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1) MONACO had an adult literacy rate of 99% in the year 2023. The relatively tiny but wealthy principality is east of Nice — a city in which country?
A — GERMANY
B — FRANCE
C — SPAIN
2) Lake Mattamuskeet is only five miles away from the Atlantic Ocean. It is completely contained within Hyde County in which state in the UNITED STATES?
A — North Carolina
B — Pennsylvania
C — Vermont
D — Arkansas
3) Jaco is a tiny, circular island east of Timor Island and Cape Cutcha. It is the easternmost point of TIMOR-LESTE (East Timor) and is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in length. Overnight stays on are not allowed the uninhabited island. What is the official reason why visitors are banned from staying overnight on Jaco?
A — vicious nocturnal crocodiles
B — the island is sacred
C — to let birds sleep peacefully
D — sneaky leopards like to prowl at night and scare visitors
4) True or false: there are no time zones in the Arctic Circle.
ANSWERS
Question 1:
B . . . . . France
Question 2:
A . . . . . North Carolina
Question 3:
B . . . . . the island is sacred
Question 4:
True
1) True or false: according to 2018 data from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics, LESOTHO's youth literacy rate is 95.2%.
There is a town named Bratsberg near the center of ____________________.
A — NORWAY
B — GERMANY
C — LATVIA
3) Which of the following is not a city in Lebanon?
A — Beirut
B — Tyre
C — Riyadh
D — Tripoli
4) Being home to an interesting red-and-white 1800s lighthouse (↗) and having a namesake current, Cape Agulhas is located southeast of Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA. The southernmost point of Africa, this cape is known as a separation point between the Atlantic Ocean and __________ Ocean.
ANSWERS
Question 1:
True
Question 2:
A . . . . . Norway
Question 3:
C . . . . . Riyadh which is in Saudi Arabia (↗); Tripoli (D) is a city in Lebanon and also in Libya (↗)
Question 4:
Indian
1) The Principality of MONACO borders which sea?
A — Caspian Sea
B — Mediterranean Sea
C — Sulu Sea
2) According to data in the year 2022, IRAN has an overall adult literacy rate of _________.
A — 23%
B — 61%
C — 89%
3) True or false: rainbows are very common in Antarctica.
4) While there are several San Juan counties in the Western UNITED STATES, one of these has the highest number of neighboring counties (14) in the U.S. It is also one of the largest counties with a 7,933 square-mile area. Which state is this county located in?
A — Washington
B — Colorado
C — New Mexico
D — Utah
ANSWERS
Question 1:
B . . . . . Mediterranean Sea
Question 2:
C . . . . . 89%
Question 3:
False: they are quite rare in Antarctica; colorless icy haloes are more frequent.
Question 4:
D . . . . . Utah (↗)
Have a Happy Saint Patrick's Day on March 17th!
In this penultimate eleventh episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), the four teams flew on the same flight from Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹 to Paris, FRANCE 🇫🇷. They visited the famous Moulin Rouge (“Red Mill”) and performed a fast-paced choreography to the tune of Orphée aux enfers with the Moulin Rouge ladies. Teams then visited the world-renown Notre Dame Cathedral ✝️ which suffered an unfortunate fire in 2019. The twelfth century French Gothic architectural masterpiece dedicated to Virgin Mary was majestically restored in December 2024. The next stop 🛑 on teams’ itinerary was the National Institute for Blind Youth (Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles) — the first school for the blind in France and among all Western countries.
Teams encountered a Roadblock 🚧 challenge known as “Who Thinks They Know Their Type?”. Teams used a Braille typewriter to decode and type out a famous phrase from the Statue of Liberty 🗽 which includes “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Most teams typed away for quite a while because they would be so close to getting the paper correct but sometimes had just one spelling mistake — and had to type the whole poem again. The next task of the day sent teams on a scavenger hunt throughout Paris to look for three Statue of Liberty replicas. At each of the three locations, teams received a plastic 3D “puzzle piece” 🧩 of the French tricolor flag; they put the three pieces together to reveal an engraving and name of the Pit Stop. For this challenge, teams went near the Pont de Grenelle bridge 🌉, to the Jardin du Luxembourg garden ⛲ (colloquial name: le Luco), and to the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) 🖼️.
The particularly picturesque Pit Stop of this episode occurred at the Place du Trocadéro which is an ideal vantage point to view the Eiffel Tower 🗼. Teams encountered host Phil Keoghan as always but were also met with silence… a mime was there! Jag and Jas arrived first at the Pit Stop as usual; they won an exciting trip to FIJI 🇫🇯. Kyland and Taylor arrived second, but the show did not reveal whether Adam and Joseph or Izzy and Paige arrived next and who therefore stayed in the competition. However, I will do that now. There is definitely a spoiler alert below! If (at this time) you don’t want to know who made it to the finale episode, please skip the bottom of this post.
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Adam and Joseph arrived to the Pit Stop in third place and therefore made it to the finale episode! Izzy and Paige arrived in fourth and were therefore eliminated from the The Amazing Race. They expressed gratitude for having a wonderful journey to the various places they visited and the memories they made.
First of all, I want to express my thoughts and well wishes for everyone in JAMAICA 🇯🇲, HAITI 🇭🇹, CUBA 🇨🇺, and other places in the Caribbean dealing with Hurricane Melissa and its destructive aftermath.
In the sixth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams drove a manual stick-shift vehicle northwest from Dubrovnik, CROATIA 🇭🇷 (HRVATSKA) to the town of Trsteno. Here, they visited the Trsteno Arboretum featuring trees that are over 500 years old. 🌳 Teams found a clue near the arboretum’s Neptune statue then drove further northwest along the Adriatic Sea coastline to the partially walled town of Ston. They encountered the “Bag It Up” versus “Pull It Up” Detour challenge. In “Bag It Up”, teams filled ten bags of local raw salt — each bag weighing slightly over 20 pounds each. In “Pull It Up”, teams visited a major oyster harvesting area known as Mali Ston Bay. They rowed a boat to find buoys with oysters attached; the teams then gave those oysters to a local restaurant known as Bota Sare. 🦪
Overview map of Trsteno — a town northwest of Dubrovnik and known for its arboretum
Remaining in the town of Ston, teams visited Park Komarda for the “Who Knows Their Way Around Croatia?” Roadblock. 🚧 With the navigational help of a 3D relief map of Ston, a member of each team visited several locations throughout the town to find and remember Croatian (Hrvatskan) facts. These facts involve multiple topics: letters not featured in the Croatian alphabet (Q, W, X, and Y), one of the several mottoes of Croatia (“As long as there is heart, there is Croatia”), highest mountain in Croatia at 6,007 feet* (Dinara), famous poet in Croatia (Ivan Gundulić), original length of the Walls of Ston (22,965 feet*), the date when Parliament proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia (June 25th, 1991), first king of Croatia (King Tomislav) 👑, and Croatia’s coastline length (3,625 miles*). Amazing Race contestants arrived back at the map and were tested with three questions asked by a Croatian. Contestants who did not answer the questions correctly had to answer a different set of questions for their next attempt, so some of them went back to the locations to memorize all facts.
