The Republic of Westenam is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, compulsory military service, and keen interest in outer space. The hard-nosed, hard-working population of 561 million Westenamians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The large, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 48.1%.

The thriving Westenamian economy, worth 40.3 trillion Aurelis a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 71,762 Aurelis, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.8 times as much as the poorest.

Contestants on Westenam's Got Talent are screened by the government to make sure that they actually have talent, moonshine has made a resurgence, citizens receive notices of disenfranchisement along with their parking tickets, and officials pull all-nighters to check immigrants for potential links to terrorists. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Westenam's national animal is the Brown Bear, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Westenam is ranked 45,508^th in the world and 779^th in the South Pacific for Most Patriotic, with 29.55 flags saluted per person per day.