Definitions by Ben E. Hama
mali
once the home of a great african empire, and later a french colony, mali is a west african nation. it was a single party state for many years, walking an interesting but disasterous line between marxism and islamic fundamentalism. it's a very poor nation, with no economic activities in the barren interior.
bamako is the captial of mali.
mali by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
marshall islands
tiny country in the pacific made up of hundreds of islands. a british sailor named marshall founded the place for westerners, but the germans gained the islands in the 1800s. japan basically used it as 1 giant military base during wwii, and it became a us mandate after the war. it gained independence only 25 years ago, after the us grew tired of using it as 1 big nuke testing ground.
marshall islands by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
mauritania
mauritania is a former french colony in africa that has turned into a pretty disasterous country. it's history is summed up in the bloody battle between the moorish islamic minority and the black christian/amenist minority. ruled for years as a one party state, it had a decade long experiment with democracy, before a 2005 coup turned this into a military junta.
mauritania by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
mozambique
mozambique is a country in africa. it was a long time posession of portugal, but was basically owned through most of the 1800s and early 1900s by a corpoartion known as the nissa company. this organization, of course, ran mozambique into the ground. portugal held on this place until their own upheaval in the 1970s. since then, mozambique has been typical africa with coups, civil wars, aids, and poverty.
mozambique by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
myanmar
a country that is not named burma, regardless of what some nations say. myanmar was originally burma, a once proud kingdom that fell to the british and was a colony til the wwii era. it experimented with democracy, but american actions in vietnam drove this country toward communism in the 1970s, which evolved in the 1990s into a corporatist military junta. myanmar is a very efficient military state that has fended off countless coups. however, it is one of the world's 2 'secret societies,' along with north korea. foreigners are rarely admitted and no one really knows the power structure of the gov't.
myanmar is the focus of u2's famous song 'walk on,' which references political prisoner aung san suu kyi, a democracy activist.
myanmar by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
oman
a middle eastern nation, it's been a kingdom for a long time. it was once a british mandate for a few decades, but this never worked well. the sultan has had absolute power in the country for centuries. oman was able to become extremely wealthy with its nationalized oil company. although it's not something that people generally think of in the middle east, this nation has a pretty high standard of living and doesn't have crazy strict relgious laws.
oman by Ben E. Hama February 6, 2007
comoros
tiny little island nation off the indian ocean coast of africa. a former french colony, it was a military dictatorship until 2006. it is a very poor country, despite it's potential for tourism. it's military is extremely efficent for its tiny size.
comoros by Ben E. Hama February 5, 2007