Location: Osiris

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Constitutional Monarchy of Zemalda is a huge, genial nation, renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, cynical population of 715 million are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Social Welfare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Zanzibar. The average income tax rate is 67%, and even higher for the wealthy. A substantial private sector is led by the Book Publishing industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing and Tourism.

Clowns are being rounded up and admitted to mental institutions, corporations cut costs by taking away safety-features on their products, emergency room admissions for 'stampede injuries' have skyrocketed since the introduction of weekly Sabbath Eve sales, and the armed forces are locked in an expensive and bloody war abroad to stamp out possible terrorists. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zemalda's national animal is the Zebra, and its currency is the Zanga.

Zemalda is ranked 1,538th in Osiris and 62,359th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -13 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and