Chris Pearce's Blog, page 10

Palm Sunday customs around the world

Tomorrow, 20 March 2016, is Palm Sunday. A few years ago, I posted the following article to Helium writing site, now gone …

Palm Sunday is an important celebration in the Christian calendar. It is a movable feast that is always held on the Sunday prior to Easter. The event marks Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem shortly before his trial and crucifixion. The day is usually associated with worshippers carrying blessed palm leaves or a substitute. A palm frond denotes victory. There are many different and interesting Palm Sunday customs around the world.

It is a real family day in Jordan with church services being well attended. People make crosses out of palm leaves and children take palm fronds and olive branches to church. The service starts with a procession. Later the priest uses a branch to sprinkle parishioners with holy water.

Marigolds are placed in the altar of Eastern Orthodox churches in India when ‘Hosanna’ is called out in recognition of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem in the lead-up to his trial and hanging. According to legend, St. Thomas the Apostle brought Christianity to India in 52 CE.

The Philippines re-enact Jesus entering Jerusalem in the form of a priest on a horse. Worshippers with palm leaves parade alongside him. Pieces of material are often placed along the path by the women. Afterwards, people attach the fronds on their doors and windows to receive Jesus and repel evil spirits.

Countries in colder climates that don’t support palm trees use branches from other species. In Latvia, one of the pussy willow species, such as the goat willow or grey willow, is used instead. Here the special day is often known as ‘Pussy Willow Sunday’. Traditionally, parents awaken children by striking a willow branch against the door, wall or furniture. In another ritual, people chase and gently slap each other with these branches. Children in Finland put on witches’ garb and ask for sweets and coins at houses in their street. In Fiji, children in white re-enact Jesus’ entrance and sing verses at service.

People in the United States celebrate Palm Sunday by playing sacred music in churches and halls. Plays are popular too. Many people make crosses out of palms and put them in their houses, shops and other businesses. Branches other than palms are commonly used in the US as palm is often unavailable in many parts.

In France and Italy, people are known to burn palm branches during prayer if a storm is approaching. At other times, palms are made into crosses, or fashioned into quite intricate designs, something that is done in Mexico too.

An interesting Palm Sunday custom in Bulgaria is for people whose names are associated with flowers to have their ‘name day’ at this time. Palm Sunday is often known as Flower Sunday. Flowers also play an important role in Palm Sunday in the United Kingdom, Germany and countries in central and eastern Europe. The flowers are blessed and interwoven into the palm leaves.

In England, France and Germany, people still place palms on graves on Palm Sunday. Country people in England leave rags at wells in the hope that the well’s spirit would maintain a nice, clean water supply for the town. The British have used all sorts of alternatives to palm branches, such as willow, boxwood, yew and daffodils. Palm from Spain is now commonly used.

In Malta, olive branches are placed on statues of a suffering Jesus during the Passion, or the time leading up to his death. A branch is often taken home as it is supposed to ward off illness.

People in parts of the Netherlands adorn crosses with bread and sweets. In other parts, residents pay tribute to their ‘Mother of Sorrows’.

Palm Sunday is a grand occasion in Spain. Processions last all week. Floats of up to five tons supported by dozens or even hundreds of people carry images of a suffering Jesus. Women wearing black clothes and holding candles follow priests in purple gowns and hoods. Spain has one of the world’s largest palm groves, with over 11,000 trees. As Palm Sunday approaches, fronds are covered from the sun to reduce their color and fashioned into various forms. People are supposed to don a new garment on Palm Sunday.

If Spain has the largest palm grove, Poland has the biggest palm trees. Contests are held on Palm Sunday for the largest palm. Some are over 100 feet or 30 meters in height, although it should be pointed out that these trees are artificial.

The first computer

(originally published to Bubblews writing site, now gone)

The first computer was probably made before 100 BCE on the Greek island of Rhodes. Remains of a contraption that came to be known as the Antikythera mechanism was recovered from the wreck of a small ship off the island of Antikythera in 1900, which had sunk around 65 BCE. It was a small hand-powered device that aimed to automate complex astronomical and calendar calculations and is thought to date to around 100 BCE.

A total of 82 fragments were found, including seven major pieces that contained gears. It had a number of sun, moon and other gears to work out the number of sidereal, anomalistic and synodic months in a year with good accuracy. For example, a series of gears set the ratio of a solar year to a synodic month as 1 to 12.368.

