Sean Cairns

4.11.05

World Sketch

Bottle of Tyme

The United European Countries was formed just before the collapse of the United States of America. The Survivors of the Clones’ “true human” purge sought refuge in the UEC, specifically England, where they were welcomed with open arms, as much of their work force had been destroyed by the Arab invaders.

The UEC is lead by President Hartford, who was elected to her second term just before the conflict first began between the United States and the Arab Empire. She heads the executive branch of the UEC, while the Senate embodies the Legislative branch. The Upper Senate is comprised of 4 Senators from each representative country, regardless of size or population. The Lower Senate has membership based on population, and so, each country receives one Lower Senator for every three million people.

Each European country is treated as a semi-independent state, much as the states of the United States were. Each country’s national language is maintained, as are their customs and lifestyles. The only real difference is that their governments are now working together under a solidified government, not the easily sidestepped UN, which failed to halt the Arab uprising in the first place.

As it is a fairly new governmental body, the UEC doesn’t suffer from the internal sabotage most modern governments are faced with, although the individual governments of each representative country are still ripe with corruption, as they needn’t change much to be accepted into the UEC. As such, the various countries in the UEC get along extraordinarily well with each other, but enter the country, and one can easily see that society on its most basic levels has begun to break down: individual towns have barricaded themselves against the last remnants of Arab cells, and internal trade has begun to slow, while inter-state trade has begun a giant upswing not seen since the adoption of the Euro.

Upon the take over of America by the clones, the majority of Americans fled to England, where they were welcomed with open arms by the government and closed minds by the people. As most of the refugees had little or none of their belongings from America, they were desperate for any work they could find, leading to the work market being flooded with cheap labor.

While great for the new refugees, this overcrowding of the labor pool meant fewer jobs for the loyal English employees; they were being outsourced to their neighbors! This has led to a lot of stress between the middle/lower classes and the new refugees. Within a generation, most of the refugees began demanding higher wages and for things to be “like in the old days”.

Unfortunately for parents, their children were being brought up under a very different society, and many people feared that their old American ways of life were being swept away. Many fled to the Northern end of the Island and began forming their own communities, where American ideals were allowed to thrive. In general, after the first generation of refugees grew up, things in England went back to normal, except for the undeniable encroaching of American values and entertainment upon the lives of the everyday Brit.

By this time, Catholicism, while also being the most powerful religion in the UEC, was also the most radical in their stance against the clones, believing that it “corrupted the very soul of the person cloned”. This was partly due to the fact that the church felt that the cloner was playing God, but also because the church believed that each individual had one soul, to have two would mean two of the same souls. Pope Ferdinand III finally issued an order proclaiming that anyone cloned would be automatically excommunicated from the church.

Things weren’t much different in the Arab Empire. After the Untied State’s defeat in the so-called War on Terror, several Middle Eastern countries banded together under the leadership of a mysterious man, calling himself “Dam-Dahaka”. The original members included Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Saudi-Arabia. Despite their inherent differences, these various countries’ hatred towards the American’s intervention into their agendas drove these people to unite against the American powers. Dam-Dahaka at the head, acting as a pseudo-Supreme Commander, cut off oil trade to American and its allies, almost bankrupting the Arab Empire, but also severely weakening the US to the point that they could invade.

After the Arab invasions, the Empire was pushed back into the southern parts of Iraq and Saudi-Arabia. There they wait, more of a vigilante group, rather than a coalition of untied countries. Their conquered lands were then given to the peasants who suffered so horribly at their hands.

Although the Empire has been crushed to a mere ¼ of its original power, it still controls the oil fields of Saudi-Arabia and has many sleeper cells across the globe. Perhaps one day it will strike out again at all who would oppose them.

Back in North America, Canada and Mexico were in the clutch of fear, fear of invasion by the clones running rampant across the former United States. Although they were assured by the clone leaders that no harm would come to them, they remain wary of the clones’ every move.

As for the Clone Nation itself, through what surveillance is available, it seems that a form of forced socialism exists, with complete breakdown of social class structure and religious ideologies.