The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Sparkles
July 22, 2015- TCS # 458
Bonjour, My Readers! I would have to say that “Bonjour” is One of My Favorite International Greetings! Bonjour, Hello in French, It just seems to flow when You say it. Anyway, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, As You know, I Love Geography, Road Signs, and Travel, but You Know, what also fascinates me? Stats. As in Statistics. No, I don’t mean Statistics about Sports like Baseball or Football, believe me, When I handed them out when I worked at The Frisco Roughriders half of The people did not read The Baseball Statistics that We had to put in Programs we passed out. I am interested in International Stats as well as Stats about My Own Country. You See, Other than My Own Research and Curiosities about Different Parts of The World, I check This Site on Tumblr every day called “Maps on The Web” (www.mapsontheweb.tumblr.com) I was curious about Stereotype Maps and Somehow, I found Maps on The Web. It shows me Maps of All Kinds, Stereotype Maps; Income Maps of The World and/or The US; A Map of Europe showing The Nation’s official name in their Native Language, like Did You know that The UK (also called “United Kingdom” or “Great Britain”, depending on where You are from) is actually called “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”? Hmm, That would explain the Various Names of Calling It. Sort of like, The Netherlands which has an AD (Authoritative Division) that is North Holland and South Holland. So, The Netherlands is called both “Holland” (referring to State of North Holland and Country, or both). Yeah, Europe is VERY Complicated in It’s Names and How Things work. It probably sounds like The Most Amazing Part of The World, Sorry but, that is My Own Bias. One Map showed how the International Dateline goes through The South Pacific with all of it’s Island including Fuji, Guam, American Samoa, and French Polynesia, among Many Others. I saw One recently that showed The Average Age in which Men and Women get Married in Several States, in Texas It is 26.9 for Women and Men is 28. Other States, it is Older or Younger. One Stat about a Country really fascinates me. You See, My Mom’s Friend has been going to Costa Rica for Business Trips and Costa Rica, although I know that it exists in The World, It has not been on My Radar of Places that I am Interested in. After She got back, I started researching on My Own about Costa Rica and This is where it gets fascinating. So, knowing that Costa Rica is Pretty Small Country compared to say, France, Sweden, or Norway, is The Most Stable, Most Green, Most Progressive Country in ALL of Central America. Now, Central America is not a Very Big Area, You have Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras (which is The Murder Capitol of The World, By The Way), Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and finally Panama (as in, The Home of The “Panama Canal”). I wonder though, How is that possible that Costa Rica is The Most Stable of Those Countries? Many Reasons I am sure, but One is the Love of The Word, “Pura Vida” (pronounced Pure-uh, Vee-dah). It is Costa Rican Spanish for “Pure Life”. They use it so much it has Many Meanings, among them; Hi, How are You, Great! or Okay, and Thank You. I guess, The Tone of Your Voice matters a lot! One List of Stats that Fascinate me The Most is The Happiest Countries List and Peaceful Countries List. It always makes me wonder, With Respect to Said Countries, Why is it Countries in The North like Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, or Switzerland are The Happiest and Peaceful Nations in The World? The United States in always in the Teens or 20’s on that List. Likely because of Their Way of Life, in Sweden for example, You can Camp anywhere in The Woods you want to, as long as You respect Private Property and People’s Privacy. Also, In Europe, They Live to Work and They have at least a Month of Paid Vacation Days. In The US, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Guys! I Love My Country, The United States; But, Here we Work to Live and Vacation Days are as Low as Two Weeks if not Less. That would Explain Our Happiness Rating Here! In Happy Countries, They trust Their Government, which many of them are Monarchies, We on The other Hand, Don’t. So, My Last Question for Those that are Curious, Who does all these Stats? Tons of Researchers and Interviewers from Organizations like Forbes, CNN Money, Pew Research Center, and Of Course, The CIA World Fact Book. The CIA World Fact Book is the one who likely knows all of The Stats and Keeps Track of Them. All in all, I could go on and on about All The Stats and Facts I learn but, That would be VERY Long! We live in a Fascinating World filled with Facts, both Good (like World Peace and Happiness) and Bad (Who did What War), You just have to Open Your Mind and Learn about it, without too much American Bias. By The Way, Why do We call Ourselves “America” or “American”? Because We are called “The United States of America” which is part of “The Americas”.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Rock On with Your Stats!
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