Djibouti is Ethiopia's only outlet to the sea and a French and American military base. My nephew was a Navy Seabee there for nearly a year. He thought being reassigned to Uganda was a trip to heaven.
The climate is brutally hot and humid and unemployment is about 50%. Public health is poor and water and rainfall are scarce. The highway to Ethiopia is one of the roughest in the world, in every sense of the word. The road is in terrible condition but trafficked by large numbers of huge trucks. The drivers are ruffians by necessity, armed and willing to kill to fight off bandits.
Education is nearly non existent and the country depends on assistance to feed its 1,000,000 people. The former railway to Addis was so poorly maintained that they simply shut it down rather than repair it. They have a single power plant for the entire country, which was built and is subsidized by the Americans and French. In a place of constant heat and sunlight it burns oil to generate electricity.
USA Africa Command has poured a lot of resources into Djibouti. $4 billion by some estimates.
A former French dependency, one of the main outposts of the Foreign Legion even today.
Its main point of pride? At least it isn't Somalia.
I'm not exactly clear on what the French got out of holding onto French Somaliland. They took it long after losing India to the British, and what else did they have in the Indian Ocean? Madagascar and a scattering of islands, I suppose, and inland trade with Abyssinia.
A better question is why a band of Russians fruitlessly tried to take it from the French, I can't imagine a place on the globe more foreign to patrimonial 19th century Russians than Djibouti.
Some more bootheel Indian Ocean sultans, with modest little French Somaliland boasting three of 'em, although I understand there was originally a true kingdom-sized sultanate in the region of which the French-purchased sultanates were the scattered remnants thereof.
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१७ टिप्पण्या:
When the barbershop quartet in The Music Man gets tired of shipoopi they switch to djibuti and no one knows the difference.
You said Djibouti.
heh heh
heh heh heh
Djibouti comes on 4th down.
One of the lesser known fronts in the War on Terror.
From a country with ample snow yesterday (Denmark), to a country that has never had snow.
Peter
And here I thought it was a contraction of John Bigboote.
Djibouti was always an excellent liberty port during my time in the Navy.
Not as funny as "Turkey".
Mentioned in a 25th century BCE text. Now that is damned old!
That's about as old as historical mentions get.
No, 25th century BC.
There is no Common Era.
There is, however a Christian Era, but the PC crowd will never admit to it.
There is, however a Christian Era, but the PC crowd will never admit to it.
I wonder how the PC crowd will react to setting the clock back to 1434 AH. They never do say, do they?
Djibouti is Ethiopia's only outlet to the sea and a French and American military base. My nephew was a Navy Seabee there for nearly a year. He thought being reassigned to Uganda was a trip to heaven.
The climate is brutally hot and humid and unemployment is about 50%. Public health is poor and water and rainfall are scarce. The highway to Ethiopia is one of the roughest in the world, in every sense of the word. The road is in terrible condition but trafficked by large numbers of huge trucks. The drivers are ruffians by necessity, armed and willing to kill to fight off bandits.
Education is nearly non existent and the country depends on assistance to feed its 1,000,000 people. The former railway to Addis was so poorly maintained that they simply shut it down rather than repair it. They have a single power plant for the entire country, which was built and is subsidized by the Americans and French. In a place of constant heat and sunlight it burns oil to generate electricity.
USA Africa Command has poured a lot of resources into Djibouti. $4 billion by some estimates.
A former French dependency, one of the main outposts of the Foreign Legion even today.
Its main point of pride? At least it isn't Somalia.
I'm not exactly clear on what the French got out of holding onto French Somaliland. They took it long after losing India to the British, and what else did they have in the Indian Ocean? Madagascar and a scattering of islands, I suppose, and inland trade with Abyssinia.
A better question is why a band of Russians fruitlessly tried to take it from the French, I can't imagine a place on the globe more foreign to patrimonial 19th century Russians than Djibouti.
Some more bootheel Indian Ocean sultans, with modest little French Somaliland boasting three of 'em, although I understand there was originally a true kingdom-sized sultanate in the region of which the French-purchased sultanates were the scattered remnants thereof.
The capitol of Djibouti is Djibouti
@ Rob
"And here I thought it was a contraction of John Bigboote."
Big Bootay! Big Bootay!
@ Curious George
"The capitol of Djibouti is Djibouti"
So if I were named Sheik Djibouti, lived in the capital of the country of Djibouti then I would be
Sheik Djibouti, Djibouti, Djibouti?
Is there an echo in here?
Breaking news: The nation of Djibouti will be changing their name to Djiass.
Make fun of Djibouti if you will.
You will hear a lot about it when the face off with Iran becomes a shooting war.
Among other things it's a major drone base. It's also 20 miles from Yemen across the water. That's why Yemen is such a convenient drone target.
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