Braunekuste

The Province of Braunekuste is a charter province of the Community of Sober Thought. When attempts at a pan-Coastal Provinces union failed in 2005, Potato Island adhered to Braunekuste in 2006 as a newly-incorporated and highly autonomous municipality covering all of the formerly independent province. Unlike any other province except Capital Province, Braunekuste’s territory is entirely covered by federally chartered municipalities.

Province-wide

Geography

Mainland Braunekuste shares many geological features with its offshore neighbours on Bristle and Potato Islands. It is surrounded on two sides by the ocean. In fact, the exposed low-grade iron ore deposits -- combined with the salt water of the sea -- combined to form the brown coast after which the province was named. River valleys and treed plains supplement its well-worn mountains.

The soil outside the valleys is conducive only to marginal farming and livestock grazing. The moderately rugged terrain dominated by many small rivers is attractive to tourists but makes highways expensive to build. In contrast, Potato Island is rather flat and devoted to agriculture.

Braunekuste, with 2.5% of the national population, is the second least populous province in the nation. Although the province bears a Germanic name, its official and popularly spoken languages are English and French. Its population is about 28% French-speaking, concentrated in the east and north, reduced from 33% prior to 2006.

Higher legislatures

Braunekustians or Braunekustien(ne)s have six single-member electoral districts for which they elect members to federal House of the Federation, one for each chartered municipality which cover the entirety of the province. Two additional MHFs are elected at large to represent preferences poorly reflected in the district elections. Normally, three MHFs are French and five are English, but there is no federal or provincial requirement that this be so.

The province is represented by two members in the federal House of the Provinces, usually by the provincial premier and the federal relations minister. It is customary, but not legally obligatory, for the two MHPs to be from different linguistic communities.

The provincial legislature divides into two linguistic sections only when matters of education, language or culture are being decided. Otherwise, the seventy-five (formerly sixty before Potato Island joined) deputies or deputés are seated together and vote together. Explicitly language-based parties are banned by the provincial constitution.

Provincial government

Provincial property taxes are within national norms and -- since much of the business of the province is actually conducted over the telephone -- business taxes are low as well.

As a cultural-linguistic matter, primary, intermediate and secondary education is administered by separate English and French sections of the education ministry. There are two or three public secondary schools in each chartered city and county, and an appropriate number of intermediate and primary schools as well.

Tertiary education is administered bilingually by a third section of the education ministry. The only government supported university and its associated professional schools is the bilingual University of Braunekuste or Université du Braunekuste, with campuses and faculties in the three self-styled cities: Grandville, social sciences, health sciences; Moineville, humanities, law; and Johnstown, business, sciences.

The Braunekuste Gendarmerie or Gendarmerie braunekustienne is the bilingual provincial police force. The Bee Gees or Jé Bés, as they are affectionately known, are rather unremarkably organized with large detachments in the cities, moderate detachments in sub-prefectures, small detachments elsewhere, and mobile detachments active patrolling the highways and railways.

Civil law presents in form like Gallic legal codes but in function it more closely resembles Anglo-American codes.

Defence

In every wave of one hundred million national population, the newly enlarged province raises about two and half battalion equivalents. Every third battalion in the combat arms is all-francophone, and only slightly less in the combat support and service support arms. Potato Island contributes two companies each wave, but these are integrated into the units raised by the anglophone mainland until there are enough to fill out an entire battalion on the island.

These members of the Braunekustian component of the CDF Civil Guard, known in French as the Garde civile braunekustienne, are commanded by the provincial government and are called out to mitigate or ameliorate the effects of natural disasters, civil unrest or other public emergencies. During wartime or by vote of the House of the Federation, the Civil Guard may be nationalised and deployed in 5 series divisions of armoured infantry.

The regiments, or non-operational hosts for the operational units raised, are:

1. Braunekustian Cuirassers / Cuirassers braunekustiens

• Equipped with tracked armoured personnel carriers
• One battalion raised every even-numbered population wave

2. Braunekustian Mounted Fusiliers / Fusiliers montés braunekustiens

• Equipped with wheeled armoured personnel carriers
• One battalion raised every odd-numbered population wave

3. Braunekustian Engineering Regiment / Régiment braunekustien de génie

• Equipped with minesweepers, flamethrowers, mechanical tools, etc., as appropriate
• Four companies raised each population wave

4. Braunekustian Transport Regiment / Régiment braunekustien des transports

• Equipped with soft skinned trucks and jeeps
• Two companies raised each wave

5. Braunekustian Health Regiment / Régiment braunekustien de santé

• Two total of surgical, dental, public health and ambulance companies each wave

Municipalities

Unlike nearly all other provinces, Braunekuste does not have a single metropolis. Instead, there are six municipalities each with about 0.4% of the national population, listed in declining size: Johnstown, Loyalist County, Grandville, Moineville, Potato Island and comté Mirage.

