February 25 – Day of Liberation and Innovation in Suriname

Posted on February 25, 2017

Actually, today is not the anniversary of liberation OR innovation, in Suriname. Instead, it is the anniversary of a same-old-same-old story of military might grabbing power and a dictatorship forming:

 On this date in 1980, an army sergeant named Desi Bouterse led military forces to overthrow a corrupt government. Bouterse ruled as a military dictator. Later he was moved out of government but kept as leader of the Surinamese military; in 2010 he was put back in charge of the government by being elected president. And yet he is viewed worldwide as a criminal and dictator who allegedly not only ordered opponents killed, but even personally pulled the trigger in a couple of the murders!!

 So...that's a big, giant "bad" about Suriname. What is good about this smallest of the South American nations?

 It is really diverse - the half-a-million inhabitants include a variety of indigenous peoples, including Arawak and Akurio groups, plus some people with Dutch ancestry (the Netherlands was the country that colonized this small section of South America, which was largely ruled by Portugal or Spain).
However, the largest ethnic group in Suriname is East Indians, people whose ancestors were workers from India. Maroons, people descended from enslaved people who escaped to freedom, have African ancestry, and Creoles, people descended from African and Dutch ancestors, form another large group. Javanese people have ancestors who came from what is now Indonesia (which was also colonized by the Netherlands). Other groups of people living in Suriname include people with Chinese, Lebanese, Filipino, and Brazilian ancestry.


 Both Maroon and Amerindian groups are creating authentic tourist experiences for quite low costs. Since these tours are co-op style businesses with local tour guides, they are good for adventurous travelers and good for local economies.



Of course there are amazing plants and animals in this nation, like the flora and fauna of other parts of the Amazon rain forest. This nation is more unspoiled than most, and if it can rid itself of its dreadful leader, it is likely to become a relatively new destination for travelers and scientists.









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February 24 – Anniversary of WWII's Battle of Los Angeles

Posted on February 24, 2017

Do you know about the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, which occurred on this date in 1942?

I'd never heard about it, and I was born and lived all my life near Los Angeles, California -- so I would certainly have thought I would've heard about a World War II battle here!

Of course, there's a reason that we don't hear much about it...

...It was a false alarm. In other words, it was a mistake!

It was late in the day. Something ominous appeared in the sky....

 If you know a fair bit about WWII, you know that the United States didn't enter the war until Japan attacked a U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. Since Los Angeles is on the west coast of North America, it's one of the closest continental states to Japan, and Californians were honestly worried about  a possible Japanese attack. 

 It turned out that they were right to worry; Japanese submarines bombarded some oil fields near Santa Barbara just a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack. Even though nobody died, and only a little bit of property damage resulted from the explosive shells, everyone was very keyed up and fearful after the 20-minute-long attack.


So, when an ominous something was spotted in the nighttime skies over Los Angeles - THE VERY NEXT DAY! - of course people jumped to the conclusion that it was a Japanese plane.

 Air raid sirens sounded!

 A total blackout was ordered, so everybody turned off every light in their homes and shops. 

 American forces launched an anti-aircraft barrage at the mysterious something. Now that they were studying the sky so hard, they noticed all kinds of other somethings that were, they thought, almost surely Japanese aircraft. The U.S. forces shot at those things, too. 

 Pilots rushed to their aircraft but, thank goodness, they didn't start flying around just yet.

 After about an hour of shooting, it was determined that there was no further danger, and the "all clear" was sounded. The blackout order was lifted.

 It turns out, there were no Japanese planes!

 It turns out that the first something spotted in the sky was a meteorological balloon, and that the rest was "war nerves" and shooting at vague moving lights that were actually the result of others' shots!

 Sadly, even though it was a false alarm, five people died. Three people were killed in car crashes determined to have happened because of all the fear and chaos. Two people died of hear attacks -- the stress of the hour-long "battle" against nothing was enough to, basically, scare them to death.

Within hours the Secretary of the Navy held a press conference and explained that the entire incident was  a false alarm. 
It's tragic that understandable fear turned
into unreasonable -- no, horrific! --
prejudice and discrimination.
Of course, that didn't stop people from worrying. And unfortunately it didn't stop people from being horribly hateful, in their fear, to Japanese Americans who lived in their communities but who were not guilty of anything! And unfortunately it didn't stop the government from grabbing the lands and businesses of these Japanese Americans, and locking them up in internment camps.

And it didn't stop people from speculating on the incident. Some thought that the government had used commercial (and American!) airplanes to spook the people and to create panic. Some thought that there was something a little "off," and that whatever the government had done wrong was being covered up. Some even thought that whatever was being shot at was really UFOs -- and that they were alien spaceships! Check out this photo (which apparently has been altered to look like a flying saucer!).



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February 23 – Defender of the Fatherland Day in Kyrgyzstan

Posted on February 23, 2017


 Several former Soviet republics celebrate a holiday about the armed forces or defense of country today, February 23. This includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan (see below), several other Soviet republics, and today's focus, Kyrgyzstan.

 Kyrgyzstan is one of the former-Soviet nations I hear least about. It's a landlocked nation (which means it has no border on an ocean or a sea connected to an ocean), and it is very mountainous. The relative isolation created from these two factors is complicated by the fact that, from ancient times, this land was at the crossroads of early civilizations and was on the "Silk Road" and other trade routes.
Kyrgyzstan is in the center of Central Asia! You can
see that it is north of India and south of Russia,
and that it borders on China.

 (Below) The Silk Road wasn't just one giant path...
But one of the more direct routes from Arabia to
China and back went right through Kyrgyzstan.
Isolation means that Kyrgyzstan's ancient culture has been, to some extent, preserved. But being a crossroads means that it has a long history of being dominated by foreign powers.

 And all of that means that visitors to Kyrgyzstan discover a wide variety of foods and languages and cultures - especially heavy with Persian, Mongolian, and Russian influences.
One common language is Russian, but Kyrgyz, a Turkic language, is the national language.

 One Kyrgyz dish is laghman, which has thick wheat noodles, peppers and other vegetables, and a spicy vinegar sauce.

Bread is considered sacred in Kyrgyz culture; common types include naan (flat bread common in India and other Central Asian nations), thick Russian breads, and fried bread. Bread is often eaten dipped in jam or butter or honey, or even suspended in tea! Another dip for bread is like Turkish kaymak, a dairy product that is a lot like clotted cream.
Isn't this bread oven surprising? I read that the dough
hangs on the sides as it bakes into loaves of yummy,
puffy bread!

 Some Kyrgyz live in yurts.


Most Kyrgyz are Muslim, although earlier religious practices still coexist with Islam. 

Check out this earlier post on Kyrgyzstan. And check out more beautiful photos of this little-known nation here. 

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