The Antikythera mechanism was also used to calculate the Metonic cycle of about 19 years, the Olympiad, the Callippic cycle of about four Metonic cycles and more accurate than it, and the Saros and the Exeligmos, both used to predict eclipses. It was thought to have further gears, not recovered, to track the planets. The machine could be set to the Greek or the Egyptian calendar.

The computers were probably manufactured at an academy of astronomy and engineering run by the philosopher Posidonius at Rhodes. The design may be that of astronomer Hipparchus around 140-120 BCE. Another theory suggests the mechanism came from the Corinth area, home of Archimedes and his school. Or it may have come from Permagon whose library was noted for art and science.

The technology of the Antikythera mechanism is regarded as extraordinary for its time and not equalled until astronomical clocks were developed in Europe in the 14th century.

Climate change: Global warming is real

I posted this to Bubblews writing site, now gone, a couple of years ago. Since then, 2014 was a record warm year and then 2015 was another record. And February 2016 was the record hottest month …

There is virtually universal acceptance of global warming among scientists and scientific organisations and that man is almost certainly the cause of much or most of it. The deniers are likely to be concerned about business costs or perhaps have religious convictions. They also like to single out individual studies they think use less than robust methods, but it doesn’t change the overall situation.

NASA data shows that 2005 was a global temperature record and 2010 was another record. The years 2011 and 2012 were considerably higher than anything before 1998. In fact, global temperatures each year since 1995 have been higher than anything we saw before 1995 (and going back several thousand years at least). Short term levelling off occurs, e.g. first half of the 1980s, first half of the 1990s, and arguably in some recent years, but the overall trend is upwards.

The CSIRO (Australia) states: “All measurements of the climate system indicate the long term warming trend is continuing. It is inappropriate to use short term data sets to determine long term trends.” http://www.csiro.au/en/Outcomes/Climate/Has-Global-Warming-Stopped.aspx

Annual levels of carbon emissions continue to increase each year. Temperatures are up. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe. Deforestation continues. Glacier thickness is diminishing at a greater rate each year. The oceans are rising and their temperatures are increasing faster than the atmosphere.

NASA states: “Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.” http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus

This is followed by statements by a number of leading scientific bodies saying that climate is changing and it’s largely due to human activity. Further down the page is a link to 200 scientific organisations around the world who have concluded that “climate change has been caused by human action”. The CSIRO is included. Here’s the link: http://opr.ca.gov/s_listoforganizations.php

Does anyone know of any national or international scientific body that rejects man-made global warming? I think the last one was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which moved from rejection to non-committal in 2007. There are still a handful of others who are non-committal, solely geology groups, I believe, although I think most geology groups now concur with man-made global warming.

There are of course some individual scientists who don’t concur with man-made global warming. Most or all seem to cop a fair bit of flak from colleagues.

It’s interesting that some of the deniers link temperature change to solar activity, but if anything, solar activity has fallen slightly since about 1980.

Publish traditionally or do ebook?

(I wrote this in 2014 and posted it to Bubblews writing site, now gone.)

These days, would you try to find a literary agent or publisher to publish a book, or just do an ebook?

In the old days, if one wrote a book, the next step was usually to try and get it published commercially (or self-publish and have a garage full of books). This involved many letters or emails to literary agents and/or publishers to try and convince them to take on your precious manuscript. Of course, very few were ever taken on and the proportion is probably even less now. Two reasons for this are the increase in the number of people writing books and the steady move of the industry from print to digital.

Some years ago, I wrote a historical novel, A Weaver’s Web. It is about a poor handloom weaver and his family in early 19th century Lancashire, England. I did the rounds of literary agents and found that no one seemed to be taking on much at all that isn’t written by someone well known for writing or something else, and this seems to be increasingly the case.

One agent even compared my novel to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, “but with the poor family finding its wealth. The location of Manchester during the industrial revolution dictates the action excellently and I can see why readers could not put it down.” I got unsolicited comments back from 18 general readers, five of whom said they couldn’t put it down. I’ve received other good comments from agents (although most just say it doesn’t suit their list or they’re not passionate enough about it), a professional appraiser, and people at writing site Helium. Also, I was top in a university postgraduate creative writing course of 30 students. None of this made any difference.

I’m now taking the ebook option. I think it’s the way to go. I’m not sure if I would any longer recommend a writer first pursues traditional publication, and failing that, do an ebook. Maybe it’s still worth sending a manuscript to a few agents on the off chance. Depending on what sources and figures you look at, it seems the proportion of ebooks vs printed books is now somewhere around 30:70. I read an article saying that by 2017, it’ll be about 50:50.