Johnstown

The provincial metropolis and de facto commercial capital, home to 20% of the provincial population, is the informal economic seat of Braunekuste. Residents elect a mayor and four controllers (collectively forming a five-member board of control) at large, plus ten city councillors in wards. Money talks and -- as far as the city government is concerned -- money only speaks English. This short-sighted language policy has actually bolstered the size and economic importance of Moineville which, although clearly located within the francophone area of the province, has two official languages.

The state-sponsored University of Braunekuste has its faculties of business and the sciences at its Johnstown campus. The privately-operated but state-sanctioned University of Johnstown offers a broad-spectrum secular education to those who can afford to pay the tuition fees.

Water and water-related products dominated the early economy of Braunekuste. Ships were required to connect the mainland with the offshore Bristle and Potato Islands, and the hardwood timber provided the materials for shipbuilding. In earlier days, the trees felled in the rural areas of the province were sent to Johnstown to be burnt into charcoal, cut into lumber, ground into paper pulp or erected into buildings.

Similarly, low-grade iron ore shallow deposits were scraped and mined for processing at the commercial capital. Ill-advised attempts at specialty automobile manufacturing collapsed due to technical problems and the withdrawal of tariffs against higher quality and lower priced foreign automotive imports in response to an issue.

Land transportation in the province today is still hampered by hilly terrain and frequent valleys, but such roads of asphalt and iron as there are all lead to the mini-Rome of Johnstown. Goods are shipped overseas or to the Coastal Province’s islands through the municipality’s minor seaport which also doubles as a naval base. Airline flights typically connect with regional hubs like Drewburgh, Potato Island and Kingsmount, with less frequent service to national hubs like Schweindorf, Capital Province and Mont Royaume.

Despite these faltering industries, an oligarchy of rich founding families still keeps an economic stranglehold over the economy by cross ownership of fuel, transportation, financial and media companies. The oligarchies were able to overcome their linguistic prejudices long enough to eventually join in the tele-services boom initiated in Moineville.

Loyalist County

The de facto Hicksville capital, home to 20% of the provincial population, is the informal good ole boy seat of the province. Its territory comprises the entire rural English-speaking area on the mainland. Although all federally chartered municipalities have the same rights and obligations, regardless of the style of government or population density, unilingually anglophone Loyalist County has arranged its government to suit its traditions and needs.

The county warden is elected at large, but the rest of the county is a hodge podge of county councillors elected at large or in local areas. Some settlements within chartered counties are big enough to warrant town charters, but provincial political culture and county practice have precluded formal secessions. These are represented by three or five town councillors elected in these semi-urban areas only, and who elect among them a town reeve who also sits on the county council. The rest of the county elects county councillors for county sections roughly equivalent in population to the provincially-chartered towns. 7 Politics in this area are very socially and political conservative, and normally Loyalist County’s representative in the House of the Federation represents the Rural Alliance (Sober Thought) party. At the local level, parties do not officially operate and voters favour independent-minded (but still very conservative) candidates.

Riparian navigation provided the first transportation routes to the wild interior, and small boats provided the vessels for those routes. Even as fur trapping, specialty crop farming and other primary industries grew in importance, they were made feasible by the access provided by the rivers. This remains true of rural anglophone Braunekuste today. Loyalist County still feeds the pulp and paper mills with softwood, and what remains of the once-proud carpentry industry is kept alive in the county.

Federally-funded ferry service links Loyalist County with Bristle Island and a federally-funded multipurpose bridge links it with Potato Island. Otherwise, transportation is rather spotty.

Grandville

The de jure government capital, home to 16% of the provincial population, is naturally is the political seat of the Provincial Assembly or Assemblée provinciale. Like the other five chartered municipalities, Grandville elects four members at large to the assembly in addition to those elected purely to represent population.

Although the city of Grandville is located inland upriver deep within the anglophone part of the province, it has chosen to support official bilingualism at the municipal level, even without pressure from the provincial legislature. Its mayor or maire is elected at large, and the councillors or conseilleurs represent two dozen single-member wards for four-year terms.

Obviously as a capital city, the quaternary industries were originally and remain the primary employers in the city. The University of Braunekuste or Université du Braunekuste has its faculties of social sciences and health sciences at its Grandville campus. However, the city also participates in the call centre and other tele-service boom originally pioneered in Moineville and Johnstown.

