United World - Prologue. Prologue

A United World

It’s the year 2189, 150 years after the war that ended all wars. The world population had decreased 40.35 percent as a result. Many countries were left with a minimum of citizens that required them to reform into a larger country, Iraq, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates and the eastern part of Saudi Arabia formed one country and even then the total population was only 40 percent of what it was before the war. The countries in Africa merged and formed South Africa and North Africa, which included the largest country in old Africa, Egypt. The war finally brought an understanding that if life was going to continue people must be able to resolve differences peacefully.

Countries, with the support of their citizens banded together into a world organization called the Supreme Council that replaced the ineffective United Nations. Each country sent one representative to this Council, a supreme leader was elected every ten years by all of the countries. It took 6 months for the voting and counting to be completed.

Council representatives could only serve one term of 15 years and the Supreme Leader could only serve one term of ten years. This was to provide continuity while preventing an autocracy that existed before the war.

The Supreme Council controlled all air and water traffic under two sub-councils, Flight Council and Maritime Council. These positions are filled by appointment by the Supreme Council based on merit. Individual countries could maintain a militia force at a ratio of one militia per 100 citizens. in addition, each country also had a police force that ensured laws were maintained and enforced. Although war was eliminated , human greed wasn’t. It was the responsibility of each country to ensure the protection of their citizens from those that preferred illegal means to earn wealth.

There was a legal arm to the Supreme Council called Justice. This group was composed of 15 members representing the 15 sectors of the world. They were appointed and confirmed by the Supreme Council. Their charter was to ensure laws that regulated activities between the various countries were being followed. Any country could bring a grievance before the Court for satisfaction. In addition, to this over sight, certain crimes were automatically reviewed by this court, such as inciting a major uprising or terrorist activity.

The penal system was also revised and criminals were sent to one of two places depending on the seriousness of their crime. A penal colony was established on the moon where individuals occurring offenses that were non-life threatening would be sent. A crime requiring a life sentence resulted in the individual being sent to a mining colony on Mars. To minimize the potential of escape, these sites were monitored by a sub-committee of the Supreme Council. Robots were used to monitor all activities at these two sites. Shuttles to these two sites were manned by robots, controlled from Earth. Sensing equipment built into each transport monitored all movement of the shuttles. Supplies were sent to these outposts in unmanned supply ships.

Currency no longer existed, credits were the new currency. These credits were deposited directly to an individuals account which could be accessed with a card. All debits were paid by the card and involved transfer of credits from one account to another. Taxes were a fixed percentage for individuals and a different fixed percentage for corporations and small businesses. No deductions were allowed, total income was taxable.