==== Overview ====
Civil Rights: Good (62)
Economy: Struggling (8)
Political Freedoms: Excellent (70)

The Free Land of Gogan is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Doctor Marcin with an even hand, and renowned for its keen interest in outer space. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 977 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Education, although Social Welfare and Social Equality are on the agenda. The average income tax rate is 57%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

Expensive lawyers are hired to defend citizens in court for public urination charges against their pets, the breathalyser pledge is a traditional part of marriages in Gogan, the government is giving peace a chance, and meat-eating is frowned upon. Crime is totally unknown. Gogan's national animal is the Goglodyte, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Gog.

Gogan is ranked 489th in The North Pacific and 12,844th in the world for Most Godforsaken, with 44 Dawkins.

==== Issues ====
20 hours ago: Following new legislation in Gogan, the government is giving peace a chance.
20 hours ago: Following new legislation in Gogan, meat-eating is frowned upon.
The overview has been updated following the last decisions made.

Blizzards Serve Calls Cold, Says Mayor (issue 200)
For the past week, the small community of Greenville in Northern Gogan has been plagued with an unexpected blizzard. With citizens stranded in their homes without electricity, the township is urging you to evaluate communication priorities.

1: "Without electricity we're struggling to get our message out to our residents," says Elizabeth Dodinas, Mayor of Greenville. "The ban on cold-calling is preventing us from calling our residents to make sure they're ok. Cold-calling should be allowed if the caller isn't trying to sell the receiver anything; that'll allow us to do our job and charities could campaign for donations to help with the relief effort. I'm sure residents won't mind all of the extra calls."

2 "That ain't going far enough!" says Jamil al-Zahawi, Papa Pallocci's Pizza Pagoda franchisee in Greenville. "People, especially seniors, are stranded in their homes without food and have no idea that we're still open! This snowstorm hasn't slowed our deliverymen down one bit; I've just purchased an entire new fleet of snowmobiles. We need to inform these unfortunate people of our services or else they'll starve! I urge you, for the well-being of your own people, remove the old ban on cold-calling altogether!"

3: "NO! NO! AND NO!" screams concerned resident Natalia de Groot down through the telephone. "Us average folks have been perfectly happy without that darned cold-calling and all of those other evening interruptions. Besides, people are so careless and unprepared these days; it's their own fault they didn't buy a generator and an emergency radio. I say NO to cold calling and I hope this storm will teach those fluffies to stop relying on charities and the government teat!"

==== Public announcement ====
In order to increase general interest in politics (yeah, right, as if that would ever work), the second national voting lottery starts today.

The rules are the same as last time; you may make at most one vote per issue, and each issue is closed as the next is posted (if you vote for issue 201 after 202 has been posted, that vote will not count), at the end of the period, your votes will be counted, and prizes given. The period, however, is different; this time we'll run for 20 issues (up to issue 219, including) rather than 10 as we did a hundred issues ago.

There are three prizes to be had, at most one per person:
$15 of GOGs (only if you vote for at least 20 consecutive issues including this one)
$6 of GOGs or €4.50 of Desura games (any number of votes eligible, more votes=higher chance)
$6 of GOGs or €4.50 of Desura games (any number of votes eligible, more votes=higher chance)