Hi y'all

I'd love to get more involved in international RP so I wanted to sort of put out a call for people who'd like to be implicated in some way in the politics of Zolo.

For one, as it seems Tytor is not really active at the moment, I wanted to re-open the question of who the founding colonial power of Zolo could be. The Republic was originally the colony of an imperialist power which later became independent, and I'd love to have that colonial power be the nation of someone who's active, so that the history of Zolo's might be intertwined with theirs more explicitly-- any volunteers? It'd be perfect if your country is not Ardian and had some phase in its history (1800s or 1900s ideally) in which it functioned as a colonial imperial power and could feasibly have sent settlers to colonize Zolo (who would then behave in a genocidal manner to the native people). A large portion (the dominant portion) of Zolo's population would then ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and religiously be an extension of your country.

Secondly, I was hoping that perhaps some foreign companies or governments could be entangled financially with Zolo, so that those countries would then have some stake in Zolo's civil conflicts and politics. I've already tried to set it up so that it would make sense that Zolo would be a supplier of cheap fruit and coffee, as well as various other products such as minerals, to most of the world-- thus I reckon that any serious turmoil in Zolo could cause the price of fruit to rise all around the world. So I guess I'm humbly asking that others could integrate the fact of Zolo's existence into their country's own economic and political storytelling, at least insofar as it would affect the price of fruit, coffee, sugar, beef, spices, cobalt, lumber, rum, and lithium; which would in turn concern consumers and those with political and economic power. Perhaps concern about the ethics of the production of fruit that is being exported to your countries could be a jumping off point for some sort of scandal or political intervention.

Thirdly, I've written that the Republic of Zolo has $72 billion in national debt: I figured maybe half of this could be owned by foreign governments or financial institutions, which would then give them an immediate interest in the politics of the country. Anyone want to volunteer to own some of Zolo's national debt?

Fourth, the way I imagine it, Zolo is not quite a post-colonial nation as it is a neo-colonial one. Most of the population is extremely poor, and it is not very developed or industrialized. Although most of the country's wealth is owned by an extremely small portion of the (settler) population, I imagine that a significant amount of the country's economy and land could be dominated by foreign companies as well. After all, the government of Zolo does not prioritize the needs of Zolo's population over the possibility of making a profit: they don't care how it affects the local population if they can make some money by allowing foreign companies to gobble up the country's natural resources, to destroy its ecosystems, or severely underpay its population. This particularly advantageous business environement makes Zolo a perfect place to write-in any companies who value profit over ethics doing some shady things. If you've got something unethical you'd like to write-in a company doing, you might as well make it happen in Zolo. And it just makes sense that the country would be attractive to ethically unconcerned investors: if we RP that a company based in your country is operating in Zolo, it would in the short term be very advantageous to that company, while in the long term providing a pathway to engaging your country in Zolo's political struggles. Would anyone like for a company or companies based in their country to own a significant amount of land, or a significant part of the mining, forestry, or agricultural industries in Zolo?

People of the Mundus, hear me! Do you imagine your nations just as morally righteous and unambiguous defenders of human rights, or are they like every government in the world that actually exists, that is, at least a bit evil? I urge you to scandalize your governments by implicating them in the crimes of Zolo for commercial gain. Think about how interesting it might be for the commercial interests of your country to come into conflict with their ethical values or self-image. How will your nations respond to the polticial crises in Zolo which are to come, which will surely disrupt the world market? Just let me know if any of you have any ideas or would like to volunteer your countries for any of this.

I also have a more specific idea for an RP storyline I'd love to flesh out with anyone willing to more generally commercially implicate their country with Zolo that I could DM anyone interested.