Cost of an ebook depends on how much you can or want to do yourself: cover, editing, conversion to epub/mobi, and so on, and ranges from nothing to perhaps a couple of thousand for a more complex non-fiction book. An advantage is that you can set your price (generally much lower than printed) but royalties are as high as 70%, compared with around 10% of retail price if your book is in a bookshop. Another advantage is that you can write and publish what you want rather than being tied down by a literary agent who might want a sequel to some book you’ve written and you don’t want to do a sequel or you might want to write a science fiction book or some other genre or topic that the agent doesn’t do.

What do other people think? Has anyone sent a manuscript to agents and publishers? Would you do it again? Or would you think about an ebook instead? Or perhaps you’ve already published one or more ebooks.

Beware the Ides of March

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

The Ides of March is a date in the ancient Roman calendar equivalent to our modern day 15 March. The word ‘ides’ is Latin for ‘half division’, from the Etruscan word for ‘divide’, and it came to refer to the middle day of the month. There was no particular importance attached to this date, except that initially it was the day of the full moon. It became famous because Julius Caesar was warned that he would come to grief on this March day in 44 BCE, and indeed, he was assassinated by fellow senators on the Ides of March.

The origin of the word ‘ides’ probably goes back to the time of the first two ancient Roman calendars in the eighth century BCE, and perhaps earlier. The first Roman calendar was supposedly set down by Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, around 738 BCE. The new calendar was very different from the old Etruscan calendar, which had months ranging from 20 or less to 35 or more days, possibly based on crop and animal cycles. Romulus’ new calendar had 10 months of 30 or 31 days (Martius, or March, to December), and about 60 days that were in the middle of winter and not part of any month.

Rome’s second ruler, Numa Pompilius, redesigned the calendar in about 713 BCE, adding Januarius and Februarius, and deducting a day from each of the months with 30 days, probably due to a Roman suspicion of even numbers. Thus the original 10 months were now either 29 or 31 days in length. Januarius was set at 29 days and Februarius 28 days, the even number not mattering as this month had associations with the infernal gods.

Thus it was not quite a lunar calendar, although the length of the 12 months totalled 355 days, which is quite close to a dozen lunar cycles. A leap month of 22 or 23 days, Mercedinus, was supposed to be used about every second year to bring the calendar in line with the solar year. But the pontiffs didn’t add the intercalary month often enough, resulting in seasonal chaos. They also added or deleted days, or even months, to the calendar, to keep or remove politicians from office as they saw fit. In any case, March remained as the first month of the year and the Ides of March was regarded as the start of the New Year.

The set month lengths were not always followed. The priests and the general population often preferred the more observable month lengths of the lunar cycle, which also had religious significance, with Luna being their moon god. When an assigned pontiff first sighted the thin crescent of a new moon, he would call out the start of a new month. The Romans called this first day of the month ‘Kalendae’ or ‘Kalends’, from the Latin word ‘calare’, meaning to announce or call out. This is where our word ‘calendar’ comes from. The other two days of the month with names were the ‘Nones’, at the time of the half moon, and the ‘Ides’, at the full moon.

Strictly, Ides was a period of a week or so between the half moon and the full moon. The Day of Ides was the actual day when the moon was full. Similarly, Nones was the lead-up to the half moon and also lasted about a week, before the Day of Nones at the half moon. Kalends was the period of around two weeks from the full moon to the new moon, whereas the Day of Kalends coincided with the new moon. Other days were called by the number of days before these three dates, for example, the fifth day before Nones, or the third day before Ides.

Later, the Day of Nones and the Day of Ides became set days of the month, regardless of the moon phase. Nones was either the fifth or the seventh day of the month, and Ides was the 13th or 15th day. The later days were used in 31 day months, and the earlier days in the other, shorter months. Note that an even numbered date was never used. Thus the Ides of March was locked into the 15th day of March.

March was a month of festivals in ancient Rome. Martius, or March, was named after Mars, the Roman god of fertility and agriculture, and later their god of war. The Ides of March, the first full moon of the year, was a holiday. The festival of Anna Perenna was held on this day and offerings and sacrifices were made to her. Based on a real person who became a goddess, she was supposed to convince Minerva to marry Mars but she stood in as the bride herself and Mars wasn’t happy.

The Ides of March became famous for the death of Julius Caesar. Rival leaders Caesar and Pompey had fought a civil war, from which Caesar emerged as undisputed leader. Pompey was later assassinated by betrayers in Egypt. Caesar became dictator and initiated many reforms, including the Julian calendar. Some of the senators wanted Caesar out of the way so they could restore democracy. Military leader Mark Antony had heard of a possible plot, led by senators Brutus and Longinus, to kill Caesar on the Ides of March in the year 44 BCE. Antony tried to prevent his leader from entering the Senate on the Ides of March. But a number of senators forced Caesar into a room where they proceeded to stab and hit him until he was dead.