Overview map of Ston — the second town featured in this episode
Prapratno Cove was the Pit Stop for this episode. 🏁 Eric and Tucker arrived in first place and both won another trip — this time to various locations in EGYPT 🇪🇬 including Cairo, Alexandria, and the famous pyramids. Tucker excitedly mentioned that Egypt was always on his bucket list, so it is awesome that he can check that one off! ☑ Kristine and Rubina were the eighth and last team to arrive, so they were eliminated from The Amazing Race.
* 6,007 feet equals 1,831 meters, 22,965 feet equals 7,000 meters, and 3,625 miles equals 5,834 kilometers.
The original data is incomplete, not showing data for various places with high literacy — rates of which are likely at or near 100% — such as Andorra, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Micronesia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States, etc. Places having 100% literacy rate data are listed and include the most recent year of data:
— Armenia, 2020
— Azerbaijan, 2023
— Barbados, 2016
— Belarus, 2019
— Cuba, 2012
— Estonia, 2011
— Georgia, 2022
— Guam, 2000
— Kazakhstan, 2009
— Kyrgyzstan, 2022
— Latvia, 2021
— Lithuania, 2021
— Moldova, 2021
— Poland, 2021
— Russia, 2021
— San Marino, 2022
— Slovenia, 2001
— Tajikistan, 2010
— Ukraine, 2021
— Honorable mentions: China, Japan, and South Korea have 100% youth literacy rates, while adult literacy is very close behind at 97% to 99%.
The worldwide literacy rate of adults is approximately 87%, while the youth literacy rate is about 93% (2023 estimates).
December’s GeoFact of the Day Blog quiz centers on the mighty and wonderful continent of Africa. After testing your African trivia prowess, you can further test your geographic knowledge (↗) with other geography quizzes from GeoFact of the Day. The answers to this quiz are listed below; enjoy and good luck!
1) Fill in the blank: the Tsodilo Hills in northwestern Botswana are nicknamed the “_________ of the Desert” for having more than 4,500 ancient rock paintings in the area!
A — Louvre
B — Lascaux
C — Paint Palette
2) True or false: the “official car” of the SEYCHELLES is the mini-moke, a Tonka Truck-style Jeep powered by the engine of a Mini brand car.
3) Fill in the blank: at the civilization’s societal peak, the kingdom of Meroe in present-day ___________ geographically stretched all the way to LEBANON and SYRIA.
A — BENIN
B — SUDAN
C — TANZANIA
4) In 2002, Swaziland’s parliament voted against a government request to buy a $50 million USD luxury jet for which of the following kings (two of the names below are fictional)?
A — King Mbabane XII
B — King Mswati III
C — King Mhlambanyatsinhlangano
5) During its heyday, the renowned university at Timbuktu gave approximately 25,000 scholars of all ages opportunities to study and learn. Where is Timbuktu?
A — MALI
B — LIBYA
C — EGYPT
D — MAURITANIA
6) Which of the following is not a typical ingredient in a slow-cooked stew known as calulu, the national dish of SÃO TOMÉ AND PRÍNCIPE?
A — eggplants
B — prawns and smoked fish
C — turnips
D — spices
7) The DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DR Congo) is Africa’s second largest country, containing a geographic area that is 36,330 square kilometers lower than ALGERIA’s area. DR Congo is also 80 times larger than neighboring BURUNDI and which other relatively small country?
A — CAMEROON
B — CHAD
C — NAMIBIA
D — RWANDA
ANSWERS
Question 1:
A . . . . . Louvre, named after the famous Paris art museum established in 1793
Question 2:
True
Question 3:
B . . . . . Sudan
Question 4:
B . . . . . King Mswati III
Question 5:
A . . . . . Mali
Question 6:
C . . . . . turnips
Question 7:
D . . . . . Rwanda
You may know about Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famed poet and philosopher who began inspiring people in the 1800s with his words and wisdom. There are two towns in Columbia County in southern Arkansas that, together, seem to pay tribute to Emerson. Combining the names of these towns with the town of Ralph in Marion County, Arkansas results in the full name of the talented man!
However, the town and depot of Emerson is actually named in dedication to Reuben Logan Emerson, an early Columbia County pioneer who encouraged the incorporation of the town on Friday, March 10th, 1905. Some locals colloquially called the town Reuben instead of Emerson. Reuben Emerson pursued a variety of employment opportunities in his lifetime; he was a politician at the state level, banker, merchant, Columbia Banner newspaper owner, and teacher. Nowadays, some of the 368 people living in Emerson are employed with jobs in various sectors including agriculture, bromine, local banking and business, natural gas, petroleum, timber, etc. Since 1990, the people of Emerson and surrounding areas organize the Purple Hull Pea Festival. The annual June celebration honors the local cultivation of the purple hull pea crop and includes a cook-off competition for cornbread and peas, pea-shelling competition, Purple Hull Pea Farmer of the Year award, Walk for World “Peas” (Peace), and World Championship Rotary Tiller Race.
Home to 1,372 people in the year 2010, Waldo is like Emerson because it, too, was not named after Ralph Waldo Emerson (nor the Where’s Waldo guy). According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas (↗), Waldo was named “after a railway officer in 1884” and was soon incorporated on August 13th, 1888. The town thrived with a railroad, timber industry, and various businesses before a catastrophic tornado — and later the Great Depression — pummeled the community in the 1930s. Beginning in 1938, the extraction of natural gas and petroleum from the Magnolia Oil Field helped the town recover. Since the beginning of Waldo’s existence, the local banking and timber industries still employ residents. In fact, one of the town’s National Register of Historic Places is the Bank of Waldo, established in 1899 — the other is a circa-1935 water tower.
While the Arkansan towns of Emerson and Waldo are not named after the revered Ralph Waldo Emerson, American society is commemorating his legacy in other ways: museum exhibits, reading his books and poems, statues, artwork, and even personal poems that are inspired by Mr. Emerson.
