MET Column | My Eyes Tokyo

Happy Birthday to Malawi!

2018-07-06

Children in Malawi. *Photo from Wikipedia July 6 is Independence Day/Republic Day, celebrates the independence of Malawi from United Kingdom in 1964. The region was once part of the Maravi Empire. The area of Africa now known as Malawi was settled by migrating Bantu groups around the 10th century. Centuries later in 1891 the area was colonized by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, a protectorate of the United Kingdom, became a protectorate within the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved in 1963. In 1964, the protectorate over Nyasaland was ended and Nyasaland

Happy Birthday to Algeria!

2018-07-05

Algerian school children. *Photo from Wikipedia July 5 is Independence Day, celebrating the independence of Algeria from France in 1962. North Africa served as a transit region for people moving towards Europe or the Middle East, thus, the region’s inhabitants have been influenced by populations from other areas, including the Carthaginians, Romans, and Vandals. The region was conquered by the Muslims in the early 8th century, but broke off from the Umayyad Caliphate after the Berber Revolt of 740. Later, various Berbers, Arabs, Persian Muslim states, Sunni, Shia or Ibadi communities were established that ruled parts of modern-day of Algeria.

Happy Birthday to Venezuela!

2018-07-05

Venezuela national football team, popularly known as the “Vinotinto”. *Photo from Wikipedia July 5 is Independence Day, celebrating the independence of Venezuela from Spain in 1811 (Also National Armed Forces Day). The history of Venezuela reflects events in areas of the Americas colonized by Spain starting 1522; amid resistance from indigenous peoples, led by Native caciques (*cacique: a leader of an indigenous group), such as Guaicaipuro and Tamanaco. However, in the Andean region of western Venezuela, complex Andean civilization of the Timoto-Cuica people flourished before European contact. In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American colonies to declare independence,

Happy Birthday to Cape Verde!

2018-07-05

A kindergarten graduation in Santiago Island, Cape Verde. *Photo from Wikipedia July 5 is Independence Day, celebrating the independence of Cape Verde from Portugal in 1975. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. Ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The end of slavery in the 19th century led to economic decline and emigration. Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for

Happy Birthday to the United States of America!

2018-07-04

*Photo from Wikipedia July 4 is Independence Day, celebrates the Declaration of Independence of the United States from Great Britain in 1776. Independence Day is the National Day of the United States and commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major

Happy Birthday to Belarus!

2018-07-03

Minsk, the capital and largest city of Belarus. *Photo from Wikipedia July 3 is Belarus’ Independence Day, celebrates the liberation of Minsk from Nazi occupation by Soviet troops in 1944. The decision to celebrate Independence Day on July 3, the day of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis, was made during the 1996 national referendum proposed by President Alexander Lukashenko. After an initial period of independent feudal consolidation, Belarusian lands were incorporated into the Kingdom of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution,

Happy Birthday to Rwanda and Burundi!

2018-07-01

Children in a Rwandan primary school. *Photo from Wikipedia July 1 is Independence Day of Rwanda and Burundi, celebrates the independence from Belgium in 1962. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule. Belgium ruled both Rwanda and Burundi as a League of Nations ‘mandate’ called Ruanda-Urundi. The territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922 and later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate (former German territories in West and Central Africa which were deemed to require a greater level of control by the

Happy Canada Day!

2018-07-01

*Photo from Wikipedia July 1 is Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day. It is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the Constitution Act, 1867 (then called the British North America Act, 1867), which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries, British and French claims were made on the area, with the colony of Canada first being established by the French in 1537. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost territories

Celebrate Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day!

2018-07-01

Mong Kok (旺角), one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. *Photo from Wikipedia July 1 is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, or Establishment Day, which is celebrated annually since 1997. The holiday commemorates the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong’s territory was acquired by United Kingdom from China through three separate treaties: the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the Treaty of Beijing in 1860, and The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong

Happy Birthday to DR Congo!

2018-06-30

Youth and adults in Kinshasa, the capital and the largest city of DR Congo. *Photo from Wikipedia June 30 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Democratic Republic of the Congo from Belgium in 1960. The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago. Bantu migration arrived in the region from Nigeria in the 7th century AD. The Kingdom of Kongo remained present in the region between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely

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