The incident was dramatised by William Shakespeare in a play called ‘Julius Caesar’. A soothsayer said to Caesar: “Beware the Ides of March”, which became one of the best known of Shakespeare’s lines. In reality, the soothsayer is thought to be Roman astrologer Spurinna. He is believed to have given this actual warning to Caesar. The dictator had planned to spend the Ides of March in his quarters but a ‘friend’, actually one of the conspirators, had urged him not to worry about superstitions, and Caesar had entered the Senate.

Uruguay

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America after Suriname. About half of its population of 3.5 million live in the capital city of Montevideo and its metropolitan area. The country is located on the east side of the continent along the Atlantic Ocean. It borders Brazil to the north, and Argentina to the west and southwest. The nation’s official name is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay as it is east of the Uruguay River and the Rio de la Plata or River Plate that separate it from Argentina. Uruguay means “river where the painted birds live” in the Guarani indigenous language. There are many other interesting facts about Uruguay.

Geography and climate

Most of the country consists of plains and rolling hills. Four river basins empty into the Atlantic. The highest mountain is the rocky and treeless Cerro Catedral, or Cathedral Hill, at an altitude of just 1,685 feet. An ongoing border dispute with Brazil relating to islands and waterways on the northern coast has not affected diplomatic relations between the two countries. About 89 per cent of arable land is used for cattle and sheep and 7 per cent is under crop. Uruguay has a temperate climate with few extremes. A lack of mountains makes it windy, especially in winter and spring, and the weather can be quite changeable. Storms are common in summer.

History

The Guarani and the Charrua are the indigenous people of Uruguay. The Spanish settled in the area in the 16th century and the Portuguese in the 17th, setting off various disputes between the two groups. The country gained its independence from Spain in the 1820s. By the 1830s, the Charrua had integrated with the Spanish and the Guarani, or been killed. Two parties that fought an ongoing battle from the late 1830s to 1870 were the Colorados, or the Reds, representing Montevideo business interests and the Blancos, or the Whites, who looked after the agricultural community. Members were identified by the color of their armbands; the city group initially wore blue armbands but changed to red as blue faded in the sun. Despite the fighting, tens of thousands of Europeans migrated to Uruguay during this period, banks opened, rail and canals were built, and exports rose, assisted by the natural harbor.

A group called the Tupamaros started robbing banks and shops in the early 1960s to give to the poorer neighborhoods. The US Office of Public Safety assisted local police who were allegedly taught how to torture suspects. Finally the army defeated the Tupamaros and another group, the Movement of National Liberation, in the 1970s. Uruguay had the highest per capita number of political prisoners of any country at that time. The torture continued until military rule ended in 1984 and various economic and social reforms were introduced.

People

About 88 per cent of Uruguay’s population are European, mainly Spanish and Italian, but from many other countries too. A further 6 per cent are Mestizo, or of mixed European and Amerindian heritage, 4 per cent are of African descent, and 2 per cent of Asian background. About 54 per cent are Roman Catholic, 11 per cent are Protestant, 9 per cent are believers without affiliation, and 26 per cent have no religion. Uruguay is South America’s most secular country and the majority of the population are regarded as not being strongly religious. Uruguay has a high literacy rate at 97 per cent and has a large urban middle class. About 600,000 people emigrated during the country’s dark days in the 1970s and 1980s.

Culture

Uruguayans eat a lot of meat. The national dishes are a beef platter called ‘parrillada’ and a large steak sandwich known as ‘chivito.’ Pasta is also very popular. ‘Grappamiel,’ made of alcohol and honey, is the national drink. The Guarani indigenous language is one of the official languages, along with Spanish, and is spoken by 88 per cent of residents. Half of the rural population speak only Guarani. It is the only indigenous language in the Americas where nearly all speakers are not indigenous. Uruguay hosted the first Football World Cup in 1930, beating Argentina in the final, and won it again in 1950.

Economy

Economic reforms from the mid 1980s led to a boom in the 1990s. However, the Uruguay economy slowed due to a devaluation of the Brazilian real in 1999, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001, and the collapse of the Argentinian economy in 2002. Unemployment peaked at almost 20 per cent, and nearly 40 per cent of people lived in poverty. Reform slowed and people opposed plans to privatize the state petroleum and water companies. The economy bounced back with growth reaching 7 per cent in 2006. Uruguay is regarded as safe and attractive for investors and more economically developed than most Latin American countries. It became the first computer software exporter in Latin America in 2005. Estancia tourism or agritourism is a new industry that has grown rapidly in recent years.

