I am an island
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Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in the "nauru" journal:
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03:17 pm
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Monkey Moment: Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) is currently the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), and leader of the Fatah party. He's considered moderate, compared to the prime minister Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas party). For the geographically-challenged, the PA nominally administers parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PA is also associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), though the two bodies are not the same. Their relationship is complicated. There are many boring quotes about democracy and all that rot, but here are some of the "racier" quotes from Mr. Abbas:
“We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967.”
“Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem.”
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12:21 am
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Hot Spicy Ethnic Conflict
Sri Lanka is most noted for its ongoing ethnic conflict, between the Tamil Tigers and the majority Sinhalese. It's also a religious conflict, since the Tamils are mostly Hindu while the official religion is Buddhism. They've been at it now for 20 years! You'd think that they'd get bored.
Country name: Sri Lanka (official: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, former: Serendib and Ceylon)
Capital: Colombo (it's way to the east)
( Read more... )
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12:12 pm
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Americans better behave, or they won't get to keep their SUVs!
Did you say that you want bad pop music, kitchy "island" culture, beauty queens, and shallow superficiality? Did you also want some political turmoil, severe inflation, a bad economy, and a very unbalanced distribution of wealth? Did you want to combine the two, and have such things as having the President sing songs and take callers on his very own national talk program? Then you want to move to Venezuela!
Their president recently vowed a 100-year war with the US if they didn't behave. He announced it on his weekly talk show. "No more gas for your SUVs!" That is quite a threat.
Country name: Venezuela (official: Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Venezuela means "little Venice")
Capital: Caracas
( Read more... )
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01:46 pm
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Obese!
What the heck is Nauru? It's a small island in the South Pacific Ocean. The main features of this island are a phosphate mine and an airport. It's the world's smallest independent republic. Nauruans are fat. A popular pastime is to drive along the one 12-mile road drinking imported Victoria Bitter beer and tossing the empty cans out of the window.
Country name: Nauru (former name: Pleasant Island)
( Read more... )
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08:49 am
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"We're not communist, really!"
Nowadays, nothing much is going on in Uzbekistan, except for some extreme Islamism and land poisoning. Seems Russia grew cotton and grain to the point that the entire country's water supply was almost entirely depleted, and the depletion of water increased the concentration of nasty chemicals. Sucks to be them!
They have a token democracy and lots of human rights abuse. The United States ignores the extreme human rights violation because the leaders let American troops spend time there during the invasion of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is rarely mentioned in the news.
Country name: Uzbekistan (former names: Transoxiana until 8th century, and it was called U.S.S.R. from 1924 to 1991 because of some pesky Russian conquerers)
Capital: Tashkent (it's way to the east)
( Read more... )
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07:33 pm
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Indonesia... the largest Muslim country
If you travel to Indonesia, be prepared to run from unidentified ticking devices. Over the past 4-6 years, tourists have been the occasional target of terrorist bombings in Indonesia. One of the most famous bombings occurred in October 2002, when a bunch of Australian and Western tourists in Bali were targeted with two bombs, supposedly by Jemaah Islamiah, a terrorist group.
Country name: Indonesia, formerly Dutch East Indies
Capital: Jakarta (on island of Java)
( Read more... )
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04:43 pm
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"No Man is an Island" Proven Wrong
I might as well be sitting on a deserted phosphate heap for all of the geography that I know. Bali is an island in Indonesia, next to Java. Bombay is an Indian city where Indian films are made. This Indian film industry is often called "Bollywood", and sometimes people spell it "Baliwood" for unknown reasons. One such movie is Lagaan, which means tax. This movie features cricket, extreme vegetarianism, and evil Brits. Bombay was recently renamed to Mumbai. Hinduism and the caste system influence whether one is vegetarian or not.
I plan to visit one exotic location per week until I am no longer a geography idiot. I will also post an extremely random assortment of facts or conjectures about the location! I love comments! Especially ones about cuisine, culture, religion, language, or anything else really!
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