a group of islands in the pacific that are a battered nation. surprisingly, the world's colonizing powers left them alone until about 110 years ago, when the british took over. the nation is significant, though forgotten, as being the home of guadalcanal and other brutal wwii battles. since independence, the nation has been involved in periodic civil wars. as a result, the militaries of austrialia and new zealand are the only thing keeping this country afloat right now.
the solomon islands are in the pacific.
by Ben E. Hama February 01, 2007
one of the poor west african country's that used to be european slave raiding areas. former french colony, it's been ruled by the same dictatorial pres. ondimba for 40 years. oil is bringing wealth to this country, but that can't solve it's problems right now.
by Ben E. Hama January 27, 2007
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.
by Ben E. Hama February 02, 2007
a bunch of islands off the atlantic coast of africa. unpopulated area until the portuguese brought african slaves here to work on sugar plantations. although it's been a sovereign country since 1975, it is still dependent on portugal to survive economically. politically, however, the county is the most stable and prob. the freest in africa.
by Ben E. Hama February 02, 2007
commonly known as PNG, papua new guinea is an island nation in oceania, consisting of part of the huge island of new guinea, which it shares with indonesia. once a portuguese, and later german and then australian territory, it became independent in the 1970s. it is currently the most rural country in the world, with most people outside of the capital of port mosebly either working as subsistant farmers or living in traditional tribes.
by Ben E. Hama February 02, 2007
the country in africa where the slave trade originated from over 500 years ago. the portuguese colonized this place until a bloody civil war in the 1950s. the nation then saw several coups, autocratic governments, and a long civil war in the 1990s. ginnea-bissau is most famous for ruler kumba yala's attempts to move the capital. in a deplorably poor country, yala spent a fortune attempting to build the small rural village where he was born into a grand capital.
by Ben E. Hama February 02, 2007
an asian nation that everyone seemed to trample on throughout history: alexander the great, genghas kahn, the turks, the soviets. the nation finally became independent after soviet collapse, but things got no better. instead, a former communist big shot, a mr. nayazov, took power and created a crazy cult of personality. he recently died, so things are pretty unstable.
in turkmenistan, nayazov's cult of personality forced his picture to be on everything from cereal boxes to watches.
by Ben E. Hama February 02, 2007