Government and politics

The two parties engaged in many battles in the 19th century are still slugging it out today in parliament. The Partido Colorado has been the ruling party for most of the country’s history. Partido Blanco has only been in power twice. The left-wing Broad Front, made up of various socialists, communists, democrats and former Tupamaros, won the 2004 elections. Colorado was a distant third with just 10 per cent of the vote. Transparency International regards Uruguay as Latin America’s least corrupt country. It has freer political and labor conditions than most Latin American countries and in 2007 was the first to legalize civil unions between different and same sex couples after five years together. The country was ranked 23rd on the 2008 democracy index, a measure of political freedom, and first in Latin America.

Transport and communication

Most passenger and freight movement in Uruguay is by road, although only 10 per cent are paved, including the highways and other roads between urban centers. The rail network was bought from Britain after World War II but has fallen out of use, except between Montevideo and San Jose, a distance of 60 miles. A hydrofoil operates between Montevideo and Buenos Aires in Argentina on the other side of the Rio de la Plata. Uruguay has over 115 mobile phones per 100 persons and one million internet users. The phone system is fully digitized and several attempts to privatize it have failed.

Ecuador

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Ecuador is a small country located on the western side of South America on the Pacific Ocean. As its name suggests, the country is situated on the equator. It in one of only two South American countries that don’t border Brazil, the other being Chile. Its capital, Quito, is the least altered and best preserved of any city in Latin America and is a World Heritage Site. Ecuador is one of 18 megadiverse countries as named by the United Nations. Its constitution was renewed in 2008 and includes legally enforceable nature or ecosystem rights, the first in the world to do so. There are many other interesting facts about Ecuador.

Geography and climate

The country has several diverse geographic regions. The low lying coastal area has most of the plantation crops and the nation’s largest city, Guayaquil. Many mangroves have been destroyed by shrimp farming. Behind this coastal plain is the highlands region, featuring the Andes Mountains with their snow covered peaks year round, even on the equator. To the east is the thinly populated Amazon rainforest area occupying nearly half the country. You can drive through the temperate coastal area, the cold highlands, and the hot and humid rainforest all in one day. The Galapagos Islands, 620 miles off the coast, have the world’s largest tortoises. This is where Charles Darwin started developing his theory of natural selection. Ecuador’s Chimborazo, an inactive volcano, is the farthest point from the earth’s center due to the planet’s ovoidal shape.

History

Evidence of human occupation in Ecuador dates back 5,500 years. Various distinct civilizations arose and could be quite hostile towards one another and outsiders. At the battle of Yahuarcocha (meaning Blood Lake), thousands were butchered and thrown into the lake. The region came under the Inca Empire in 1463, and a civil war was raging at the time the Spaniards arrived in 1531. After the Ecuadorian War of Independence in 1820-1822, the territory became part of Gran Colombia before separating in 1830. Ecuador’s history has been marked by many periods of instability. War broke out between Ecuador and Peru in 1941, each country blaming the other for invading its territory. Tensions between the two countries continued, finally escalating into all out war in 1995. A peace agreement was signed in 1998.

People

About 57 per cent of Ecuador’s 13.6 million people are Mestizo or of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent. A further 24 per cent are Amerindian, 16 per cent are white, and 3 per cent are black. A major population shift from the highlands to the coastal areas occurred in the late nineteenth century when world demand for cocoa and other commodities rose. More recently, both immigration and emigration between Ecuador and many countries around the world have been high. More than 600,000 Colombians live in Ecuador, mostly illegally, escaping conflict in their own country. Many festivals and parades combine indigenous beliefs with Catholicism. About 38 per cent of the population live in poverty.

Culture

Panama hats originated in Ecuador in the nineteenth century. Like many other South American products, the hats were taken to Panama before being shipped around the world, and came to be known by their place of international sale. Ecuador’s food is diverse, varying between the regions. A national alcoholic beverage is ‘aguardiente,’ a spirit made from sugar cane. Another favorite is drinkable yoghurt which comes in many different fruit flavors. The most popular sport is soccer. When international matches above 2,500 meters were banned in 2007, there was uproar as Quito and a number of other South American venues are above this altitude, but the ruling stood. The country is well known for its art, especially the Escuela Quitena style which can be seen in old churches in Quito.

