Sunday, June 2
Jun. 3rd, 2024 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful weather. Absolutely gorgeous.
The guys showed up again and worked with my husband on the soffits/fascia. A little more done.
I very briefly talked with Sister E, but she was in the middle of things so we'll talk more another day. I did talk with my Mom too, and for a moment she really sounded like her old self, just in the way she sounded a bit stronger. It's strange when that happens, as I know it isn't true, but for just a moment you could imagine it.
I worked more on the garden, scraping up the last of the well-rotted manure and putting it on the second half of the garden. My Sweetie came and helped with that after he was done for the day on the house (the guys went home around 3 pm) and then tilled that part.
Now it's ready to plant. We're about a week late, but it catches up just fine.
Then we went to see River.
We worked outside today, and he did well overall. Relaxed. It was a perfect evening for working outside.
R was around, working on the yard, and her husband K came out and gave us some tomato seedlings. He started an absolute ton of them, apparently.
We came home, and we were out with Wonder near the road, when some of our "house work friends" saw us, and pulled in to say hi. I really like that, when good friends see you and say hi. Not a big time commitment or anything, and because they saw you outside they know it's not going to be inconvenient.
They are headed to Norway soon, how cool!
We came in and watched some "Boardwalk Empire".
Ethiopia is believed by the scientific community to be the birth place of the modern human, as well as the birthplace of the Afroasiatic language family.
The region of Ethiopia saw several kingdoms come and go, and at one time was part of the Kingdom of Aksum (Northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, and parts of Southern Arabia) for about 900 years.
Christianity arrived in 330, and Islam in 615. Today there is also a large population of Jewish people.
More very violent wars to expand the territory eventually resulted in it's collapse, and the reign of Zemene Mesafint beginning of 1855, marked the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia.
From 1878 onward, Emperor Melenik II began expansions again, and this forms more or less the modern borders of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia was not a colony during the Scramble For Africa where everyone was desperately trying to control as much of it as they could.
The era of Emperor Haile Sallassie was from 1916 to 1974, a time of great change and modernization.
It was occupied by fascist Italy from 1936 to 1941, when it was then occupied by Britain, and it's full sovereignty restored in 1944.
From there it was a British military administration, then more unrest and fighting, and there are ongoing inter-ethnic clashes and instability.
"Ethiopia is a federal parliamentary republic, wherein the Prime Minister is the head of government, and the President is the head of state but with largely ceremonial powers." This is kind of not working well as a Democracy, what with all the war. It's pretty tough to hold elections.
Ethiopia is on the main body of the Horn of Africa, but is land locked. It is very diverse as it has lots of rivers and forests in the West, then you get a big mountain range (as part of the African Rift Valley) containing the Sof Omar Cave system and active volcanoes, and then desert in the North. There is a LOT of bird species that live here, and many mammals. There are a lot of endemic (only occurring here) species, because of this geologic diversity.
It faces a loss of diversity due to logging and agriculture. Any loss of forests is especially devastating, as desertification is a huge threat. The rapid growth of the population is straining the ecosystem, and urbanization is straining the existing infrastructure to meet basic needs.
Ethiopia is working hard to improve it's economy by becoming a manufacturing hub, and is growing rapidly considering there is no oil, but at this time is still a very poor country.
This whole paragraph is worth noting, as I haven't come across a system like this before: "The Ethiopian constitution specifies that rights to own land belong only to "the state and the people", but citizens may lease land for up to 99 years, but are unable to mortgage or sell. Renting out land for a maximum of twenty years is allowed and this is expected to ensure that land goes to the most productive user. Land distribution and administration is considered an area where corruption is institutionalized, and facilitation payments as well as bribes are often demanded when dealing with land-related issues.[234] As there is no land ownership, infrastructural projects are most often simply done without asking the land users, which then end up being displaced and without a home or land. A lot of anger and distrust sometimes results in public protests. In addition, agricultural productivity remains low, and frequent droughts still beset the country, also leading to internal displacement.[235]"
Coffee is one of their largest exports, there are lots of cattle, there is gold, and very interestingly, it is developing an industry in producing flowers and plants for export.
Though they are developing a stronger science and technology sector (and work on Space technology), they are also well known for their traditional medicine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology
https://youtu.be/eAB6o1rLH1w?si=xIJx-YFrUlfS9UUu
Beautiful weather. Absolutely gorgeous.
The guys showed up again and worked with my husband on the soffits/fascia. A little more done.
I very briefly talked with Sister E, but she was in the middle of things so we'll talk more another day. I did talk with my Mom too, and for a moment she really sounded like her old self, just in the way she sounded a bit stronger. It's strange when that happens, as I know it isn't true, but for just a moment you could imagine it.
