The economic side of Chad - week 8 - Julie De Vreese

Hello everyone,

Here I am again for some more explanation on yet another country. This time we are finding ourselves in Chad, a country in the middle of Africa surrounded by Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. It is indeed a beautiful country as Melisa already mentioned in her blog.

As it is so burning hot here outside between the hours of 12 pm and 16 pm, we chose to stay inside and definitely out of the sun. We found a little terrace and as we sat down to relax for the next few hours, one of the natives saw we were tourists and asked us what we thought of the country so far. After a few minutes he told us that Chad had to thank cotton for everything they had now. We didn’t really understand so he explained to us that when France gave independence to Chad in 1960, the economy was not so good due to drought, geographic remoteness and lack of infrastructure. The economy was mostly based on agriculture, dominated by cotton. Close to 83% of the population worked in agriculture, and even as they tried to make some progress over the years, Chad remained one of the poorest countries in the world.

Chad is locked in by several other countries and has therefore no coast, it has no efficient transportation network and not enough natural resources to live from the export. The best place to be a farmer though is in the south, where there is enough rainfall to grow cotton and peanuts. The main thing they did in the agriculture, was ginning raw cotton into fiber for export to other countries, mostly France. Also spinning and weaving of the cotton, and producing oil from the seeds of the cotton to use for local consumption is an important activity. The prices for cotton had always been good, so the economy could be called somewhat stable, but in 1985 the prices fell quickly and the whole cotton industry nearly went cripple. That forced the country to do some major restructuring.

Luckily, they can also cultivate rice, potatoes and manioc. They go fishing in lake Chad, and herd sheep, goats, cattle, and a bit unusual for us …camels. Furthermore, Chad produces minerals such as Natron and Uranium. Now, Chad’s major trading partners are the United States, France, Cameroon and China.

see you next time

xXx Julie

Sources:
http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/chad/ECONOMY.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0857236.html

My political experience in Chad – Week 8 – Melisa Simoens

Hello everyone!

Chad is a beautiful country to visit. But because I didn’t heard of the country before we started our journey around the world, I wanted to learn something more about the political background of Chad.

So I went to a local bookstore to buy a little interesting book which gave me the information I searched for.  Chad is situated in Central Africa. The country has a severe political system, which is something typical for a lot of African countries. Chad has a president, Idriss Déby, so we can say Chad is a presidential republic. He has all the power: he dominates the political system but has also the power to choose the prime minister. The president is head of state and head of government. Idriss Déby is already president of Chad since 1990. Every president is voted for a five-year term. Déby won the elections in 2011 again, so before 2016 there will be no other president.

Every year the people of Chad celebrate independence day on the 11^th of August. Unfortunately we can’t experience this day.

We noticed while our visit in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, that there’s a lot of corruption here. Sometimes I didn’t feel very safe while walking through the streets and certainly not in the evening. This is not so surprising if you know that Chad is called one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Our travel agency warned us to watch out for louche people because there are a lot of kidnappings and incidents of terrorism in Chad. So it’s better to avoid wearing jewellery in public or carrying valuable things.

We wanted to take no risks so we registered us with the British High Commission in Cameroon as there’s no British Embassy in Chad. While we were exploring the capital, someone came to us and gave us the advice to avoid eastern Chad. In eastern Chad there’s a lot of rebel activity. That’s why we stayed especially in the capital.

Although you maybe gather that it’s better to avoid a trip to Chad, the country is still a visit worth, like you can read in the blogs of Roselinde and Julie.

It was a long day, so I better go to sleep now. Read my next blog for more news about our trip.

Sweet dreams!

With love
Melisa

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Chad

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/sub-
saharan-africa/chad

Culture of Chad - week 8 - Roselinde Vandepitte

Hi bloggers, 

We are still travelling in southern direction. We are halfway our journey to Madagascar. Welcome in Chad! A whole new discovery for me because I actually don’t know anything about this country except that it is located in Africa. 

We took our plain at 8 AM. I sat next to an inhabitant of Chad. He came back from Libya to visit his family. We chattered a bit and I asked him some things about Chad, as this country is unknown for me. He told me that Chad has a population of over 7 million people and there are more than 100 languages spoken in Chad. The official language is French and Arabic. I was thinking, hopefully they understand English!  

