10 Facts You Never Knew About Somalia

Officially known as the Federal Republic of Somalia, Somalia is a sovereign state located in the horn of Africa. Somalia has a hot year-round climate, with irregular rainfall and periodic monsoon winds. The country's estimated population stands at 14.3 million (2016 estimate). Its official languages are Somali and Arabic. Italian is also spoken in Somalia. Islam is the main religion in Somalia and the currency used is the Somali shilling (SOS). Somalia's form of government is a Federal parliamentary republic. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed is Somalia's President, while Hassan Ali Khayre is Somalia's prime minister. Read the most striking facts about Somalia below.

1. Somalia had no central government for a 15-year period - in the 1990s and 2000s. During this period, it was ripped apart by clan militias, pirate gangs and extremist militant groups (like Al-Shabaab).

2. The biggest masjid/mosque in the Horn of Africa, The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity, is located in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. It can accommodate up to 10,000 worshipers.

3. Somalia has the cheapest mobile call rates in Africa; some companies charge less than a cent per minute.

4. Somalia is one of the least developed countries in Africa, with a significant lack of basic infrastructure. Only around half of Somalia's population has access to fresh drinking water. This number is much lower in rural areas.

5. About 73% of Somalis live on less than $2 a day, with about 24% living on less than $1 a day.

6. Somalia has extremely high malnutrition rates, with one in eight children under five being acutely malnourished.

7. Somalia has the largest population of camels in the world. Of the world's 14 million camels, Somalia has more than seven million, which is the highest number in the world.

8. Somalia has the longest coastline (3,300 kilometers/1,879 miles) on Africa's mainland.

9. Somalia is the first African nation that was used for flying warplanes by the British.

10. Somalia has the seventh lowest literacy rate in the world, with a literacy rate of just 37.8%.

Comments

Princess Qajar - The Revolutionary Persian Princess

Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from 1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by the princess. Princess Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The princess argued f

The Lehman Brothers Scandal (2008)

Company Background : Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a firm specialized in the provision of global financial services. It was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States of America. The company had headquarters in New York City, New York, in the U.S. It ceased operations in 2008. The founders were: Henry Lehman, Emmanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman. What Happened? Lehman Brothers hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales. They allegedly sold toxic assets [1] to Cayman Island Banks with the understanding that they would eventually be rebought. How they were caught : Their bankruptcy led to the discovery of the fraud. They filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which is the largest bankruptcy ever recorded. Their case was larger than that of Enron, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and GM combined. On September 15, 2008, Lehman brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Montgomery, n.d.) . Their bankruptcy filing came in as a blow to the financial industry as i

The finger-cutting tradition of Indonesia's Dani tribe

The death of a loved one is always an extremely painful thing to bear, and people of different cultures grieve in diverse ways, some more unique than others. A typically unique way of grieving is that of the Dani (an Indonesian tribe). Finger-cutting is a fundamental part of grieving for women of the Dani tribe, and pertains to their women only. According to The Globe and Mail, an estimated 250,000 Dani tribe members live in a town named Wamena, in the extremely remote central highland area of Papua Province. Wamena is only accessible by plane. Upon the death of a loved one, the top joint of one of a woman's fingers would be amputated, and smear ashes and clay across their faces. Prior to amputation, a string would be firmly tied to the upper half of the woman's finger for 30 minutes, to cause numbness. This was to reduce the pain from amputating the tip. In most cases, the responsibility of cutting off the top joint of the finger is assigned to one of the woman's

Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Search This Blog