South Africais a country located at the southern tip of Africa. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent country wholly surrounded by South African territory.
The Capital is Pretoria (executive), Bloemfontein (judicial), Cape Town (legislative). The largest city is Johannesburg.
There are 11 official languages, English is included.
According to the 2001 census, Christians accounted for 79.8% of the population, with a majority of them being members of various Protestant denominations (broadly defined to include syncretic African initiated churches) and a minority of Roman Catholics and other Christians. Christian category includes Zion Christian (11.1%), Pentecostal (Charismatic) (8.2%), Roman Catholic (7.1%), Methodist (6.8%), Dutch Reformed (Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk; 6.7%), and Anglican (3.8%). Members of remaining Christian churches accounted for another 36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population, Hindus 1.2%,[192] traditional African religion 0.3% and Judaism 0.2%. 15.1% had no religious affiliation, 0.6% were "other" and 1.4% were "unspecified."
Community leaders say Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final campaign to bring about social justice won't be forgotten.
One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's final campaigns was to support striking sanitation workers who wanted higher wages and union representation. Their plight was the reason the civil rights leader was in Memphis, Tennessee at the time of his assassination almost 42 years ago.
The strike lasted more than two months and ended soon after King's death. The civil rights leader's final days are being remembered during Black History Month , which is commemorated each February in the United States.
Back in 1968, the sanitation workers were angry about their meager salaries. They had no health insurance and were barred from being recognized as union workers. The strike divided the city along racial lines and came to symbolize the demands of African Americans for equality. Reverend Samuel "Billy" Kyles persuaded King to come to Memphis ( watch the video ). He says the civil rights leader linked the plight of the sanitation workers to the larger cause of eliminating poverty.
"He came to Memphis to help the garbage workers and that is something we will always remember because he had such a compassion for the poor," says Kyles.
King and other civil rights leaders had launched "The Poor People's Campaign" a few months before he arrived in Memphis.
"It is my hope that powerful poor people will really mean having the ability and the aggressiveness to make the power structure of this nation say yes when they may be desirous of saying no," said King.
The Poor People's Campaign" was the second phase of the civil rights movement. The goal was to build a nationwide coalition of poor people of all races and ethnic backgrounds and to push for jobs, equal wages and decent housing.
"We are tired of working full time jobs for part time income," King said at the time. "We are tired of living in run down dilapidated, rat-infested shacks and slums."
Kyles says King was planning another March on Washington to persuade the government to spend billions of dollars on poor people.
"I saw him stand on the front porch of a home in Quitman County, Mississippi and he saw little kids running around with their stomachs swollen," Kyles remembers. "You would have thought you were in a third world county. And he stood there and he wept. He said 'We can do better than this.'"
Reverend Frank McRae helped end the dispute between the city and the sanitation workers. He says King would be happy that his work achieved results. Nearly two weeks after King's death, the city agreed to wage increases and union representation. And the Memphis sanitation workers ended their strike.
"I think he would be pleased. That is the reason he came here," McRae says. "And those positive things were effected by primarily, if not exclusively, because of his death."
Community leaders say King's final campaign to bring about social justice will never be forgotten. Source: VOANews
The Netherlands, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Belgium is to the south, and Germany to the east. The Netherlands is often called Holland, as North and South Holland are actually two of its twelve provinces. The word Dutch is used to refer to the people, the language, and anything pertaining to the Netherlands. Dutch is the official language.
The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Monarch is Queen Beatrix (the Head of state), and the Prime Minister is Jan Peter Balkenende. The country's profile. A chronology of key events .
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. It's the first black republic. It's 95% black.
The President was René Préval . His term started 5/14/06 and ended 5/14/11. He's succeeded by Michel Martelly , he assumed office on 5/14/11. His term ended 2.14.16. President, Jovenel Moïse resumed office on 2.7.17. In the early morning of July 7, 2021, he was assassinated. The PM, Claude Joseph, is now acting as president.
The capital is Port-au-Prince. The country's profile.
