uniforms worn are by professional services such as the police, paramedics, fire officers as well as school children. Biotopia has liberal nudity laws with many citizens wearing skimpy or even no clothing (weather permitting) because of the minimal asexual difference between the male and female sexes. There are of course health and safety regulations requiring a minimum amount of coverage in the workplace. Traditional costumes are worn for ceremonial and traditional purposes but ancient design patterns still emerge in contemporary clothing to reflect regional or local differences in textiles and custom.
Gender Concepts
There is no formal gender-specific address or title used in Biotopia and where Celdonian or other gender-specific languages are used the female term is used in preference. Much academic work has been done investigating the social and political implications of a largely asexual society and the divergences between Biotopian and human society. At birth all reproductive organs are neutral (female) with development of the sexual organs not occurring until puberty. Gender specific terminology is used mostly to identity mother/father origins and in the medical area of genetics and sexual health.
Holidays
- New Years Eve: 1 January (1900)
- Springfest: 5 March (1994)
- Republic Day: 20 April (1894)
- Carnival: 1 May (1968)
- Winterfest: 15 August (1999)
- Harvest Festival: 16 October (1995)
- Peace Day: 25 November (1954)
- Citizen Day: 20 December (1994)
For more information see Biotopia
