The Great Flight Forward - an economic and social campaign to develop Florentia

[Florentia]

The Great Flight Forward

 

The Great Flight Forward, officially known as the 3 years plan, is an economic and social plan to develop Florentian infrastructure, modernize its economy and guide the cooperatives via “limited planning” (subsidies, regulations). It also aims to develop education, healthcare, social housing, social car industry, basic necessities and mass propaganda.

It has been announced in March 2024 by the President and Guide Hugo L. Dellague, after the first legislative elections. With the fire of the "Eight Glorious Days" finally shut down, the country can return to normalcy. The plan involves several measures to improve the standard of living and increase the industrial sector, but plans to use the Florentian habit of organic farming to produce high-quality crops for exports.

 

The Great Flight Forward involves (the list might be expanded with time) :

Year 1 (march 2024-march 2025) :

1. Railroad expansion to link the major cities
2. Ban on the use of non-organic products in Florentian agriculture, so that Florentian farming remains 100% organic
3. Creation of state-owned TV channels to indoctrinate children, especially via propaganda cartoons
4. Anti-illiteracy campaigns and creation of schools in every town to educate and indoctrinate children
5. Nationalisation of electricity, water, and coal distribution companies
6. Renovation of the coal power plants, and construction of several minor coal power plants to end electric dependency from the Belleville grid, and with intention to cover all the country
7. Development of sewage and running water to cover all urban areas
8. Creation of state-owned departement-sized banks to grant loans for individuals and cooperatives, which will develop the economy
9. Destruction of Belleville's slums and creation of the first social housing of Florentia

 

Year 2 (march 2025-march 2026) : 

1. Development of secondary and post-secondary education to provide cooperatives with high-qualification employees
2. Subsidies to encourage mechanisation of Florentian agriculture and modernisation of Florentian industrial machinery
3. Modernisation of the “bayou towns”
4. Creation of various natural parks in the untouched wet areas for touristic purposes
5. Subsidies to encourage coal and sulfur mining, to increase Florentia's capability to return to autarchy if necessary
6. Regulations to limit food imports to luxury goods
7. Subsidies to encourage the development of food industry and provide the population with cheap food, to prevent popular discontent

 

Year 3 (march 2026-march 2027) :

1. Creation of local hospitals to provide basic medication, as well as several major hospitals to cover other health issues
2. Expansion of the social housing to the other major Florentian cities to eradicate slums and homelessness
3. Expansion of state-owned automotive company Asmavie Fast Motors to provide the people with affordable luxury cars, as well as trucks, pick-ups, etc
4. Development of 4G and 3G internet to cover all country, as well as mass surveillance methods to prevent the development of counter-revolutionary movements on internet

[Florentia]

The Great Flight Forward – railroad expansion

 

Current Florentian railroad network, with its 10 different gauges.

Florentia always profited from its complex and extensive network of rivers, bayous, marshes, etc, to navigate inland. Thus, the modern day railroad network of Florentia has remained underdeveloped, linking only cities when they couldn't be via water. Plus, because of the extreme decentralisation of Florentia, Each state had its own gauge, except for Bayave and Yalme which use the gauge of Javiosia.

The first measure of the railroad expansion will be to standardise gauges, using the Javiosian gauge.

Secondly, funds will be granted to the state-owned company Asmavie Fast Motors to increase the production of railroad equipments (locomotives, wagons, etc), and research how to improve steam engines. Indeed, according to the Florentian government, steam engines are physically and metaphysically more beautiful than electric or fuel engines.

Thirdly, railroad network will be expanded and divided in four categories :

1. The Lanbenpendue line

This line shall cover all major cities next to the Saint-Elme river (also known as the Lanbenpendue) or West to it. It is especially important to link the industries of Belleville to the coal mines of Saint-Isidore.

 

2. The Coastal line

This line shall cover the cities next to the coast, from Pointe-au-Bout-du-Bord, Bayave, to Punta-del-Extremo-del-Bordo, Lasoda. It is expected to be the most expensive because of the many wet lands the train will have to cross.

 

3. The Transborian line

The Transboria river will link the cities east to the Boria river, linking the developed Wild North to Mouvant, Florentia's second-biggest harbor.

 

4. The Entrerivières line

The Entrerivières line is actually a group of several minor rail lines used to link the three other lines.

 

Overall, the construction is expected to last three years. The Lanbenpendue line, as the main aorta of the Florentian industry, is the absolute priority and has to be done by the end of the year, then the Coastal, the Transboria and finally the Entrerivières line.

[Florentia]

Great Flight Forward — Conquest of knowledge
and Conquest of thought

—

Background

The national survey of December 2023 revealed that the current literacy rate of Florentia is 80.2 %.

Before the civil war, Florentia had a literacy rate of about 70% with a promising growth. Carrying the legacy of the revolutionary monarch Ambroise the First, education used to public, free, mandatory and directly handled by the imperial government. However, because of the sudden weakening of the imperial government and the costs of the reconstruction, education had to be abandoned.

