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Your video, Sand Art From Senegal, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Yep, the name comes from Dakar, Senegal (In Africa), when the race, the Dakar Rally, was originally ran from Paris to Dakar. It's now held in South America, yet retains the legacy name.

These are specially built off road vehicles, Kamaz is the manufacturer in this example. Like many races, there are different classes of trucks that compete in the Rally, alongside dirt bikes, quads and cars.

It's basically Mad Max and I encourage folks to check out highlights of it, or the similar Baja 1000 race.

Interestingly, the truck class includes support trucks that don't actually compete, but assist competitors stranded in the middle of nowhere.

This Red Bull sponsored Monster (energy drinks!) has right around 1000hp and a 265 gallon fuel tank if I recall correctly. Road trip!

Misleading title, otherwise it would be a good post. The slave trade of the 1700's would never have grown into what if became if there were not buyers.

@newtboy, you are correct. Slavery indeed long predates the trade of Africans across oceans. Though, it probably didn't start in Mesopotamia because it was probably happening a little bit everywhere there were tribes that were aggressive with each other.

When slavery is thought of in a modern sense, we tend to think of the slave trade during the early stages of the industrial revolution.

And indeed, members of different tribes were more or less kidnapped and brought to the coast by coastal tribes, where they were sold to ships, which usually originated in Europe or N. America.

One of the busiest ports for the slave trade was Dakar, Senegal. The kingdom there would collect people, to take to Goree Island where they would be later loaded onto ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor%C3%A9e

I started with an 80 gallon that now has 8 discus, 1 endlicheri and 1 senegal bichir, and a synodontis eupterus "featherfin squeaker" catfish.

Now I've got 2 additional 50 gallons that I set up with a Diana Walstad / NPT configuration with a layer of topsoil for substrate topped with small gravel in one tank and sand in the other. Danois and neons in the gravel and tiger barbs and corydoras in the sand. Those tanks work great for strong, heavy planting, and can go for months without any water changes or other maintenance -- quite the opposite of the picky discus!

Always fun to hear about another aquarium lover.

(I've secretly replaced blankfists stats on capitalism with wikipedia's democracy index, let's see if he is as easily persuaded.)

Countries with Full Democracy (democracy index number)
82 -- Australia (9.22)
78 -- United States (8.18)
82 -- Japan (8.08)

Countries with a Flawed democracy
81 -- Israel (7.48)
80 -- Italy (7.83)
71 -- Philippines (6.12)

Countries with a Hybrid regime
66 -- Russia (4.26)
70 -- Honduras (5.76)
65 -- Pakistan (4.55)
59 -- Senegal (5.27)
30 -- Haiti (4.00)

Countries with Authoritarian regimes
47 -- Nigeria (3.47)
45 -- Afghanistan (2.48)
40 -- Zimbabwe (2.64)
64 -- North Korea (1.08)

From their website:

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has significant presence (abbreviated list)
82 -- Australia
78 -- United States
82 -- Japan
81 -- Israel
80 -- Italy

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has only modest presence (abbreviated list)
71 -- Philippines
66 -- Russia
70 -- Honduras
65 -- Pakistan
59 -- Senegal

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has little or no presence (abbreviated list)
30 -- Haiti
47 -- Nigeria
45 -- Afghanistan
40 -- Zimbabwe
64 -- North Korea

thanks dude!
In reply to this comment by rasch187:
Fantastic! *quality

Tags for this video have been changed from '113, oumou, sangare, france, mali, independen' to '113, oumou sangare, france, mali, senegal, independent, rap, chant, 00s, dance' - edited by Eklek

Well, I lived in Maine, which is right next to Canada and on the east coast. So I'm an expert in Relations with Canada, England Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, Finland, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Haiti, Cuba, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and OH, what do you know? Russia is on the Atlantic too, so count that one in there. Then add Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra-Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Guyana, Suriname, Guyane, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.

And that's just the Northern Atlantic.

Well, and Of course I was in Japan, Korea, Iraq and Kuwait, so add those and all surrounding countries.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to use my new-found skills to disssolve the DMZ and instill peace in the Koreas, Stop the mini wars in Africa, get the Columbian government to stop all drug trafficking into the U.S., convince Israel to calm down, get the Kurds, Sunnis and shiites to stop fighting and work together, Convince Iraq, Saudia Arabia and Kuwait to give half their oil to the U.S. for free, and Iran to stop all the "naughty business" with nuclear research.

You would think after all that, and with all my foreign relations skills I could convince MINK to stop being a douche. Well, I'm not God, you know.

It'll be a busy day.

Hey LittleRed, how about you buy it for someone in a third world country, how about charity, micro loans, good old fashion human decency. Yeah and I'm sure using pedal power is a lot worse than carrying half as much water, half as quickly, in a jug on your head. In countries like Senegal, the mortality rate amongst woman in labor is insanely high because carrying water on their heads since adolescence stunts their hip bones. But they have to do it.

The children already work over there, everybody works, the children don't get to sit around and watch TV. Everyone has to take part in preserving the household and making sure everyone is alive.

Do you know anything about why third world countries exist, what their resource situations are like even for something as renewable as wood? Have you seen what their water looks like. Of course they're not going to be able to afford the bike. But their government could buy a bunch, I could afford to give a family one, you could afford to give a family one, some nice rich guy could by 100 for a village.

Do you think that the people who were smart enough to create a mechanism that both transports water, and cleans it - from parasites and disease - would be daft enough to think that a family who makes 43 cents a day is going to be able to afford this bike. NO!

Use your imagination.

hey guys, thanks for all the comments and feedback. i got a whole bunch of audio on my website at www.maxzt.com and also at www.myspace.com/maxzt
i wrote that piece while i was in senegal last year studying with the cissoko griot family. i'm really getting in to the mandinko sound and there are samples on both sites as well as CDs. there will be new videos of concerts that i have had shortly. just trying to edit them down to get them under the size cap. hit me up, let me know what you think. yes.max@gmail.com
thanks again for the comments.
much,
max