Thursday, April 11
Apr. 12th, 2024 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful weather today.
A good chat with Sister E. Her foot is still very painful, but I encouraged her to find something else to do for exercise since she isn't walking right now. She's had this foot issue for weeks, and at her age it's long enough that if she's not doing much, she could lose some general ability. She's 74, and if she doesn't keep up with doing something, that can lead to all of a sudden having problems getting groceries or doing stairs.
We have talked about this a few times now, and she seems to WANT to find stuff to do. We came up with swimming as something she could do without hurting her foot, and today we talked about biking, and even weight lifting (which is always a good idea to keep muscle mass).
For her, she's kind of ADHD or something, and it's hard for her to commit to a schedule, though she used to do fine when she worked.
Anyhow, then I went outside and spent some time with Wonder, taking her for a little walk again, and working with Dandy a bit. He has a lot of issues with lunging to the right. Not sure what's going on there. I've never been able to get him to do it properly, so we're back at it again.
I also did some "yard puttering", which is picking things up and either putting them away or throwing them in the garbage bin. There's a lot of that to be done in the spring on an acreage.
My husband got home from work in good time today, and did some work in the mud room again. This room and the porch are taking FOREVER, even with fairly steady inputs of effort.
Then we came in and watched more "Boardwalk Empire".
Kuwait is a smallish nation right at the top of the Persian Gulf. It is another formerly fairly poor country that struck oil in 1938 and underwent tremendous transformation.
It was once part of ancient Mesopotamia, then under Babylonian control, then part of the Achaemenid Empire, the part of the Greek Empire (Alexander the Great), then Parthian, then Sassanid, then it was a sheikdom, then it became a British Protectorate in 1899 (though confusingly, it was somehow still linked to the Ottoman Empire).
The area had long been a famous boat building region, and it's good ports meant it did a lot of trade. In the 19th century it became a large center for horse trading, shipping about 800 horses a year by boat to India.
"During World War I, the British Empire imposed a trade blockade against Kuwait because Kuwait's ruler at the time, Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, supported the Ottoman Empire.[107][108][109] The British economic blockade heavily damaged Kuwait's economy.[109]"
During WWII, Kuwait was still a British Protectorate, had recently discovered oil, and was de facto on the side of the Allies. They did decline offers from Germany, who wanted to build a rail system to export oil.
Kuwait gained independence in 1961, becoming an Emirate (like having a monarchy), with a parliament as well.
There were a LOT of other conflicts and wars that I won't go into, because there are a LOT. Many of those conflicts involve Iraq, who keeps wanting to take over Kuwait, likely for it's enormous oil reserves and good ports, since Iraq is almost land locked.
Kuwait was also used as a launching area for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2005.
"Kuwait currently has the largest US military presence in the entire Middle East region.[217] There are over 14,000 US military personnel stationed in the country.[217] Camp Arifjan is the largest US military base in Kuwait. The US uses bases in Kuwait as staging hubs, training ranges, and logistical support for its Middle East operations.[217]"
It is unclear to me if Kuwait is still very wealthy or not, since apparently it suffered low oil prices in 2010, because I don't think oil prices are low anymore! They did accumulate a lot of debt.
From an environmental standpoint, the oil has caused a lot of issues. " During the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires, more than 500 oil lakes were created covering a combined surface area of about 35.7 km2 (13+3⁄4 sq mi).[222] The resulting soil contamination due to oil and soot accumulation had made eastern and south-eastern parts of Kuwait uninhabitable. Sand and oil residue had reduced large parts of the Kuwaiti desert to semi-asphalt surfaces.[223] The oil spills during the Gulf War also drastically affected Kuwait's marine resources.[224]"
Kuwait does have important protected marshlands, which are home to diverse birds.
Otherwise, it is mainly a desert, though not as hot all year round as other countries in the area though scorching hot summers. Though it is part of the Tigris/Euphrates system, fresh water is an issue, so they rely heavily on desalinization projects.
Not bad in terms of human rights for a Middle Eastern country. Woman here are the freest in the Middle East. However it treats Badoon (stateless people, I think that means Bedouin, though Bedoon is what Wikipedia says), foreign workers, and foreign nationals poorly. Not the freest for people being able to criticize the government either.
It is heavily dependent on oil exports, but does produce some food on it's small amount of arable land. It is also branching out into finance, tourism, science and technology, and space.
It has a tradition of theater and performing arts, and has the earliest Modern Art movement in the Arabian Peninsula.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait#Notes
https://youtu.be/S_pUIeE4Eko?si=Cf0QyhKAvF3nSZHT
Beautiful weather today.
