Location: Lazarus

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Peoples Democratic Republic of Zaze is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Choi Hyun-Su with an iron fist, and remarkable for its anti-smoking policies. Its hard-nosed, cynical population of 6.371 billion are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and the Environment. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Seyeo. The average income tax rate is 99%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

People take government jobs for the frequent flier miles, conductors wield diamond-encrusted batons to fit in with their freshly gilded surroundings, the government is cracking down on subversive groups, and children as young as twelve are conscripted into the armed forces. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Zaze's national animal is the orangutan , which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is Buddhism, and its currency is the Zazean Won.

Zaze is ranked 3,619th in Lazarus and 100,817th in the world for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -10 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and