The duty of education was carried on by the local religious authorities. While the education provided by the Orthodox Church of Florentia was rarely on literacy, instead focusing on moral values, its demonist equivalent, the Church of Belleville, spent extensive efforts to eradicate illiteracy in an attempt to convert more people to demonism, which explains the high literacy rate of South-Western Florentia. In Lasoda, the Catholic Church, with the collaboration of the Lasodan government, fought literacy to protect the local Stillian creole against Lysian influence. Finally, the impressively high literacy rate of Upper Cisboria can be explained by the state’s very effective public education, inspired by the former imperial public education.

Finally, there are Abalavier and Narizonia, of which the literacy rates are the two lowest in Florentia. The Orthodox Church of Florentia, which supported the Abalavian absolute monarchy, prevented the alphabetisation of the masses on purpose, leading to an alarmingly low literacy rate of 43%. Regarding Narizonia, the state is mostly inhabited by former slaves, most of them being barely educated.

Plan “Conquest of knowledge”

The Ministry of Education’s plan, nicknamed the “Conquest of knowledge”, is made of three stages :

1. stage 1 shall gather professional educators to establish a common curriculum. Said curriculum’s goal shall be to eliminate illiteracy while fostering a collective sense of unity, selflessness, combativity and devotion to the Emperor ;
2. in stage 2, professional educators will train local literacy brigades about the new curriculum and familiarizing them with the texts which will be used to teach their students, said texts being highly politically oriented ;
3. in stage 3, illiterate persons will be forced to attend classes organised by their local literacy brigade. Individuals struggling with the traditional curriculum will be sent to acceleration camps where professional educators will help them overcome illiteracy.

Simultaneously, the imperial government shall nationalize all education institutions in Florentia. The Ministry of Education plans the construction of several dozens of primary schools, especially in rural areas, as well as the expansion of overcrowded urban schools. Furthermore, the Ministry shall provide high wages to attract new teachers, possibly foreign ones.

Finally, there is the language question. Indeed, Florentia has about four different languages (Lysian, Cashari, Esonian and Stillian), not counting the nearly infinite amount of creoles as well as the five Cashari sub-languages. Thus, while promoting bilingualism on a local scale, formal Lysian shall continue to be used as Florentia’s lingua arhomaius.

—

Plan “Conquest of thought”

The Ministry of Education, which cares also about ideological education, also plan to create various novels, comics, animated series, etc, to indoctrinate Florentian youth.

The Ministry’s main project surfs on the popularity of the Esonian katsuhas, a term referring to any hand drawn or computer-generated animation from Esonice. Project “My Little Pelican” is the Empire’s sword against reactionary, capitalist and atheist thought.

My Little Pelican (MLP) is a Florentian-made katsuha aiming to educate the 8 to 12 years old children about the values of the regime, of which the synopsis is as followed :

The story begins long ago, in the Empire of Animalia (Animalie in Lysian), a nation made of different species of animals calling themselves Animalians. It was a utopia where everybody was equal and selfless, following the principles of love and friendship, governed by the immortal Empress Céleste. However, a hundred years ago, the Aristos, a group of evil goat-like monsters, managed to imprison the Empress thanks to a dark magic spell. For a century, the Aristos reigned supreme, enslaved the Animalians and reduced them to misery : this period is called the Dark Age. However, only a few years ago, one of the Aristos accidentally broke the spell, freeing the Empress and allowing her to take her power back. Thus, the Aristos had to retreat from Animalia. But this is only a temporary retreat, and the Empress knows very well that the Aristos will come back.

The series follows the life of Pélie the Pelican, the best student of the Empress, sent to the small town of Fauville to socialize with people and learn about friendship and love. Pélie will meet there his friends Léo the Lion and Flua the Raven, as well as his future girlfriend Pandie the Red panda. The four heroes will live different adventures, often defending the Empire against the various attacks of the Aristos.

The first episode has been released in April 2024 and has been acclaimed by the critiques for the quality of its scenario, animation, character design, as well as the presence of several subjects such as homosexuality. However, many criticised not only the political orientation but also the violence, seen unfit for children. The Florentian government answered that the glorification of violence is necessary to instil revolutionary fervour and Pan-Florentian nationalism.

Thanks to the initial success of the first episodes, the Ministry of Education is already thinking about the second season.

Edited July 12, 2024 by Florentia
Whoever does it, please stop pinging Cashar every time I mention the Casharis. I know it's confusing but I'm talking about the natives of the Cashari Island, not the inhabitants of Cashar (the country). (see edit history)

[Florentia]

Great flight forward - Conquest of coal,
electricity, water and sewer

The violence of the 1878-1883 civil war and the white terror which followed destroyed most of the industrial and infrastructure efforts championed by the imperial authority. Even after the end of the terror with the death of Chancellor de Raihac, progress was obstructed at every turn by the slavers, deeply conscious of the effect of industrialisation on the "peculiar institution". This complete lack of public infrastructure investments led to numerous problems, such as the concentration of infrastructure in a few urban centres, a large dependence on Bellevillian electricity, rarity of running water and sanitation, as well as moderately unethical practices like using human corpses as fuel. To achieve the government's goal of "modernity with Florentian characteristics", it is absolutly necessary for Florentia to embark on an extensive infrastructure and restructuration project aimed at unifying its electricity grid, expanding access to clean water and sanitation, and restructuring its energy sector to align with the government’s dirigist economy. This initiative shall strengthen the nation’s autarchic capability, address regional disparities and improve living conditions for all citizens, while deepening our commercial ties with Garindina and its coal.

