Yele
Yele was founded early on in the colonial period when medicinal plants were discovered in the region. The presence of these plants, combined with other economic factors meant that, for all but the most high-technology supplies, it would be cheaper to establish a manufacturing center for medical supplies on Terra Nova than to import them from Earth. I n addition to producing medical supplies, Yele came to serve as Terra Nova's premier medical facility, with cases of serious illness and injury being transferred there from all over the planet for advanced treatment. In TN 956, the Yele Medical Center was formed and quickly established a reputation for medical excellence, attracting top medical talent from Earth who wished to practice medicine on a new planet.
The Terran withdrawal from Terra Nova was a huge blow to Yele. Not only did many of the researchers and doctors return to earth, greatly depleting Yele's store of knowledge and experience, but many of the facilities and supplies were destroyed in the looting and noting touched off by the withdrawal. Amongst the first to recover in the city, however, was the Yele Medical Center. With the backing of the remains of the pharmaceutical industry, which rapidly reorganized as independent companies, the YMC set about making the Terranovan medicical industry self sufficient, encouraging medical research and setting up a teaching hospital so the abandoned colony could train its own medical personnel. With the rise of city-states, medical facilities around the planet began to improve and Yele helped establish new medical and teaching facilities all along the beta maglev line. This medical missionary work opened Yelans to the birth of Revisionism and a healthy religious community grew in the city-state. With the formation of the NLC, Yelan Revisionism became highly political and swept to power in TN 1528. As soon as the Great Crusade began, Yele threw open its doors and joined the new league with virtually no local protest. Those who objected most strenuously left for the Badlands before the arrival of Norlight Forces.
Yele's position as the health center of the NLC remains unchallenged and the city is home to many national and CNCS health agencies. The YMC and several other local hospitals also continue to be patronized by Badlanders and Southerners who can afford the exorbitant fees charged to foreign patients. Yele suffered from orbital bombing at the beginning of the War of the Alliance, but almost all the damage has been repaired and the town's core has a hauntingly new atmosphere. Buildings stand fresh and gleaming, sculpted in the latest architectural style and equipped with numerous gadgets and ornementations. Some sections of the city-state have been entirely rebuilt from the ground up, mostly in the neighborhoods and suburbs where the wealthy doctors and researchers congregate.
Demographics
Healing and Decadence
Today, Yele has the best medical treatment, training and research facilities on Terra Nova - and it shows. The elite of geneticists, cyber-surgeons and pharmaceutical company executives mix with eager young researchers and students who strive to achieve the success they see around them. Competition is almost palpable as students compete for places in the best schools, researchers attempt to get their results published first and top surgeons try to outdo each other in attracting the most famous celebrity patients. The rewards of this competition are plain to see: the wealthy suburbs containing the luxury mansions of the top geneticists, researchers, surgeons and executives are a constant reminder of what the best can expect to obtain. Competition is not without its dark side however, and some researchers are willing to cut corners in their work or conduct illegal or unethical research in their quest to be famous; morality crimes are not uncommon. Recently the Revisionist church has spoken out against this, citing a concentration on complex, expensive medical procedures available to the wealthy and powerful instead of concern for the welfare of the general population on the part of the Yele medical community. Most notably, local church officials have called for clerical oversight of the medical community.
In contrast to the medical community, the farmers of Yele, who make up the majority of the rest of the population, are relatively sedate. They normally feel none of the pressure surrounding the "quacks." One current concern of theirs, however, is the price they get from the pharmaceutical companies in exchange for their crops. Some of the farmers feel the companies are making a profit at their expense and there is growing resent against the medical community and its showy excesses in general.
Government
Power and Healing
Yele's internal politics are currently characterized by a clash over religious issues. In the past, political campaigning has been about secular issues, supported by political parties backed by wealthy pharmaceutical and medical research companies or farmer's unions. In the preliminaries to the TN 1934 election, however, candidates running against the usual parties have appeared, basing their campaigns on religiously based arguments and are claiming their opponents are not devout Revisionist. Usually this kind of campaigning would not get anywhere in Yele, but with Reverend Hutchison's recent comments on the medical community, these candidates are gaining growing support (especially from the farming community, which has always been the core of local Revisionism). Fara Benzali, head of the Yelan Popular Initiative, and the current front runner in early polling, has promised to redirect medical efforts to a more egalitarian -and theologically correct- stance if elected. Her opponents claim that she has threatened Yele's international standing: they fear her religious doctrine will sour good relations between local researchers and doctors across the North and South. Benzali dismisses such claims as irrelevant.
