Bahrain - Mix of المنامة

Man, that station for the Solomon Islands had some awfully intrusive car insurance commercials. Pinky despises the advertising for that company (he must not be named.) He'll never be giving Warren Buffet a monthly payment specifically because he hates that damn lizard so much. This rant is now over.

We haven't been to the Middle East for a good long while and you know how much we love it there. There was no sarcasm there. We really love it a lot. So, y'all want to tune in to Bahrain today?

it's dinky. you might have to squint.

Only three and a half times bigger than Washington D.C., Bahrain is the smallest nation in the Gulf. There's only about a million people there, but they get 8 million tourists a year. That's a pretty massive tourist base.

It's an oil-rich country with plenty of history and Gulf glitz; there's a lot to see there.

so pretty.

Perhaps you'd like to visit the Tree of Life? It's a 400 year old mesquite tree out in the middle of nowhere in a very harsh climate. There's nothing around it but sand, the closest vegetation is miles away, and there is no apparent water source. Nothing else is growing there. Nothing but a very old and very large mesquite tree. The locals think that it's a relic of the Garden of Eden. It's a pretty big tourist draw. We would like to go to there.

we are most fond of inexplicable phenomenons.

Michael Jackson lived in Bahrain for a while. He moved there after being cleared of charges to escape the public eye for a bit at the invitation of a prince. It didn't really work out and he left with some bad blood between him and his host.

wait a second... is this awkward?

So to recap:

Oil Oil Oil Oil Oil Gulf Glitz - giant American naval base - Gulf Glitz Oil Oil Oil Oil Oil Oil Oil

Let's cut the chit-chat and enjoy the Arab music rebroadcast from the capital, Manama (المنامة). We doubt we'll hear that damn gecko out here!

Abu Dhabi Radio

You can change the channels very easily from the navigation tool at the top of the page and we recommend you play around! Ellen's partial to the Holy Qur'an station.

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Armenia - Inexplicable Երևան

OK, we want to apologize for that St. Kitts station. That was awful. Let's forget that ever happened and continue our journey around the world via radio waves and visit Armenia!

squeezed on in there in midst of the crazy.

Located in those politically boiling Caucuses, Armenia is a small nation of only a little over 3 million. They've got a HUGE and very vocal diaspora of about 8 million folks who've contributed a lot to modern culture. From color TV and the first cloned mammal to moon rovers and plastic surgery, including astrophysics, economics, x-rays, artificial intelligence, the Kardashians, chess masters, and so much more. There's so much that has come from the populace and descendants of such a tiny country!

 armenia's representatives to the world...

Armenia was the first nation to officially adopt Christianity as their state religion, decades before Constantine did his thing with the Roman empire and the conversion of the masses. The Romans did rule Armenia for a while there and were only one in a long string of other empires to do so. Other empires who held Armenia under their thumb: Assyria, Greece, Rome, Byzantine, Arabia, the Mongols, Persians, Ottomans, and most recently Russians.

 

armenians trading with mongols before things (inevitably) take a turn for the worse.

That diaspora we mentioned earlier is the result of encroachment by those empires. The two biggest diasporas were the most recent. The Armenians lost so much of their land to the Ottoman empire around WWI that the modern state ended up being about a sixth of its previous size. There was a nasty genocide of around a million people starting in 1915, before Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern state of Turkey.

yup, we've totally talked about this guy before, except we liked him the last time around.

The Armenian genocide was the first modern genocide and is the second most studied mass killing after the Holocaust. It's a major friction point between Armenia and Turkey. Turkey refuses to acknowledge that it occurred and gets pissed off when other nations officially recognize that it happened. The powerful Armenian diaspora lobbies the governments of the countries that they live in to recognize its occurrence. Boy does Turkey get PISSED when that happens. America is getting really, really close to acknowledging it, and Turkey is none too happy.

 get it? it's a mad turkey? ha ha.. hum. uhhhh, it's a pun.

