Porowon

Porowon (Japanese: ポロヲン, ポロヲン国; Porowon, Porowon-koku; Mandarin: 破落我; Pòluòwǒ) is a sovereign archipelago in Northulia, just west of the Reitannan Charisma Islands. Until a period between 2016 and 2019, it was known for becoming a developed sovereign state within the course of the twentieth century and became a multicultural state, similar to Lenapore, thus earning the nickname "Lenapore of the Northulic".

Until 2022, Porowon was declared as a "socialist-fascist" state by its hyper-extremist president George Wangjia and many of the international political scene. A growing number of socio-political measures have been cried fowl by organizations like Human Rights Watch and Freedom House and have turned Porowon into the world's least free and "most dangerous" country, surpassing Joseon (despite recent attempts at democratization) and Pombestan.

This regime, however, ended in April 2022, with opposition leader Tiare Raatonengo recognized as the legitimate president in nine of ten Great Scorrian states (every state minus Kotaro) with the aim of restarting ties between the two. In September 2022, Kotaro recognized Tiare as Porowon's president in order to rekindle bilateral ties and wear off traumas caused by Wangjia.

History

Ancient history

Porowon was colonized by ethnic Melanesians who settled in the region known as Northulesia (Great Scorria, Porowon and the Charisma Islands) in the middle of the first millennium AD. Settling in the smaller Northulesian islands was more complicated and the colonIsts had to face the landscape that was initially barren. Coconut trees were planted on the coasts in order to give the locals some substance.

For centuries, Porowon was largely unorganized. There was a significantly reduced population. 1850 explorations gave an estimated 20,000 inhabitants.

Trade and colonization

The islands were open to foreign trade in the late 18th century. Initially the colonists who controlled ports in cities of the newly-independent Great Scorria were interested. Reitanna stayed with the colony and also controlled the Charisma Islands. Unfortunately for Porowon, Reitanna had to leave in 1820 and unorganized control became the order of the day again.

As the decades went on, Porowon was claimed to be a "desolate territory" and that a lack of resources was proven to be the reason why colonizing was a hard task.

In 1902, Matsumoto Nohara, an Oriencian merchant, travelled to the island and found the fabled stocks of wara oil thay were allegedly stolen. For the first time in eighty-two years, the island of Porowon was open to foreign investment. It is reported that wara oil was found in Porowon in the 1860s when the Charisma Islands failed exporting tons of said oil.

Independence

Porowon became an overseas prefecture of Orience. However, tensions arose between Orience and the colony, and Porowon unilaterally declared its independence in 1925. Eventually the country became a poor state, unaware of the situation in foreign lands, and their knowledge of the foreign world was limited to Reitanna and Great Scorria. It became a part of the Oriencian Empire during the Second World War in 1940, renaming it as Nagoya. Following the end of the war, Porowon regained its sovereignty yet kept a few elements of the former Oriencian Empire, including Japanese as the official language, and not Porowonian, like it was before. Immigration from south-eastern Kaizhung and parts of Xiaowan also played a role in Porowon's development.

Further problems would make Porowon a desolate place again, yet stabilization plans were put in place in 1960. The government had to revise housing and education for the masses. This was accompanied by a migration of Bengalians who were, at the time, looking for better conditions and were hurt by the effects of the Karachistani occupation.

Hikaru Matsumoto became the president for life of Porowon between 1967 and 1980 when he was deported to Northulia, later Lenapore and then executed.

Porowon until the mid-80s had its development mostly limited to the inner circles of Porowon island. Under the dictatorships Porowon was considered to be a backward sovereign country. All of this changed in the 1987 presidential elections. The winner was Park Chinkai.

Development

Between 1987 and 1990, Porowon started an urban redevlopment project to accomodate its population that had grown in 50 years from just 50,000 to 600,000. With limited natural resources, Porowon had surpassed Great Scorria in its GDP.

Crisis

In recent years the country has been at the mercy of George Wangjia, who was notable for a number of laws including a number of bans, ban on Muslims watching television, ban on gambling, ban on pornography, etc. It was later revealed that Wangjia decided to create his own far-right state and with inspirations from Adolf Hitler and Pro Tect, as well as Apartheid-era South Bulungi.

After an attack was held in the Great Scorrian city of Kotaro (initially to be held in August of the previous year), relations between the two countries have been cut.

In November 2019, Wangjia announced a total ban on sports in January 2020, after a doping incident in June. Initially many people thought the ban would take effect on January 1, however it was oficially proclaimed unannounced on January 6. Foreign sports were banned from television.

In 2020, to "celebrate" the first annversary of the attacks, Wangjia threatened to invade Great Scorria starting with Kotaro, a city that had witnessed a noticeable populational purge in the months before. The invasion failed as it was revealed that Great Scorria's military expenditure was too small and that most of the equipment used was faulty.

In August, Joro was deported to a Northulian prison under Great Scorrian laws. This is the first time one of Wangjia's relatives is jailed. The international courts have sentenced Wangjia not to talk to him in person.