In Chad there is not much of urbanization as most of the people are still living as cultivators and pastoralists. They live in hamlets, cattle camps, villages and oases but not in cities. He said that their marriage is polygenic. And important to know, the capital of Chad is Ndjamena.

That same day we could still discover a part of Chad. Although Chad has a large part of desert landscape, we could visit the Zakouma National Park in southern Chad. I loved it! In this park we could see its elephant population and also buffalos, giraffes and antelopes. It was the first time I’ve ever seen elephants in wild. So amazing!   

The next day we had an early breakfast because we had to leave early, as we wanted to see the Lake of Chad. We took the bus with other tourist. While driving we could see how dry this landscape is, sand is everywhere. By the Lake there are different landscapes. In and around the lake, we could see a lot of species of birds, other wildlife and crocodiles. The lake itself was full of fish, which is the main food source of the local population. Because of that, it would have been stupid to eat something else than fish for lunch! Njam!  

Excited what the other days will bring!

-xoxo-

Roselinde

source: http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Chad.html#b

    

The culture of Libya - Week 7 - Anneleen Coppens

Anou already told you that we saw a lot of pictures of a dead Qadhafi and Romina mentioned something about heaps of destroyed buildings.

Of course that’s what we expected when we arrived here. But thanks to an old lady living next to us, we heard some positive and pleasant things too.

Since a part of Libya is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, a lot of the inhabitants live there: almost 80%. Most of them are mixed of Berber and Arab ancestry.

The lady herself has a Berber ancestry and she told us the Berbers lived there long before the Arabs ever arrived.

Islam is the official religion of Libya and most people speak Arabs. There’s also a second language which is English.

Right now we are in Zuwarah, it’s a coastal town where a lot of Berber people live. Their dialect is called ‘Tamazight’ and it’s not an official language. Especially the older inhabitants still speak dialects.

Today a lot of families live with a lot of people in one single house. The old lady mentioned the fact that education here is very poor. Because of this, work force became very low. Only 10% of the woman here has an actual job.

The old lady her house

A bit later she showed us our house which was made out of mud bricks. There is only one room in the house and almost all the activities take place in it. Next to their house there is this little shelter for the chicken they keep.

Some people here still wear the traditional clothing because of their beliefs and values, but most of the inhabitants wear western-style clothing.

I guess the old lady has a strong belief: she wore full length robe, contrary to the hot weather right now. Her husband was dressed in a loose cotton shirt and trousers covered by a cloak.

After the delicious but highly spiced soup she made for us, we decided to go to our beds. It was a warm and cozy day but our feet hurt.

See you next week!

Anneleen

Source:

http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/AF/Lib/lib_cul.htm

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/libya.html

The economic legacy of a dictator - Week 7 - Anou Christiaens

Hello everyone!

We’re in Libya today. I hear you thinking “Oh my god, what are they doing in a country at war?!”. Well, we thought it might be interesting to visit a country that’s recovering from a war. Libya has been mentioned in the news a lot lately. Everyone knows that Moammar al-Qadhafi was murdered by rebels because they didn’t like his regime. But that’s the political side of Libya and for that, I advise you to read the blog of my friend Romina. I’m going to tell you something more about the economy of Libya.

Because of the recent civil war in this country, economy is not worth a lot. A lot of businesses are destroyed because of it. There are no funds to restore them because of Qadhafi’s regime. The benefits of the oil exploitation, extraction and sales went straight into the pockets of Qadhafi. That’s clearly noticeable because we didn’t see a lot of shops or businesses that were open. It’s very weird to see a street where all the windows and shops are destroyed.

When we were walking down some streets ( with a guide of course, otherwise it wouldn’t be safe for us! ), we saw a lot of pictures of a dead Qadhafi. It’s clear that the people of Libya are still euphoric about the succeeded killing of Qadhafi.

It’s not all bad in Libya. In Anneleen’s blog you can read about the culture of Libya. This brings a positive light on Libya so I strongly advise you to read it because I don’t want you to think that Libya is a bad country. The people there are very strong and courageous. They have successfully taken control and it’s because of common people that Qadhafi is no longer their leader. That deserves a thumps up.