That diaspora has a lot of sway and is integral to understanding modern Armenia. Unfortunately, we've got a lot of shit to do and can't dive into it much further. We hate that cop out, but it's true.

Briefly, we're in the capital and largest city in Armenia, Yerevan (Երևան). The city was founded in 782 BC and have been going strong for 3000 years. Sure puts American's oldest continuously inhabited city of St Augustine to shame; they're only 446 years old!

We sincerely hope you enjoy the tunes and make sure to try the apricots while you're there!

 

Radio Aurora

Get ready for some hardcore American and EuroPop - Listen Here!

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Cambodia - Phabulous Phnom Penh

That Botswana station was so Americanized. If it weren't for the odd African song thrown in, that station could've been in any US metro area. We may be the dominant entertainment culture in the world, but daaaaaaamn...

Let's try something a bit more exotic today. Y'all want to head to Cambodia?

first, some orientation...

About 90% of Cambodia's 15 million people consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire that dominated the region for a couple of hundred years back about a thousand years ago. There's still massive ruins from their empire, and it's capital, Angkor, was the largest pre-industrial city in the world! Larger than anything the Romans or Mayans or Egyptians did! It's estimated that agriculturally, it could have supported a million people. Cambodians are so proud of Angkor they put it on their flag, and are the only country to have a building on their banner.

But like the Huns and Visigoths and Vandals that weakened Rome, Angkor was crippled by lesser tribes in the region, mainly from modern-day Thailand and Vietnam. By the mid-1400's, they'd abandoned the capitol due to ecological and infrastructural collapse. The civilization continued to decline as outside powers intervened until the late 1800's. A king, who'd been put on the throne by the Thais, asked the French to spot him protection against the Thais and Vietnamese. Oooooh snap! Cambodia stayed under French control until WWII, when the Japanese empire occupied it. After the war, France started to grant independence to Indochina, with Cambodia gaining full independence in 1953.

A government was set up and ruled for almost two decades. It was officially neutral during the Cold War, but everyone thought they sympathized with the communists. They had pretty sour relations with America, sidling up to China and North Vietnam instead. In 1970, a military coup (backed by America) overthrew the government while the head of state was in Beijing.

Angkor Wat from above. Reminds Ellen of the monkey city in The Jungle Book.

The new government that was established was the Khmer Republic. Five years of civil war ensued while the height of the Vietnam War raged next door. The Americans were pretty active in Cambodia as well since the Vietnam War seeped over boarders. There were controversial massive bombing campaigns and a brief invasion as the Americans tried to disrupt the North Vietnamese. Though the US was successful in upsetting that apple cart, it really fucked up things for Cambodia. It intensified their civil war, and by 1975, the Khmer Rouge had succeeded in toppling the government in Phnom Penh. That's just a quick overview mind you. Shit's always more complicated.

The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

OK, so now we've got the Khmer Rouge in power and over the next 4 years Pol Pot starts this insane agrarian revolution. He clears out the cities and moves everyone to the country and destroys anything Western in an attempt to recreate the model from the earlier empires from over a thousand years ago. Of course, it didn't work. DUH. And, through their unadulterated cruelty, heavy handed tactics, and ensuing disease and starvation, the Khmer Rouge ends up killing about a fourth of their population - especially the Buddhist monks. They killed off every single one of them they could find, and there were a lot at the time. The Khmer Rouge basically gutted that institution. By the late 1970's there were less than a thousand left. The Khmer Rouge tried to kill all the intellectuals, too. Just wearing eyeglasses was a death sentence. (Watch out, Ellen!)

Pol Pot dictating his crazy to the masses.

The Vietnamese invaded in the late 70's, and civil war ensued until peace accords in 1991. The last of the Khmer Rouge didn't give up until the late 90's though, and today, there are still an estimated 4 million landmines in a country the size of Oklahoma. It'll be another ten years before they're removed or destroyed. Each month, there are an estimated 300-700 amputations due to people stepping on them. Think about that... Primarily due to landmines, 1 in 236 Cambodians are disabled, making Cambodia the most disabled country on earth.

