nPostednon October 6, 2013
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Whatnare the people of Turkmenistan remembering today?
Whatnare the people of Turkmenistan remembering today? n
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nThey are flying their flags at half-mast to remember the victims of an earthquake that happened on this date in 1948.
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nThe 7.3 earthquake was one of the deadliest in human history and devastated the capital city of Ashgabat.
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| The fire you see here has burned non-stop for 40 years. This giant hole-full-of-fire was formed when people drilling for natural gas accidentally caused the cavern full of dangerous methane gas to collapse. |
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nAnnation that was once part of the Soviet Union, that is next door tonAfghanistan, and that suffers from really high unemployment…you cannprobably guess that life is not incredibly easy in Turkmenistan.nHowever, the nation has enjoyed recent economic growth because of itsnlarge reserves of natural gas. It also has oil resources and growsnenough cotton to export some.
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nTurkmenistannis a bit larger than my native state of California, but it doesn’tnhave quite as much good agricultural land as Cali does—because 80%nof the nation is covered by a black-sand desert!
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nInnoticed an “export treemap” diagram (above) in the Wikipedia articlenabout Turkmenistan. It shows how dependent the nation’s economy isnon just three things (natural gas, oil, and cotton). Itnwould be great if the nation could diversify—which means build manyndifferent industries instead of depending on just a few industries.nCompare the diagram to the U.S. export treemap below.
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nIsndiversity always good? I was thinking about how wonderfulnbiodiversity is (lots and lots of different creatures in a habitat,ninstead of just a few), how wonderful cultural and ethnic diversitynis (many different types of music and food available, along with manyndifferent holidays and traditions)…and of course a nation is muchnstronger with economic diversity, too.
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nIncan’t think of a kind of diversity that’s bad…can you?
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nTonlearn more about Turkmenistan, check out this earlier post.
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nAlsonon this date:
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Change a Light Day
Change a Light Day
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nMad Hatter Day
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nNationalnGerman-American Day
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nInventorGeorge Westinghouse’s birthday
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Ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl’s birthday
Ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl’s birthdayn
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nPlannAhead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for Octobernholidays, Octobernbirthdays,nand historicalnanniversaries in October.
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for Novembernholidays, Novembernbirthdays,nand historicalnanniversaries in November.