GeoFact of the Day Exclusive Document
Citing this Work (MLA Formatting)
"Black Madonna of Czestochowa: One of the World’s Artistic Gems." GeoFact of the Day Blog. Wonderful World Blog Publishing, 2 July 2016. Web. http://geofactoftheday.blogspot.com/2016/07/black-madonna.html
Housed in the stately Jasna Gora (“Bright Mountain”) Monastery of Czestochowa (southern Poland), a bold gold frame above the altar borders a dark, dim, fifteenth-century painting: the Black Madonna (Our Lady) of Czestochowa (1434). It is an oil painting on wood and features a stunning accessory: an interchangeable “robe” frame covering encrusted with jewels. Attracting hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims annually for over six centuries (Karafilly 1998, H1), Poland’s famous Black Madonna has been replicated several times. One copy is found at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, another is found in Switzerland’s Hospice of the Great St. Bernard Pass (Duricy 2013), and others are found in various churches of England. Art historians and analysts have debated the significance and purpose of Black Madonna portraits. While Black Madonna portraits at Jasna Gora and other places worldwide might embody the resilient and generous spirit of Virgin Mary, these images have a wide variety of other meanings and symbolism as well.
Subject Matter and History
The Black Madonna of Czestochowa features Virgin Mary (Madonna) and her miraculous son, Jesus Christ. Her right hand gestures towards Jesus, and Jesus’ left index finger points upward towards his mother. Like with many examples of Roman Catholic artwork, the subjects’ heads are surrounded by golden haloes – to presumably denote their important status within Christianity. Meanwhile, the bejeweled frame covering includes crowns atop the heads of Madonna and Jesus. Jesus is holding an ornately designed, thick book – this may or may not be the Bible. Just like the Bible, the history of this artwork is not exactly well-documented or properly dated in time. This artwork was legendarily created or inspired by St. Luke the Evangelist (DICI 2012; Duricy 2013; Karafilly H1), while it may really be painted in the fifteenth century. St. Helena – Constantine’s Queen Mother – allegedly found the portrait when she visited the Holy Land (fourth century), and then she brought it to the city of Constantinople. It could have eventually arrived in Poland, when St. Ladislaus obtained this masterpiece in the 1400s (Duricy 2013). Four famous examples of these bejeweled picture frame (“robe”) coverings existed over the years, being named after the dominant material adorning the surface: diamonds, rubies, pearls, and chain. The current robe overwhelmingly sparkles with diamonds (Rozanow 2010). There are at least seven total robes, and only two are on public display (Karafilly H2).
After the 1400s, additional restorations took place. Art historian Ernst Scheyer conjectures that this painting was at least restored “in the nineteenth century and painted somewhat darker than previously.” The possible reasons why there is a “Black” Madonna – rather than white, as seen in many Western depictions of Madonna – are discussed in detail later below. Not everyone is pleased to venerate this Madonna image. In December 2012, she was vandalized with black paint (DICI 2012). This relatively recent case of vandalism is certainly not the first one; in 1430, Bohemian bandits stomped on and slashed the Madonna portrait; they also stole pilgrim’s votive gifts (Karafilly H1; Barham 2003, 330). A legend purports that these mischievous vandals ran away in horror when blood oozed out of the painting! Regardless of various cases of vandalism on her, the Black Madonna is said to have given miracles to the Polish people, who overcame invasive, dangerous groups such as the Swedes, Bolsheviks, and Nazis (Karafilly H1-2). Therefore, this gives hope to devout pilgrims that Madonna’s resiliency can help them overcome difficult times.
Style, Meanings, Symbolism, and Cultural Context
Anyone including art connoisseurs and first-time Jasna Gora visitors may instantly notice Madonna and Jesus wearing solemn and/or stoic facial expressions. This could signify that Christian worshippers should humbly and seriously respect them – as Jesus’ salvation of humans from sin is an important and serious task. Madonna also has two noticeable long scars and one shorter scar on her face. These scars – left alone by restorers to reveal the Bohemian vandals’ inexcusable action (Karafilly H1) – can represent the painful sorrows of her son’s crucifixion, and/or the adversity she might have faced in raising a son who constantly challenged authorities in power. She seems to hold Jesus on her arm and on the left part of her chest. However, the not-quite-perfect shadowing of Jesus and the ripples in Madonna’s clothing results in him levitating against her body – rather than being visibly anchored to her.
Compared to some subdued Christian paintings, colors are relatively vibrant. Madonna’s and Jesus’ bright, light-gold haloes are interconnected to each other – essentially signifying the unconditional love and interconnectedness of their mother-son relationship. I and some other art analysts would argue that Madonna’s purple robe symbolizes royalty and dignity, while her hood could signify that she is protective, humble, and respectable. Jesus’ red robe could represent the blood he unfortunately shed when being crucified and dying for humans’ sins. The artwork’s lighting is peculiar in that Madonna has a bright spot on her nose while Jesus does not. Also, there may be two relatively dim light sources coming from opposite directions. From our view, the left side of Madonna’s face is lit, while the opposite is true in regards to Jesus.
Visual-aid artwork in chapels, churches, synagogues, etc. helped illiterate worshippers understand main messages and tenets of the religion worshipped within these places. The diamond “robe” frame cover visually implies to Christians – even illiterate ones – that the subjects surrounded by jewels in this painting are meant to be revered for their immense importance in Christianity. A major component of Ancient to Medieval Art History is determining the styles and mannerisms of ancient societies’ artwork. According to Leonard Moss and other art historians and iconographers, the Madonna figure is “distinctly thirteenth-fourteenth century Byzantine in form” (Duricy 2013). Black Madonna of Czestochowa is a variety of Hodegetria iconography, in which Madonna is affirming – with her right hand – that her young boy is someone to respect and repent sins to. In an image caption contest, Madonna could be saying, “Look, everyone, my son right here is very important to Christianity.” Jesus might respond, “Yeah, but mom, you did the important task of giving birth to me and encouraging me to spread my message of salvation and love around the world!”
Theories of Why Madonna is Black
The skin of Madonna and Jesus in this painting is darker in color than their skin in many Western Christian artworks. Plenty of art historians, scholars, and iconographers have contributed their theories in regards to this. Joan Carroll Cruz suggests a possible link to the Song of Songs: “I am black but beautiful” (Duricy 2013). However, she also notes that accumulated residue from candles may have darkened the figures’ skin color. Similarly, Charles Broschart suggests that flames and smoke from a shrine fire darkened this image. If the Black Madonna was indeed Byzantine in style, maybe their skin color is similar to that of Byzantine people’s skin color (ibid.). Barham, Stephen Benko, and Gustafson all propose that black Madonnas resemble Earth and fertility goddesses, such as Artemis, Ceres (Demeter), Hecate, Kali, Isis, Medusa, and Rhea (Barham 326, 328; Duricy 2013; Gustafson 2009, 15). She might also represent the darkness of rich, fertile soil or serve to be “an icon of the mystery of life and death that defies definition and speaks to the deepest layers of the human soul” (Gustafson 18).