Although Cambodia is war torn, they're dealing with their past and rebuilding. It's become an incredible tourist destination, and about 4 million people come to visit Angkor every year. In recognition and as a way to learn from their country's history, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was established in Phenom Penh. If you had gone before 2002, you would have seen the Skull Map (yeah, it's a disturbing as it sounds... click with care). They've replaced it with a map of the killing fields and relocation camps, and we hear it's significantly less traumatizing.

Anyway, Cambodia is building up their agriculture, garment, and oil industries, too. Although there have been a few hiccups, they're pretty stable politically and are actively rebuilding their society. It's a poor nation with a poor infrastructure, but they're a resourceful people and are doing everything they can to flourish. Check out the bamboo trains! Gotta use what ya got!

Well, guess that about does it for now. Hope y'all enjoy Cambodia!

Listen Here!

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Turkmenistan - Aces for Aşgabat

Enjoy your time in the UAE? Me too.

Ok, let's tune into Turkmenistan today!

it's there, in the red.

Ok, first off, Turkmenistan is home to "THE DOOR TO HELL"!!! Forty years ago, some geologists were drilling and accidentally hit an underground cavern of natural gas. The rig fell in, and to avoid poisonous gas discharge, they lit the sucker up and it's been burning ever since. It's just a giant, flaming pit. You should look it up. No, seriously, you've got to see this.

yup, those are people standing on the edge.

Ok, let's talk about Saparmurat Niyazov, the recently deceased, bat-shit crazy "President for Life" that ruled from 1990-2006. He was one of the world's most kleptocratic, repressive, totalitarian dictators, and is thought to have squirreled away about 3 billion dollars. Yes, billion. Woah. 

He also did hilariously egotistical things like renaming the months after his family members and changing the word for bread to his mother's name. Plus, there was a meteorite involved. He named it after himself. He had tons of statues erected of himself, some of them solid gold! There's a giant, 40 foot tall, gold plated one in the capital city of Aşgabat that rotates to follow the path of the sun. They've moved it since he died, but it's still around. He also shut down all hospitals outside the capitol, reasoning that the sick could just come to Aşgabat. Plus, he shut all of the libraries outside the capitol as well saying that rural people don't read and if they do the Qu'ran and his book, Ruhnama, were the only books they needed. His book is required reading for everyone in Turkmenistan, and during his reign, it was the primary textbook used in schools.

wonder if he ever considered becoming a Solid Gold dancer?

Let's see... what else? Ah, yes! The ice palace! So Turkmenistan is 80% desert, and befitting that climate, Niyazov requested that an ice palace be built near the capital to celebrate his reign. What the fuck? It was never built, but still. He also had a giant cyprus forest planted in an attempt to change the desert climate. When he quit smoking, he banned smoking in public places, as well as chewing tobacco. He also outlawed gold teeth, suggesting that people should chew on bones to strengthen their teeth as he saw dogs do when he was younger. He also banned lip-synching, car radios, beards, and recorded music at weddings (probably for the best).

This has nothing to do with their crazy president. We just really dig this.

He also made the country fiercely insular, enacting a foreign policy of neutrality and limiting emigration. He even shortened compulsory education by a year so that students could not qualify to study abroad. What a dick.

So he's dead now, but criticism of Niyazov is still considered treason and is punishable by prison, sending you to a mental institution or exile. The new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, is slowly dismantling Niyazov's cult of personality and is building relations with the West, but it takes time y'all. Berdymukhammedov is a former dentist; we wonder what he has to say about the crewing on bones theory...

not Hilary's best photo, but what a nice flower arrangement.

Pinky had a bitch of a time finding a viable streaming radio station for this country, but we guess that could be expected with a country of 5 million that only has 75,000 internet users. This one is actually a series of playlists, and they're pretty good. You can choose from the mix, folk music and rap. And, they're updated daily! Enjoy!