Economy

Ecuador’s economy depends largely on agricultural and mining exports. Oil accounts for a third of government revenue and 40 per cent of export earnings. The country is the world’s largest banana exporter. An economic crisis emerged in the late 1990s due to falling oil prices, deterioration in the world economy, and El Nino damage. The situation was exacerbated by Ecuador’s expansionary economic policy of large fiscal deficits and low interest rates. Higher oil prices in the early 2000s assisted recovery, although debt remained high. In December 2008, President Correa, who holds an economics degree, decided not to make an interest payment on the nation’s global bonds, declaring it ‘illegitimate.’

Government and politics

Ecuador has been a republic since 1830 and was led by a series of authoritarian rulers. Populist politicians emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra was president five times but was ousted by the army each time, except his fourth term from 1952 to 1956. He never gave up, once stating, “Give me a balcony and I will become president.” The army finally removed him altogether in 1972 and he was exiled to Argentina. Ecuador returned to democracy in 1979 but volatility remained. The political voice of the indigenous people emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, while both elite and leftist groups have continued to try and destabilize the government.

Transport and communication

The country has 27,000 miles of roads, with only 15 per cent paved. National highways connect the major cities, although quality can vary, especially in the mountainous areas. Intercity buses are extensive and popular. Ecuador has 600 miles of rail, but neglect and El Nino events have taken their toll. By 2008, only 10 per cent of the lines were still operational, basically the tourist trains. The country has 418 airports, ranking it nineteenth in the world. Ecuador has 75 mobile phones per 100 persons.

Colombia

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Colombia is in the top four megadiverse countries in terms of diversity of species, along with Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, according to the United Nations. The country is ethnically very diverse too. It is famous for its cocaine trade, producing 70 per cent of the world’s coca production. For years, Colombia had the world’s highest homicide rate, although it has eased since 2002. Its capital, Bogota, has many universities and libraries and is often called “The Athens of South America.” There are many other interesting facts about Colombia.

Geography

It occupies the northwest corner of South America and is the continent’s only country to border both the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean (at the Caribbean Sea). The Andes Mountains dominate the landscape and are the location of most of the nation’s major cities. At an altitude of 8,700 feet, Bogota is the world’s third highest major city after La Paz of Bolivia and Quito of Ecuador, although it is much larger than either of these cities. To the east of the mountains is tropical grassland and in the southeast the Amazon Rainforest. The country is located along the Pacific Ring of Fire and has 15 major volcanoes.

Climate

Colombia’s climate varies from hot and humid in the Amazon jungle to very cold in the mountainous areas with permanent snowy peaks despite its location near the equator. Much of the country has two wet seasons, corresponding to spring and autumn. The Pacific coast is one of the world’s highest rainfall areas, while over 200 inches often falls in the southeast. The country is in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation path, resulting in variable rainfall and severe flooding along the western side. Bogota has a cool climate that hardly varies through the year. Average maximum temperatures by month vary from 63 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit, while average minimums range from 41 to 47 degrees.

History

The territory of what is now Colombia has been occupied by indigenous people for 12,000 years. Their lives were thrown into upheaval by the arrival of the Spaniards in 1499, who set about conquering and colonizing the area. One group refusing to be subjugated was the Whyuu people who were unusual in that they used horses and firearms. In 1718, the governor described them as “barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law and without a king.” After independence in 1819, Gran Colombia stretched over much of the northern part of the continent and included Panama. The Republic of Colombia dates from 1886, still with Panama which separated in 1903.

People

Most of Colombia’s 45 million people live in the mountainous areas and on the Caribbean coast. Three-quarters of the population are of mixed ancestry. About 58 per cent of residents are mestizo, meaning mixed European and Amerindian background. A further 14 per cent are mulatto or of European and African descent, and 3 per cent are zambo or of Amerindian and African ancestry. Of the remaining quarter, 20 per cent are white, 4 per cent are black and just 1 per cent are Amerindian. Colombia has the third largest number of Spanish speaking people outside Spain, after Mexico and the US. With the protracted internal fighting, more than four million of its population are regarded as internally displaced persons, among the world’s highest number. Ironically, the nation is ranked sixth by the 2009 Happy Planet Index, down from second place in 2006.

Economy

Despite the internal conflict, Colombia’s economy has grown strongly, averaging four per cent annually from the 1970s through to the 1990s. In 2007, it grew by eight per cent. Its stock exchange index jumped from a starting base of 1,000 points in 2001 to 7,300 points by late 2008. However, inequality is high, and almost a quarter of government spending is repaying debt. The country has an abundance of natural resources, and leading exports include petroleum, coal, and gold. Colombia is the world’s leading supplier of emeralds. The 858 carat Gachala Emerald, one of the largest emeralds in the world, was found in Colombia in 1967.

