South Africa is a large country in Southern Africa (well, duh), unfortunately perhaps best known for its apartheid policy. About 80% of the people are of black origin, showing that yes, you can discriminate against the majority. It is also infamous for some other things, like the mind-blowingly high number of rapes and the horribly [...]

Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa, unfortunately mostly known for negative things like the past dictator Idi Amin, recent not-so-fair elections, and the current ban on homosexuality, with even plans to introduce death penalty for it. Even now gays are shunned in the media and often killed. Despite these atrocities, Uganda has been [...]

Curaçao is an island country in the Caribbean. It was a part of the Netherlands Antilles until October 2010, when they were dissolved. However, it remains a constituent country of the Netherlands. Originally inhabited by Arawak Indians, the culture of the country has been influenced by both Dutch and Spanish ones. There is also a [...]

Sri Lanka is a small country off the coast of India, formerly known as Ceylon. It has a rich culture and history and there are archeological findings dating back 100,000 years or even further. It has been a very important port and in the past it has been occupied by the Netherlands, Portugal and Great [...]

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Caribbean, in the Lesser Antilles. It is an overseas region of France and thus a part of the EU, using the euro as its official currency. It was named by Cristopher Columbus after the Spanish town of Guadalupe. The islands were devastated by numerous hurricanes in the 20th [...]

Tanzania is a fairly large country in East Africa, which is thought to be the earliest areas inhabited by humans and prehuman hominids, as far as two million years ago. Like many African countries, it gained independence (from the UK) in the early 1960s, as two separate countries, Zanzibar and Tanganyika, which merged soon afterwards, [...]

Burma is a large but nowadays also very isolated country in the Southwest Asia and controversy starts already in its name. In the 1989 coup its official name was changed to Myanmar, a name used in some Western media, but people feel that using this name supports the military junta. Also, the name has been [...]

Zambia is a fairly large landlocked country in Southern central Africa. Besides 12 million people it hosts some stunning landscapes, particularly the Victoria falls (named by David Livingstone), often counted in the “seven natural wonders of the world”. Zambia used to be a part of United Kingdom until it gained independence in 1964. While English [...]

Oh boy. Life has been busy. Interesting but busy. My first novel will be out soon, so a lot of work with proofs, promotion, etc. And I signed a contract for a food-related book (partially also a vegan cookbook!) which will be out next year. Quite excited about both! Unfortunately for most of you, they [...]

The Maldives is a strictly Islamic island nation consisting of 26 atolls located in the Indian Ocean near India and Sri Lanka. It is the smallest Asian country both by population (about 400,000) and by land area and the lowest country on the planet. Sadly, the latter also means it is very vulnerable to some [...]