TM Hits Radio

Don't forget to check out their blog! Or their Facebook! Or their Twitter! Or their YouTube! 

Whew - they sure are prolific folks.

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UAE - Dancing in أبو ظبي

Did you have a good time in the Turks and Caicos? Pinky's favorite song was this ode to Caller ID, because "Who's calling me from ah unknown number? Gangster nuh answa nuh private call." Ain't that the truth. 

We've always wondered if the big shots get folks dialing the wrong number, and if so, do people realize it? If you accidentally call Bill Clinton's cell phone, is his voicemail set up so that it lets you know his identity or is it just the robot lady repeating the phone number you called? What if you have one digit different than him and folks keep calling you? That'd be fun for about two days.

Anyway, you guys wanna head over to the United Arab Emirates today?

It's hard to talk about the UAE (دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة) today without talking about oil. When the pearl industry died out during the Great Depression (due to economic decline and the advent of the cultured pearl), there wasn't a whole lot going for the region. 

The disparate sheikdoms were allied to the British with treaties, who intervened to settle disputes between them. When oil was found in the early 60's, unification efforts quickly followed. However, it still took about 10 years to get everything in order for a union. And, right about the time their treaties with the British expired and they each became fully independent. Today they are seven monarchies overseen by a government they elect, though this president and prime minister are "essentially hereditary." 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (مسجد الشيخ زايد)  eighth largest in the world!

When you compare the UAE to other Arab states, it's fairly liberal but that tends to happen when you have gobs and gobs of cash flowing in. People want to be able to do what they want with their money and when your GDP per capita is above even the United States, culture can be relaxed a little. Not to imply that it is in any way a bastion of human rights and liberal values, just that you can get an alcoholic drink if you want one. 

Yup. Those are man made islands in the shape of palm trees and the world. G.L.A.M!

You may not be able to drink as openly as in other cultures, but far more so than in Saudi Arabia or Iran. Women can drive, too. Sweet - Ellen loves a good drive. It's still got some old world laws though that more than a few Americans have found out. Lose that job in Dubai and can't pay the rent on your fancy apartment? Better just abandon your car in the airport parking lot and get the hell out of town before you land in debtors' prison. Want to drunkenly make out on the beach? Better think again, especially if y'all aren't married.

Abu Dhabi at night.

For all the glitz and glamor of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, there's a dark underbelly. While citizens have pretty good human rights protections, non-citizens get fucked over pretty regularly, especially since they make up about 80% of the UAE's population. Somebody has to build all those skyscrapers and be servants for those high income, non-taxed folks. Immigrant laborers from poverty-stricken areas in Southeast Asia and Northern Africa are more than happy to have those jobs. One could argue that human rights often lag behind economic development (as was the case with western economies), and that with the maturation of their society, the UAE will come to grant further protections to non-citizens, but such a statement in no way alleviates the fact that economic slavery is currently pervasive in the UAE.

Well, let's head on over to the home of the tallest building in the world, an interesting large-scale experiment in Islamic finance, and very, very cheap gas.

Abu Dhabi Radio

It should start playing automatically. But there is a tuner thingy on the top of the page that is pretty impossible to miss.

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Bhutan - Tasty Thimphu

Well, we'd been warned about Caribbean DJ's and boy did the Haitian ones deliver. The music was eclectic and interesting, but those DJ's made it a rough day.

After a long weekend of resting up, we're ready for some travel! Let's head to Bhutan today!!!

let's get oriented, shall we?

Named "Land of the Dragon", Bhutan's beauty is staggering. They're obsessed with preserving their natural beauty and the purity of their nation. And while we Americans could take a lesson or twelve from the Bhutanese, their preservation attempts aren't always a good thing though. They expelled about 100,000 ethnic Nepalis in the 1980s... gotta keep everything clean and pure, huh? 

so pretty...

