Thursday, May 9
May. 10th, 2024 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Gloriously summer-like weather today. Full-on sunshine, and the crazy long days now where it's just getting dark at 10 pm.
I made some phone calls (there are still a few places that sell DVDs in the city) and found a used copy of Season 4 of "Boardwalk Empire", so we're back in business. My Sweetie was able to pick it up on his way home from work.
I am trying to organize my mind for going to visit family next week. I'm not sure if there is any point in putting together a care package of sheets and a towel and some kitchen things for Trainwreck's friend, who is moving to the lodge apparently with nothing, or if she would just "hold onto it for him" indefinitely. I can't be sure of seeing him face to face, so if it has to go through her first, it probably won't get to him.
I let everyone out into their pastures for a while, and then I worked in the garden pulling mostly quack grass roots, which is an insane job. Thankfully all the work we've done improving the soil means that it is looser, and makes this job easier.
The neighbors to the South of us are damn noisy. They moved into this rental property right next to us some time last fall, and now that it's warm they burn garbage often, drive quads and dirt bikes in the field next to us, and target shoot a lot. Tonight they are playing music loud enough that you can hear it inside the house. Lovely.
When my Sweetie came home, he helped in the garden for a while, and we got a big strip of the worst grass cleaned out as good as we're going to, so that's nice.
Then we came in and watched some "Boardwalk Empire". Yay!
Liberia is also known as the "pepper coast" and has coastline along the Atlantic Ocean.
Before European contact, Liberia was inhabited by indigenous tribes and empires (Mali and Songhai Empires). The people here built canoes and traded with other regions along the coast.
"Between 1461 and the late 17th century, Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders had contacts and trading posts in the region. The Portuguese named the area Costa da Pimenta ("Pepper Coast") but it later came to be known as the Grain Coast, due to the abundance of melegueta pepper grains.[19] The traders would barter commodities and goods with local people."
Wikipedia doesn't say anything about people being enslaved from this region?
The region was another area chosen to "repatriate" former slavesIn 1847, , and Liberia was created "In the United States, there was a movement to settle African Americans, both free-born and formerly enslaved, in Africa. This was because they faced racial discrimination in the form of political disenfranchisement and the denial of civil, religious, and social rights.[20] Formed in 1816, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was made up mostly of Quakers and slaveholders. Quakers believed black people would face better chances for freedom in Africa than in the U.S.[7][21] While slaveholders opposed freedom for enslaved people, some viewed "repatriation" of free people of color as a way to avoid slave rebellions.[7]".
In 1847, the people of Liberia created a "Declaration of Independence" based on that of the United States,and established the Independent Republic of Liberia.
Once again, these people had a rough time back in Africa from disease and conflict with the natural inhabitants, and struggled to find investors willing to help them develop industry and infrastructure.
Liberia declared war on Germany in 1917, and was one of the countries to form the League of Nations.
In WWII, the United States (in return for their participation against the Axis) invested in the country to improve infrastructure to improve their military capabilities, and continued to offer development support after the war.
There has still been a lot of conflict within this nation (still in part because of continued conflict between natural inhabitants and "Americo-Liberians"), potentially fraudulent elections, general political instability, crimes against humanity.
The climate is hot and equatorial, with a rainy and dry season. At the coast there are mangrove swamps, then rain forests, then grasslands, and a bit of mountains. Since it has a lot of coast, it is very vulnerable to climate change in the form of extreme weather patterns.
It has many, many species of animals and plants, such as the pygmy hippopotamus. It is considered a diversity "hot spot" as it has so much rain forest. Unfortunately, everyone there loves eating bush meat.
Illegal logging and poaching as well as slash and burn agriculture are all threats to the ecosystem.
This is a very poor country, so unfortunately many people need this subsistence farming and hunting and wood harvesting to survive.
There is also some mining, as there is iron ore, diamonds, and gold in Liberia.
There is lots of disease, high birth rate, not a very high life expectancy, and still practicing of female genital mutilation. There isn't a lot of tourism because of the fear of contracting Ebola.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia
https://youtu.be/HEbSlGIOX70?si=lo9i1tXJDq75VG2X
Gloriously summer-like weather today. Full-on sunshine, and the crazy long days now where it's just getting dark at 10 pm.