Moineville

The de facto francophone regional capital, home to 16% of the provincial population, is the informal cultural seat of the province because it has embraced French and English as not only official languages but also working and living languages. It is not afraid of linguistic and cultural exchanges like many in anglophone Braunekuste and rural francophone Braunekuste. Consequently, it has twinned itself with Ajaccio (Kelse) and Inar (Baranxtu).

The state-supported University of Braunekuste/Université du Braunekuste has its faculties of humanities and law at the Moineville campus. The Université catholique braunekustienne – both the province’s only religious and French-only university – is also located in town. There are also an unknown number of religious schools operating without government approval throughout the province, but none can grant diplomas let alone degrees.

Francophone Braunekuste used to be a financial and cultural backwater, overshadowed by their near neighbours in English by bigger and more powerful anglophone Braunekuste and in French by their nearer neighbours in ever bigger and more powerful francophone Hochelaga. In recent decades, especially those in Moineville itself, people learned to be proud of their own heritage without elevating or disparaging the heritage of their neighbours. The visual and performing arts exploded, and interest in local francophone culture spurred a growing tourist industry.

Furthermore, the willingness of locals to embrace both their own native French language and their second English language led to a growing boom in tele-services. After a long period of absolute and relative decline in the region, the province seized upon its bilingual human capital to increase its hold on call centres and other tele-services. As a low-wage (based on the dubious international economic performance of the Denkmark), highly-educated and bilingual workforce Moineville captured a lucrative market.

Moineville’s road and federally-funded rail connections are equally good to southern Hochelaga as it is to the rest of Braunekuste. The city has its own privately-operated air connections to regional hubs, although it is poorly served by CommunitAir which concentrates its flights in Grandville and Johnstown.

Potato Island

Main article: Potato Island.

The de facto spud capital of the province and nation, home to 16% of the provincial population, is the agricultural seat of Braunekuste. The formerly independent province of Potato Island joined the mainland province of Braunekuste on January 1, 2006, after receiving positive referenda results in both jurisdictions. Although theoretically disrupting the linguistic equilibrium existing in Braunekuste prior to joining, Potato Island operates practically as a semi-independent and unilingually English entity.

The island municipality is flat, and its soil good mainly for raising undemanding crops like potatoes from which it takes its name. Fishing, bird hunting and tourism round out its economy. It is twinned with the fellow agricultural centre of Brig, Mikitivity.

The island itself is a single electoral district for the federal House of the Federation, normally represented by a partisan from the Rural Alliance or Conservative Party (Sober Thought). The settlement of Princetown, formerly the only part of the province with a federal charter, is the seat for most government purposes. Although it has deputies to represent it at its new provincial capital of Grandville, the province delegates some of its powers to the municipal government in view of its independent past and island status.

Island College at Princetown, operated by the municipal government and subject to residency restrictions, offers practical diplomas in agriculture, tourism, general sciences and general arts. Graduates of the latter may convert their diploma into university equivalents and enter the University of Braunekuste on the mainland with advance credit.

Princetown’s airport, after the island adhered to mainland Braunekuste, is now poorly served by both public sector (CommunitAir) and private sector airlines. Nevertheless, the CDF Air Service runs maritime patrol and search and rescue flights from the settlement.

Princetown’s harbour is a minor commercial seaport, terminus of regular ferry route of STaqua to mainland Braunekuste and home port to a small fishing fleet. The CDF Naval Service does maintains a presence on the island with mine warfare boats, patrol boats and training corvettes as part of its coastal defence operations.

Potato Island has a rail-road bridge link to the mainland paid for by the federal government, while it is responsible for maintaining a network of rural roads. Rail service connects most of the villages with each other and Princetown, although mainly for agricultural transportation rather than public transit.

Comté Mirage

The de facto folk art capital, home to 12% of the provincial population, comprises the entire rural French-speaking area on the mainland. Like Loyalist County, its anglophone counterpart, comté Mirage is rather insular, is officially unilingual and supported much the same extractive industries (with fishing more common among the francophones than the anglophones).

Mirage County elects one county préfet or prefect at large, and the four quarters of the county elect sous-préfets or sub-prefects at large within their area. On top of this are sixteen county conseilleurs or councillors for as many ranges. The prefect and sub-prefects form a sort of executive committee for the municipal government, and some uncontroversial municipal powers are delegated to five-member committees consisting of a sub-prefect and the four local councillors in the quarter.

While Loyalist County has focused on more practical carpentry, Mirage County has specialized in folk art. Tourists from across the province, region and country trek to small hamlets to see colourfully decorated doors, barns, farm implements and such. The best examples are transported to Moineville where they are properly preserved and presented according to the norms of art museums.