Friday, April 26
Apr. 27th, 2024 02:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
In a way, that it was cooler today. It felt more normal for this time of year.
We are once again having a very dry spring, and it's a bit scary.
I let Dandy out with Wonder again, and the others out into their larger pasture. I have better consistency in doing this before I go to the barn than when I come home.
I really notice an improvement in my general mood with the coming of Spring and longer days. Winter is just awful for me, and made worse by my ridiculous night owl sleep schedule. I barely even see the sun, and I don't spend enough time outside.
I forget that I can be a reasonably happy person, until spring hits and I'm like "who is this person?". I really need to try a mood light next winter.
I went to the barn to see River. I was a bit early so I could take my time.
He did okay with everything, but was really draggy again. I thought he would be a bit perkier because it's cooler, and his breathing was fine.
We did work outside, and he stayed focused during our Liberty work even though there were lots of distractions like the neighbor kids riding around on a quad, the other horses running around, and so on.
Then I stayed and worked with Quidley during the other girl's lesson, and that went well. We ended up walking around outside.
I came home and my Sweetie arrived about the same time. We cleaned up and ate and watched some "Boardwalk Empire".
Algeria is interesting because it shares a border with Morocco, so there has been Spanish influence, but it is also mostly Arabic, AND it has coastline on the Mediterranean (so eventually Roman influence), and it was colonized by the French at one point.
It is a pretty big country (largest in Africa), and has about 44 million people. It is mainly Muslim (Sunni Islam).
Some of the oldest artifacts ever discovered were found here, approximately 1.8 million years old. They are proof of humans with tools, such as bones with cut marks and stone tools.
For many millennia, these tribes of hunter gatherers, then herders and farmers became Berbers, and that culture persisted until the incursion of the Carthaginians (Phoenician), as they expanded and established trading centers (around 600 BC).
After the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, the Berbers were back in charge of things. In 24 AD, the territory of Algeria was annexed to Rome, who ruled it for several centuries.
Outside of Italy, Algeria has the most Roman ruins and artifacts, many that are well preserved. Rome ended up building about 500 cities in Algeria.
Then the Vandals kind of harassed everyone but didn't really make a big impact here, then we had the Byzantine Empire (second Roman Empire), and the Ottoman. In all of this, the Berber people continued to live independently.
Since there was Roman occupation for so long, there was a lot of Christianity for a while, but then the influx of Arabs brought about more Muslim influence.
Then there were some more empires, and some pirates, and lots of conflicts, yada yada.
The Barbary pirates were really nuts. They went all over the place capturing Christians to sell as slaves, and made a lot of enemies, such as Spain. Basically, some of the cities in Algeria and Tunisia and so on were KIND OF part of the Ottoman Empire, but not really. They did their own thing as military republics who chose their own rulers and more or less lived off of the booty the pirates collected from mostly the Spanish and the Portuguese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates
"Attacks by Algerian pirates on American merchantmen resulted in the First and Second Barbary Wars, which ended the attacks on U.S. ships in 1815. A year later, a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, under the command of Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers to stop similar attacks on European fishermen. These efforts proved successful, although Algerian piracy would continue until the French conquest in 1830."
Thus we had French colonization from 1830 to 1962. During this time, Algiers became a destination for European immigration, and in some cities MOST of the population was European.
So in WWI Algeria fought for France, and many of it's own people fought in the armies.
In WWII, for a while Vichy France took over (a disputed French government for a short time), then Allies liberated them again.
After WWII, there was unrest as Algerians wanted to rule themselves, and here's something I didn't know again, France STILL RAN SOME CONCENTRATION CAMPS after the war, and sent about 2 million Algerians there. Algeria gained independence in 1962.
Things were still rough for about 30 years while they figured out how to make a government. Today they are a Semi-Presidential Republic, meaning they have a President and a Prime Minister. In real life, none of that really matters "Elected politicians have relatively little sway over Algeria. Instead, a group of unelected civilian and military "décideurs" ("deciders"), known as "le pouvoir" ("the power"), actually rule the country, even deciding who should be president.".
Unsurprisingly, Algeria is considered "not free", and all the fun things that go along with that like no LGBTQ protection, harassment of trade unions and protesters, and restrictions of the freedom of the press.
Like the other countries of North Africa, Algeria is rainier and moister and more fertile in the North, and becomes the Sahara Desert to the South. There are mountains and some grassy plains and steppes.
The Fennec Fox is their national animal (gosh those things are cute).
Algeria is already hot and dry, and water is always scarce, but climate change is already starting to make the situation worse.
Algeria is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, but is trying to diversify, and once again actually had a strong tourism industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria
https://youtu.be/YLY7oB_fttM?si=DB0u3nBGk-bjuyqx
In a way, that it was cooler today. It felt more normal for this time of year.