Despite all the failed attempts at invasion, the pandemic also hurt Porowon's economy badly, with new strict curfews being imposed since March. Following the cut of all foreign trade routes due to problems with its neighbors, Porowonians are witnessing a famine never before seen in modern Northulic history, and infrastructures are reportedly failing. The current curfew is between 10pm and 6am - Porowon has never seen such curfews since 1985.

A small pocket of dissidents started to "invade" Porowon despite all the travel bans. The unusual appearance of pro-democracy activists in December 2020 marked no impression among the government officials.

In October 2021, Porowon finished the reconversion of a former mall, becoming a reeducation camp.

New hope for freedom and democracy

Tiare Raatonengo, who fled Porowon and moved to Kimberly in April 2019, has been elected as the "legitimate president" of Porowon in nine of Great Scorria's states, the exception being Kotaro due to a number of factors.

Government and politics

Porowon is a semi-presidential republic and elects a president. For many years, the right-leaning Unity in Porowon Party (UPP) has won all elections and no opposition party won.

In recent years, however, the UPP has been leaning more towards the far-right. The George Wangjia administration has shut down several political parties and demands a cultural supremacy, as in "no other culture besides the three main (Kaizhungese, Oriencian, Porowonian) are allowed to live here". This led to a grim future for Porowon, with the country becoming primarily xenophobic towards other races and also tourists.

International relations

Historically, Porowon had stable relations with Orience, its colonizer. In recent years, these relations have been dwindled significantly.

Porowon's greatest enemy is Great Scorria, with the United States of Sierra threatening to become next in line. Great Scorria, despite having a president similar in behaviors to the Sierran one, is threatening to cut all ties. Currently Porowon has closed its overseas borders to prevent illegal immigration. Many Porowonians and Muslims living in the eastern state of Kotaro (and the capital city with its name) have moved west, for security concerns regarding a terrorist attack in Kotaro led by Peter Joro, a relative of Wangjia. Relations have been cut to "spying level".

Only South Arlesbury and Pombestan recognized the far-right extremist government currently consisting of only one party (National Union, the former UPP) from 2019 to 2022.

Geography

Porowon is divided into eleven "banjas" (neighborhoods), ten of them on the main island and one on Arorangi. The number of banjas has been increasing and decreasing over time, with the newest banja to be added being Courts-Highland, under the Wangjia administration, announced in 2017 and turned public in April 2019. Courts-Highland was a banja until 2003.

Former banjas include:

• Eastland (1963-2003)
• Al-Alamiah (1980s-2003)
• New Lasgahore (mid 1960s-2004)
• Dhakandesh (1996-2006)
• Qinghai (mid 1990s-2006)
• Toromai (1962-2007)
• Qianmai (1983-2022)

Demographics

Before the crisis, the population of Porowon standed at about 1.1 million. In the first half of 2019, due to Porowonian refugees fleeing from the authoritarian government, sources say that the population has fallen under 850.000. As of 2024, Porowon is claimed to be inhabited by no less than 600.000, with a substantial amount of Porowonians born between the 80s and the 2000s living overseas with no plans to return.

Economy

Porowon was a country that relied on technology and politeness, starting in 1989. Before then, Porowon relied on agriculture. With recent measures enacted by George Wangjia, the economy fell back to pre-Nishimoto levels, partly due to the purge of multinationals and repetitive destruction of buildings.

Languages

Porowon has three official languages as defined in the national constitution: Japanese (government language), English (lingua franca), and Porowonian. Japanese is the most spoken language of Porowon by number of native speakers, accounting to 40% of the national population.

Bengali was official until 2019, following a hacking incident weeks after the attack in Kotaro.

Mandarin was official until 2022, when Wangjia was banished. Likewise, international condemnation of the Kaizhungese regime and its apparent approximation with the PRK, something the new administration is against, as well as the migration of its ethnic Kaizhungese to countries like the Bedu Republic and Lenapore, caused the new administration to strip Mandarin of its official rights.

Culture

Porowon's base culture is the Porowonian culture, based on the Melanesian heritage of its first settlers. Though influences from neighboring countries and, later, from Orience and Bengalia, helped influence the modern-day culture.

Sports

Prior to the January 2020 ban, Porowon had struggled in finding a de facto national sport. The size of the country makes some sporting activities hard to manage.

From 1960 to at least 1991, boxing was the national sport, being surpassed by rugby and later soccer. Wangjia made some federations illegal in 2018, making Porowon unable to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Hopeland. A large-scale doping incident involving four athletes in June 2019 threatened Porowon to take part in the Olympics, thus leading to the ban of all sports.

Media

Main articles: Media of Porowon, Radio in Porowon, Television in Porowon

All media is controlled by companies linked to the government. All newspapers are controlled by Porowon Press Holdings and all news are supervised by the state-run news agency.

Media has increased levels of censorship, mostly due to George Wangjia's ban on all things considered "immoral". After 2019, propaganda appeared more regularly on national television, something that hasn't been seen in 2019.

With the 2020 Porowonian economic crisis, the number of radio stations and television channels is witnessing a sharp fall and is being rationed.