Kokomo Islands

The Kokomo Islands is a self-governing archipelagic country located in the Caribbean between the Florida Keys of the United States and Cuba. Originally a Florida county, it claimed independance in 1965 and became a independant country afterwards.

History
The Kokomo Islands were a part of Monroe County, Florida until 1965. Before the independance, Those who lived on the island were mostly low-income retirees living in mobile homes, which had moved there in the early 1950's. Several "boat-dwellers" also scattered the islands. Travel between most of the islands was done by boat, but there were established road routes on the innhabitated islands. There was one gas station, located today on Paradise Key and has since been re-built. The gas station also served as a convenience store that had foods for the local population.

Things started to change in the early 1960's when a group of illegal mobsters from the Luciano family saw visions for the islands. They went on several boat trips to the islands along with real-estate moguls and businessmen from Miami ,New York and Chicago, explaining their visions and how it could be profitable for them to build on the islands, telling them also that they had in their mind to establish the islands as a independant state with few taxes and mostly unregulated business markets. Many of the businessmen liked the men's vision, and gladly said that they would invest on the island if they could manage to get the islands claimed.

The Beginning
The planning of the invasion began in early 1965. The mobsters had accumulated together a small army of gangsters from the Luciano family, along with several other people that supported the invasion. The mobsters had contacts with a group of people that had stolen over a hundred M16s, along with other weapons, projectiles, and vehicles from a U.S Army storage facility. The army planned to use a big deal of these weapons in the invasion incase they came to be needed.

The Invasion
The invasion happend on the morning of June 6th, 1965 at 4:25 AM. The army had split into four groups, each with fifty men. The groups stormed all sides of the islands quietly, and sat down the new "Kokomo Islands" flag, on several key areas. Due to the little population, lack of stationary police outposts and mostly remote activity on the island, the invasion became unnoticed to most people. The few people that were seen outside during the invasion, became temporary hostages as the army occupied the island. The gas station, a community center, a elderely center and a few commercial businesses was taken under control, and by 7 AM, most of the island had been claimed. Several men started walking around in residential neighbourhoods and informed the locals that the islands were now a independant nation and that it belonged to the Luciano family. Most people didn't really bother, but the few of those who did, called the Coast Guard and mainland police departments.Those who did so, became arrested and was put into a room within the Community Center, which had became the temporary headquarters. The independance army brought several regular vehicles onto the island to use for transport. Those were mostly pickup trucks and jeeps. Independance troops went in squads of four, and patrolled the island 24/7 for several days until the U.S coast guard started appearing near the island, and reported suspicious activity to the US government. The U.S Government was soon alerted, and started monitoring the island from aircraft. The vehicle patrols were doubled, and everyone within the patrol had to wield a M16 along with a set of binoculars and revolver.

The newly self-claimed government on the Kokomo Islands, contacted the U.S Government and told that they had taken all the residents as hostages and asked for the islands to be given over and that the U.S also had to recognize the Kokomo Islands as a nation. The U.S government got to know that the Luciano crime family were in charge of the invasion, and only went on the compromise if the island nation would not become a "crime-state", and that the government followed the U.S amendments on organized crime and outlawed criminal activity. On June 13th, 1965, the U.S government gave the islands to the new government and recognized the islands as "Kokomo Islands". The government of KI informed the U.S that it would disregard criminal groups and that it would encourage legitimate tourism business. Everyone that wanted to leave the island could also now do so. June 13th would get to be known now as the Independance Day for the nation.Shortly afterwards, there was written a constitution based on market liberalistic principles, that also stated that nobody on the Kokomo Islands has to pay taxes for property or income. There was however a tax level based on how much your company dominated the economy type, this was to avoid monopolization. Another controversial enactment was that gambling and treatment services also became legal but taxed. The government of KI tried to cut all ties with the Luciano mob, altough several pre-mobsters still remained in their government positions.

Land boom
After the nation's independance, tons of people with wealth moved onto the island, both rich and poor. Real estate companies and moguls started building tons of homes, apartment buildings and condos, and soon came the big hotel and entertainment companies. Shopping malls, Nightclubs, Million-dollar car dealerships, Five-star resorts and a extensive road network was built through the course of just five years after the independance. Several highly wanted criminals from the United States seeked refuge in the new paradise. Low-life criminals from all around the continent, moved in as well to get a piece of the cake.There were established numerous construction companies that built simple and modern but luxurious apartment buildings in a very short time. Because of the lack of construction requirements, many early buildings fell into disrepair within 5 years, and several of them had to be either rebuilt or given to homeless people. This problem was fixed with the 1971 Construction Standards & Requirements Act, which was similar to the construction standards in Florida at the time.

1970's - today
Many Latin-Americans moved to Kokomo Islands during the early 1970s. Many of them came by boat from Carribean nations, from Miami, and even South America. The rumour of a new "American-Dream" was something many had heard of, and wanted to achieve. Many latin males were rejected to be hired in several job positions because of their lack of education, resulting in the majority of them taking low-paying jobs and a considerate amount to become criminals. Most of the Latino population resides today in the neighbourhood known as Pueblo Nuevo. Which is one of the oldest neighbourhoods on the island and was previously named "Wilkerson".

Even though the government established itself as being anti-criminal, the division started to become sloppy during the mid-1970's, as many government officials and police officers started to unofficially take bribes from criminals. Several government officials also started assisting and running criminal activies alongside their office work. The House of Justice judges was also usually bribed to favor people in cases.

Little was done during the 1970's to determine and fight corruption. Even though the government knew about the corruption going on, they denied any forms of corruption and crime within the government and justice system.

Population Figures
(from Kokomo Islands Census Bereau )

The Census Bereau reports population statistics every five years after 1965. The race mixup shows that out of all the white population, 86% of them were European Americans that emigrated from the US. 45% of latinos were from Mexico or Latin America, meanwhile 30% were from latino Carribean countries and 25% were latinos from the US. Almost 88% of the black population were African Americans, with a estimated 12% being Bahamians. The average income of a Kokomian individual was at average $78,271, meanwhile those who lived in families on the island in contrast, had a average at $31,200.

Geography
The Kokomo Islands is made up of several islands, cays and keys, with the average elevation above water constantly at less than 6 feet. Beach areas are often subject to hurricanes, as water tend to flow up through beaches or mangroves.

Climate
The climate of the Kokomo Islands is classified as tropical, with hot, humid summers and cool, dry winters.

Tourism
The Kokomo Islands relies heavily on tourism and generated around 60% of the economic activity. Around 20,000 Kokomoians are also employed in the tourism business. The Kokomo Islands attracted 2.5 million tourists in 1984, around 40% were cruise visitors.

Financial services
After tourism, banking and international financial services is the most important economic sector. There are more bank accounts in the Kokomo Islands, than there are residents. Corporations and private persons doesn't have to pay income tax or any other form of tax, making private capital very prosperous.

Before the Anti-Criminal Capital Act of 1983, criminals used to deposit criminal money straight into the banks, altough this became slightly harder after the act, and caused many criminals to money launder by purchasing and building legitimate businesses. In 1984, the small and medium businesses market grew 63%. The government has done little to combat money laundering.