I hope you enjoyed my blog about Libya! Talk to you soon!

Xoxo Anou

 Sources:

http://www.consultancyafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=863:post-gaddafi-libya-what-does-the-economy-look-like&catid=87:african-finance-a-economy&Itemid=294

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/interview/2011/libya-interview-2011-10-27.htm

The start of a new beginning in politics - week 7 - Romina Vanhove

Hello Everyone!

We ended up in Libya today… Although, our government has an advise against unnecessary travels to this country, we did choose to take a risk and visit it. Well, let’s just hope we won’t die.. (Haha!)

I can assure you that we are going to be very careful here in Tripoli. I think you already know that Libya recently was in a state of civil war. Official the war has ended on 20^th October 2011, but here and there, there still are some fights. We can’t help noticing these fights, certainly at night. During the day it is quite save here, but at night it’s better not to visit anything. Our government advices that we don’t change a lot of place in this country, because of the danger that lays ahead. 

In August 2011 the Gadaffi government has fallen, due to this civil war. Ever since then Libya has a Transitional National Council, you can call it an interim government. While visiting Tripoli we talked a guy that is 19 years. He told us that you have to be 18 years old to go voting, we said that in our country we have the same law. Normally in April there will be elections, he said. I think we can be glad that we are visiting Libya now, because I’m afraid that later on this year, the amount of riots will rise again due to the elections.

The war is never very far away, while traveling in this country you can see a lot of destroyed buildings and here and there you can see men with guns. If you want to know more about the economics or the culture (or what’s left of it) I suggest you read the blogs of Anou and Anneleen… They will tell you all about that!

So my time is up, I’m going to “enjoy” our moments in this country, but I will sure be glad to be back in a country without war. 

With love

Romina

Sources: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5425.htm
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/Op_reis_in_het_buitenland/reisadviezen/afrika/libie/ra_libie.jsp?referer=tcm:314-96119-64

Politics of Greece - week 6 - Roselinde Vandepitte

Hi everyone,

Greece is very beautiful as Julie described it. There is a lot to visit, for example ancient monuments, but I actually don’t know anything about the politics of this country.

The first day, I bought a travel guide to look up some information about this country. It seemed that Greece is a presidential parliamentary republic, belongs to the NAVO and is a part of the EU. The Greek government is similar to the model that you can find in many Western democracies. The president is elected by the parliament for a 5-year term and other members of the parliament are elected for a 4-year term.

Greece is divided into 51 prefectures and each prefecture in led by a prefect who is elected by popular vote. Greece has also 13 regional administrative districts.

We visited the Parliament of Greece. A guide told us a lot about the politics in this country. The President of Greece is Karolos Papoulias. He is president since 12 March 2005. Greece has also a Prime Minister. First it was Papandreou who was Prime Minister, but he has long been criticized in Greece for his handling of the country's financial crisis. He has resigned from his title and now Lucas Papademos has been designated Prime Minister in pending the elections since 11 November 2011. It was necessary because Greece had to form a new government to avoid bankruptcy and schedule new elections.

On February 21, the European ministers of Finance have reached an agreement about a bailout of 130 billion euros. The Euro countries did agree that Greece will pay a lower interest rate on the loans. Expressed in net present value, the banks don’t have to pay 73-74 percent of their claim. Without this additional concession, the government had to put more money on the table. There has been much more decided but first we had to take a lunch pause. We went to a cozy restaurant and chattered a bit about little things.

Have a nice day!

Roselinde

Source: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Greece-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html

Some cultural facts of Greece - week 6 - Julie De Vreese

Hi everyone

It’s me again. We are leaving Andreas and I’m going to tell you something more about the Greek culture. It’s impossible to tell you everything, because there’s just too much culture here to describe in a blog, but I’m going to try.

First of all, the weather here is great. Greece has mild winters and warm summers due to its geographical position. In summer there is a lot of sun and almost no rain, which is of course wonderful when you’re visiting to see all the ancient history of this beautiful country. At the moment the temperature here is between 17° and 19°C, so very good for this time of year.