I worked more on the garden, scraping up the last of the well-rotted manure and putting it on the second half of the garden. My Sweetie came and helped with that after he was done for the day on the house (the guys went home around 3 pm) and then tilled that part.
Now it's ready to plant. We're about a week late, but it catches up just fine.
Then we went to see River.
We worked outside today, and he did well overall. Relaxed. It was a perfect evening for working outside.
R was around, working on the yard, and her husband K came out and gave us some tomato seedlings. He started an absolute ton of them, apparently.
We came home, and we were out with Wonder near the road, when some of our "house work friends" saw us, and pulled in to say hi. I really like that, when good friends see you and say hi. Not a big time commitment or anything, and because they saw you outside they know it's not going to be inconvenient.
They are headed to Norway soon, how cool!
We came in and watched some "Boardwalk Empire".
Ethiopia is believed by the scientific community to be the birth place of the modern human, as well as the birthplace of the Afroasiatic language family.
The region of Ethiopia saw several kingdoms come and go, and at one time was part of the Kingdom of Aksum (Northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, and parts of Southern Arabia) for about 900 years.
Christianity arrived in 330, and Islam in 615. Today there is also a large population of Jewish people.
More very violent wars to expand the territory eventually resulted in it's collapse, and the reign of Zemene Mesafint beginning of 1855, marked the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia.
From 1878 onward, Emperor Melenik II began expansions again, and this forms more or less the modern borders of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia was not a colony during the Scramble For Africa where everyone was desperately trying to control as much of it as they could.
The era of Emperor Haile Sallassie was from 1916 to 1974, a time of great change and modernization.
It was occupied by fascist Italy from 1936 to 1941, when it was then occupied by Britain, and it's full sovereignty restored in 1944.
From there it was a British military administration, then more unrest and fighting, and there are ongoing inter-ethnic clashes and instability.
"Ethiopia is a federal parliamentary republic, wherein the Prime Minister is the head of government, and the President is the head of state but with largely ceremonial powers." This is kind of not working well as a Democracy, what with all the war. It's pretty tough to hold elections.
Ethiopia is on the main body of the Horn of Africa, but is land locked. It is very diverse as it has lots of rivers and forests in the West, then you get a big mountain range (as part of the African Rift Valley) containing the Sof Omar Cave system and active volcanoes, and then desert in the North. There is a LOT of bird species that live here, and many mammals. There are a lot of endemic (only occurring here) species, because of this geologic diversity.
It faces a loss of diversity due to logging and agriculture. Any loss of forests is especially devastating, as desertification is a huge threat. The rapid growth of the population is straining the ecosystem, and urbanization is straining the existing infrastructure to meet basic needs.
Ethiopia is working hard to improve it's economy by becoming a manufacturing hub, and is growing rapidly considering there is no oil, but at this time is still a very poor country.
This whole paragraph is worth noting, as I haven't come across a system like this before: "The Ethiopian constitution specifies that rights to own land belong only to "the state and the people", but citizens may lease land for up to 99 years, but are unable to mortgage or sell. Renting out land for a maximum of twenty years is allowed and this is expected to ensure that land goes to the most productive user. Land distribution and administration is considered an area where corruption is institutionalized, and facilitation payments as well as bribes are often demanded when dealing with land-related issues.[234] As there is no land ownership, infrastructural projects are most often simply done without asking the land users, which then end up being displaced and without a home or land. A lot of anger and distrust sometimes results in public protests. In addition, agricultural productivity remains low, and frequent droughts still beset the country, also leading to internal displacement.[235]"
Coffee is one of their largest exports, there are lots of cattle, there is gold, and very interestingly, it is developing an industry in producing flowers and plants for export.
Though they are developing a stronger science and technology sector (and work on Space technology), they are also well known for their traditional medicine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology
https://youtu.be/eAB6o1rLH1w?si=xIJx-YFrUlfS9UUu
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 06:08 pm (UTC)Interesting facts about Ethiopia. Lately I've been fascinated with maps, and particularly with maps of Africa. I've never wanted to go there before, but these days I'm a little wistful that I probably won't ever be able to go there.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-04 05:32 am (UTC)She's 94 now, and she hasn't been REALLY with it for close to ten years now, though again, at times she might have sounded like she was all there.
It very much is bitter sweet. I sometimes have dreams about her, of "how things used to be", like I am living at the farm and she's there like she was years ago.
I found Ethiopia to be fascinating. I've really been learning so much with my geography hobby, though I am sad too that I likely won't see much of it. The world is a pretty interesting place.