How many countries are there on Planet Earth? One hundred and forty six countries have now visited this blog site. Welcome #145:
BELIZE POPULATION: 307,899
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| Background | |
| Belize was the site of several Mayan city states until their decline at the end of the first millennium A.D. The British and Spanish disputed the region in the 17th and 18th centuries; it formally became the colony of British Honduras in 1854. Territorial disputes between the UK and Guatemala delayed the independence of Belize until 1981. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation until 1992 and the two countries are involved in an ongoing border dispute. Guatemala and Belize are gearing up for a simultaneous referendum to determine if this dispute will go before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Tourism has become the mainstay of the economy. Current concerns include an unsustainable foreign debt, high unemployment, growing involvement in the South American drug trade, growing urban crime, and increasing incidences of HIV/AIDS. |
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 and #146: PARAGUAY POPULATION: 6,995,655
These are the largely accepted 195 independent countries and their capital: Afghanistan - Kabul Someday I will be deleting those already site visitors, to gain a sense of which countries have not. Also, some of you might wonder, if the United Nations membership totals 192, what are the three other countries. They are Vatican City, Kosovo and Taiwan. Even the United States only recognizes 194. China has thus prevailed on Some even go so far as to say that Greenland, part of Denmark, is #196. The U.S. made an attempt to purchase this largest island in the world after World War II for $100 million, which today is equal to about $1 billion. Interestingly enough, if global warming melts all the ice, there would be no Greenland, for the land structure would be below sea level. But, regarding total numbers, things are not so simple. There are 243 domain sites (such as ".de" for Germany), and up to 259 entities (including dependent areas and disputed territories). For now, let us use 195 as the official number of countries. ******* I had a great dinner tonight with Debbie (Pearl's niece) and Dean Gushiken at La Mer, Pearl's favorite restaurant. They were my caretakers of apartment, fish and plants in my absence of two months. The least I could do was share with them one terrific dinner, so we went to La Mer, started with champagne, and I had a foie gras, wagyu beef, chocolate passion (or whatever it was called) and a glass of Margaux. Yes, it was terribly expensive, but, I would guess, less than one night of my hotel room cost for half my stays.  - The Dow Jones Industrials managed to end the day +9 at 10,850, with Europe down and the Orient up. The Nikkei is at 10,996. Which will break 11,000 first? Mind you, at the end of 1989 the Nikkei hit 38,997 and sunk to 7162 on 27October2008, while the DJI Average reached 14,164 on 7October2007 and dropped to 6507 on 9March2009. Of recent, the DJIA and Nikkei have tracked each other, although the former is in U.S. dollars and the latter in Japanese Yen, where today you would get 92.7 yen for a dollar, so there is no value basis for comparing the two. Gold jumped $17/toz to $1108 and crude oil remained at $80/barrel. - | |||||||||
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