Spotlight on:

“octopi, octopodes, octopuses ”

The United States of Schimdi is a large, devout nation, renowned for its absence of drug laws. Its compassionate population of 81 million enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, liberal government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, the Environment, and Social Welfare. The average income tax rate is 61%, 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.

Aeroplanes have been converted into housing units after all air travel was outlawed, anti-government web sites are springing up, the study of medicine is popular throughout Schimdi, and citizens are expected to be proficient in at least five languages. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is a problem, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Schimdi's national animal is the octopus, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the sch.

Schimdi is ranked 5th in the region and 1,902nd in the world for Highest Unemployment Rates.