Spotlight on:

“To ourselves we must be true”

The Free Land of Transeden is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its absence of drug laws. Its compassionate, hard-working, intelligent population of 5.592 billion hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, liberal morass -- juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, and Social Equality. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hope. The average income tax rate is 34%. A tiny private sector is dominated by the Soda Sales industry.

Referenda are held for every conceivable government action, the government has legalised small-scale capitalism, the government has cut taxes in the face of widespread tax evasion, and the Federal Council of Transeden has been announced as the new Head of State. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Transeden's national animal is the miniature goat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Varessan Crown.

Transeden is ranked 41st in the region and 47,320th in the world for Largest Arms Manufacturing Sector.