Spotlight on:

“Moo!”

The Unpretentious Republic of Allenstan is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its ban on automobiles. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 10.782 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is effectively ruled by the Department of Social Welfare, with areas such as Defence and Commerce receiving almost no funds by comparison. The average income tax rate is 67%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising fourteen-year-old boys selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

All forms of advertising are banned, teachers are routinely tested to keep their jobs, the nation has an international reputation for compassion, and marijuana is legal in the privacy of your own home. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling, probably because of the country's utter lack of prisons. Allenstan's national animal is the tarsier, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Allenstan perun.

Allenstan is ranked 128th in the region and 48,371st in the world for Rudest Citizens.