The most famous destinations here, besides Athens, include the Islands Santorini, Mykonos, Corfu, Rhodes and Crete. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to visit them all but we are going to try to at least visit Crete, as it is the most well-known Island.

We start in Athens because we want to see the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Athens is one of the oldest cities in Europe and its name comes from the ancient goddess Athena. We are lucky to visit in March because during summer it can get so hot up here that you have to gasp for air. You can take the guided tour to the Acropolis or you can also wander up there by yourself… we prefer the guided tour. Since they have turned the large avenues into pedestrian streets with all sorts of cafes etc. on the side, the walk has become so much more fun to do.

Next we are visiting Crete, the largest Island of Greece and located in the south of the Aegean Sea. It’s one of the most famous Island and mostly people tend to visit it together with Santorini. Crete is divided in 4 parts: Chania, Heraklion, Lassithi and Rethymno. It includes Mountainous landscapes as well as a coast with beautiful beaches and rocky coves. You can visit charming towns and harbours and apparently the food there is great, so let’s find out!

Seen as Greece has so many Islands, it shouldn’t be a surprise that you can eat a lot of seafood here, especially all sorts of calamari, which is squid. Furthermore you can also find a lot of Moussaka on the menu, which is a dish with eggplants and meat that goes in the oven and is very tasteful, and of course you must try some olives and feta cheese, it is the best cheese you have ever tasted, I promise you.

See you next time, in another place.

xXx Julie

Sources:http://www.athensguide.com/acropolis.html
 http://www.greeka.com/

The economy of Greece - Week 6 - Melisa Simoens

Hi bloggers!

We have left Bulgaria and now we are ready for a new adventure in another country: here we are Greece! Maybe you may think, it’s not the right moment to visit Greece with the financial crisis and the big problems Greece has, but for all that Greece couldn’t be missing on our journey around the world. So we bought our tickets and flew to the country of grapes, olives and olive oil.

Greece has a mixed capitalistic economy. Something typical for the Greek economy is the large public sector.

While walking around through the capital of Greece, Athens, we noticed immediately that tourism is  the mayor source of income. Everywhere you go, you see little shops and sellers who try to convince you to buy something. Every year, more than 20 million tourists visit Greece for its relaxed lifestyle and unique sights. And this year, we may call us one of those 20 million tourists.

Piraeus: the port of Athens

Also the maritime industry is an important source of income. Greece has an ideal position for this economic activity. We visited Piraeus: the port of Athens, where you can see a lot of different ships. You must visit it, when you are in Athens! If you want to visit one of the Greek islands, Piraeus is the place to find a ferry.

Agriculture is important too for Greece. We hired a car to make a trip through the little charming villages of Greece. It stroke us that we saw a lot of fields where the inhabitants cultivate corn, olives, tomatoes, sugar beets,…  Midway our trip we stopped close to a little farm where we had the opportunity to taste the fresh products.

During our trip in Athens, we met Andreas, a student who studies economy. We talked about the economic situation of Greece and he said Greece has two challenges for the future: first the country has to reconstruct his economy. A second challenge is to reduce the number of unemployment. It was an interesting conversation and we hope that Greece will recover soon!

Bye!

X Melisa

Source: http://www.greeka.com/greece-economy.htm

Economy and Toursim in Bulgaria - Week 5 - Romina Vanhove

Hello everyone!

I’m sure I don’t have to repeat that we’re visiting Bulgaria at the moment.. Anou and Anneleen already informed you all about that.. Well, now I think of it, I did repeat it right? Well, eum, yes, like they already said, we’re visiting Bulgaria, and the beautiful city Sofia.

Bulgaria is a member of the European Union since 2007. This means that it has to deal with a lot of European rules and legislation. The currency is the lev. We went to a local bar to have a drink, and we had to pay 20 lev, one lev is about half an euro, so it’s not that difficult for us to calculate the difference.

While traveling, we noticed a lot of companies that we know from their products or because they have a factory at home as well. We’ve noticed the factory of Siemens, Hewlett-Packard and a lot more.. Because we are a little short of money and we have a tight scheme, we didn’t have the budget and time to visit one of the companies. 

