"Pli grandaj kaĝoj, pli longaj ĉenoj"* The government of Aalen opposes the partition of this factbook in various sections.
These forms of bourgeois specialisation of knowledge and social life have been abolished, and are kept here for the sole benefit of the foreign reader.
Official name | Aalen |
Map | |
Demonym | Aalian |
Capital city | Irmak |
Official language | Esperanto |
Ethnic groups | White European, with significant Turkic and Middle Eastern minorities |
Recognised religions | none |
Government | Council republic |
Head of state/government | Council of People's Deputies |
Independence | 25 November 1979 |
Area | |
Population | 9 million |
GDP | 115 billion USD (estimate) |
Currency | none - foreign currencies are used as hard currency for trade purposes |
Name
The name 'Aalen' is an exonym from the [language]. It refers to the abundance of eels near the mouth of the [name] river.
History
[Pre-colonial history]
In the 19th century, it was settled by [empire] as a trade outpost and naval base, to secure the sea route to the [western sea].
The attempts to assimilate the local population, by ending their nomadic lifestyle and imposing the colonisers' language and customs, led to a long but discontinuous campaign of resistance led by [resistance leaders], which was defeated only in 1870.
The discovery of important minerary resources at the beginning of the 20th century led to the growth of an industrial sector around the capital Irmak, and to increased urbanisation and immigration.
[more stuff goes here]
Geography
Aalen occupies the southern tip of the [peninsula], in the continent of Edea, the adjacent islands of [name] and [name] and a number of uninhabited islets and rocks. The northern border is formed by a mountain massif, with hills and valleys near the sea.
The [river] crosses the peninsular portion of the country from north to south.
Demographics
Culture and Society
In Aalen the idea of family is intertwined with the larger concept of community. Activities that in individualistic societies would be performed within a single family nucleus, such as living in the same space or close to each other, managing expenses, preparing and consuming food, cleaning, and raising infants are all managed at a higher level, in urban neighbourhoods or rural settlements formed by hundreds of people.
Aalians experience many forms of close personal relationships, and no kind of marriage is legally recognised. However, certificates recognising marriage-like status may be granted to emigrants, to ensure that they enjoy the legal protections accorded to married couples in pre-revolutionary countries.
Children are raised communally, and as a consequence blood ties are slowly becoming less relevant, but the persistence of old customs and the proximity between blood relatives that they remain important to this day.
Slavery and servitude are abolished in all their forms: no person can be the master of another.
Religious worship is largely confined to the private sphere. Many Aalians are devout in their everyday life, but their worship is often syncretic and struggles to be identified as a single, organised system of belief.
As luxury goods are no longer produced Aalians wear simple, uniform clothes, with few to no jewelry, save for celebratory occasions.
An important generational divide exists between the "revolutionary generation", who took part in the long struggle that led to the uprising of 1979, and the "new people", that was either born afterwards or too young to remember it.
Politics
Economy
Due to the lack of currency Aalen's accounting authorities do not measure the Gross Domestic Product, or other data which employ capitalistic exchange-value. However, rough estimates are provided.
Some measurements may show marked differences with other countries in so far as some socially-useful activities (unpaid housework like cleaning and cooking food, child-raising) that aren't taken into account elsewhere are considered 'labour' in Aalen.
GDP: ~ $115,000,000,000 (115 billion)
GDP per capita: ~ $12,778
GDP by sector: unknown
Labour force: 7,200,000
Labour force by sector: unknown
Unemployment rate: 0%
Inflation: n/a (due to the absence of a universal exchange equivalent)
Hours worked in a year:
Labour productivity (GDP/hours worked):
Aalen has a socialist economy.
All means of production, distribution and exchange are held in common.
Goods and services are distributed according to the communist principle ("from each according to its ability, to each according to its need").
Factors of production are allocated by the Office for the Division of Labour (ODL) on the basis of the demands of the base communal assemblies, and of data collected in real time from the workplaces.
There is no property: rather, usufruct applies.
There is no currency, as exchanges are no longer mediated by money (but occur on the basis of reciprocal obligation), and economic planning is done using calculation in kind.
People who are able to work apply for jobs at the ODL. However they may be assigned to other occupations in times of necessity.
Specialised or dangerous jobs have shorter working hours.
The working population is 80% of the total.
Due to the impossibility of complete self-sufficiency, Aalen trades with other economies in the region, exporting manufactured goods and metals, and importing goods which cannot be produced efficiently internally.
Stable foreign currencies are used as a hard currency for foreign trade purposes.
Military
The Armed Forces are organised on the basis of the national service for all citizens, beginning on the year they reach the age of nineteen and ending on the year they reach the age of forty-five.
Training is staggered over time, and proportional to a soldier's duties. On average, enlistees perform 150 days of service on the first year and then a total of 200 days over the following fifteen years, after which they are moved to second-line units.
People who are elected to command responsibilities, or assigned to technical or special units, perform additional training.
There are two branches - the Army and the Fleet - which exist as skeleton units, that can be mobilised to full strength by the National Assembly in time of war or natural disaster.
* This is the motto we would write on our coins and banknotes, if we had them.