Conclusion
Throughout Europe, there is hardly a more populated pilgrimage site boasting a “mass of avid, hopeful humanity” (Karafilly H2) than the Jasna Gora monastery, featuring an artistic gem at the altar. Everyone is pointing fingers at each other: Jesus points up to his mother, Madonna hand gestures toward her son, and pilgrims arriving at Jasna Gora are fingering towards Jesus and the Virgin Mary in starstruck awe. With a rather gloomy yet brave facial expression, the Black Madonna hints at and displays her generosity, resiliency, and humility. While these characteristics are some that Christians easily attach to Virgin Mary, she represents a variety of other meanings, too – many of which orbit outside the Christian and religious realm.
Supplementing the debate of what Christian figures such as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary looked like as humans thousands of years ago, there is plenty of debate as to why the Virgin Mary featured in the Czestochowa image has a relatively dark skin tone. Some theories are grounded in practicality: Madonna may resemble the physical appearance of Byzantine people (who lived in what is now the Middle East, Turkey, etc.), or maybe candle soot somehow contributed to the painting’s overall darkness. Other theories address spirituality: the Black Madonna is an Earth goddess, and/or she embodies the vitality that fertile soil gives to plants and consequently other life forms on Earth. Her importance is exemplified by the scintillatingly glamorous robe covering that she and a young Jesus may occasionally wear at Josna Gory monastery. Regardless of what the Black Madonna truly represents, Christian pilgrims come far and wide to pay their respects to the Virgin Mary in southern Poland.
Works Cited
Barham, Penny. “Black Madonnas.” Feminist Theology: The Journal of the Britain & Ireland School of Feminist Theology 11.3 (2003): 325. Academic Search Premier. Web.
Duricy, Michael P. “Black Madonnas — Our Lady of Czestochowa.” Black Madonnas. International Marian Research Institute, University of Dayton, 5 Feb. 2013. http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html.
Gustafson, Fred. The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln. Einsiedeln: Daimon Verlag, 2009. Print.
Karafilly, Irena F. “Poland's National Icon: In times of trouble, Poles have often turned for help to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa - and today their faith and fervor are undiminished.” The Montreal Gazette: pgs. H 1-4. 1998.
“Poland: The Black Madonna of Czestochowa Vandalized.” Documentation Information Catholiques Internationales, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. http://www.dici.org/en/news/poland-the-black-madonna-of-czestochowa-vandalized/.
Rozanow, Zofia. "New Robes of Our Lady of Czestochowa." Sunday Catholic Weekly. Niedziela, 2010. Web. http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=polska&id_art=00164.
GeoFact of the Day Blog Exclusive Document
Citing this Work (MLA Formatting)
"Environmental Injustice Exacerbated by Zoning." GeoFact of the Day Blog. Wonderful World Blog Publishing, 2 July 2016. Web. http://geofactoftheday.blogspot.com/2016/07/more-food-desert-studies-lets-make-more.html.
Studies about the lack of food access in both urban and rural areas have generally increased each year, with citations including but certainly not limited to Gallagher (2006), McEntee and Agyeman (2010), Mundorf et al. (2015), Smith and Morton (2009), Thomson (2011), and Walker et al. (2010). All of my citations in this paper give credit to scholarly articles written within this millennium. I cited relatively recent sources of information because there is in-depth analysis and data collection regarding food access (i.e. Gordon et al. 2011 analyzing relationship between demographic variables and food store indices), and there are some specific case studies about particular cities or rural areas (i.e. Smith and Morton 2009 focusing on Iowa and Minnesota). Also, these recent studies utilize a variety of sources and research measures to evaluate food access, including the following examples: census data, focus groups, food use inventory, GIS and cartography, interviews, and surveys (Walker et al. 878). The study of food deserts in both urban neighborhoods and rural settings is proliferating since the beginning of this millennium, and the mapping of food access should play an important role in future case studies for valuable visual insights.
About Food Deserts
Announced by President Obama in 2010, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative coordinates with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to research food access and help local markets sell healthy food in so-called food desert areas. The HFFI defines that a food desert is a low-income census tract area (20% or greater poverty) in which at least one-third of local residents have low and especially difficult access to markets, supermarkets, or grocery stores. Low access is defined as urban residents living more than a mile from a supermarket or grocery store, as well as rural residents living more than 10 miles from a supermarket or grocery store (Economic Research Service, USDA). Before the official food desert definition came into existence, Mari Gallagher brought the term into mainstream usage after examining the effects of someone’s Chicago neighborhood location on his or her food access (Gallagher 2006, 6). Gallagher’s study became a standard-bearer for future food access research because it contains maps, tables, and graphs – all visual aids which help convert sometimes confusing data into a form that readers can likely understand.
Food Deserts Search Results
To explore how much research about food deserts is available, I used a comprehensive, centralized database feature that combines all sorts of research documents from multiple databases. “Full text online,” “scholarly & peer-reviewed,” and “peer-reviewed” filters were turned on so I can find accessible and quality-assured resources. A total of 1,462 results contain the exact term food desert – surrounded by quotation marks to keep thisdu phrase exact and intact within search results. The graph below shows how many search results per year were generated. There is a clear increase in search results up until the year 2014, although there is a drop in 2015 and so far in 2016. This graph visually reveals that food desert research grew in the last decade – and at least may be at a sustained level for future study of this subject.
Since about 75% of census tracts in the United States are urban food deserts (Thomson 8), it would be logical to believe that more research has been done regarding urban food deserts compared to rural ones. This assertion is backed up by my search results – although not to the extent I originally hypothesized. I searched urban food deserts as well as “urban food deserts” (quotation marks to keep this phrase intact) – bringing up 15,460 search results and 82 results, respectively. Meanwhile, a rural food deserts search and a “rural food deserts” search resulted in 12,437 and 55 possible sources to research within. Before this search, I initially hypothesized that there would be about three times as many urban food desert articles as rural food desert ones, matching up with the ratio of urban to rural food deserts. Therefore, at least these search results imply that there is already more research about rural food deserts than I initially thought.
