Adopt a Country

[Forza Raalte]

I don't know if this is ever tried before but here's the idea. In this thread you can adopt yourself a country which could be uknown for you and probably for others. Be your country's ambassador here on SSC. Promote the country, tell some things about it and keep us close for news within the country but it don't have to be that serious, a sense of humour would be fine


Big countries are left out. Everybody knows quite some things about let's say Canada, Pakistan and New Zealand

Choose one of these countries

· Angola
· Armenia
· Azerbaijan
· Belize
· Benin
· Bhutan
· Botswana
· Brunei by Naga Solidus
· Burkina Faso
· Cape Verde
· Central African Republic
· Chad
· Cook Islands
· Djibouti by rotten777
· El Salvador
· Equatorial Guinea by bitxofo
· Eritrea
· Faroe Islands by Schmidt
· Gabon
· Guinea-Bissau
· Guyana
* Greenland by Mr. Denmark
· Heard Island and McDonald Islands
· Jan Mayen
· Kiribati
· Kyrgyzstan by macon4ever
· Laos
· Lesotho
· Liechtenstein by davidkunz/vie
· Madagascar
· Malawi by Vertigo
· Mayotte
· Mongolia
· Nicaragua
· Nauru by Jonesy55
· Oman
· San Marino
· Sao Tome and Principe
· Solomon Islands by newportrichieguy
· South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
· Svalbard by Valeroso
· Tajikistan
· Tokelau by Kuesel
· Trinidad and Tobago
· Turkmenistan
· Uzbekistan
· Vanuatu
· Zambia

[Audiomuse]

Cool! I adopt: Kyrgyzstan.

[Audiomuse]

Facts from http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

2006 Pop. 5,213,898
Growth Rate (POP)-- 1.32%
Fert. Rate-- 2.6 Children per woman
Religions--Muslim 75% Russian Orthodox 20% Other 5%
Languages-- Kyrgyz and Russian
Ethnic Groups-- 65% Kyrgyz, 13% Uzbek, 12.5% Russian, Rest-- Dungan, Ukrainian, and Uygur
Government-- Republic
Capital--Bishkek
Former Soviet nation.
Pronounced-- Kur- geez-Stan

[Forza Raalte]

Excellent choice. Kyrgyzstan is withouth any doubt one of the coolest countries on earth

[Forza Raalte]

My adoption country will be Cape Verde



The Cape Verde Islands are located in the mid-Atlantic Ocean some 450 kilometers off the west coast of Africa. The archipelago includes 10 islands and 5 islets. The main islands are Santo Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia, São Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista, Maio, Santiago, Fogo, and Brava. All larger islands but Santa Luzia are inhabited.

Cape Verde was uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived in 1456, and the islands were thus made part of the Portuguese empire. In 1975 Cape Verde became independend but it still is very depended of Portugal. Cape Verde even has the Euro as it's valuta! The language in Cape Verde is (ofcourse) Portuguese

Now the promotion part for Cape Verde

Cape Verde seems like a beautiful country to me. Nice beaches, some nice town, beautiful mountanious inlands and it isn't discovered by the mass of tourists by now.

Fontainhas



A Beach in Cape Verde



Mountains

[Vertigo]

I'll adopt Malawi!

Malawi is a relatively small, landlocked African country. Most of the country is located quite high, although there's also a large low part of the country along beautiful Lake Malawi.

For years Malawi was a dictatorial state, but since the 90s it is a more or less functioning democracy. It's former dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, led the country with an iron fist for decades. He has also done some good things for the country though; one of the most important being providing a good infrastructure for the country.

Malawi is a mostly rural and very poor country, even for African standards. AIDS and Malaria are very common and in dry years there are even food shortages. Still, Malawi's population is known for being very friendly.

The friendly population, the good infrastructure and the striking scenery makes Malawi an unknown but very nice holiday destination. It may lack the abundance of wild animals like you can find in some neighboring country, but the beautiful and diverse scenery certainly makes up for that. Travelling is easy compared to many other African countries, which is why Malawi is sometimes called "Africa for beginners".

This poor but friendly country deserves somewhat more attention!

Here are some pics I shot last summer.

[Jonesy55]

Nauru needs adopting.







Any country that shows the "Phosphate Company Site Office" on its national map is obviously in need of help, especially when there is no more phosphate on the island!



