Hey geograpeeps!
We haven't done this in a while, but welcome back to Geography More, where we
cover some extra little tidbits and factoids that didn't quite make it into the previous episodes.
So today's episode is gonna be on Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Barbados.
Ooh, a lot of good stuff. Let's jump into it right now.
[Bahrain]
So as you guys know, I personally went to Bahrain last year
for the Geography Go episode, so I kinda feel like, based off of personal experience,
I'm a little bit more wiser than I was when I made the Bahrain video.
One thing that I kinda noticed is that these oil fields just kinda like saturate the landscape of the country with these pipes that are
elevated above the ground, and they just kinda go from the refineries to the transport centers.
It's almost as if the whole country has an oil circulatory system.
Unlike many of th countries in the Middle East of gulf area,
Bahrain doesn't really have any sand dunes, it's mostly just rocky and flat.
There are a few hills, but it's mostly rocky.
The other thing about Bahrain is that although it is classified as a "Muslim state",
the laws are incredibly loose and it is pretty generally very tolerant of other religions.
You can find Christian churches and even Hindu temples all over the country.
When I was in the grocery store, I even remember there was a sign that said "Happy (?)"
In fact, this woman right here Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, probab;y totally butchered her name -
she is the Bahraini ambassador to the US and she is not only that but the first Jewish woman to represent any Arab/Middle Eastern Country in the world.
Yes, the country does still technically have a law based off of Islamic code and policy,
but, for what it's worth, they are pretty generally open.
I also noticed, a lot of people in Bahrain weren't even that religious, as in Islam was more of like cultural trait that they adhere to
rather than an actual world view or belief.
Even in grocery stores, they have a non-Muslim pork section.
Also forgot to mention that because of the high expat ratio, there are actually about twice as many men as there are women in the country.
Seriously, walking down the streets, you'll probably find more men than women.
And this actually applies to a lot of gulf countries, not just Bahrain.
Now, I know in the video I mentioned that they get most of their water from the Demmam Aquifer and they kinda desalinate the water from the sea,
but it's interesting because in the north part of the island, they actually have fresh water springs that come up from the sea.
It's a little strange, but that's a col little phenomena that happens on the north side of Bahrain.
So in the last Geography GO episode, you guys remember that I went to Bahrain fort, otherwise known as (?).
It looked amazing. It was a beautiful archeological site of Bahraini history.
However, Bahrain actually has quite a few forts.
Such as:
the Arad fort built at the end of the 15th century
the (?) fort
and the (?) fort.
For such a small country thery have a lot of history behind it.
Now here's the thing: in the Middle East and in the Gulf countries, most men kinda generally dress the same way.
They have the thobe. However, I was "told" that there are some subtle discrepancies between the way some people in some of the contries dress
veruss others/
So this a thobe that was given to me from my subscriber in Saudi Arabia.
Thank you so much Soltan and Ahmed! I forgot to put this on.
This is called a khafia.
This is called an agal.
It's used to hold the khafia in place.
I'm not good at this, I'm terrible at this.
Okay, something like this.
So what I was told is that the Saudi way of doing it is that the collar is always buttoned and tight.
Whereas the Bahraini style, they just kinda let it all loose.
And flip the collar out.
Yeah, that's like Bahraini style.
Saudi.
Baharaini.
Saudi.
Bahraini.
Probably totally wrong, but this is what I was told, so hey.
Man, I wanna dance in this thing.
Finally, though, I would say the coolest thing about Bharain that I personallly thought
was the fact that it's one of the only few places in the world where you can see Arabs and Persians getting along just fine
and they're totally cool with each other.
Remember in the Geography Go video? Laith's friends Muhammad and Ali?
Ali was Persian, Muhammad was Arab.
They go to same schools, they eat the same food, they live the same lifestyles.
They're really cool with each other.
I mean, in every other political context,
you would not see that pretty much anywhere else in the world.
I mean, in Bahrain, they kinda joke about it here and there, but they don't really take it too seriously.
And they're all friends.
They're all friends. That's, I think, probably one of the most special things about Bahrain that I noticed.
So, let's move on.
[Bangladesh]
Bangladesh!
Okay, so the first about Bangladesh that I didn't really quite expound upon but I wished I could have but
I didn't, was the fact that you have be careful when you call somebody "Bengali."
Because there are people who are Bengali that don't identify with coming from Bangladesh.
Pretty much the entire northeast region surrounding Bangaldesh and India identifies as a "Bengali" area.
