Welcome to our newest feature!
Monday geography blogging
After the discussion immediately below it seems this could be a good thing for all of us. By preparing it, I get to learn.
Today we take a look at South Central Asia.
Based on some of the surveys taken, it might be foolish to assume that folks can find India on the map, but it's pretty big and geographically prominent, so let's look at some of India's neighbors.
Bhutan
Wikipedia says " The Bhutanese call their country Druk Yul (land of the thunder dragon)."
The landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the Himalayan heights in the north, with some peaks exceeding seven thousand metres. Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion and the population is predominantly Buddhist, with Hinduism being the second most dominant. Thimphu is the capital and largest city.
His Majesty was covered in our prince blogging series
earlier.
Nepal
Interesting tidbits from Wikipedia:
In 2006, Nepal was the only known officially-declared Hindu kingdom in the world. On May 18, 2006, Nepal was declared a secular state by the Interim Parliament of Nepal. On December 28, 2007, the interim parliament passed a bill and declared Nepal to be a federal democratic republic. The current king, Gyanendra Shah, will be the last king of Nepal if the present ruling parties win the scheduled April 2008 elections.
...
Eight of the world's top ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest, are in Nepal.
Nepal's flag is the only national flag that is not quadrilateral in shape.
With April 2008 fast approaching, we will need to keep Nepal in our prayers for their transition.
Bangladesh
This country, formerly East Pakistan, declared independence in 1971. "Bangladesh" means "Country of Bengal." It is a parliamentary democracy and Islam is the state religion.
Two radical Islamist parties, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), were banned in February 2005. Bomb attacks taking place since 1999 have been blamed on those groups, and hundreds of suspected members have been detained in numerous security operations, including the head of those two parties in 2006. The first recorded case of a suicide bomb attack in Bangladesh took place in November 2005.
The 2006 election was postponed indefinitely and emergency law declared in January 2007 as the caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed aims to revise the voter list and crack down on corruption. The government aims to hold new elections by 2008 but lack of coordination between Election Commission and the Government, and their recent activities have created uncertainty about Election while the two leading candidates, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, are facing criminal charges in court and the banned indoor politics is yet to be exercised.
[All the above from
Wikipedia]
Another nation in transition that needs prayer.
Pakistan
"Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world." [
Wikipedia] It is very much in the news because of its geopolitical situation between Afghanistan and India, its being among the nuclear nations, and its current political turmoil. (Cf. earlier posts
here and
here and
here and
here and
here and
here.)
OK. Now, can we all find these counties on this map?
Lovely. Treat yourself to some hot chocolate.
--the BB
Today we received a visit from someone in Nepal, a nation that recently held national elections and is making the transition from monarchy to federal republic. The Maoist party received the most votes and the organization of the new government is currently in daily headlines.