Environmental protection is a top priority though, as is the happiness of its people. It's the only country in the world to measure "Gross National Happiness", and uses this data to guide it's decisions. The indicators used to quantify GNH are interesting and worth looking up if you're a nerd. Their emphasis on happiness rather than economic development is enthralling, especially with some of the currently trendy Western economic research out there that advocate this. 

so pretty...

Fun fact: Bhutan was the last country in the world to introduce TV when it did so in 1999, and the government blames it for the increase in crime since then. It's kinda scary to have that kind of sway over your people, even if it is purportedly benevolent.

Can't we take a second and collectively groan about TV? Ugh. So much of it is so horrible. Even the supposedly good stuff. History Channel? Yikes. Dino sex? We dunno how "good" that programming is. We wonder what the Bhutanese programming is like. Probably lots of Indian stuff...

so pretty...

Anyway, in the late 90's the Bhutanese transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. A few years ago, the king stunned the nation by announcing that he'd abdicate the throne in favor of his son and that democratic elections would take place shortly thereafter. 

so pretty...

Pinky has had a hell of a time finding a live station from here, so tune in while you can! We believe this station broadcasting from the capital city of Thimphu goes dark in the late evening as well, so we may need to switch to another station in another nation when that occurs. 

It's a tough place to access for a visit and is pretty insular, so y'all enjoy this little peak into Bhutan! We sure don't get many opportunities to do so.

Bhutan Broadcasting Service

Listen Here

There is a really obnoxious static/tin can/robot whine going on on top of the broadcast this morning. So! We recommend checking back later or suffering through it. Suffer! Suffer! It's totally worth it!

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Burma - More Subversive Radio

What did you think of our little trip to Bolivia? Yeah, we agree. We haven't had all that much luck with the South American stations.

OK, we've got a real treat for y'all today that Pinky's been working on for weeks. We're heading to Myanmar!!!!

is that corn on your flag or are you just happy to see us?

With the military junta attempting to control all information entering or leaving Burma, not much gets out. And, with a ban on nearly all foreign music, the stuff they do broadcast in the country is bizarre, especially the internationally popular songs covered in Burmese.


Want to hear a dictatorship-approved cover of Sugar Ray? We got it!


Apparently, the few radio stations in the country broadcast from 7am-9pm, and since they can't produce tons of material, the content is completely erratic, and needless to say, amazing!


This one is hilarious! It's the official website for the capital (which is down today - definitely check back later!), and apparently their web designer is a teenage girl on Myspace 5 years ago. Pinky likes the "Do's and Don'ts" section. You're supposed to be able to listen to live radio here, but we've never been able to get it to work. Apparently, the Burmese are waaaaaay into horoscopes, too. Maybe Ellen is Burmese deep down on the inside. She loves her horoscope, too! They're on all their government websites, which we find endearing.

Besides the language barrier, couldn't this have totally been a hit song in America in like 1998?

OK, here is today's radio station. We don't know much about it and have been doing some major research. But, from what we can piece together, this is a clandestine internet station run from inside Myanmar by a group of friends that really love music. There's a good bit of international music, which must be pretty tough to get in there... So, enjoy today's "top secret" radio station!

APYTZ Radio

Also, we found some Burmese artists that you can download. We love free!

Myanmar MP3

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Qatar - Drumming الدوحة

How did y'all like that Belorussian station? We totally dug the "Can't Help Falling In Love" cover in the Russian accent. Perfect! Perfect.

What do you say we head to Qatar today?

