I don't like the idea of bonuses for specific countries--that would be fine if this were a game with dwarves, elves, etc. But given that all characters are members of the same species, and that people from the same country could have wildly different backgrounds, it does not make much sense to me. Maybe just let individual characters choose one skill where they can put the plus one in order to have extremely rare skill (i.e. one point higher than the normal limit)?