Back in the end of November I participated in my first photo shoot. 
As part of a global marketing campaign, professional photographer Mike Webb travelled to shoot IBMers all over the world. 
The photo shoot was surprisingly fun. 
So here's the deal. On 12-13 January, Czechs went to the polls to elect a president. In order to run for president a candidate needs either 50,000 signatures from the public, 10 signatures from senators or 20 MP signatures from the Chamber of Deputies, plus file applications at least 66 days prior to the election. Of the nine qualified candidates, none won enough votes so the top two finishers face each other in a run off election this week. |
| Stop Immigration and Drahoš supporters. This country is ours. Vote Zeman! |
The country fell into the Soviet sphere of influence and became a satellite state. From 1946 to 1948, Czechoslovakia had a coalition government until 1948 when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) seized power in a coup and eventually established the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR).
In 1968, Alexander Dubček became First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. He began a liberalisation period known as the Prague Spring. It was referred to as "socialism with a human face". This didn't go over well with Moscow and in August 1968, the Warsaw Pact (except for Romania, Albania, and East Germany) invaded the country and put a stop to the liberal reforms.
During the 1970s the country saw a rise of dissidents including playwright Václav Havel. Dissidents were under the watchful eyes of the StB and faced political and economic persecution. 
As communist governments began falling in 1989, the Velvet Revolution began on 17 November and lasted until 29 December. The demonstrations brought about a peaceful end to the 41 years of one-party communist rule.
Following the Velvet Revolution the country became the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (ČSFR) which lasted until 31 December 1992. The Velvet Divorce split the country and on 1 January 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic were established.
In Czech Republic there are almost 517,000 foreigners which is about 4,7% of the population. |
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South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa. The country is huge! It stretches from the South Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and it's almost twice as big as Texas. It borders Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, and it completely surrounds Lesotho.
The Republic of South Africa is home to almost 56 million people. There are three capital cities. Pretoria is the administrative capital and where countries keep their embassies. Bloemfontein is the judicial capital and Cape Town is the legislative capital. Johannesburg is the country's largest city.
South Africa has some of the world's oldest archaeological and human fossil sites. The first Europeans arrived in 1652 and there were many power struggles between the Boers (Dutch descendants), British and local tribes. In 1910, the Union of South Africa was established. In 1961, the country left the British Commonwealth and became a republic.
In 1948, the National Party came to power and instituted its apartheid policy that increased the racial segregation that began under Dutch and British colonial rule. All people were classified into one of three races which allowed the white minority to enjoy the highest standard of living in Africa while the black majority was completely disadvantaged. 
South Africa is a multiethnic society with about 80% of the population having Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The country has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. The four most spoken first languages are Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English.
South Africa has the second-largest economy in Africa and the 34th largest in the world. Along with Brazil, Russia, India, and China, it is the fifth of the "BRICS" which is the association of five major emerging economies. However, there is still a high rate of poverty. The Rand is the national currency.
It is a country of firsts. It is the first country in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Constitution. In November 2006, it became the first country in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage. 
South Africa is way far away. As the southernmost country in Africa it is actually closer to Antarctica than it is to Czechland. It's about an 11 hour flight from London. I'm going in July for a week. I know it's a short amount of time for such a long trip but I'll just have to cram in as much as I can. I'm flying in to Johannesburg and out of Cape Town. At least I am right now. Cape Town has a major water problem right now so who knows what the situation will be in July. 
Under EU law, E numbers, or what I call "the e's", are the codes used to identify the food additives in Europe. 
E100 - 199 = Colours
The European Food Safety Authority sets the rules on food additives, definitions, conditions of use, labelling and procedures in Regulation EC 133 / 2008.
Effective today new EU regulations go in to effect and I'm very happy about it. 
Definite Middle East countries include: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. 
Islam is the largest religion in the area. Almost every country, except Cyprus and Israel, have Muslim majorities. Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain are mostly Shia while most of the other countries are predominately Sunni. Islam plays a huge role here as the legal systems in most of these countries are influenced by Islamic law.
Egypt is considered the cradle of civilisation and was one of the world's first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. 
Egypt is home to over 97 million people making it the most populous Arab country and the third largest in Africa. Most of the country is desert so around 95% of the population lives in about 5% of the country, within 20 km (12 miles) of the Nile River.
The Egyptian Pound is the official currency. Egypt is a regional power and is Africa's second largest economy. It is one of only two Arab countries, along with Jordan, to have signed peace treaties with Israel.
Islam is the state religion and it is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. 
The country is a constitutional monarchy where the king has wide executive and legislative powers from the government and parliament. 
Arabic is the official language and about 95% of the country practices Sunni Islam. The Jordanian dinar is the official currency.
Jordan is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) where the EU tries to increase links with its neighbours. Jordan has "advanced status" allowing for more exports to the European Union. 
The State of Palestine, دولة فلسطين, is the de jure sovereign state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All of the Palestinian territory combined is a bit smaller than Delaware and it is all located in Israel. The West Bank borders Jordan and the Gaza Strip borders Egypt.
Palestine is home to over 4,5 million people. It's administrative centre is in Ramallah but its capital is East Jerusalem which was annexed by Israel in 1980. East Jerusalem has 456,000 people of which about 60% are Palestinian and 40% are Israeli.
Arabic is the official language. As it doesn't have a currency of its own, people rely on the Israeli shekel, Jordanian dinar and Egyptian pound.
I'm planning on another trip to Israel in February. Hopefully, there won't be any rocket attacks coming out of the Gaza Strip like last time. On one of the days I hope to enter the West Bank and visit Bethlehem.
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