Analyzing Food Access in a Variety of Ways
Despite the relatively pleasing amount of search results pertaining to rural food access, some scholars nevertheless note the urgent importance of doing more to study rural areas lacking satisfactory food access. For example, Lucan et al. criticizes Hartley et al. for saying that the study of food access and food deserts in rural is “less meaningful.” Lucan et al. comments that some rural residents face burdensome issues such as an inconsistent food supply, lack of transportation, and inconvenient location from stores selling a variety of produce (Lucan et al. 2012, 484-5). Some researchers comment that previous quantitative and data-based studies focused mostly on urban food deserts (McEntee and Argyeman 2010, 166). Smith and Morton implies more research into rural food deserts should be completed, so that better community planning and more incentives for rural grocery and market owners can lead to improved food access (Smith and Morton 185).
Focusing solely on urban food deserts in New York City’s Brooklyn and Harlem boroughs, Gordon et al. (2010) is noted for an empirical and quantitative approach to explain how food deserts have formed in the Big Apple. For example, these researchers performed a block-by-block assessment of “every establishment selling food and beverages” (Gordon et al. 697) in Brooklyn and Harlem, and studying the Upper East Side (affluent and directly adjacent to Harlem) for comparison. The authors “calculated descriptive statistics for demographic and food access variables and examined the relationship between the block group demographic variables, food desert index components, and the total ‘‘food desert index’’ score. They found that neighborhoods with predominantly African-American residents (especially in Harlem) had the least “most healthy” food stores and the fewest number of supermarkets in New York City. The opposite is true for predominantly Caucasian and Latino block groups (Gordon et al. 699).
Providing a specific case study for another urban area, Mundorf et al. (2015) focused on studying the changes of food access disparities in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina. Like Gordon et al., these researchers quantitatively analyzed food deserts and food access – performing “HLM Poisson regression analyses,” to be exact (Mundorf et al. 605). They found that the food access situation for African Americans – relative to other New Orleans residents – positively improved by the year 2014. To be precise, Mundorf et al. note that there is no statistically significant difference in food access (ibid. 605). However, food access issues still remain issues in New Orleans and in cities across the country, as explained by various factors. For example, urban supermarket prices are generally higher than suburban ones, according to some studies (Walker et al. 881). Even if a neighborhood has an adequate number of markets and supermarkets, the temptation of fast food from an abundance of fast-food establishments may prevent families from eating fresh fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, etc. at the dinner table (Parsons 2012, 41). Some surveys and personal interviews show that many residents in food deserts are knowledgeable about healthy foods’ benefits and how to cook – mostly unhealthy food, though. However, cooking classes could help provide residents information on how to prepare healthy foods in convenient and tasty ways (Parsons 39; Whittmeyer 2014). Some researchers may overlook the fact that low-income residents may not visit stores that do not accept EBT cards, which could mean they would have to travel farther to visit a store that does accept those (Parsons 42). In summary, a variety of factors explain why some low-income and racial-ethnic minority residents are living in food deserts.
Mapping Food Access and “Food Deserts”
While the task of exploring the factors that help create food deserts was initially studied qualitatively, the growing nature of this study means that more research papers are studying this subject quantitatively (McEntee and Agyeman 165). Containing data related to demographics, availability of markets, and food access, relevant GIS data sets are becoming increasingly available for food desert researchers (ibid. 165). These conditions mean that there is opportunity for researchers to gather more empirical data – a task Gordon et al. completed, as mentioned previously. In addition, more maps can be created to show the environment injustices of food deserts – especially highlighting the food deserts that have not been researched before.
So far, researchers have conducted mapping activities for mostly urban but some rural case study areas, including Chicago; Lansing, Michigan; and the state of Vermont, which of course includes rural areas. One mapmaking-related study is particularly revolutionary for the study of food deserts: “Gallagher’s 2006 map of Chicago food deserts is credited with spurring Congress two years later to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a national study of public access to affordable, nutritious food” (Thomson 9). As a result of her study, the USDA did file a report asserting that people located far away from fresh food stores and lacking transportation lived in “food deserts.” Likewise, professors at Michigan State University mapped pedestrian food access in Michigan’s state capital. They note that, over the past several decades, multiple supermarkets moved from inner-city to suburban areas and therefore decreased the access of food for urban residents (Goldsberry and Howard 2011). For the whole state of Vermont, McEntee and Agyeman mapped the “mean distance to food retailers within census tract[s].” The authors found that Vermont’s food deserts are scattered throughout the state and mostly in rural areas (McEntee and Agyeman 170-2). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service interactive map provides a nationwide analysis of food deserts. The agency’s publicly-accessible map might serve as the basis for food desert research paper’s geographic analysis. With its various layers depicting distance from food stores, the USDA’s map shows that plenty of food deserts exist in states with geographically large rural areas, such as Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, and Idaho.
While it can be argued that more mapping of food access can be done to visually highlight the issues affecting food desert areas, the aforementioned mapping research may lead to more researchers taking a cartographic approach in analyzing food desert issues. Providing optimism that there is plenty of mapmaking-related research, Walker et al. notes that cited studies in the authors’ paper (nine of them) mostly used GIS technology – compared to other methods of analysis – for their food desert papers (Walker et al. 878). Also, some researchers note that the “spatial analysis of consumer behavior” can play an important role in reevaluating and strengthening local food production and distribution networks (Gatrell et al. 1196). Therefore, the use of cartography and GIS data in food desert research can provide interesting and new insights about how government officials and residents can properly address food access issues.
Conclusion
Regardless of extensive rural and urban food desert research, more researchers ideally should study more rural communities and relatively high-populated cities because not much research has been done for certain areas. Despite Indianapolis being ranked by Walk Score as the worst American city for convenient food access (Whittmeyer 2014), researchers have not conducted many studies about the city’s food deserts. Searching through Google Scholars and and a database reveals no such research for Indianapolis. However, the study of food deserts in urban and rural areas is relatively new – opportunities abound for case studies of “new” areas. The current research has proposed a variety of factors explaining why some areas are so-called food deserts: lack of transportation (sometimes unaffordable), inconsistent food supply from hunting and gardening, inconvenient location of stores, racial-ethnic and socioeconomic demographics (especially pertaining to low-income and African-American residents), high urban supermarket prices, many drive-through restaurants, and few or no local stores accepting the use of EBT cards. Researchers such as Gallagher (2006), Goldsberry and Howard (2011), and McEntee and Agyeman (2010) have already understood the beneficial, visual insights that mapping and GIS data usage can bring to the study of food access in the United States. I propose that more researchers should follow in their footsteps to study other food desert areas.