I. Electricity grid unification and expansion

The first priority of the project is to unify the currently fragmented electricity grids (Bellevillian, Republican and Abalavian grids). High-capacity transmission lines will connect these regions, creating an integrated national grid that ensures energy interdependence and reliability across Florentia, preventing entire regions from going into a blackout for several weeks. Existing power plants will be modernized, while new coal power plants will be constructed in underserved or dependant regions.

The Ménilbaissant power station, Belleville, currently provides 15% of the country with electricity

The Persan power plant, Adèrnes, provides 40% of the Republican grid

3D modelisation of the Avril megaproject, a coal power plant which will provide electricity to most of central Florentia

These developments will ensure that even the most remote parts of Florentia receive reliable access to electricity. To mitigate the environmental impact of coal power, all new and currently existing plants will be equipped with outdated filtration technologies. This shall limit the frequency of acid rains, which are a major problem in urbanised areas and especially Belleville, while reducing the cost.

The skyline of Montcharmin, Florentia's capital city, is covered in smog for most of the year

II. Restructuring the Energy Sector

To oversee the unified grid and the expanded energy infrastructure, the government will centralize electricity generation under a single state-owned company led by the Ministry of the Economy. This new entity, called Électricité de Florentie (Electricity of Florentia) and inspired by its Lysian equivalent, will replace the decentralized worker-owned cooperatives currently operating in the sector. The transition will be conducted equitably : the government will purchase the workers’ shares in their cooperatives at fair market value. Furthermore, 50% of the dividends generated by the state-owned company will be redistributed to employees, ensuring that workers continue to benefit from the industry they helped establish.

The same measure will be conducted regarding coal production. The Imperial Conglomerate of the Coal Sellers (Conglomérat Impérial des Charbougnats) shall recieve the same treatement, with all minor coal mining and selling companies being integrated into it. The ICCS will collaborate with EdF to ensure a low-cost electricity for everyone.

III. Water and sanitation infrastructure

Simultaneously, the imperial government will expand access to clean water and sewer systems. New pipelines and treatment facilities will be constructed in areas with limited or no access to clean water. Efforts will prioritize urban centers with significant populations and high levels of water pollution, such as Belleville, before extending to rural regions. Polluted and highly polluted waterways will undergo rigorous cleanup efforts while the government will provide limited subsidies for cooperatives engaging themselves to reduce their water pollution. Finally, all of the state-size water and sanitation companies will be merged into a single public company, the Imperial Company of Water and Sanitation.

IV. Banning moderatly unethical practices

Finally, a major reform included in this project is the nationwide ban on using human corpses as fuel. Indeed, in urban areas, poorer communities don't have enough money to provide their dead relatives with a proper funeral, so it is very common for them to sell the body of their dead relative to a power plant. Then, the bodies are piled next to the furnaces, where they dry for a few days before being used a fuel. This practice is especially common in Florentia. It will be immediately prohibited as part of the government’s commitment to human dignity, though the use of bodies of dead animals as fuel will still be allowed.

To prevent such practices in the future, a state-funded funeral assistance program will be introduced, ensuring that every Florentian citizen receives a dignified burial regardless of their financial circumstances. Regarding individuals living in Florentia without Florentian citizen-ship, they will also be proposed advantageous offers to burry their dead relatives, such as a free emplacement in a mass grave.

Edited December 2, 2024 by Florentia
I'm stupid. (see edit history)

[Welkija]

Florentia - Belleville @Florentia
A plane flies in and lands in Belleville, coming out of it is the most unusual of sights. A small platoon of men and women wearing doctors garments and holding out a Welkijan flag, some with smaller flags of Florentia. The group was the Welkijan medical corp, organized by Welkijas central government as part of a mission to strengthen ties with with Florentia in the form of medical aid. The team was compromised of doctors, specialists and administrators all ready to help aid Florentia develop its healthcare infrastructure and introduce modern medical techniques to the nation. The initiative being rooted in Welkijas commitment to international socialism, being a pragmatic decision as well as a humanitarian gesture. Thoughthe program is expected to last multiple years, with it being greenlit to carry on through the 3 year plan, its success is dependent on the relationship between Floretnia and Welkija. The Welkijan government is expecting the Florentian public to be wary of foreign influence or possible accusations of political interference however it has faith in the mission being a stepping stone to developing closer relations with the state.

A shout of "Long live Welk-Florentian friendship!" can be heard coming from off the plane.

Edited December 13, 2024 by Welkija (see edit history)