Being in the middle of nowhere away from all shipping lanes and with no native industry or economic potential is also worrying for Nauru.

[cementationfurnace]

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

Being in the middle of nowhere away from all shipping lanes and with no native industry or economic potential is also worrying for Nauru.

I also understand that they are seriously worried about rising sea levels.

[Bahnsteig4]

I'll take Svalbard then!

[Xusein]

No Somalia? Well then, I will choose Djibouti...

Capital: Djibouti
Population: 486,530 (small)
Median age: 18.2 years
Population growth rate: 2.02% (slower than Somalia)
Life expectancy at birth: 43.17 years (lower than Somalia)
Ethnic groups: Somali 60%, Afar 35%, French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian 5%
Religions: Muslim 94%, Christian 6%
Languages: French (official), Arabic (official), Somali, Afar

[Bahnsteig4]

delete.

[schmidt]

I'll get Faroe Islands, ok? I like remote places heh.

Situated in the heart of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic at 62°00’N, the Faroe Islands lie northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway. The archipelago is composed of 18 islands covering 1399 km2 (545.3 sq.miles) and is 113 km (70 miles) long and 75 km (47 miles) wide, roughly in the shape of an arrowhead. There are 1100 km (687 miles) of coastline and at no time is one more than 5 km (3 miles) away from the ocean. The highest mountain is 882 m (2883 ft) above sea level and the average height above sea level for the country is 300 m (982 ft).

Population: 47,246 (CIA)
Language: Faroese, Danish
Capital: Torshavn
GDP (PPP): US$1,000,000,000.00
GDP per capita: US$22,000.00


















It's a pretty interesting country hehe.

[MuddyZehbra32]

I'l take uurhhh.... Malawi.

[Valeroso]

I'll adopt Svalbard! Here are some interesting facts about it that I have summarised:

- It is part of Norway (the northernmost part of the Kingdom)
- It is made up of 40% Russians, 60% Norwegians.
- All people are required to carry a rifle with them at all times because of the threat of polar bears! Roughly 500 Polar bears are on the main island, and 5 people have been killed by them since the 1970s.
- It has absolutely NO trees! It has some birches, but with the exception of those, the best description of the physical environment which I could find is as follows: "Its mountains look like giant, precipitous slag heaps: steeply piled stacks of rubble, eroded by rain with peaks jutting out at improbable angles". The more higher mountains are covered mostly by snowfields, with lots of glaciers within the valleys.
- It's highest point is 1,717 m.
- Its main economic activity is coal mining, but tourism has grown during the past century.

It looks and seems like a really great place to visit also! It's really isolated, and if there ever was WWIII, I've got a feeling that Svalbard would escape it unharmed. Partly because it's completely isolated; partly because no one knows where on earth it is! So if we look at a map taken from Wikipedia, we'll notice that Svalbard is located right here:



And if you're smart enough to notice, then yes, it's located right in the Arctic circle!



Interesting to point out that it's quite a big landmass, yet because it is so north, most people don't identify it! If we look at some of the pictures of Svalbard though, we'll notice that perhaps due to it's northness, it may often get very little sun in Winter! But not just that, but also due to the fact that it has absolutely no trees, the place also looks a little bit barren, desolate, and rugged which sort of makes it a little bit dreary also. The following pictures are taken from http://travels.larp.se/svalbard/svalbard.html. (Some guys trip to Svalbard! There are more pictures inside!).



(Even the tourists stand out!)


Sunbathing on the Svalbard beaches!


Svalbard's technoglically advanced trains!

Anyway, who is not to say the island isn't beautiful? This picture from Wikipedia makes it look awesome, and even those above pictures impress me! (I'm a weird person! ) The sheer isolation of it, and its vast amount of nature is also a contributing factor that would make me love to visit Svalbard one day, and I'm sure it'll be one of the most unique (and perhaps oddest) travel adventures out there! Behold:






Thank you! I've learned a lot and hopefully you all have also! Have a Svalbard of a day!

[FREKI]

Ehmm I like the idea - but WTF is the Faroe Islands doing there - that's not and have never ever been a country!

That's just a Danish province like Greenland, Bornholm ( or Canada )

And what about Svalbard what's next Hawaii?

Okay I'll shut up about it now - because country or now it's a great idea...


@Schmidt - I fell hornored you chose it... feel free to PM me if you need any Danish text translated - great pics!