Works Cited
— Economic Research Service (ERS). “Food Access Research Atlas.” U.S. Department of Agriculture. Web. ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas.aspx.
— Gallagher, Mari. “Examining the impact of food deserts on public health in Chicago.” Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group (2006): 4-39. Web. marigallagher.com/projects/4.
— Gatrell, Jay D., Neil Reid, and Paula Ross. “Local Food Systems, Deserts, and maps: The Spatial Dynamics and Policy Implications of Food Geography.” Applied Geography 31.4 (2011): 1195-6. Web.
— Goldsberry, Kirk and Phil Howard. “Mapping urban food deserts.” ScienceDaily (3 March 2011). sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303141557.htm.
— Gordon, Cynthia, et al. “Measuring Food Deserts in New York City's Low-Income Neighborhoods.” Health and Place 17.2 (2011): 696-700. Web.
— Lucan, Sean C., Alison Gustafson, and Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts. “The Concept of ‘Rural Food Deserts’ is Still Meaningful.” Childhood Obesity 8.5 (2012): 484-5. Web.
— McEntee, Jesse, and Julian Agyeman. “Towards the Development of a GIS Method for Identifying Rural Food Deserts: Geographic Access in Vermont, USA.” Applied Geography 30.1 (2010): 165-76. Web.
— Mundorf, Adrienne R., Amelia Willits-Smith, and Donald Rose. “10 Years Later: Changes in Food Access Disparities in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.” Journal of Urban Health 92.4 (2015): 605-10. Web.
— Parsons, Sarah. “An Evaluation of the Food Desert Definition in Durham, North Carolina.” Diss. Duke University, 2012. Duke University Libraries, 25 Apr. 2012. Web.
— Smith, Chery, and Lois W. Morton. “Rural Food Deserts: Low-Income Perspectives on Food Access in Minnesota and Iowa.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 41.3 (2009): 176-87. Web.
— Thomson, Susan C. “Food Deserts: Where Poor Nutrition Thrives.” Health Progress 92.6 (2011): 8-9. Web.
— Walker, Renee E., Christopher R. Keane, and Jessica G. Burke. “Disparities and Access to Healthy Food in the United States: A Review of Food Deserts Literature.” Health and Place 16.5 (2010): 876-84. Web.
— Wittmeyer, Sarah. “Indianapolis Ranks Worst in the Nation for Food Deserts.” Indiana Public Media. 30 May 2014. Web. https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/indianapolis-ranks-worst-nation-food-deserts-67800.php.
GeoFact of the Day Blog Exclusive Essay
Citing this Work (MLA Formatting)
"Environmental Injustice Exacerbated by Zoning." GeoFact of the Day Blog. Wonderful World Blog Publishing, 12 Apr. 2016. Web. http://geofactoftheday.blogspot.com/2016/04/environmental-injustice-exacerbated-by.html.
A variety of community factors – political processes, residents lacking political authority, zoning rules, etc. – are consequential to the effectiveness of governments and activists addressing environmental injustice. One example of such consequences involves Chester, Pennsylvania residents telling company and government officials (allies supporting each other with monetary deals and permits) the community’s concerns about waste facilities – but failing to reach their objectives since many hazardous Chester facilities still operate (Cole and Foster 38). The negative consequences of zoning on environmental injustice are sometimes not explained in detail (e.g. with case study analysis) in various scholars’ work. While authors such as Bullard et al. (“Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007”) do not explain unjust zoning practices with the support of case study analysis, these authors and others (Cole and Foster; Ferraro and Peller) do contribute helpful suggestions and ideas to resolve environmental injustice.
Two authors who do describe the consequences of zoning ordinances on environmental injustice – and include a case study to provide a real-world example – are Cole and Foster (From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement). The authors include a specific section analyzing the premises of zoning ordinances and their effects on environmental injustice/racism. Cole and Foster comment that residents with African heritage have seen their communities be “re-zoned as industrial [areas] by white planning boards” (Cole and Foster 69) – in a similar fashion to government officials encouraging (with easy permits, tax incentives, etc.) hazardous waste disposal facilities to move in and transform Chester into an industrial district (Cole and Foster 38). Authors of the United Church of Christ’s “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007” report would support Cole and Foster’s argument by saying that “more than nine out of ten [planning and zoning board] members are white” (Bullard et al. 135). More research could be done to find valid statistics and ordinance actions to support a statement that planning/zoning boards with mostly white members ignore or exacerbate (intentionally or not) environmental injustice.
Cole and Foster quote a scholar’s concise – but arguably generalized – point about zoning’s environmental injustice (“expulsive zoning”). Yale Rabin’s notion that “zoning decisions are not made with reference to race” (quoted in Cole and Foster 69) could arguably be disputed; this is because intent or lack of intent could be difficult to prove especially if case-by-case political factors of communities are ignored or generalized. However, opponents of this argument might agree with Rabin in saying that the zoning decisions’ impact “has profound racial implications” (ibid. 69). Therefore, this discussion of zoning and its consequences relating to environmental racism could have been inserted immediately before or after the Chester, Pennsylvania case study. I suggest this so readers can essentially “connect the dots” – understanding that municipal zoning actions can be a force for environmental injustice. After all, the Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life (CRCQL) activist group wanted to pressure the City Council to amend the zoning ordinance for addressing concentrated sitings of hazardous waste disposal facilities (ibid. 49).
In summary, Cole and Foster explain the zoning-environmental injustice connection with support from the Chester case study and academic thought from urban planner and civil rights activist Yale Rabin. Meanwhile, Bullard et al. does not provide case study evidence of discriminatory zoning ordinances, especially in saying this statement: “Historically, exclusionary zoning has been a subtle form of using government authority and power to foster and perpetuate discriminatory practices—including environmental planning. … Local land use and zoning policies are ‘a root enabling cause of disproportionate burdens and environmental injustice’ in the United States” (Bullard et al. 135). Kim Ferraro of the Hoosier Environmental Council and Dr. Julie Peller agree with the idea of zoning being discriminatory, saying that “people of color and those who did not own land” did not have the political authority nor encouragement from government representatives to participate in land use decision-making (Ferraro and Peller 6). This disenfranchisement of citizens was negatively consequential because a strong, robust environmental justice movement of citizen activism could prevent the “siting of even more industrial facilities in their neighborhoods” (ibid. 6). An active environmental justice movement led by citizens of Northwest Indiana communities similarly might pressure officials to revise zoning ordinances – discouraging the location of large polluting industrial districts adjacent to residential areas with rules encouraging mixed-use and/or energy-efficient urban developments.
