Sikuk
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| Flag of Sikuk | |
| Motto: As for service, the people. | |
| No Map Available Yet | |
| Region | Gensei |
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| Capital | Yuro-cho |
| Official Language(s) | Gengo (official) Various European languages spoken in homes |
| Leader | Benno Kohl |
| Population | about a quarter billion |
| Currency | paper Kimkouka |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Sikuk 시국
Geography
Sikuk is on the continent Sitou, on the planet Gensei. The continent resembles a potato with two peninsulas jutting out of the northeast side. The continent stretches from the southern polar icecap to well above the equator. The peninsulas are covered in thick jungles, while most of the rest of the north is savannah, with some scrub and a few patches of desert. Broadleaf forests cover the middle and the south is mostly needleleaf forest.
Travel
Getting in and out
Passports are required for all travellers going into the country, except those coming from Kimtou. The Kohl Spaceport is the only way to get into the nation from space. Numerous airports in the cities service cities within Sikuk as well as Kimtou. Getting Around Transportation is generally good everywhere, and includes roads, trams, trains, buses, subways and taxis. Fuel prices tend to be a bit higher then those of their neighbour, so public transportation is recommended. Trains may not run over 100 Kilometres per hour and tracks often need repair. Dangerous Places Overall a generally safe country. The unsettled territories, which still make up a greater part of the country are lawless.
Population
The population is about 200 million and grows rapidly because of a high birthrate.
Philosophy/Religion
Atheists make up 50% of the population. Of these atheists, about 70% have a “post-modern” philosophy. 20% claim existentialism of a Sartreist or Camusian sort. 5% are Objectivist and the other 5 have no particular type of atheism. Roman Catholics make up 40% of the theists. Lutherans make up 30%, Church of England 15%, Anabaptist 5%, while 10% of theists (5% of total population) are Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Folk Religion and various others.
Government
Style
Sikuk is a constitutional democratic republic. The Constitution is loosley interpreted. The Parliament is elected by popular vote by the districts that the nation is divided into. This branch of the government has the most power. The Chief Minister is elected when his/her party gains a majority vote in the parliament. Chief Minister is responsible for signing bills passed by the Parliament into laws or vetoing them. The Parliament may override the veto with a 51% majority. The Supreme Court, the top judicial body, checks the laws for constitutionality and can repeal them, but can be overridden with a 65% vote, even if the law blatantly violates the constitution.
Political Parties
Major
Social Democratic Party- Pro-welfare state. Usually the SDP is against regulating people's personal lives, but has been willing to push gun and drug bans. Their eventual goal is the complete destruction of capitalism, but unlike the more radical Union of Socialist Workers (see Minor under Political Parties), it believes in a “piecemeal approach” to establishing complete socialisation, getting the public to accept individual programs rather than immediately raising taxes to 100% and outlawing priate property.
Christian Democratic Federation- A Christian Conservative party. Sometimes seen as pro-business, but the CDF has been more than willing in the past to accept government regulation of business. Often, the CDF is perfectly willing to accept and even praise socialism when they can justify it on christian grounds.
Free Democratic Party- Calls itself “the Liberals”. The FDP has never taken a definite stand on any issue, although it has been against any major socialisation, like the kind the SDP calls for, and it has opposed the CDF's proposal for compulsory military service for all youths over 18. The FDP has been called the “King-maker”, since no single party gets a majority vote, and they must form coalitions with a third party. Recently, the FDP changed its coalition to the SDP.
Minor
Union of Socialist Workers- a communist party, which favours a quicker end to capitalism than the SDP. The USW has never been violent on its own, but do turn violent at off-world interstellar trade conferences with other anti-capitalist groups. It has connections with Kimtou's Workers Revolutionary Front, and several members have been executed in Kimtou. Kimtou's other communist party, the People's Democratic Union has been approached by them to gain some kind of connection, but the PDU will have nothing to do with them.
The Greens- Sikuk's major environmentalist group turned into a minor political party. By no means a single-issue party, its platform includes stands on social justice, health care, legal system reform education and similarly. It is seen by many as an even more radical version of the USW. Like the USW, members of the Greens causing trouble in Kimtou have been executed.