[Jonesy55]

Originally Posted by schmidt

I'll get Faroe Islands, ok? I like remote places heh.

Situated in the heart of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic at 62°00’N, the Faroe Islands lie northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway. The archipelago is composed of 18 islands covering 1399 km2 (545.3 sq.miles) and is 113 km (70 miles) long and 75 km (47 miles) wide, roughly in the shape of an arrowhead. There are 1100 km (687 miles) of coastline and at no time is one more than 5 km (3 miles) away from the ocean. The highest mountain is 882 m (2883 ft) above sea level and the average height above sea level for the country is 300 m (982 ft).

Population: 47,246 (CIA)
Language: Faroese, Danish
Capital: Torshavn
GDP (PPP): US$1,000,000,000.00
GDP per capita: US$22,000.00








It's a pretty interesting country hehe.

Those grass roofs are pretty funky. I imagine the weather is foul though, the Shetland Islands are bad enough and the Faroes are a few hundred miles further north.

[Küsel]

OMG - there is really a "country" that I didn't know before...

TOKELAU

I feel LOST


I just read about it - the population is 1500 and divided on three villages on the three islands. Interesting is that the atolls are bilingual (Tokelau and English). The people live totally from subsistence because of the lack of natural resources and arable land. Therefore every year 1% of the pop is emigrating - so good that I write about it for in a few years the islands will be deserted and probably used by the French for nuclear testings

Tokelau is the most remote area in the world for infrastructure is just inexistent (no roads and cars, ports, airports or TV connection - not even a prison!). At least they have a installed a downstream connection 3 years ago over satellite, that they know when NZ gives them the independence or if Bush will be bombing them because an Iraqi spent some hollidays there once.

The only exporting article Tokelau ever provided to the world is the webdomain .tk - but it doesn't even belong to the islanders but to a foreign investor that bought it from the Polynesians for several million Dollars and sells it further on to users who have to pay very high commissions if they have hits on the site...

Why do I tell you that all? - Because of the global warming the country will anyway disappear in the next decades! The highest point is 5m above sea level and thus the atolls will go under like Atlantis

SO VISIT TOKELAU AS LONG AS IT STILL EXISTS!

You will have a wonderful and relaxing time in this paradise!


So... WELCOME

[schmidt]

Originally Posted by Mr_Denmark

Ehmm I like the idea - but WTF is the Faroe Islands doing there - that's not and have never ever been a country!

That's just a Danish province like Greenland, Bornholm ( or Canada )

And what about Svalbard what's next Hawaii?

Okay I'll shut up about it now - because country or now it's a great idea...


@Schmidt - I fell hornored you chose it... feel free to PM me if you need any Danish text translated - great pics!

Maybe the best title for this thread would be "Adopt a region in the world"

But sincerely, I didn't know Faroe Islands WASN'T a country as they play as a country for UEFA, have their own language, etc. It seems Denmark dominates the northern seas, eh?

I wish my country had some overseas territories too ehhe

[Forza Raalte]

Some (good) news from Cape Verde

Cape Verde tops list of new tourist destinations in UK

A Semana / afrol News, 5 May - A survey carried out in the United Kingdom shows that Cape Verde stands at the top of the list of new tourist destinations chosen by the British to spend their vacations. The trend seems to be on an upswing, according to a number of local and international tourism agencies and companies.


German, British airliners to fly on Cape Verde

afrol News, 2 June - HapagFly, one of Germany's leading charter airliners, today announced that the Cape Verde archipelago would be among its main newcomers in this year's winter season. The airliner, known for favourable prices in Germany, is owned by charter giant TUI, and will offer individual travellers a better access to Cape Verde. Also a British operator is to offer direct flights to Cape Verde.

HapagFly today announced it would operate direct flights between the three German cities of Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich to the international airport at Sal, the island of the Cape Verdean archipelago most developed for tourism.


Less good news is a recent earthquake on one of Cape Verde islands. But NATO have promised to send some help

[Audiomuse]

Kyrgyzstan pics:





Tulips.......Beautiful

Bishkek. A dark, boring, and grim looking city actually has friendly people. Its just all of the Soviet "Happy shit" architecture that's left over along with the Lenin statues. Alot of people use Soviet cars left over from when it was a part of the Union.

I don't know. It sort of reminds me of North Korea.