4/11/2007: CaliWorldFriends has135 Blogs and Growing

We are happy to announce that our CaliWorldFriends: California-World-Friends family of country-blogs has grown by leaps and bounds. We now have 135 countries , and are planning on adding specific country information, including country backgrounds, economy overviews, and information on the people of each of our included countries in the near future. (See http://calimexico.blogspot.com for an example of how the updates will look) Currently, all of our blogs have country-specific, current news in English, as well as country-specific videos from YouTube. Please leave us comments and let us know what you think of our efforts. If you have any guidance for us, please don't hesitate to leave us a comment. Also, if you'd like to become a regular blogger and write for a country-specific blog, please read the "About Us" section for more information.
Thank you for visiting,
Ioan Elvis Sersea, M.A.
Founder, Owner "Teach Me Help Me Educational Services"
http://www.teachmehelpme.net

Please visit the following blogs and let us know what you think:

Cali Korea
CaliCroatia
Cali Italia
Cali Gabon
Cali Libya
CaliSenegal
CaliArgentina
CaliSomalia
Cali Mozambique
CaliSyria
Cali Mexico
Cali Bangladesh
CaliAustralia
CaliPortugal
CaliFriendsIndon...
Cali Nicaragua
Cali Madagascar
Cali Botswana
Cali Republic of Mali
Cali Republic of Chad
CaliJamaica
Cali Maldives
Cali France
CaliTibet
CaliBrasil
CaliHonduras
CaliAlbania
CaliWorldFriends
Cali Austria
CaliThailand
Cali Papua New Guinea
Cali Tajikistan
Cali Suriname
CaliFriendsIrela...
Cali Angola
Cali Niger
Cali Sierra Leone
Cali French Guyana
CaliFinland
Cali Chile
Cali Tanzania
Cali Laos
CaliPalestine
Cali Bhutan
Cali Friends Georgia
Cali Colombia Friends
Cali Togo
CaliZimbabwe
CaliDominicanRep...
CaliNigeria
CaliSudan
CaliGreatBritain
CaliNetherlands
CaliSouthAfrica
CaliCuba
CaliNorway
CaliZaire
Cali Peru
Cali Algeria
Cali Cambodia
Cali Costa Rica
Cali Kenya
Cali Japan
CaliTaiwan
CaliSpain
Cali Russia
Cali India
Cali Saudi Arabia
Cali Estonia
Cali Oman
CaliSerbia
CaliUganda
Cali Vietnam
Cali Ghana
CaliMontenegro
CaliNewZealand
Cali Kazakhstan
Cali Namibia
CaliBelize
Cali Jordan
CaliVatican
Cali Panama
Cali East Timor
CaliArmenia
Cali Uzbekistan
CaliTurkey
Cali Iran
Cali Democratic Republic of Congo
CaliEritrea
Cali Turkmenistan
Cali Azerbaijan
Cali Afghanistan
Cali Malawi
CaliMorocco
Cali Belarus
CaliGreece
Cali Guatemala
CaliMoldova
Cali Lithuania
Cali Kyrgystan
CaliFriendsIsrae...
Cali Philippines
CaliSweden
CaliMongolia
CaliBolivia
Cali Germany
CaliPoland
CaliBelgium
Cali Venezuela
Cali Yemen
CaliFriendsIraq
Cali New Guinea
Cali Friends Turkmenistan
CaliEgypt
CaliHungary
Cali Mauritania
Cali Burma
Cali Ukraine
Cali Haiti
Cali Samoa
Cali Guyana
Cali Burkina Faso
Cali Malaysia
CaliUruguay
Cali El Salvador
CaliEcuador
CaliCzechRepubli...
Cali China
CaliParaguay
Cali Cameroon
Cali Guinea
Cali Pakistan
Cali Latvia
Cali Ethiopia
Cali Seychelles
Cali Romania

Our list of 135 countries will soon grow to the total of 220 countries listed in the CIA World Factbook. Until then, won't you please get acquainted with the countries above by watching videos, reading news, and researching for additional information not included here? You're invited to participate and add your comments, share your knowledge, and ask questions.

People of the World from CIA World Factbook

Population:	6,525,170,264 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 27.4% (male 919,219,446/female 870,242,271) 15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,152,066,888/female 2,100,334,722) 65 years and over: 7.4% (male 213,160,216/female 270,146,721) note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and the total for world age structure (2006 est.)
Median age:	total: 27.6 years male: 27 years female: 28.2 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate:	1.14% (2006 est.)
Birth rate:	20.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate:	8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Sex ratio:	at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 48.87 deaths/1,000 live births male: 50.98 deaths/1,000 live births female: 46.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 64.77 years male: 63.16 years female: 66.47 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate:	2.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:	NA
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:	NA
HIV/AIDS - deaths:	NA
Religions:	Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%), Muslims 20.12%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 12.61%, non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)
Languages:	Mandarin Chinese 13.69%, Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%, Hindi 2.82%, Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%, Russian 2.27%, Japanese 1.99%, Standard German 1.49%, Wu Chinese 1.21% (2004 est.) note: percents are for "first language" speakers only and therefore do not add to 100%
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 82% male: 87% female: 77% note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

World Economy Overview from CIA World Factbook

Economy - overview:

Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China (9.3%), India (7.6%), and Russia (5.9%). The 14 other successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong performers, in the 7% range of growth. Growth results posted by the major industrial countries varied from no gain for Italy to a strong gain by the United States (3.4%). The developing nations also varied in their growth results, with many countries facing population increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers to international bodies, notably the EU. In Western Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a further growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major global problems that continued through 2006.

Background to the World from CIA World Factbook

Background:

Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).