Government and politics

Colombia has long had a constitutional government. Its two major parties, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, were founded in the 1840s and are among the oldest in the Americas. The two have fought many battles, including the Thousand Days War of 1899-1902, which started over allegations of electoral fraud, and La Violencia, a series of skirmishes from the late 1940s and lasting about a decade. Battles were continuous from the 1960s and escalated in the 1990s due to the cocaine trade. The political situation has been less volatile in recent years, with sharp falls in the number of murders and kidnappings, as well as a weakening of the terrorist group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Transport and communication

Two-thirds of cargo in Colombia is transported by road, and most of the roads are now paved. Rail has been neglected with passenger numbers shrinking from over five million in 1972 to 160,000 in 2005. The country has nearly 1,000 airports, ranking it eighth in the world, although only 107 have paved runways. Waterways are also well developed, but guerrillas control those in the south. Lonely Planet regards Colombia as one of the top 10 destinations. The country has more than 500 radio stations, 60 television stations, and 12 million internet users. There are about 75 mobile phones per 100 persons.

Chile

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Chile is a country of extremes. If you stand in the world’s driest desert, the Atacama, you can see snow-capped mountains in one direction and ocean waves breaking in the other. You can’t do this anywhere else in the world. Chile is a long, narrow country lying between the Andes to its east and the Pacific to the west. The nation performs better than other Latin American countries in many aspects, such as output per capita, quality of life, low corruption and poverty, and freedom of the press. There are many other interesting facts about Chile.

Geography and climate

Stretching for 2,700 miles, Chile is the world’s longest country north-south. The Atacama Desert in the north has great mineral wealth. It is the world’s driest desert as mountains on both sides block moisture. There has been no significant rain in over 400 years in this area, with some weather stations having never received rain. Often the only precipitation is fog. The southern part of the country has thick forests, volcanoes, and lakes, as well as good grazing land. Chile has many climate types, ranging from desert in the north, through tropical, temperate, alpine, and polar at the southern tip.

History

The territory of what is now Chile was settled 10,000 years ago by the Mapuche people, who later fought off many attacks by the Incas. The Spaniards gradually conquered the country in the 16th and 17th centuries. It became an autonomous republic in 1810 and an independent republic in 1818, although the colonial social structure remained. Chile fought Peru and Bolivia in the 1879-83 War of the Pacific, gaining a large area of Bolivia, causing that country to become landlocked. A military coup in 1924 was followed by ten governments in eight years. Worse came in 1973 when Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvadore Allende, resulting in a period of widespread murder and torture.

People

Chile’s population of 16 million people is made up of various European and indigenous groups as well as a large proportion with mixed ancestry. The actual makeup of the population varies between reports. One study found that 30 per cent are European, 65 per cent are mestizo, or mixed race but mainly white ancestry, and most of the remainder are indigenous. Other reports state variously that whites make up 53 per cent and more than 60 per cent of the population. More than two-thirds of residents are Roman Catholic. Chilean Spanish differs from that in other South American countries as final syllables are dropped, as are ‘s’ sounds, and certain consonants are soft.

Economy

Chile has the highest gross domestic product per capita of all South American countries, at US$14,900 in 2008. However, it has high income inequality, second to Brazil among Latin American nations. Its pension system was the first to be run by the private sector and works much the same as superannuation in western countries. Chile has 57 bilateral and regional trade agreements, which is thought to be more than any other country. It exports 40 per cent of its output, with agricultural and mining commodities making up three-quarters of its exports. A third of government revenue comes from copper.

Government and politics

The country’s first woman president was elected in January 2006 for a four year term. Under the Constitution, she cannot run for a second term. Elections are labor intensive, with one ballot box per voting table covering no more than 200 names on the registry. Each table is manned by five people whose names must be among the 200 and they count the votes manually after close. Counting is witnessed by a representative from each party. Chile reformed its criminal justice system in 2005, moving from an inquisitorial process to an adversarial system.

Transport and communication

There are 357 airports in Chile, ranking it eighteenth in the world. It has extensive rail and road networks, although more than three-quarters of its roads are unpaved. Tourists beware: there aren’t many buses between Chile and Argentina, and buses to places like Ecuador and Venezuela can take over a week. Chile has the most advanced telecommunication systems in South America, using microwave radio relay facilities. The nation has close to one mobile phone per person.