Objectivity- Sikuk's only true Classical Liberal party. Most of the party's members are Objectivists (people who believe in Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy), while others include people who are frustrated with the lack of any moral foundation in the other parties. The party was not set up in the hope that direct political action would cause Sikuk to become like they want it, but rather to educate the people on political philosophy and to block some of the more absurd legislation.
Economy
Sikuk's economy is lablled as “strong” by the UN and has an annual per capita income of under $11,000. Unemployment is currently just below 8%. Shortly after the planet was settled, Sikuk was economically better off than its neighbour Kimtou, but because of its socialist policies and the brain drain that follows, the economy is starting to resemble that of developing nations.
Products
Sikuk has long been a centre of book publishing, because of its neighbour's insatiable appetite for reading. Food production is also important. Some believe it is a sign of a failing economy that basket weaving is becoming a major industry.
Currency
The currency is the kimkouka. Sikuk and its neighbour Kimtou once had a common, gold-backed kimkouka, but the government of Sikuk wanted greater control over the market, so a paper fiat kimkouka was released. It is regarded as a slightly weaker currency, at about 2 kimkoukas to an American dollar.
Employment Issues
Labour/Management Relations
Sikuk's labour is almost entirely controlled by the unions, one for all public sector workers and one for private sector workers. Private sector workers and employers have little good to say about their unions. Public sector unions grow in power as the size of the government grows. Workers must join the union after becoming an employee of a government agency. A merger is being discussed between the unions of the public sector and those of the private sector and most workers and employers are nervous about how it will work out. Less than 10% of the population is self-employed. Many employers in the public and private sector employers offered lifetime employment until the economy went too far down.
Unemployment
Unemployment is at about 8% and rising steadily in Sikuk. Most people in the government do not see this as a problem, because the extensive welfare state takes care of them. Others say the welfare state is the problem, taking a great deal of money out of the economy, taxes and bad currency scaring off foreign investment.
Education
Education is compulsory from age 5 to 16. For the first 5 years, children attend a “Ground school” where they learn the basics of language, science, math and history. Depending on the grades a student receives, and in which subjects, a group of school councillors decides whether the student goes to a university preparation school, a trade school or a labour force school. Private and home education is banned.
Media
Printing presses, audio and visual broadcasting equipment are licensed in Sikuk. Licenses can be revoked for printing or broadcasting immoral or subversive content.
Print Media
The Mirror: The Mirror is a pro-socialist magazine. Its stories and exposes are usually factual and even-handed, while some have criticised The Mirror for skewing facts and only presenting a one-sided view. Its spelling mistakes have been so legendary, that it has misspelled its own name on the front page. For this, some people have taken to calling it the Rirmor.
The Globe: The Globe is a conservative tabloid with sensationalistic stories, even on the front page. It contains a great deal of Celebrity gossip. Most believe it has little value whatsoever, and it has never had its licence revoked because of its tabloid status. It is very anti-socialist, but not necessarily pro-capitalist.
The Herald: The Herald is a centrist broadsheet. Its pages contain even-handed reporting on a variety of topics and even in its editorial pages, rarely takes a strong stand on anything. The Herald is best known for its culture reporting and prints in Gengo, all European languages, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese and Hindi. It is widely read around the galaxy.
Broadcast Media
The Nine Government Stations: The “Airwaves to the People” Act nationalised most of the television and radio stations. The government has since changed programming of stations, created new stations and closed others. Each Television Channel has a corresponding radio station, noted in partntheses, and also in the parentheses is noted when a radio station doed not correspond with television. Channel 1 (FM 88.1) is for news, Channel 2 is for dramas (Radio Channel 2, FM 90 is for popular music), Channel 3 is for arts (Radio Station 3, FM 90.3 is for classical music), Channel 4 is for cooking (Radio Station 4, FM 90.7 is for traffic), Channel 5 (FM 92.2) is for education, Channel 6 (FM 93.5) is sports, Channel 7 (FM 93.9) is for children, Channel 8 (FM 95.3) is for foreign programming and Channel 9 (no corresponding radio station) is public access. SikukVizhon 10 (SikukVision): A privately-run television station. Although it is owned by the same media company as The Globe, the government does not make any special considerations for tabloidish television reporting, so the station is more like a television version of The Herald.