We are once again having a very dry spring, and it's a bit scary.
I let Dandy out with Wonder again, and the others out into their larger pasture. I have better consistency in doing this before I go to the barn than when I come home.
I really notice an improvement in my general mood with the coming of Spring and longer days. Winter is just awful for me, and made worse by my ridiculous night owl sleep schedule. I barely even see the sun, and I don't spend enough time outside.
I forget that I can be a reasonably happy person, until spring hits and I'm like "who is this person?". I really need to try a mood light next winter.
I went to the barn to see River. I was a bit early so I could take my time.
He did okay with everything, but was really draggy again. I thought he would be a bit perkier because it's cooler, and his breathing was fine.
We did work outside, and he stayed focused during our Liberty work even though there were lots of distractions like the neighbor kids riding around on a quad, the other horses running around, and so on.
Then I stayed and worked with Quidley during the other girl's lesson, and that went well. We ended up walking around outside.
I came home and my Sweetie arrived about the same time. We cleaned up and ate and watched some "Boardwalk Empire".
Algeria is interesting because it shares a border with Morocco, so there has been Spanish influence, but it is also mostly Arabic, AND it has coastline on the Mediterranean (so eventually Roman influence), and it was colonized by the French at one point.
It is a pretty big country (largest in Africa), and has about 44 million people. It is mainly Muslim (Sunni Islam).
Some of the oldest artifacts ever discovered were found here, approximately 1.8 million years old. They are proof of humans with tools, such as bones with cut marks and stone tools.
For many millennia, these tribes of hunter gatherers, then herders and farmers became Berbers, and that culture persisted until the incursion of the Carthaginians (Phoenician), as they expanded and established trading centers (around 600 BC).
After the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, the Berbers were back in charge of things. In 24 AD, the territory of Algeria was annexed to Rome, who ruled it for several centuries.
Outside of Italy, Algeria has the most Roman ruins and artifacts, many that are well preserved. Rome ended up building about 500 cities in Algeria.
Then the Vandals kind of harassed everyone but didn't really make a big impact here, then we had the Byzantine Empire (second Roman Empire), and the Ottoman. In all of this, the Berber people continued to live independently.
Since there was Roman occupation for so long, there was a lot of Christianity for a while, but then the influx of Arabs brought about more Muslim influence.
Then there were some more empires, and some pirates, and lots of conflicts, yada yada.
The Barbary pirates were really nuts. They went all over the place capturing Christians to sell as slaves, and made a lot of enemies, such as Spain. Basically, some of the cities in Algeria and Tunisia and so on were KIND OF part of the Ottoman Empire, but not really. They did their own thing as military republics who chose their own rulers and more or less lived off of the booty the pirates collected from mostly the Spanish and the Portuguese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates
"Attacks by Algerian pirates on American merchantmen resulted in the First and Second Barbary Wars, which ended the attacks on U.S. ships in 1815. A year later, a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, under the command of Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers to stop similar attacks on European fishermen. These efforts proved successful, although Algerian piracy would continue until the French conquest in 1830."
Thus we had French colonization from 1830 to 1962. During this time, Algiers became a destination for European immigration, and in some cities MOST of the population was European.
So in WWI Algeria fought for France, and many of it's own people fought in the armies.
In WWII, for a while Vichy France took over (a disputed French government for a short time), then Allies liberated them again.
After WWII, there was unrest as Algerians wanted to rule themselves, and here's something I didn't know again, France STILL RAN SOME CONCENTRATION CAMPS after the war, and sent about 2 million Algerians there. Algeria gained independence in 1962.
Things were still rough for about 30 years while they figured out how to make a government. Today they are a Semi-Presidential Republic, meaning they have a President and a Prime Minister. In real life, none of that really matters "Elected politicians have relatively little sway over Algeria. Instead, a group of unelected civilian and military "décideurs" ("deciders"), known as "le pouvoir" ("the power"), actually rule the country, even deciding who should be president.".
Unsurprisingly, Algeria is considered "not free", and all the fun things that go along with that like no LGBTQ protection, harassment of trade unions and protesters, and restrictions of the freedom of the press.
Like the other countries of North Africa, Algeria is rainier and moister and more fertile in the North, and becomes the Sahara Desert to the South. There are mountains and some grassy plains and steppes.
The Fennec Fox is their national animal (gosh those things are cute).
Algeria is already hot and dry, and water is always scarce, but climate change is already starting to make the situation worse.
Algeria is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, but is trying to diversify, and once again actually had a strong tourism industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria
https://youtu.be/YLY7oB_fttM?si=DB0u3nBGk-bjuyqx
