Challenge: describe "your" country

[Peter the Lefty]

      The Republic of Peteria is a constitutional parliamentary republic.  An island nation near the Caribbean, it was originally settled by a number of workers from the British aisles who volunteered to venture to this newly-discovered island in 1884.  With the goal of creating an Owenite Socialist utopia, they began to colonize the Northern half of the island.  The English settled the Eastern third of this Northern half, while the Irish settled the Western third, and the Scottish settled in the middle.  
      Soon, through the medium of the Fabian Society, word of this experiment reached the German SPD's revisionist section, lead by Edouard Bernstein.  He quietly lead a group of German workers and their families to the Southwestern quarter of the island, and began a colony there.  Dialogue with the British Owenites was initiated, but disagreements over the type of socialism which was to be initiated were initially difficult to overcome.  
      Abolitionists and civil rights activists in the rest of the Americas heard of this colony, and began to take groups of freed (and smuggled) slaves to the Southeastern portion of the island.  Though met with racism by a number German and British workers there, they found this to be a safe haven.  Many non-black but poor Hispanics began to emigrate there as well.  
      A state was formed in 1894, and the country moved to a parliamentary form of government in the 1920's.  Racial segregation was also outlawed at around the same time.  Throughout its history, Peteria has also seen much immigration from the United States, France, and Italy.  

      The constitution guarantees freedom of speech, religion, the press, expression, movement, language, and petition.  The parliament is unicameral and consists of 425 members (who represent a country of 35 million), and is elected every four years.  The President, whose duties and powers are minimal, is elected by the parliament to serve a 6-year, non-renewable term.  Ownership of weapons by civilians is banned.  Equal rights to all persons regardless of religion, race, gender, country of origin, language, sexual orientation and political belief are guaranteed by the constitution.  However, hate speech is illegal and quite vigorously prosecuted.  

Demographics:

Religion:
      A slim majority of the population (52%) are of no religious affiliation.  As is the case in most places, atheism and agnosticism have attracted more from Protestant communities than from Catholic ones.  Yet the 28% who do practice Catholicism are notoriously unobservant, even making French Catholics appear zealous by comparison.  The 13% who still adhere to Protestant sects are also quite relaxed about observance of their faiths.  Those of the Jewish faith constitute 2% of the population, yet the number of persons of Jewish descent is much higher (an estimated 7%).  The remaining 5% of Peterians practice other faiths.  Sunni Islam, at 2.8%, is the fastest growing religious faith, though the island's Muslims, like their Catholic counterparts, are famously liberal on social attitudes.  

Ethnicity and Race:
      For the first 30 years or so of Peterian history, the ethnic and religious groups of the island rarely mixed.  For this reason, the island was known for its high rate of lingual preservation.  Few had believed that the Scottish and Irish Gaelic speakers among the Scottish community would keep their languages alive in Peteria for very long (as was the case with many of the Yiddish-speaking population), yet all of these languages have survived.  
      While only 2% of the island follows the Jewish faith, an estimated 7% are of Jewish background.  Most live in the Southwestern quadrant of the island (the part settled by Germans). Initially, most Jews on the island were from Germany.  Russian Jews also, however, went to the region in large numbers fleeing pogroms.  Many American Jews also emigrated to the same general area.  In the deep Southwestern forests where the Russian Jewish community settled, Yiddish is still spoken as a native language.  
      As far as race goes, 52% of the population identify as Caucasian.  19% identify as black, while 16% identify as "mixed race."  9.5% (including the population of Jewish descent) identify as Middle Eastern.  However, it is believed that almost no Peterians are fully white, fully black, or even fully Middle Eastern.  

Language
      Peteria has, remarkably, retained most of its original lingual diversity.  The government has worked since the beginning of its history to prevent any language from dominating.  Even within the Scottish and Irish communities, both Gaelic tongues were preserved.  
      Originally, the official languages were German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, and Yiddish.  However, within the black and Hispanic quarter of the island, intermarriage between Portuguese-speakers and Spanish-speakers happened many years before the other groups began to intermarry (besides the German Jews).  As a result, Spanish and Portuguese began to mesh together, and a hybrid language known as "Petero-Iberian Vernacular" formed.  It became commonly known as "Portuñal," though it should not be confused with other such vernacular languages in South America and the Iberian peninsula by the same name.  As some of the black population came from the United States, African American Vernacular English also left something of a mark on the language.  In 1983, Petero-Iberian Vernacular became an official language of the country.  Spanish and Portuguese are very rarely spoken anymore.  
      37% of the country speaks English natively.  23% speak Petero-Iberian Vernacular.  20% call German their mother tongue.  Irish and Scottish Gaelic stand at 4% each.  Yiddish is at 2%.  The country now has a very relaxed culture on interracial dating and relationships, but efforts to ensure that lingual heritage is preserved are being stepped up.  

Politics
      The country's political history had traditionally been marked by a rivalry between various socialist factions.  The most successful party of the country has traditionally been the Socialist Cooperative Alliance.  Yet at times, they have lost power to the Social Democratic Party.  The main difference between the two is one of style; the SDP is considered to be more "state socialist," and its form of social democracy is more accommodating to private, non-cooperative businesses.  However, it has always shunned the "Third Way" approach embraced by other social democratic parties as of late.  The SCA, meanwhile, advocates a more decentralized model that works much more in favor of cooperative businesses as opposed to "owned" ones.  However, it does take many key services into the government's hands.  
      The third place party, the "Peterian Liberal Movement," advocates an end to the "crushing burden" against large businesses, and wants to fully equalize the tax burdens between cooperative and "owned" businesses (which even the SDP opposes).  However, it does not seek to cut back on any public services, and supports the socially liberal character of the country.  The Green Party, which emerged in the 1980's, has added environmental concerns into the political discussion as well.  The Communist Party of Peteria is unaffiliated with other Communist Parties, and instead supports state ownership of most enterprises (but democratic management thereof).  All fascist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, and racist parties are banned.
      
General
      At present, the SCA is ruling in a coalition with the Greens in a minority government which relies on the Opposition SDP for support.  The country has virtually eliminated poverty, and income inequality is the lowest in the world.  The capital, Shostakovia, is a bustling metropolis located at the center of the island, with speakers of all languages within.  Marijuana is legal, regulated, and taxed, and union membership is high in spite of the cooperative character of the economy.  Same-sex marriage has been legal since 1994.  The state provides gender reassignment surgery to all transgendered persons who seek it.  Immigration policy is liberal.  The minimum wage is equal to the living wage.  The military's primary fuction is Third World development (building homes, accompanying farm NGO's, constructing schools, protecting foreign teachers who come to train them, etc.)