In a sense, the Republic of Zolo was founded in war, and has been engaged in an asymmetric sort of warfare against "its own" population since its founding. Before its independence, Zolo was a colony founded by the violent expulsion or subjugation of the indigenous peoples by the settlers from Albion, but after its independence the state's policy of warfare against the native people and annexing their land continued. Much of the land claimed by the fledgling Republic, granted to it by its former colonial rulers, was still occupied and claimed by the indigenous peoples at the time of independence: they never ceded their lands or recognized the right of the Republic to occupy them. Between 1925 and 1955 the Republic fought 11 separate wars within "its own" borders against the Zolo, Sebani, Z'Boju, Lanuyana, and Si'lokan peoples, whose struggles for survival and autonomy were classified as "rebellions". In 1968 there was a massive cross-ethnic rebellion which was violently suppressed by the government over the span of 7 years in a brutal civil war which killed 4 million people; which ended with the destruction of the rebel groups and the more complete political subjugation of the indigenous peoples to the state, but which won (on paper, at least) equal legal and civil rights for indigenous citizens of Zolo and forced the government to legalize the Popular Front. Since 1968 there have been no large-scale wars, but there has been a near-perpetual low-intensity conflict between the indigenous peoples and corporate interests backed by the state intent on taking their land for commercial agriculture, forestry, or mining. Furthermore, indigenous activists have struggled to draw international attention to what they describe as a policy of "systematic criminalization and mass incarceration" of indigenous people by the police. In recent years, these issues have only intensified. Social tensions are high as people protest land theft, police brutality, and mass incarceration; all while the corporate rulers of the country seem to only accelerate their policies of land theft to expand commercial agriculture and mining, and give more funding to the police and military each year while leaving social services underfunded. Cultural, ethnic, religious, and class tensions are simmering. Now it seems that the country may be drawing closer to open war, as indigenous groups express their unwillingness to accept the current colonial state of affairs.

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This morning, May 10 2024, we attacked and destroyed 12 of the enemy's police cruisers in retaliation for the murder and kidnapping of Zolo people by the police. In the last year alone, these colonial occupation forces have murdered at least 438 Zolo. The police are a colonial occupying army on our land whose sole function is the terrorization of the native people of this land, including the Zolo, Sebani, Z'Boju, Lanuyana, and Si'lokan peoples, to maintain their exploitation and rule by the colonizers. They have stolen the name of our people for their evil colonizing state, for they have no culture of their own: all that they have they have stolen from our peoples. Right now, more than 300,000 Zolo are held captive by the prison system, kidnapped so that they may be forced to labor to enrich those same colonizers who claim ownership of our lands, who hoard all the wealth that we produce. Every blow struck against the colonial occupying army by the people is a step closer to freedom. So long as the occupiers remain, our people and our land will not be able to breathe. We will fight so that we may live with freedom and dignity. The land cries out to us to defend it from desecration, as the colonizers spoil our waters, poison the ground, cut all the trees, and kill all the animals. We are the land, and every assault upon it is an assault upon us, just as every assault upon our people is an assault upon the land. The colonizers cannot tolerate a people who will not sell their dignity, their culture, and their mother the land. They have no value but money, but for us, the colonized people, we have no greater value than the land; for we know it is the land that feeds us, and, above all, the land which gives us dignity. We call upon all the peoples trapped within this "Republic" to join us in struggling to overthrow our colonial shackles, and we call upon the people of the entire world to intervene to sanction the colonial regime and arm its indigenous peoples-- for the sake of the ecological wellbeing of our planet, for the sake of universal brotherhood, and to prove that all their talk about human rights is not just talk. Those who love freedom will not bear the colonial entity to survive any longer.

Death to the colonizers!
Long live the Zolo people!

-- Zolo Liberation Front

Last night twelve vehicles belonging to the Williamstown Police Department were destroyed by Indigenous militants. The vehicles were targeted with homemade incendiary devices at around 3 in the morning, and at 7:30am the anarchist publishing collective Uprise Thought received a communique from a group calling itself the Zolo Liberation Front claiming responsibility for the attacks, asking that the communique be made available to the public. In the document, the perpetrators say that they were motivated to attack the police in retaliation for "the murder and kidnapping of Zolo people by the police", who they describe as "a colonial occupying army". In the last year, as many as 3,500 people were killed by police, with at least 2,000 of them being of Indigenous ethnicities, including at least 400 Zolo people killed within the last year. Darren Grant, chief of the Williamstown Police Department, called the attacks "a deeply disturbing incident of terrorist violence", and swore that the Williamstown Police Department "will not rest until these terrorists are brought to justice."