A good chat with Sister E. Her foot is still very painful, but I encouraged her to find something else to do for exercise since she isn't walking right now. She's had this foot issue for weeks, and at her age it's long enough that if she's not doing much, she could lose some general ability. She's 74, and if she doesn't keep up with doing something, that can lead to all of a sudden having problems getting groceries or doing stairs.
We have talked about this a few times now, and she seems to WANT to find stuff to do. We came up with swimming as something she could do without hurting her foot, and today we talked about biking, and even weight lifting (which is always a good idea to keep muscle mass).
For her, she's kind of ADHD or something, and it's hard for her to commit to a schedule, though she used to do fine when she worked.
Anyhow, then I went outside and spent some time with Wonder, taking her for a little walk again, and working with Dandy a bit. He has a lot of issues with lunging to the right. Not sure what's going on there. I've never been able to get him to do it properly, so we're back at it again.
I also did some "yard puttering", which is picking things up and either putting them away or throwing them in the garbage bin. There's a lot of that to be done in the spring on an acreage.
My husband got home from work in good time today, and did some work in the mud room again. This room and the porch are taking FOREVER, even with fairly steady inputs of effort.
Then we came in and watched more "Boardwalk Empire".
Kuwait is a smallish nation right at the top of the Persian Gulf. It is another formerly fairly poor country that struck oil in 1938 and underwent tremendous transformation.
It was once part of ancient Mesopotamia, then under Babylonian control, then part of the Achaemenid Empire, the part of the Greek Empire (Alexander the Great), then Parthian, then Sassanid, then it was a sheikdom, then it became a British Protectorate in 1899 (though confusingly, it was somehow still linked to the Ottoman Empire).
The area had long been a famous boat building region, and it's good ports meant it did a lot of trade. In the 19th century it became a large center for horse trading, shipping about 800 horses a year by boat to India.
"During World War I, the British Empire imposed a trade blockade against Kuwait because Kuwait's ruler at the time, Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, supported the Ottoman Empire.[107][108][109] The British economic blockade heavily damaged Kuwait's economy.[109]"
During WWII, Kuwait was still a British Protectorate, had recently discovered oil, and was de facto on the side of the Allies. They did decline offers from Germany, who wanted to build a rail system to export oil.
Kuwait gained independence in 1961, becoming an Emirate (like having a monarchy), with a parliament as well.
There were a LOT of other conflicts and wars that I won't go into, because there are a LOT. Many of those conflicts involve Iraq, who keeps wanting to take over Kuwait, likely for it's enormous oil reserves and good ports, since Iraq is almost land locked.
Kuwait was also used as a launching area for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2005.
"Kuwait currently has the largest US military presence in the entire Middle East region.[217] There are over 14,000 US military personnel stationed in the country.[217] Camp Arifjan is the largest US military base in Kuwait. The US uses bases in Kuwait as staging hubs, training ranges, and logistical support for its Middle East operations.[217]"
It is unclear to me if Kuwait is still very wealthy or not, since apparently it suffered low oil prices in 2010, because I don't think oil prices are low anymore! They did accumulate a lot of debt.
From an environmental standpoint, the oil has caused a lot of issues. " During the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires, more than 500 oil lakes were created covering a combined surface area of about 35.7 km2 (13+3⁄4 sq mi).[222] The resulting soil contamination due to oil and soot accumulation had made eastern and south-eastern parts of Kuwait uninhabitable. Sand and oil residue had reduced large parts of the Kuwaiti desert to semi-asphalt surfaces.[223] The oil spills during the Gulf War also drastically affected Kuwait's marine resources.[224]"
Kuwait does have important protected marshlands, which are home to diverse birds.
Otherwise, it is mainly a desert, though not as hot all year round as other countries in the area though scorching hot summers. Though it is part of the Tigris/Euphrates system, fresh water is an issue, so they rely heavily on desalinization projects.
Not bad in terms of human rights for a Middle Eastern country. Woman here are the freest in the Middle East. However it treats Badoon (stateless people, I think that means Bedouin, though Bedoon is what Wikipedia says), foreign workers, and foreign nationals poorly. Not the freest for people being able to criticize the government either.
It is heavily dependent on oil exports, but does produce some food on it's small amount of arable land. It is also branching out into finance, tourism, science and technology, and space.
It has a tradition of theater and performing arts, and has the earliest Modern Art movement in the Arabian Peninsula.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait#Notes
https://youtu.be/S_pUIeE4Eko?si=Cf0QyhKAvF3nSZHT