Brazil

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

With an area of 3.3 million square miles, Brazil is the largest country in the world located in the tropics. It covers a large part of eastern and central South America and is bordered by 10 countries, which is every nation on the continent except Chile and Ecuador. This number is exceeded only by Russia with 14. Brazil is famous for its beaches and soccer. There are many other interesting facts about this country.

Geography

Due to its size, Brazil’s terrain is quite diverse. The semiarid north-east contrasts with the Pantanal region in the central west which is the world’s largest wetlands area and where 80 per cent of the land is flooded in the wet season. Nearly half the country is occupied by the Amazon Rainforest, extending across the north. This region has the greatest biological diversity in the world with an estimated four million plant and animal species. The Amazon Basin has a fifth of the world’s fresh water and is one of eight major drainage systems in the country, all emptying into the Atlantic. The Amazon River carries more than ten times as much water as the Mississippi.

Climate

Five climatic types are identified in Brazil: equatorial, tropical, highland tropical, temperate, and semiarid. The equatorial climate of the rainforest area includes rain and warm temperatures throughout the year, with rainfall usually exceeding 80 inches annually. Temperature extremes are more common in the temperate zones in the south and can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The south also has cooler temperatures, sometimes with frosts and snow in higher areas. The semiarid north-east has less than 30 inches of rain a year, most of it falling over 3-5 months.

History

Amerindians have lived in the region for thousands of years. About three million lived there in 2,000 nations and tribes when Portuguese colonization began in the sixteenth century. Portugal made Rio de Janeiro its capital from 1808 to 1815 due to the Napoleonic wars in Europe. Brazil achieved independence in 1822 with Dom Pedro its first emperor. The country became a republic in 1889 and periods of military rule were interspersed with democracy of sorts. Economic progress was fast-tracked during Juscelino Kubitschek’s presidency from 1956 to 1961 with the slogan ‘fifty years development in five.’ Critics called it ‘forty years inflation in four.’

People

Brazil’s population of 190 million people is made up of many races and ethnic groups. Nearly half the population is white and a further 42 per cent are pardo, or brown, describing those of mixed white, black, and Amerindian descent. A further 7 per cent are black, 0.5 per cent are Asian, and 0.4 per cent are Amerindian. Except for the US, the black population of 13 million is the largest in a country outside Africa. Brazil has the largest number of people of Italian heritage outside Italy and the largest number of Japanese descent outside Japan. After the US, it has the second highest number of people of German background outside Germany.

Culture

The culture of Brazil is strongly Portuguese but with significant Amerindian and African influences as well as Spanish, Italian, German, Arabic, and Japanese, making it a multicultural society. The country’s national dish is whole feijoada, a stew made of meat and beans. The Brazilian Carnival is an annual celebration held just before Ash Wednesday with spectacular parades and other events throughout the country. Nearly three-quarters of the population are Roman Catholic. Christ the Redeemer statue, perched high on a mountain above Rio de Janeiro, is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Brazil has won the World Cup of soccer a record five times.

Economy

Along with China, India and Russia, Brazil is regarded as one of the four large emerging economies known as BRICs, an acronym from the first letter of the name of each country. It is already the world’s ninth largest economy based on purchasing power and has an annual output of US$2 trillion. Despite this, 23.5 per cent of Brazilians live below the poverty line. The nation received a $30 billion IMF loan in 2002 and was able to repay it by 2005, a year early. Brazil is currently spending $300 billion over four years to upgrade its roads, ports, and power plants.

Government and politics

Brazil was a colony before becoming an empire and then a republic. It has been under military rule from time to time and is currently a democracy. There are 15 political parties in Congress and politicians often switch parties. To become a judge, lawyers compete in an examination. Superior court justices are appointed for life and all judges must retire by 70. The country has had seven constitutions, starting in 1824, two years after independence. Its second constitution in 1891 didn’t allow women or illiterates to vote. It was canceled in 1930 and Brazil had no constitution. However, the Constitutional Revolution in 1932 finally resulted in a new one in 1934 which included women’s suffrage.

Transport and communication

Brazil has an enormous number of airports, with over 4,000, second only to the US. It has extensive rail and road networks, although only 5.5 per cent of its roads are paved. For tourists traveling into the country by bus, it is much cheaper to buy a ticket in another South American country to the border, walk across it, and buy another ticket on the Brazilian side, rather than buy an international ticket. Piracy remains a significant problem offshore in the Atlantic. The country has 1,800 radio stations, third behind the US and France. There are 50 million internet users, placing it sixth in the world.