Short name: Zolo
Full name: Republic of Zolo
Capital: Williamstown
Population: 113 million
GDP per capita*: $21,297.94
Literacy rate (%): 71%
Unemployment (%): 12%
Part of the Government in the GDP (%)**: 23%
GDP allowed to the military (%): 4.35%
Population density (x/km2): 22/km2
Name of your national currency: Tytorian Crown
Symbol of your national currency: (whatever Tytor's is)
Value of your national currency when converted to USD: $.56
Three main exports of your nation: fruit, coffee, sugar
Three main imports of your nation: weapons, digital tech, automobiles
I feel like I should note that 10% of the GDP is from tourism.

Parliament approved Prime Minister Whitesfield's Yellowtongue bill this morning by a narrow majority, with 139 out of 254 votes, with some modifications from its original form. The bill was supported outright by most of the Conservative Alliance and opposed by most of the Popular Front, while the parliament members of the Liberal, Social-Democratic, and Progressive parties were initially divided because of what they saw as the bill's lack of support for the country's poor sustenance farmers. The bill won over enough parliamentary support to pass after an amendment drafted by Progressive MP Lara Saziki was added, which allots an additional $1 billion to provide reduced-price veterinary services to sustenance farmers, and up to $5 billion in zero-interest loans to cover the potential losses of sustenance farmers caused by the disease in the short-term. Despite the modifications, the Popular Front remained almost entirely opposed to the bill, which the Party for Popular Democracy's Chairwoman, Angela Ture, called, "Yet another heinous attempt by our country's ruling class to use an international crisis as an excuse to funnel our country's money into the pockets of wealthy businesses-people." .

Joseph Ubari, the Mayor of Christiania, announced his plan for land re-distribution yesterday evening at 8:00 PM from his office at city hall. The mayor's proposed bill would empower and mandate the city to expropriate all unused, unoccupied, or under-maintained buildings in the city and provide the former owners with compensation. Once expropriated, those buildings which can be safely converted into public housing would be converted as soon as possible, and those which cannot would be demolished to construct new public housing. The bill also guarantees the right of tenants to refuse to pay rent if their landlord fails to meet the conditions of the rent agreement, or if the living conditions of the building do not live up to the city's sanitation or safety standards. "This is just the beginning of what our city needs", said Ubari, "and too often the government doesn't care about what the people need. I'm determined for Christiania to be different.". This bill is expected to pass because 14/21 of Christiania's City Assembly members are members of left-wing parties. The announcement comes after the mayor, a well-known member of the Popular Democracy Party, recently received backlash from across the country for implementing strict rent controls and cutting the city's subsidies to the Christiania Police Union. This bill is expected to spark the most intense national backlash yet, and it has already begun. Carol Burdela, the Progressive Governor of S'baja called the plan, "a poorly informed attack on our province's businesspeople.", and Parliament Minority Leader Harold Drywafer called Ubari, "a deranged communist.". Jeffrey Kissinger, the only conservative member of Christiania's City Assembly, had this to say: "I'm gravely worried for the future of our city. Mayor Ubari is a tyrannical thug, and he shouldn't be allowed to destroy our city's economy like this.". Despite the outrage across the country over the last few months, Ubari remains popular among a large majority of Christiania's citizens. Amos Minimus, a textile worker from Christiania, had an optimistic view of the bill, saying: "It's about time someone did something to lower the cost of housing for us poor people. The bill only includes unused land anyways, and housing is everyone's right.". There are currently 7,000 homeless people in Christiania, and 100,000 who are poorly housed: the bill is expected to allow the city to provide housing to the entire homeless population, and to decrease the financial burden of many who are poorly housed, but experts fear it may have dire consequences for the economy of the city.

Full Name: The Republic of Zolo
Representative Signing: George Whitesfield
First Language: English
Second Language: Latin
Additional Language: Zolo

Economy of Zolo:

Overview: Zolo’s economy is highly dependent on the exportation of fruit, coffee, sugar, and other agricultural products like beef and spices, all of which are exported in large volumes for low prices. Its main imported products are weapons, computers, medicine, automobiles, and luxury manufactured goods (which are almost all imported to satisfy the needs of wealthy settlers). Most of the working population is employed in agriculture, with more than a third living and working on small sustenance farms. Besides agriculture, tourism is the most important industry to the nation’s economy: people come from across the world to see the country’s beaches, rainforests, mountains, and ruins. There are very few labor laws, and there is no minimum wage. The economy has been growing both quickly and stably over the last 50 years since the end of the war of 1968, mostly at the expense of the natural environment, the poor, and the indigenous population. There is a stark divide between the modernized, commercial, urban areas, and the mostly poor and underdeveloped rural countryside.