Unlike Bullard et al., Ferraro and Peller provide a specific example of discriminatory zoning at work in cities such as East Chicago, Gary, and Hammond: “…discriminatory land use practices including racially restrictive covenants were legally sanctioned through the 1950s to prevent African Americans from leaving heavily polluted communities and moving to ‘nicer,’ white neighborhoods” (Ferraro and Peller 6). While not stating the term “urban planning” at all, Ferraro and Peller’s zoning and land use discussion provides an interesting perspective combining environmental justice and the discipline of urban planning – in which zoning and land use practices are studied to determine their potential negative consequences on neighborhoods. The connection between zoning and environmental injustice is demonstrated in various case study examples – for example, residents of Little Village (Chicago) protested for zoning changes to encourage more green space areas and fewer places for factories. Urban planning’s perspective is important since its land use and historic geographic elements can help analyze how “separated land use” zoning ordinances might not provide environmental protection to residents, especially people of disadvantaged populations (poor, people of African descent, etc.). For example, (1) these types of zoning ordinances might have a grandfather clause – in which pre-zoning facilities can continue their operations as-is (Ferraro and Peller 6) – and/or (2) lead to a concentration of toxic facilities by establishing a geographically large, single-use industrially zoned area near neighborhoods.
While case studies can examine specific zoning policies, schemes, and actions intentionally or unintentionally contributing to environmental racism, Bullard et al. possibly wants to encourage researchers to “think big” in order to come up with broad, nationally standardized explanations of the zoning-environmental racism connection. Likewise, the fear of taking specific case study factors and generalizing them to other case studies is exemplified in Robert and Robin Collin’s testimonial in the “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007” document (Bullard et al. 103). On the contrary, though, broad theories might ignore pertinent case study factors, as addressed above on page 2. The authors mention broad but rather vague points regarding the effects of zoning on environmental injustice – but then again their national race and toxic wastes report may be meant to inspire other researchers to do the work of analyzing zoning practice with real-world case study examples in local areas.
Bullard et al. is more specific in providing suggestions and recommendations to help alleviate environmental injustice. Including recommendations in regards to congressional, executive branch, state, local, non-governmental organization (NGO), and industry actions (ibid. 156-160) is reasonable because readers might ask, “What can I do or what initiatives should I encourage to help alleviate environmental racism?” Ferraro and Peller would likely agree with Bullard et al.’s approach to providing solutions because they offer a specific solution of their own: an environmental justice clinic for Northwest Indiana (Ferraro and Peller 24). The authors’ specific description of what this hypothetical environmental justice clinic would offer – information about regulations and environmental concerns, legal expertise to encourage compliance of regulations, support to help residents conduct water, soil, etc. tests, etc. on residential properties – is useful because then readers across America (and possibly the globe) might be inspired to start up their own organization to address environmental injustice issues in their local area.
Works Cited
— Bullard, Robert D., Paul Mohai, Robin Saha, and Beverly Wright. “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007.” Toxic Wastes and Race. United Church of Christ, Mar. 2007.
— Cole, Luke, and Sheila Foster. “The Political Economy of Environmental Racism: Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life.” From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. NYU Press, 2001. Web.
— Ferraro, Kim, and Julie Peller, comps. “Assessment of Environmental Justice Needs in Northern Lake County Communities.” Hoosier Environmental Council (2010). Web. http://www.hecweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/HEC-Assessment-of-EJ-Needs-in-Northern-Lake-County-Communities-FINAL-REPORT2.pdf.
The countries of Southern Africa generally experience a positive increase in their literacy rates among teenagers and young adults who are 15 to 24 years old. This category is described as "youth literacy" in this post. More work can of course be done to improve literacy in these countries. Optimistically however, more and more young people can read and write than ever before. Several countries boast amazingly high literacy rates, breaking down misconceptions about the literacy of southern African residents. The following information comes from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
● The average youth literacy rate (2015) of ANGOLA is 72.93%.
● BOTSWANA's youth literacy rate is 97.85%. EXCELLENT!
● LESOTHO's youth literacy rate is 85.09%. Not bad, Lesotho!
● MADAGASCAR's youth literacy rate is 65.07%.
● MALAWI's youth literacy rate is 75.06%.
● MAURITIUS' youth literacy rate is 98.72%. AWESOME!
● MOZAMBIQUE's youth literacy rate is 76.67%.
● NAMIBIA's youth literacy rate is 89.91%. Nice!
● SOUTH AFRICA's youth literacy rate is 99.02%. Good job, South Africans!
● SWAZILAND's youth literacy rate is 94.77%. Amazing!
● ZAMBIA's youth literacy rate is 65.76%.
● ZIMBABWE's youth literacy rate is 91.73%. Very good!
Invented by Melvin Dewey in 1876, the Dewey Decimal Classification system is the world's most popular way of organizing library books, being used by libraries in over 100 countries in six continents: Africa, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. Many of the countries that use the DDC are developed, but some of the world's most impoverished countries use it as well. DDC users include Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Fiji, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Namibia, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Tonga, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
● ● ● ● ● People and Places ● ● ● ● ● Most of Brazil's major cities are found along the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean, including Belém, Fortaleza, João Pessoa, Macapá, Maceió, Natal, Olinda, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Luís, São Paulo, and Vitória. Sao Paulo is the most popular city with about 10.7 million residents as of 2016, followed by Rio de Janeiro (5.95 million) and Salvador (2.49 million). The capital with about 2.5 million residents (2016) is Brasília, located in southeast-central Brazil and in the Distrito Federal (Federal District) — surrounded by the states of Goías (north, south, and west) and Minas Gerais (east). Other major inland cities besides Brasília include Belo Horizonte, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Goiânia, Ji-Paraná, Manaus, and Maraba.
Portuguese is Brazil's official language, and it is universally spoken in the country. Meanwhile, 2,000,000 total Brazilians speak Italian, German, and other European languages. Native indigenous groups and their respective languages include Canela, Guajajára, Guaraní (currently the largest tribe in Brazil), Hixkaryána, Jamamadí, Kaiwá, Maxakalí, Ticuna, Tucano, Xavánte, and Yąnomamö. Meaning "land of the palm trees," Pindorama is the Guaraní name for Brazil. The literacy rate of Brazil — as of the year 2015 — is 91.5%. Over 90% of Brazilians are Christians, followed by Spiritism (5%), Buddhism (0.25%), and Judaism (0.21%).