January 17, 2010 CNN's Fareed Zakaria takes a look at how
Haiti's past plays into its present troubles.
"We begin today with Haiti. I want to go beyond the terrible images that you've seen in the last days, tragic as they are, and try to help us understand this tragedy and how it came to be this way.
Everybody surely knows by now that Haiti is the poorest country in the entire Western Hemisphere. But that's not the whole story. You see, Haiti has been marked by violence, turmoil and tragedy from the start -- until recently, when things turned up, only to be dashed by this earthquake. And that start informed the tragedies that have befallen this country ever since.
So, a quick history lesson, one that I think is fascinating on its own merits and is essential to understanding Haiti today.
The island that came to be known as Hispaniola was discovered by Europeans when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1492. Two hundred years later, in 1697, the French gained control of the western third of this island. African slaves, growing sugar and coffee and tobacco there, became a veritable gold mine for the French.
But then, in 1791, the slaves revolted. It's been called the Vietnam War of its time, a ragtag band of insurgents defeating one of the greatest militaries of the age. None other than Napoleon Bonaparte sent tens of thousands of his French troops. They all tried to beat back the rebellion, and they all failed.
On New Year's Day, 1804, the last defeated French ship left the island, and the slaves declared victory. And Haiti, the nation that emerged, is the only nation in the entire world that was founded by slaves.
But the elation from emancipation didn't last long. The nation was very poor, made poorer by the French who demanded a large indemnity for losing the war. The plantation system, along with much of the rest of the country, had been ravaged by the war. And the vast majority of the population didn't know how to do anything but farm for a master.
Furthermore, the world was wary of this nation of half-a-million newly freed blacks. The United States, for example, didn't recognize Haiti for the first 58 years of its existence until 1862, a year after the U.S. Civil War began. And that was the official beginning of what continues to this day to be a difficult relationship.
In 1915, the U.S. sent in a landing force to occupy the island nation. The Haitian president had just been assassinated. The country was in a state of chaos. And some say that America simply wanted to protect its investments there.
Whatever the reasons for coming, the Americans stayed for almost 20 years. And it was an often brutal occupation. The Americans under Franklin Delano Roosevelt withdrew, but essentially of their own volition, in 1934. Haiti remained a troubled and deeply chaotic place.
Sixty years later, the Yanks were back. In 1994, under the Clinton administration, the American military went in again. This time they came to restore democracy. And two years later, Haiti saw for the first time in its then-almost 200-year history, a peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected president to another.
But then, the earthquake. And late Wednesday afternoon, of course, America returned again -- this time, not just with military might, but with aid workers, search and rescue teams, doctors, nurses and much more.
The response from the rest of the world has been strong. But the response from America has been extraordinary. It's a wonderful example of the power of America to do good, and do it fast..."
Haiti is a nation built on a pact with the devil. Haitian voodoo priest, Jamaica born Dutty Boukman, sacrificied a pig and drank its blood in 1791 in order to secure satan's aid in expelling the French occupation. In return, the priests promised Haiti to satan for the next 200 years. The French were soon beat back, and in 1804, Haiti became an independent nation.
The Vodoo ceremony in August 1791 was performed at Bois Caïman.
3.10.10 President Obama and Haitian President René Préval speak to the press after meeting at the White House and reaffirm their mutual commitment to rebuilding Haiti after Januarys devastating earthquake.
The current president, Jovenel Moïse resumed office on 2.7.17. In the early morning of July 7, 2021, he was assassinated. The PM, Claude Joseph, is now acting as president.
Haiti is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic.
The Capital and largest city Port-au-Prince. The official language are French and Haitian Creole.
Ethnic groups are 95% black, and 5% mixed and white.
The 2017 CIA Factbook reported that around 54.7% of Haitians profess to being Catholics, while Protestants made up about 28.5% of the population (Baptist 15.4%, Pentecostal 7.9%, Seventh-day Adventist 3%, Methodist 1.5%, other 0.7%).
