Ever wonder what's happening around the world? This weekly column for Storeboard.com will give you a global perspective of interesting, entertaining, and newsworthy happenings around the planet Earth!
The columns focus on what's happening on planet Earth continent by continent during the coming week and also include important events from the previous week. This is the 12th weekly column.
Here's what's happening from Monday, Jan. 6, 2014 through Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014:
Africa: Tuesday is Pioneer’s Day in Liberia, which is on the continent’s west coast and is bordered by Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. The day commemorates the arrival of the first Americans on Jan. 7, 1820. Basically, freed slaves colonized Liberia with the support of many Americans, including President James Monroe. Liberia became a nation in 1847. Its capital is Monrovia. Pioneer’s Day is controversial because of the tense relationship between the Americans’ descendants, the Americo-Liberians, and native Liberians. About 4 percent of Liberia’s 3.5 million citizens are descendants of Americans. Americo-Liberians celebrate Pioneer’s Day by dancing, music, and singing spiritual songs.
Antarctica: All 52 passengers on a research ship that was trapped in the ice of Antarctica on Dec. 24 were rescued on Jan. 2. Most of the passengers were explorers, scientists and tourists from Australia who wanted to re-create the 1913 expedition of Australian scientists Douglas Mawson. The ship, which is named the Akademik Shokalskiy, is a Russian ship. The Russian crew of 22 stayed with the ship and will try to extricate it from the ice, which is 10 feet thick in some places. The USA Today article about the expedition and rescue includes a video of a helicopter rescuing the 52 passengers.
Asia: Tuesday is Victory Day in Cambodia. On Jan. 7, 1979, the barbaric Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown by Vietnam. From 1975 to 1979, the regime committed an unspeakable genocide, murdering approximately 2 million people in a nation that now has about 15 million people. The regime was so brutal that Cambodians celebrate Victory Day although Vietnam occupied the nation from 1979 through the early 1990s. Today, Cambodia is a “vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian coalition ruling over a superficial democracy,” according to Human Rights Watch. That sounds very unpleasant, but at least the genocide is over.
Australia: As Storeboard.com reported three weeks ago, the border between the continents of Asia and Australia is disputed, but this is one of many sources that list the nations of East Timor and Papua New Guinea and part of Indonesia as Australian. Thus, East Timor news is an Australian entry. For the first time, East Timor will be represented in the Winter Olympics, which will be in Sochi, Russia, in February. Yohan Goutt Goncalves, 19, will ski in the slalom and might ski in the giant slalom. East Timor became a nation in 2002. It has had boxers, weightlifters, and track and field athletes in the Summer Olympics.
Europe: Tuesday is Festa del tricolore ("Festival of the Tricolour") or National Flag Day in Italy. It celebrates and commemorates the day in 1797 that the current flag of Italy first came into existence. The previous sentence was worded awkwardly because the nation of Italy did not exist until 1861. However, the famous tri-colored Italian flag that includes green, white, and red blocks of equal size was first used in 1797 by the short-lived Cispadane Republic in present-day northern Italy. The celebration is particularly festive in Reggio Emilia, a town of 163,928 people that was in the Cispadane Republic.
North America: Thursday is Martyrs’ Day in Panama. It commemorates the Jan. 9, 1964, riots that resulted in 21 Panamanians and four American soldiers dying. The riots occurred after a Panamanian flag was torn during a conflict between Panamanian students and Panama Canal Zone police officers, according to Wikipedia. In 1964, the Panama Canal Zone was controlled by the USA. The riots were a “significant factor” in the USA deciding to hand over the canal zone to Panama in 1977. Panama is North America’s southernmost nation. Before 1903, it was part of Colombia, which is a South American nation.
South America: Sao Paolo, Brazil, is hosting the 18th Festival de Arte Contemporanea SESC Videobrasil until Feb. 2. This year’s festival began last Nov. 6. “What started as a festival dedicated solely to video art has evolved to include different electronic art forms, and now embraces contemporary art in all its guises although, perhaps not surprisingly, a majority of works remain video-centric,” according to TimeOut Sao Paolo magazine. This year’s festival includes an exhibit of 2,000 pieces of art produced by 94 artists from 32 nations. The festival takes place at SESC Pompeia and CineSESC. SESC stands for “Serviço Social do Comércio.” Basically, the two sites are performance and exhibition centres.
Here are the previous 11 columns in chronological order. The first one covered Oct. 21 through Oct. 27.
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world/222550
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--oct-28-nov-3/233783
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-4-nov-10/236105
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-11-through-nov-17/237804
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-18-through-nov-24/239456
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-25-through-dec-1/242035
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-2-through-dec-8/244013
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-9-through-dec-15/245514
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-16-through-dec-22/247922
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-23-through-dec-29/250019
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-30-through-jan-5/251970
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