When we checked in the hotel, we looked in the travel guide of Bulgaria - Julie has bought one for all the countries that we are visiting – In the travel guide we could read that there is a massive foreign investment that has created a construction boom. That’s why the tourism in Bulgaria is expanding so fast. There are a lot of tourists that are discovering this country, and the number of foreigners that are investing in property here is outrageous! In the travel guide there were a lot of pictures of the giant hotels that are built at the coast. Oh, I think it would be great to visit Bulgaria again in Summer! 

Well, my time is up here at the internet café! Thank you all for following us on our tour.. Our next stop is still open for discussion, but I’m pretty sure that Julie, Roselinde and Melissa will tell you all about our next country!

With love

Romina!

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bulgaria

The political environment of Bulgaria - Week 5 - Anneleen Coppens

Since we hadn’t bought a lot of souvenirs yet, we convinced each other to buy the Martenitsa that Anou hit upon. Although I don’t really like red and white colored things, this will get its own special place in my house.

Still discovering Sofia, I decided to unravel the secrets of Bulgaria its politics. I’m not fond of political matters, so my friends suggested me to write about it. They said ‘this way you can broaden your horizon’ and in fact, I couldn’t agree more.

What could be more interesting than interviewing a politician himself?

Edvin Sugarev

No sooner said than done, I made a call to an ex-politician: Edvin Sugarev. He gladly welcomed us to his little Bulgarian residence and immediately offered us something to drink.

There were books and notes all over his desk and it made me wonder if he might be a writer.

After introducing ourselves and telling a little bit more about our adventures, Edvin started revealing the political information we needed.

Rosen Plevneliev, current President

July 1991 was the basis of the new Parliamentary Republic. The head of state is the President and he gets elected by a direct popular vote which takes place every five years.

Of course the President is assisted by a Vice-President.

Rosen Plevneliev is the current President and his Vice-President is Margarita Popova.

The Parliament consists of one chamber with 240 deputies elected for four years. It has a lot of responsibilities such as control of legislation, the state budget, taxes and of course setting the date for presidential elections.

Edvin also mentioned that the power of the President is relative. He can bring a law back to parliament for further consideration but he can’t make new laws.

Nevertheless also the President has a lot of tasks: announcing elections, concluding treaties, promulgating laws, acting as supreme commander of the armed forces, …

Last but not least Edvin showed us a map of Bulgaria and told us his country is divided into 28 regions and 273 municipalities.

So who said politics aren’t interesting? Definitely not me! ;-)

Have a nice day dear bloggers!

Anneleen

Source:

http://www.bulgariaproperties.net/Politics.html

http://www.president.bg/en/p_bio.php

The culture of Bulgaria - Week 5 - Anou Christiaens

Hello everyone!

I’m back to tell you something exciting about our trip around the world! After visiting Hungary, which you can read all about in my girlfriend’s blogs, we moved on to Bulgaria. Today I’m going to tell you something more about the culture of the country. If you want to know something more about the politics or the economy, I advise you to read Anneleen’s and Romina’s blogs!

We went to visit the capital of Bulgaria. It’s a city with a very beautiful name in my opinion, Sofia. I think it sounds a bit mysterious. When we were walking down the streets, we noticed that all the people were wearing a kind of puppet made of red and white yarn. I wanted to know more about it and learned that the puppet is called Martenitsa. The people Bulgaria wear it from March 1 until around the end of March because they see the month of March as the beginning of springtime. They want to welcome the upcoming spring by wearing a Martenitsa.

The next day, we were invited by a local woman to come with her and attend an ancient Bulgarian ritual. It was called Kukeri. At first, we didn’t know what was going on because there were some costumed men who were dressed in animal furs and fleeces and with bells around their waists. They had a mask on which was very big and had horns. Afterwards, we learned that the ritual is meant to scare away evil spirits. They walk and dance through the village to scare away the evil spirits and to provide a good harvest, health and happiness to the village during the year.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog because it’s something that I will remember my whole life! The ritual is something that I had never seen before so I thought it was very interesting and I was glad to have seen it! I advise everyone to visit this country and see the ritual at least once in their lives!

Talk to you soon!

Xoxo Anou

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukeri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bulgaria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martenitsa