Africa by Sam

In honor of the World Wide Web being 30 years old this month, I thought this article about Algeria would be quite ironic.  British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented this amazing computer breakthrough that would connect the world and change our future.  To make this blog and bit more interesting to read I have a question, who do you know that does NOT have an email address?  My answer would be my 80 year old mother and my 98 year old grandmother on my father's side. My aunties and uncles in their 60's to 80's all have an email. Sure they probably needed some help setting up the account from me or someone a bit younger that understands the computer lingo but they know what it is.  I know 8 year old children that have an email account but President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria does not.  The shocking thing is that his peers and advisors about also in this same age group.  Most just do not understand this "dotcom" thing. Ok so now to the meat of this

While exploring parts of Africa I found a fun fact place called Luanda which was once called São Paulo da Assuncao de Loanda.  It is also the capital of Angola with the population of 2,487,484 on land only 113 km2 (44 sq mi with is smaller than San Francisco) Going back in time in 1972 it was known as the "Paris of Africa" and way back in 1750 it was a major player in the slave trade selling between 5,000-10,000 slaves per year.  They abolished slavery in 1836 about 29 years before the United States. So what really caught my eye, Luanda is ranked the most expensive city in the world.  Yep it is more expensive than Singapore, Zurich, and Hong Kong. A standard 2 bedroom apartment averages $6,800 per month.  There are smaller places to rent as low as $800 a month.  Now the GDP per capita is $7,700 for the rest of the country. So who and how can people afford to live there?  American and Europeans because of all the oil and diamonds in Angola. Luanda produces 1.8M barrels of oi

I have heard of a few different "Hidden Secrets" all over the world. I have never heard of Karfloof South Africa until last week. There are 3 things that might put this on my bucket list.  I like the adventure and since I have never been to any parts of Africa, South Africa seems to offer so much. For starters is it affordable? I guess it is relative.  I have searched fights for under $1200 round trip. I have never been on a safari and it seems so luxurious. I am not too much of a spa type of person but I know many friends that are and they offer the hydro treatment this and the exfoliate that, herbal this and aroma that.  I think you get my point.  For the outdoor adventure people there are many things to do from hiking to waterfalls, mountain biking, fishing as more.  There is an extreme race/event that lets you run,hike, walk 100 miles.  It is a timed 36 hour race in September (Sep 20-22 for 2019) that is very popular in the ultra running community. For only R3850 which is

Rugby in Africa As we explored the runners in Kenya and how it was a profession to run for a living earning between $500 to $200,000 US dollars (50,215 to 20,086,000 Kenyan Shilling) per race, which is a good way to make a living in Kenya, this brought on a curiosity.  What about the other countries and sports?  To no suprise there are 55 different currencies and that will be for another blog but the opportunity for a less populated country like Togo to compete against South Africa in not the same playing field.  The is a popular African Men's Sevens Rubgy tournament.  In 2018 it was in Monastir, Tunisia.  The team that took the Championship was Zimbabwe, followed by Kenya. in 2nd place and then Uguanda in 3rd.  The tournament starts with the top 12 teams in Africa and then play in brackets.  On might think of the 55 counties which is close to the top 20% of the continent.  We find that the are only 24 countries that are members of the rugby union that host the Sevens Rugby World

With all of the "G" countries like Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and even Equatorial Guinea for the map test, I thought I would pick Gambia because it was in the middle of Senegal. For starters I found out The Gambia is a Mandinka term Kambra/Kambaa which mean Gambia river. This land and river dates back to around 1444 when the Portuguese lived on this land.  http://historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistoriesResponsive.asp?historyid=ad47 The land was later French territory.  The British built Fort James in 1661 about 17 mile up the river. The French owned Senegal and the British owned Gambia. 

Djibouti is a small county in the northwestern part of Africa.  It has 23,200 sq kilometers or 8,958 sq miles which are smaller than the land size of Maryland.  California has 163,707 sq miles. One of the largest economic challenges is employment. The unemployment rate is 52% and most of the unemployed are young men and women.  Djibouti is already at a disadvantage since the average life expectancy for men is 62.2 years and women 65.5 year.  The whole infrastructure is behind most modern countries.  It lacks public transportation and public services like education. Poverty is everywhere and had become the norm. The current plan is to build ports along the water and roadways and electric power lines to Ethiopia.  The import of commercial goods would increase some economic growth and jobs. What I wanted to know is why is there an USAF air station there and what other countries have a military base there.  Japan has one only base outside of Japan and it is in Djibouti.  Japan was there t