So it's better to refer to someone from Bangladesh as a "Bangladeshi",
even though culturally, they might identify as a Bengali as well.
Just - make distinctions, okay?
Now the bad thing is, population versus tourist ratio wise, Bangladesh actually
is the world's least visited country.
This is kinda strange, because Bangladesh actually has a lot of cool tourist spots.
Such as:
The Kantaji Temple,
tons of Buddhist and Hindu temples,
cloth-sying factories.
A famous filmmaker even built a replica of the Taj Majal, because a lot of people in Bangladesh
don't have the money to actually go to India and check it out for themselves.
So he was like, "Hey, I'm gonna build one for you guys."
The other thing about Bangladesh is that it kinda has like
6 seasons and not 4.
Summer, rainy, autumn, cool, winter, and spring.
Dhaka, the capital city, is one of the most condensed and heavily populated urban centers in the world.
With about 45,000 people per square kilometer.
Now, a cool thing that I didn't mention that I thought I could have, but I forgot to
was the fact that the national game is called Kabadi.
Kabadi is weird. It's kinda of like a mixture between tag, chasing, and wrestling,
but the whole time you have to hold your breath.
It's actually really big out here and they have leagues that go across multiple nations.
One of the reasons why the country doesn't have a lot of tourists is because it does kinda make
a lot of national headlines in regards to like -
natural catastrophes or political strife.
Plus they don't exactly score very high when it comes to the human wellbeing index.
Child labor is quite rampant throughout the entire country, as about 90% of kids, some as young as 5 years old, start working.
The country is known for its high rates of human trafficking.
Also, I forgot to mention that around 250 million, Bengali is actually like the 7th most commonly spoken language in the world.
I mean if you want to learn it, great.
I'm just, saying you will probably only get to use it in Bangaldesh or East India.
And with that, we're gonna take a little break because I wanna mention right now
that just like last time, one of my favorite sources of information, Audible,
is sponsoring Geography Now.
I love Audible because as a kid, I hated reading
I mean, unless there was a shiny, colorful picture jammed in front of my face,
I wouldn't even pay attention.
So audiobooks actually really helped.
I totally recommend "Understanding Cultural and Human Geography" by Professor Paul Robbins.
It's all little complex, it's a little in depth, but if you think you can handle it, great, and
if you use the code audible.com/geography you can get a free 30 day trial
so basically free stuff.
Yeah, you like free, right?
Free! So do it cause it's free!
(For 30 Days) But still, free!
Thank you Audible! Love you guys.
Moving on.
[Barbados]
Now, I feel like I did a little bit of injustice to the Barbados episode,
because I didn't quite exactly explain why the
island is positioned how it is in the Caribbean.
Barbados is weird because it's built differently than all the other Caribbean islands.
If you look at a map, you'll notice all the other Antilles lie along a single fault line,
but Barbados lies awkwardly to the east.
This is because Barbados is on what you call a accentionary wedge.
This is caused when a tectonic trench just kinda scrapes up whatever the subducting plate leaves behind,
creating a weird, bulging sediment land mass.
In return, this makes Barbados a unique coral island in which
coral makes up the majority of the land sediments.
In addition to limestone deposits, this is also why there are so many caves and gulleys that can be found all over
and almost all the beaches have white sand.
Barbados is also considered of the most developed of the Caribbean nations,
one of the most developed, which is why it's sometimes called the "Singapore of the Caribbean."
Grapefruits were actually invented in Barbados,
as they were a cross between oranges and pomelos.
Bridgetown has an interesting story behind its name.
It was called [that] because the islands was deserted, but there was a bridge left over from the former inhabitants.
So the British colonists were like, "Okay, let's just call this Bridgetown."
Barbados is also the only country that the first US president, George Washington, visited outside of the US.
Barbados also has one of the oldest legislatures in the world
as the first assembly met in 1639.
You will probably find alot of pork dishes on Barbados due to
the fact that the island has historically been known for a pig haven.
When the first colonists came, they noticed that the island was deserted [by] its former inhabitants,
but there were a ton of pigs left over in the jungles.
And the last thing is that for pretty much all of its modern history, Barbados has been under the British crown.
However, in November of 2016, they plan to finally become a republic on their 50th anniversary
and drop the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth,
and become a republic with a president.
Oooh! Someone's going renegade!
Oh, and Rhianna, I'm still waiting on you.
Alright, so that's been it. Thank you for watching this episode of Geography More.
Hope you guys are doing well. Stay tuned.