With almost 180 million inhabitans Pakistan is one of the most populous countries of the world. Considering that fairly little is known about it in the west, save for its nuclear weapons and it being a neighbour of India. Disputes over some areas have led to wars between India and Pakistan. There have been several [...]

Djibouti is a tiny country in the Horn of Africa, mostly consisting of stony semidesert, with a population of less than a million. It used to belong to France and still maintains close relations to France. French is the official language and the currency is known as the Djibouti Franc. It is, however, also an [...]

Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central Europe, though traditionally culturally associated with East Europe. Until 1993 it formed the country Czechoslovakia together with what is now the Czech republic. Earlier it used to be a part of Austria-Hungary. The economy is very quickly growing, in 2006 the growth in GDP was the highest in [...]

Grenada is a tiny island country in the Caribbean sea and a part of the Commonwealth, consisting of the main island Grenada and six smaller islands in the Grenadines, all of them of volcanic origin. Together they only have 110,000 inhabitants. Despite being one of the smallest countries in the world, it has earned the [...]

Costa Rica is a small country in Central America. A 2009 study proclaimed it as both the happiest and greenest country in the world. In general it ranks pretty high in various human development indices. It is a former Spanish colony, but acquired its independence already in the 1800s. After a bloody civil war, in [...]

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 [...]

First I have to mention that I recently got Bryanna Clark Grogan’s World Vegan Feast. What a lovely cookbook! I’ll probably use it to make something for Vegventures. I still don’t understand why she put yeast in a “Finnish” pancake as no Finn ever does that, but I’ll forgive her. She’s a great cookbook author [...]

Korea is located in the Korean peninsula in East Asia, near Japan. The area has a rich culture and history dating back thousands of years. Traditionally Confucianism was the main religion and taekwondo the most popular sport. After the second world war the country was divided into two politically and socially very different states, South [...]