That reminds me of a play I saw, called Le Sud. It assumes that the French successfully colonised New Zealand's South Island in 1839 and South Zealand or 'Le Sud' became an independent French-speaking nation. Today Le Sud is a prosperous socialist country where people work only 30 hours a week, enjoy long wine-fuelled lunches, and the popular Prime Minister, Francois Duvauchelle, is a renowned womaniser. The English-speaking citizens of the North Island are far less happy; North Zealanders work long hours for little reward, their free-market experiment ended in disaster, and race relations are at rock bottom. Starved of much-needed electricity, North Zealand lives in permanent recession...
Wow! Who knew splitting countries in two could spark such memories! I quite enjoyed reading this actually, it gave me insight into something that I didn't know I didn't know! Thank you :)