● ● ● ● ● Land and Water Features ● ● ● ● ● Brazil encompasses a large central and eastern portion of the Amazon Rainforest, subjected to deforestation and conversion to farmland but recovering in some areas. The Amazon River (Rio Amazonas, also Rio Solimões) flows about 2,845 kilometers and 1,768 miles through Brazil and for a total length of about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles). In Brazil, this mighty river begins its journey near the tri-state border at Brazil, Colombia, and Peru in the state of Amazonas. The Amazon River flows eastward along the border of Amapá and Pará states into the Atlantic Ocean. Near the coastal city of Macapá, the Amazon diverts itself into an estuary connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Amazon River tributaries include Juruá, Madeira, Tapajós, and Xingu.
Located in the Guiana Highlands and specifically in northwestern Brazil near Venezuela, Pico da Neblina is Brazil's highest point and stands about 2,995 meters and 9,825 feet in elevation. Essentially named Ducks Lagoon in English, Brazil's largest lake is Lagoa dos Patos (Patos Lagoon), which is situated northeast of Uruguay and in between the cities of Porto Alegre (northern shore), Pelotas (southern shore), and Rio Grande (southern shore). The name may come from the notion that 16th-century Jesuit missionaries wanted to conduct duck breeding operations in this lagoon. The 14,000-square-mile lagoon's southern outlet to the Atlantic Ocean is more than 1 kilometer in width and is typically cloudy with sediments and pollution.
This post was updated with more information and a new map on August 17th, 2016.
Map Credit: © Maps of the World (mapsofworld.com)
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Officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, BOLIVIA is a landlocked country located in the central region of South America. Bolivia's bordering countries are Argentina to the south, Brazil to the northeast, Chile to the southwest, Paraguay to the southeast, and Peru to the west. Paraguay is the only other South American landlocked state. Even though it is completely surrounded by land, Bolivia is close to coastal access with the Pacific Ocean. Only a small area of northern Chile and southern Peru block Bolivia from the coast. In addition, Bolivia was not always landlocked. In the late nineteenth century, the country lost its coastal area to Chile in the War of the Pacific (Guerra del Pacífico). Bolivia's currency is the Bolivian Boliviano, and its ISO 4217 currency code is BOB.
● ● ● ● ● People and Places ● ● ● ● ● Bolivia's total population is about 10,725,000, based on 2015 data. Unlike most countries, some Bolivians live in two capital cities: La Paz (administrative capital) and Sucre (constitutional capital). La Paz (the word Peace in English) is the highest capital city in the world since it stands over 12,000 feet above sea level. Other Bolivian cities include Cochabamba, El Alto (immediately west of La Paz), Oruro, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. About 43 languages are spoken in Bolivia. Due to the country's linguistic and ethnic group diversity, languages such as Aymara, Ayoreo (a Zamucoan language), Chácobo, Chiquitano (Bésiro), Guaraní, Machinere, Quechua, Sirionó, Tapieté, and Uru are native official languages, which are less widely spoken than Spanish (another official language). Even extinct languages with no native speakers — Canichana, Cayubaba (Cayuvava), Pauserna-Guarasugwé, and Puquina — are designated as official languages. Bolivia's literacy rate is about 95%, a rate similar to the percentages of Paraguay and Peru but higher than Brazil (91.5%) and Guyana (85%) and lower than Argentina (98%), Chile (96.7%), and Uruguay (98.4%).
Most religious people are Christians, who are predominantly Roman Catholic and comprise about 90% of Bolivia's total population. About 350,000 or more Bolivians adhere to tenets and beliefs in ethnic religions, and over 200,000 citizens are Bahá'í believers. Bolivia boasts multiple landmarks and sites of interests, particularly statues, churches, and sites of ancient civilizations. Did you know that the Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace) is the world's second-largest Jesus Christ statue, standing over 40 meters (about 133 feet) above the ground and taller than Brazil's Christ the Redeemer monument? Located on San Pedro Hill east of Cochabamba city, Bolivia's concrete behemoth is slightly shorter than Świebodzin, Poland's circa-2010 Christ the King statue. Other sites of interest include Biocentro Güembé (Santa Cruz), House of Liberty Museum (Sucre), Iglesia de San Francisco (La Paz), Mariscal Antonio Jose de Sucre suspension bridge, Metropolitan Cathedral of La Paz, Metropolitan Cathedral of Sucre, Palacio Portales (Cochabamba), Plaza 25 de Mayo (Sucre), Presidential Palace (La Paz), and the Tiwanaku ancient civilization site.
● ● ● ● ● Land Features ● ● ● ● ● Bolivia is particularly known for its location along South America's major mountain range, two large salt flats, and a well-known lake. Lake Titicaca (Lago Titicaca) is the largest lake within Bolivia's border, specifically located on the western border with southern Peru. It is often known as the world's highest navigable lake at 12,500 feet in elevation, and this lake's surface area is about 8,366 square kilometers (3,230 sq. miles). Meanwhile, this lake boasts the largest volume in South America. The second largest lake and largest one completely within the country, Lake Poopó is south of Oruro and boasts a surface area of 1,339 sq. kilometers (517 sq. miles).
Stretching across southwestern Bolivia and mostly into northern Chile, the Atacama Desert serves as the home for Bolivia's two largest salt flats: Salar de Uyuni (largest in the world) and Salar de Coipasa . Sometimes known as Uyuni Salt Flat in English, Salar de Uyuni steals the spotlight in many National Geographic photos. It is located in Potosí Department and surrounded by communities such as Ayque, Calo, Carpas, Chuvica, Coqueza, and of course Uyuni. Salar de Coipasa is sometimes filled with water and therefore also called Lago de Coipasa; it is located north of Salar de Uyuni in Oruro Department. The Abuná River (Río Abuná) forms the northern border with Brazil, while Río Iténez straddles the northeastern Bolivia-Brazil border.
Bolivia is one of seven South American countries straddling the Andes Mountains. Some of the country's major Andes sub-ranges include the Cordillera Central, Cordillera Occidental (west), Cordillera Oriental (east), Cordillera de los Frailes, and Cordillera de Lípez. Located near the northern Chilean border in Oruro Department, Nevado Sajama is Bolivia's highest peak and is currently a non-active (extinct) stratovolcano. The peak features an elevation of 6,542 meters and 21,463 feet and is the obvious highlight of Parque Nacional Sajama (Sajama National Park). Other volcanoes include Acotango (potentially active), Cerro Guacha, Cerro Lípez, Iru Phutunqu (potentially active), Paruma (potentially active), Umurata, and Zapaleri.
This post was updated with more information on April 5th, 2016.
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