While Qatar was initially part of the post-British regional federation that evolved to become the U.A.E., Qatar made the decision to go it alone and became a sovereign state in 1971. It was ruled by a fella with 53 letters in his official name until '95 when he went off to Switzerland for a vacation and his son executed a coup. Imagine that, huh? If we (more like Pinky) was that fella's dad, we'd be piiiiiiiiiiiiiissed. Especially since the son only has 22 letters in his name. His dad was in exile for 10 years, but is back in Qatar now.

what a nice oil painting of former Emir Khalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammaed Al Thani

Anyway, so his son has enacted a bunch of social liberalization, like women's suffrage, a new constitution, launching Al Jazeera (which offers dissenting views, a rarity in the Arab world), and others. This might be a one of those coup de tat success stories! It's all good, though. Even though it's pretty liberal for an Arab country, they've still have Islamic laws ruling family and personal lives. (not that that's bad or wrong, it's just not "liberal")

Did you know they have one of the highest GDP's per capita in the world? Us either! That's pretty tough to do with oil and gas money. Those markets tend to provide a lot of national income but not personal income. Qatar does have a pretty small population and coupled with the absence of an income tax we suppose helps. 

man-made islands are all the rage! you can buy one, too!

But, we've got a caveat here! The population is only about 1.3 million and over half, if not more, of those folks are guest workers brought in for a year or two from south Asia for menial and labor-intensive jobs. Does their GDP per capita include non-citizens? We can't find an answer. These guest workers often wind up as modern day slaves in some other comparable prominent Arab countries and Qatar shares this shame.

The really bad part about living in Qatar is that it flirts with hitting 130 degrees in the summer. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that. That oppressive heat encourages them to keep cool (and all that money allows it)  and as a result they have the highest per capita CO2 emissions in the world. Three times that of the US! And, when it comes to polluting the environment, we're tough to beat! They don't have to pay for water and electricity either so they use both liberally. With expensive and intensive water desalinization plants, we guess you'd expect to spew a ton of carbon dioxide.

OK, let's tune in to MC Doualiya transmitted from the capital city of Doha (الدوحة). However, if you're in need of the holy word of Allah (and, let's be honest, who isn't?), you can tune in to hear recitations of the Qu'ran.

MC Doualiya

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Taiwan - The Tempo of 臺北市

Ooof. These bones are aching today! Pinky got hit by a figurative MAC truck playing rugby this weekend and Ellen's half baked after barely surviving MoofFest. If ether of us take any more ibuprofen we're gonna have to get our stomaches pumped and put on suicide watch.

We lucked out with a pretty good Venezuelan station on Friday. It was nice way to wrap up the week and get us energized for the weekend!

What do you say we head over to Taiwan today and slow things down a little with some Han love songs?

Taiwan was fought over by Japan and China for hundreds of years. Eventually, China regained control of Taiwan after WWII, but the Republic of China promptly lost mainland China in their civil war and retreated to Taiwan. The sovereignty of the island nation was never quite ironed out by Japan or the Allies, so it remains in legal limbo today, especially after the People's Republic of China (the mainland communists) got official recognition as "China" by the UN in the 70's. Sorry, dudes.

You're just to close to China to not have them all up in your business. (Frowny face)

Culturally and strategically dear to the Chinese, they'd do almost anything to get Taiwan back. If it weren't for America's support, Taiwan would have been swallowed back up long ago. Taiwan is probably the tallest hurdle of the Sino-American relationship, probably more so than even China's ridiculously undervalued currency. Well gang, this is too much of a sticky situation to delve into with our hurting bodies and minds today. 

Enjoy this kinda cheesy radio station from the capital city of Taipei (臺北市), not to be confused with the solitaire game Mahjong. We hope to be running on all cylinders tomorrow thanks to this soul rejuvenating music!

HiNet

Get ready for some sensory overload!

Don't know what to click on? OMG, we don't either! 

Listen here

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Nepal - Killing it in काठमांडौ

Hey! Whatcha doin'? Just wishing you had a remote control car in your office so you could run it into your coworkers' Achilles tendons and chase them away? Yeah, us, too. It would be a little more subtle than a flame-thrower...

How'd you like that Jordan station? We've had better Arab stations, but that one wasn’t bad. Ellen liked the variety of the quality of the music. Some was really horrid and some was really amazing.

Anyway, what do you say we head off for Nepal? 