GDP: $2.3066 Trillion USD
GDP per capita: $21,297.94 USD
Currency: Tytorian Crown (0.56 USD)
Statistics:


GDP Components:


Employment by Sector:


Wealth Distribution:


Federal Government Budget:
Annual Revenue: $531 Billion USD (~23% of GDP)
Annual Expenditure: 528 Billion USD (~22.9% of GDP)
Reserves: Tytorian Crowns for $16 Billion, Gold for $24 Billion
Debt: $72 Billion

Government Revenue Sources:


Expenditure Breakdown:


Province and Local Governments:
Province and local governments are responsible for funding education, infrastructure, and law enforcement (with subsidies from the federal government). They can generate revenue by levying taxes and tariffs, and typically most local government revenue comes from property taxes (with a sizeable bonus from renting out prison labor)
Total Annual Revenue: ~$152 Billion (excluding federal subsidies)
Spending Breakdown:


Education:
The education system in Zolo is mostly privatized. While it is legally required that all children recieve an education, almost 1/4 recieve none at all, and many rural villages have no schools. Where kids are schooled by the state, it is usually via charter schools for primary education. Universities are almost all private, and very expensive, but the state does sometimes offer some limited merit based scholarships and low-interest loans.

The Republic of Zolo
Founded in 1925

Flag:


Demonym: Zoloan
Population: 113 million
(Including 5 million mostly autonomous indigenous tribal peoples)
Capitol city: Williamstown
GDP: $2.306 Trillion
GDP per capita: $21,297.94
Statistics:


Demographics:
74% rural, 2% hunter-gatherers, 24% urban
20% Tytorian, 34% mixed, 13% Zolo, 12% Sebani, 9% Z’boju, 5% Lanuyana, 4% Si’lokan, 6% Other Indigenous, 3% Iwi, 1% Nythym, 1% Suleimani, 3% Other
Religions:  27% Indigenous, 25% Church of Tytor, 16% Catholic, 11% Tytorian Prophetic Church, 9% Tytorian Reformed, 2% Shi’a Muslim, 2% Mormons, 1% Other, 6% Irreligious

Languages:
English: 86%
Latin: 31%
Zolo: 24%
Sebani: 17%
Z’boju: 10%
Lanuyana: 5%
Si’lokan: 4%
Other Indigenous languages: 8%

Map:


Provinces:


Major Cities:


Government:
Type: Parliamentary Republic
Head of State: King Michael I of Tytor
Prime Minister: George Whitesfield (Liberal Party)


Political Parties:
(and their seats in parliament out of 255)


Geography:

Hi everyone! My name's Zoe, and I'm from the US. I'm almost 20, and am a trans woman. I was a member of this region before years ago when I used a different name, and RP'd a country whose name contained my old name (for anyone who might remember who I am, the country was based on the DPRK and started with a 'Z'). I've had the itch to come back for a little bit now, but have been consistently too overwhelmed with other things to put in the work to make a factbook or start RPing. I don't know what changed now to make me decide to really come back now, but I hope I'll manage to stay engaged. I know I had a lot of fun here before and I'm sure I will again. At the moment I'm thinking of creating a sort of post-colonial state, and I'm looking for someone else to volunteer their country to have historically been the brutal capitalist colonizers of mine, so please message me directly if you're willing! And even if you wouldn't want your country to have played that role, I'd love to write in historical and/or present connections between my country and anyone else's. I haven't totally settled on a name or map location yet, but I have top candidates I'm considering. Especially in regards to a map location, I'm looking to place my country next to that of someone else who is active and who I could write-in historical connections with my country. I'd love it if any of you reached out, either in regards to coordinating RP or just to say hi and/or catch up if that's applicable.