The Motto of Belizo: "Life from Calamity."

Culture

Every settler who has ever come to Belizo has known they will play a small but significant role in a great future. This ethos is infused into the fabric of Belizo culture. From the first days of Imperial settlement when the Rhylanor Times reported that early terra-forming attempts were showing great promise and when Sir Charles Stelton received the fiefdom for Belizo it has always been known that Belizo would be a Terra-formed world. No one came to Belizo thinking their decendents would live on a Sulfur tainted planet. Thus Belizens have always worked hard to reach this future.

Now that the future is no more than two hundred years off society has moved into an even faster pace. With some scientists thinking the atmosphere could be safely breathable in as little as one hundred years, Belizens know they are on the brink of a whole new era. Their grand children will see a wonderful planet.

The single mindedness of the ethic to work toward a future with a clean atmosphere has formed strong cultural traits in Belizo's society. First and foremost Belizens are an extremely environmentalistic bunch. No Belizen who walks the street is without at least some knowledge of the dynamics of biology and its balances. Offworld imports are meticulously inspected to prevent contamination from unwanted outside life forms (this has been amazingly effective over the 700+ years of Belizo's history - to date there have been only a few accidental introductions, and all of them were caught and eradicated). No construction project or developement is undertaken without a full environmental impact study. Since virtually every Belizen has at least some homestead land they feel strongly vested in the future when that land will exist not under a sulfer tainted atmosphere, but under beautiful, clean, blue skies. Most Belizens are not about to allow a few credits ruin what they've been working toward for over seven hundred years, and to what could amount to significant family wealth in only a matter of decades.

So strong is the toward-the-future ethic that some social scientists wonder what will happen when Belizo finally achieves its goals. Before the present day that question had been academic, but now that the terra-forming projects are so close to completion the question has become a hot one.

Because of the common goal Belizens are a very patriotic people. They see the world as one culture with one goal. There is a strong identity with the world nation.

Belizens admire the agrarian life style. Since a big part of the terra-forming process involved individual homestead farmers Belizens see farming as an extremely honorable profession. Most Urban Belizens talk about the day when they will retire to their own little homestead to garden and contribute their part toward the beautiful future. Interestingly a Belizen garden would look like a wild weed-ridden field to most off-worlders, but just about any Belizen would be able to name off every species whether it be native, Ancient-introduced, Imperial, or terra-forming. From seeming chaos they could map out delicate balances and counter-balance between the species, and they could immediately tell the health of the garden no matter what the season. A significant percent of the population could tell, at a glance, the mass of sulpher removed from the air per hectare per year, and they could give a reasonable similar guess at the masses of gas and soil excahnges.

Partly because of the sophistication of the terra-forming project, but also due to the ethics of the early settlers, Belizens also place a very high value on education (+3dm on Edu if rolling Belizen characters). The planet boasts a 99% literacy rate, and over 75% of the adult population has college degrees. Of course no one gets through the educational system without a thourough understanding of the terra-forming process.

It should be noted that while the cultural ethic of environmentalism and terra-forming are extremely strong in Belizo's society, it has not taken on anything like a religious status. And sadly, while the vast majority of citizens are caught up in the fervor, and are active and productive members of society, there are some very small elements of society which are not so pure at heart.

Crime on Belizo is very low in comparison to similarly sized worlds in the Spinward Marches, but it does still exist. It is usually in the form of outsiders bribing officials in some land deal or while some experiment goes on at a megacorporate site. Less commonly, officials are bribed to allow some shipment to be brought in which is not thoroughly checked for off-world species, though these sorts of ecological corruption incidents are *very* rare (probably only a handful of times in Belizo's history). There is, of course, also the occasional neighborly feud, but the incidence of these are far below the norm since the tradition of community plant planning and assistance is so strong.



Demographics

Province/Territory   Pop in K   Urban % Rural % College
Degree
    City Suburban Town Farm
Martino 1,913 39 15 18 28 82%
Borchene 1,707 22 20 28 30 78%
Topel 1,620 45 20 15 20 81%
Pent 1,182 48 18 11 23 78%
Western Mortea 920 36 23 12 29 69%
Eastern Mortea 757 39 40 8 13 64%
Peycore 612 41 33 16 10 59%
Farland 512 24 21 35 20 59%
Eastern Outback Territory 12 0 50 25 25 80%
Western Outback Territory 8 0 37 14 49 79%



Infrastructure

A defining feature of Belizo is the fact that there are no fossil fuels. Most ground transportation uses electricity (electric cars, trains, light-rail, busses). Some ground transport, and all air transport uses hydrogen internal combustion engines. Most energy production (electricity and hydrogen) is produced with imported fusion reactors and tech 15 solar power systems. The utility companies on Belizo partner with local universities to send students off-world for educations in power plant maintenance. Rhylanor is the most common off-world training site. There is a lessor number of alternative power generation facilities including solar, geothermal, and tidal.

All of the provinces on the each of the two continents are linked by railroads. Additionally some of the provinces are linked by paved or dirt roads. 90% of goods shipped between provinces on one continent use the rail. 5% is shipped by truck, and 5% is flown. Between the continents 90% is in ocean going ships, 5% is in fast straight crossers (hydrofoils - locally built with imported technicians), and 5% is flown.

There are plans to build a bridge across the Straights of Eumasia. As it is, 95% of intercontinental shipping is between ports in Eastern Mortea and Western Mortea.