Nepal is the only country in the world to currently have a flag that is NOT a rectangle. Wouldn't flags be cooler if they couldn't be rectangle shaped? Imagine the possibilities!

Triangles! How novel!

Aside from being the birthplace of the Buddha, Nepal is best known in the states for housing Mt. Everest, or at least half of it. Everest straddles Nepal's north western border with it's other half residing in Tibet - uh, we mean China. Tibet doesn't exist or something like that. It is Everest and all if it's 29,029 ft that keeps Nepal's large tourism industry going. 

Today's station come to us from the capital city of Kathmandu (काठमांडौ), which is also most traveler's first stop in Nepal. After getting acclimated to the 4,500 ft elevation, climbers stock up on supplies, find a sherpa, update their Facebook status one last time, spin the prayer wheels at monkey temple of Swayambhunath (स्वयम्भूनाथ स्तुप) for good luck, and start their journey to Everest. Fingers crossed they make it back.

We'd like to buy a vowel.

Don't forget to bring down all your trash with you after you climb Everest! The mountain has been dubbed the world's highest trash dump - with 120 tons of trash and 120 dead bodies. Yikes! We bet your local dump isn't quite that bad off, especially in the dead bodies department.

Changing the subject slightly, we were bummed to learn that the search for Chhewang Nima, a Nepalese sherpa who went missing during an avalanche while scaling Mt Baruntse, was called off yesterday. He had lead over 19 expeditions in his life time. For our lazy asses, completing even one expedition seems like the accomplishment of a life time. We have much respect for Chhewang Nima Sherpa.


You know, for a nation with so few internet connections (only a few hundred thousand for 30 million people), they have an incredible array of web-accessible radio stations! It's a veritable buffet! A bunch of them were news or global pop stations, but still. Seems like the music on this one is pretty good, and though there are a lot of breaks, the commercials aren't too bad and the news is in English, which is interesting to hear.


So, with out further ado, it's music time!

Radio Mirmire

Having streaming problems? Try Radio Kantipur!

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Jordan - عمّان Airwaves

Man, that Portugal station was awful. Sorry about that. We suppose it was gonna be tough to top Bangladesh anyway. 

OK, let's continue our journey around the world! It's been a while since we were in the Middle East. You guys wanna go to Jordan? Good, let's go to Jordan.

Remember that awesome facade in the cliff face in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that you were all "WOAH. Where is THAT?!!!" Well, we'll tell you. It's in Jordan! It's a 6th century city called Petra. Cool, huh? Tourism contributes a big chunk towards Jordan's GDP. Not specifically for Indiana Jones, just in general, you know?

After WWI, Transjordan was carved out of the Ottoman empire and kinda tooled around under British rule until after WWII. Apparently the Brits made a request to the UN to release Jordan from their control, which is kinda weird and totally out of step with the colony hungry Britain we know. Was it because they were totally broke from the war and wanted to shed some financial obligations? Was there an independence movement? Who knows?

There was a justifiably super-complicated turf-war going on here with Israel and Palestine, but it seems that Transjordan shacked up with a chunk of Palestine and became Jordan shortly after the creation of Israel and the ensuing regional war. Sorry for being sloppy, but was and is a pretty sticky situation and outlining the complexities is just not reasonable.

After decades of hostilities, Jordan and Israel finally made peace in the mid-90's, making Jordan one of only two countries in the region to have full diplomatic ties with Israel (Egypt being the other.) In doing so, Jordan ended up getting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual US aid, a special economic zone that allows them to forgo US tariffs if they use Israeli supplies, and the king got his face on an Israeli postage stamp. Sounds like a pretty good deal to us.

So 51.5% of the population is male, which is pretty unusual. How is it skewed towards males? With a patriarchal culture, did females not reply to the census? Is it due to the large amount of foreign labor that tends to be men? These laborers are protected under Jordan's labor laws, the only Arab country to do so, and if you've heard some of the horror stories from the UAE or Saudi Arabia, you'd know how great that is.