I made some phone calls (there are still a few places that sell DVDs in the city) and found a used copy of Season 4 of "Boardwalk Empire", so we're back in business. My Sweetie was able to pick it up on his way home from work.
I am trying to organize my mind for going to visit family next week. I'm not sure if there is any point in putting together a care package of sheets and a towel and some kitchen things for Trainwreck's friend, who is moving to the lodge apparently with nothing, or if she would just "hold onto it for him" indefinitely. I can't be sure of seeing him face to face, so if it has to go through her first, it probably won't get to him.
I let everyone out into their pastures for a while, and then I worked in the garden pulling mostly quack grass roots, which is an insane job. Thankfully all the work we've done improving the soil means that it is looser, and makes this job easier.
The neighbors to the South of us are damn noisy. They moved into this rental property right next to us some time last fall, and now that it's warm they burn garbage often, drive quads and dirt bikes in the field next to us, and target shoot a lot. Tonight they are playing music loud enough that you can hear it inside the house. Lovely.
When my Sweetie came home, he helped in the garden for a while, and we got a big strip of the worst grass cleaned out as good as we're going to, so that's nice.
Then we came in and watched some "Boardwalk Empire". Yay!
Liberia is also known as the "pepper coast" and has coastline along the Atlantic Ocean.
Before European contact, Liberia was inhabited by indigenous tribes and empires (Mali and Songhai Empires). The people here built canoes and traded with other regions along the coast.
"Between 1461 and the late 17th century, Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders had contacts and trading posts in the region. The Portuguese named the area Costa da Pimenta ("Pepper Coast") but it later came to be known as the Grain Coast, due to the abundance of melegueta pepper grains.[19] The traders would barter commodities and goods with local people."
Wikipedia doesn't say anything about people being enslaved from this region?
The region was another area chosen to "repatriate" former slavesIn 1847, , and Liberia was created "In the United States, there was a movement to settle African Americans, both free-born and formerly enslaved, in Africa. This was because they faced racial discrimination in the form of political disenfranchisement and the denial of civil, religious, and social rights.[20] Formed in 1816, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was made up mostly of Quakers and slaveholders. Quakers believed black people would face better chances for freedom in Africa than in the U.S.[7][21] While slaveholders opposed freedom for enslaved people, some viewed "repatriation" of free people of color as a way to avoid slave rebellions.[7]".
In 1847, the people of Liberia created a "Declaration of Independence" based on that of the United States,and established the Independent Republic of Liberia.
Once again, these people had a rough time back in Africa from disease and conflict with the natural inhabitants, and struggled to find investors willing to help them develop industry and infrastructure.
Liberia declared war on Germany in 1917, and was one of the countries to form the League of Nations.
In WWII, the United States (in return for their participation against the Axis) invested in the country to improve infrastructure to improve their military capabilities, and continued to offer development support after the war.
There has still been a lot of conflict within this nation (still in part because of continued conflict between natural inhabitants and "Americo-Liberians"), potentially fraudulent elections, general political instability, crimes against humanity.
The climate is hot and equatorial, with a rainy and dry season. At the coast there are mangrove swamps, then rain forests, then grasslands, and a bit of mountains. Since it has a lot of coast, it is very vulnerable to climate change in the form of extreme weather patterns.
It has many, many species of animals and plants, such as the pygmy hippopotamus. It is considered a diversity "hot spot" as it has so much rain forest. Unfortunately, everyone there loves eating bush meat.
Illegal logging and poaching as well as slash and burn agriculture are all threats to the ecosystem.
This is a very poor country, so unfortunately many people need this subsistence farming and hunting and wood harvesting to survive.
There is also some mining, as there is iron ore, diamonds, and gold in Liberia.
There is lots of disease, high birth rate, not a very high life expectancy, and still practicing of female genital mutilation. There isn't a lot of tourism because of the fear of contracting Ebola.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia
https://youtu.be/HEbSlGIOX70?si=lo9i1tXJDq75VG2X