Externally, Yele maintains good relations with the rest of the Northern city-states, especially considering the number of politicians from across the CNCS who have taken advantage of Yele's facilities. In fact, the world class reputation of the Yele Medical Center gives the city-state a global presence independent of its national affiliation. Many of Yele's doctors and researchers have taken this status to heart and lobby for policies that are not in line with hemispheric plans. Many maintain good relations with their colleagues in the southern leagues and are pushing for more cooperation between the poles on medical issues. A delegation from the YMC i s currently touring the southern hemisphere and has been well received by the medical communities of both the Southern Republic and the Humanist Alliance, despite accusations that the delegation is a cover for Northern espionage.
Industry & Trade
The Economy of Medecine
The export of pharmaceuticals forms the bulk of Yele's economy. With the manufacture of many world-renowned wonderdrugs only being possible through the processing of locally grown plants, Yele's products are sought out even in the deepest Badlands and the Allied Southern Territories. Yele is home to the North's premier medical teaching facilities and medical and nursing students from across the CNCS also bring in considerable revenue for the city-state. In addition, the wealthy elite of the North (and some Southerners) come to Yele for medical treatments not available anywhere else on the planet and are more than willing to pay exorbitant rates for them. Yele has almost no other manufacturing capabilities and all farming is geared towards the cultivation of medicinal plants, so most of the basic necessities of life must be imported. The high concentration of wealthy doctors, researchers and executives in the small city-state means that Yele has the highest per capita consumption of luxury goods in the NLC, higher even than Sesshu. These combine to keep the balance of trade from being too heavily skewed in Yele's favor.
Yele's underground economy is a dark reflection of its legal business. Illegal drugs are manufactured, packaged, sold and shipped from Yele and end up across the North and are even smuggled into the Badlands. Most locals are aware that small scale illegal production occurs and feeds the Yelan night scene, but few realize how critical their community is in the production of narcotics on a hemispheric and even global scale. NorPol is aware of this, however, and has set up a dedicated unit of its anti-cartel task force to the city-state, where they join the agents already in place as part of the controlled substances Focused Investigative Unit.
Tourism
Night Life
The pressure and competition of Yele's medical and research industries has led to a notoriously wild party scene to provide emotional release. The largest parties are held at the mansions of Yele's wealthy elite and are often open to all levels of the medical and research communities. They are especially popular with young research assistants and students, who get to experience the wealth and influence they aspire to while mixing with the top people in their field. Smaller, more exclusive affairs are held in a variety of private clubs. Many of these clubs operate illegally and provide distram'ons that would shock and outrage many Northerners.
The combination of a boisterous party scene and a large number of highly intelligent pharmaceutical researchers has inevitably lead to the produm'on of recreational drugs. These are often freely passed around at parties and young researchers sometimes compete to see who can make the best new party drug. This cottage production makes law enforcement difficult and drug use is rumored to be rampant throughout the medical community. The Kolson and Forzi cartels from Wounded Knee Knee have become more and more involved in the local drug trade over the past ten cycles, each trying to stake a claim on the diversified local production. Both have established footholds, but have been unable to curb the widespread personal production encouraged by the party scene. NorPol has also become involved, trying to shut down the cartels and the local drug producers. The Yelan Constabulary is more than willing to let the national police take the blame for another Failed crackdown.
All levels of law enforcement have become concerned by the recent arrival in the clubs of a new drug known alternatively as spike or hit. Highly addictive, spike causes a powerful sense of euphoria that can lead a user to attempt extremely dangerous activities (such as flying out of the window). Spike's origin is unknown, but popular theories include the Forzi Cartel, importing from Khayr ad-Din, or a malicious student at the Yele Medical Center. NorPol is very interested in finding the truth.
Maps
-
Yele
Comments