Ummmm... Let's see. What else. Woah! The Queen is GORGEOUS, y'all!

drooooooooooooooool.

Oh! Looks like they actually have a very competitive transport and knowledge-based economy flourishing, too! Even more so than the UAE! It looks like a big part of this is political, as it seems like they don't have much beef with anyone in the region anymore, and a lot of other countries in the region are pissed at someone else. So, these countries, and nations from across the globe, do business with Jordan instead. They've got a TON of free trade agreements with a pretty diverse group of nations. And with Iraq and Palestine being perpetually unstable, it seems that a lot of the companies from those nations operate out of Jordan.

Looks like they've got little oil or water, which means they have to import energy and food and that necessity has a habit of driving a nation to make good with it's neighbors. You know who has control of tons of water in the Middle East? Turkey. With the coming food crisis, expect them to be strutting around. Saudi Arabia is already pretty much renting agricultural land in Africa. Israel knows how to conserve water, so expect them to be selling a lot of technology for it. Will they sell to Arab countries through Jordan? Might be a good idea...

Whew! There is so much to say about Jordan - we definitely can't do it justice here!

Let's see how good of an ambassador this radio station is! Transmitting from one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world - Amman (عمّان), Mazaj FM is a radio station of the future with presences on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the web. Also, they play music. Enjoy! 

Mazaj FM

Click on the long text under the little blue radio icon on left hand side of the page. It looks like this in Arabic:

اضغط هنا للاستماع للبث المباشر

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Bangladesh - Dancing in ঢাকা

Oof. Don't get us wrong, we enjoy classical, but a whole day of that Greenland station was too much. Once 2:00pm rolled around, Pinky went back and listened to that Algerian station that we heard when he was in Tennessee. 

Let's cut to the chase because Pinky's found an AWESOME station for today. We're off to Bangladesh!


Initially a weird satellite province of Pakistan called East Pakistan, Bangladesh fought and won their Independence in 1971 with the help from the Indians. Get this though: Bangladesh's secession was catalyzed by a cyclone that killed almost half a million people. The lackluster response from the government in Pakistan galvanized support for the independence movement that culminated in the Bangladesh Liberation War. It's one of the first times in modern history that a natural disaster incited a civil war. Wow! Maybe New Orleans should take note and leave our sorry butts for our lackluster response to Katrina.

With such a large population and such a relatively small land mass, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (imagine half the population of America squashed into New York state). Their supporting their population will surly lead them to face problems in the future. But, they were marked by Goldman Sachs as one of the "Next Eleven", and are expected to be one of the fastest growing and largest economies of the 21st century. 

Unfortunately, they face a SEVERE threat from global warming. If their economy does significantly expand, it will be interesting to see what a government with some economic sway will contribute to the climate change conversation. Ten years ago during an extreme flood, about 2/3 of the country was underwater. Imagine if that becomes a normalcy. It might look like millions of climate refugees pouring into India...

Isn't it weird talking about the economic promise of such a poverty-stricken and governmentally corrupt nation? We guess we were saying the same thing about China in the early 80's though. As China ages into their demographic time-bomb, we suppose manufacturing will begin to move elsewhere. With all those people in Bangladesh, labor would be super cheap and those jobs could lift millions out of poverty, and all those waterways would significantly reduce the need for building expensive transport infrastructure. Plus they'd be super close to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and those other burgeoning economies. Symbiosis y'all.

Anyway, after Independence, Bangladesh switched back and forth between parliamentary democracy and military dictatorships with coups occurring about every 10 years. Since 1990 they've been rocking the parliamentary democracy, and it looks good on them!


Be sure to check out some Bangladeshi cinema while we're here. King Kong and The Hulk!

I love when King Kong dances.

OK. Time for business! Live from Dhaka (or ঢাকা), capital city on the banks of Buriganga River, We bring you

Bangladesh Betar

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