Posted
on April 14, 2016
Since
the prefix pan- means “all” or “involving all the
members of a group,” Pan-American is an adjective that refers to
the all the countries in North America, including Central America and
the Caribbean, and South America.
I
don't think this word is used as much anymore. When I see the entire
two continents' worth of land and peoples referred to, these days, I
see “the Americas” or even “the New World.”
Still,
there are the Pan-American Games, the Pan-American Highway, and a
variety of organizations such as the Pan American Band Instrument
Company, the Pan American Health Organization, the Panamerican Karate
Foundation, and the now-defunct Pan Am Airlines.
(I
think that the super-power status of the U.S. makes any term
including the word “American” a bit liable to be misunderstood,
because “American” – by itself – almost always refers to
something or someone from the United States of America.)
So,
supposedly all the nations in the two American continents should be
celebrating Pan-American Day today. (Do you know how many nations
there are in the Americas? Answer below.) But in most of North and
South America, the holiday is barely acknowledged. Honduras does list
the day as a public holiday, but this year Día
de las Américas
is being celebrated on Monday, April 18!
Honduras
is one of the poorest nations in Central America, and one of the most
violent. Its murder rate is the highest in the world! Still, there
are amazing and beautiful things to see there:
Copan
Mayan ruins
Chachauate
Roatan
Island
Pulhapanzak
Waterfall
Diamond
Cay
ANSWER: There are 23 independent nations in North America: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. (Islands such as Bonaire, Aruba, and Curacao are dependent territories or countries rather than independent nations.) And there are 12 independent nations in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
That makes a total of 35 independent Pan-American nations.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
America Day It is found in some history books that Vikings were the one to touch the sands of a foreign Island which is now known as North America. the Viking ship was torn apart by a furious tide and the Norsemen somehow made to the dry land and laid their feet on the ground now called America.
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