Congrats to the people of South Sudan, the newest country on earth which arrives today.
And RIP Betty Ford, ex-first lady of the USA.
Information about Betty Ford from Wikipedia.
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011), better known as Betty Ford, was the wife of former United States President Gerald Ford and served as the First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. As First Lady, Ford was active in social policy and shattered precedents as a politically active presidential wife.
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings despite opposition from some conservative Republicans who objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy and was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment. Pro-choice on abortion and a leader in the Women's Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot-button issue of the time, including feminism, equal pay, sex, drugs, abortion and gun control. She also raised awareness of addiction when she announced her long-running battle with alcoholism in the 1970s.
Following her White House years, she continued to remain active in the feminist movement. She is the founder, and served as the first chairwoman of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Centre For Substance Abuse And Addiction and was a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer was born in Chicago, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co, and his wife, Hortense Neahr (July 11, 1884 – November 20, 1948).
When Ford was 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children to dance.
When Ford was 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the Bloomers' garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open. In 1936, after she graduated from high school, Ford attended the Bennington School Of Dance in Bennington, Vermont, where she studied under Martha Graham and Hanya Holm.
After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and worked as a fashion model for the John Robert Powers firm in order to finance her dance studies. She joined Graham’s auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall.
She also organised her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.
In 1942, she married William C. Warren, whom she had known since she was 12. They divorced on September 22, 1947.
On October 15, 1948, she married Gerald R. Ford Jr, a lawyer and World War II veteran.
Married for 58 years until Gerald's death, the couple had three sons and a daughter.
The Fords moved to the suburbs of Washington DC and lived there for 25 years. Gerald rose to become Vice President to Richard Nixon in 1973. He became president in 1974, upon Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Betty and Gerald Ford were among the more openly loving and intimate First Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership.
Information about North and South Sudan from Wikipedia.
Sudan (North Sudan).
Sudan is a country in North Africa and the third largest country in Africa by area.
It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest.
The world's longest river, the Nile, divides the country between east and west sides.
The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt.
Sudan was united politically with Egypt over several periods.
After gaining independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956, Sudan suffered 17 years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972).
This was followed by ethnic and economic conflicts between the Northern Sudanese (Black Africans of the Nubian Sudanic ethnic group, speaking Arabic and Muslim by faith) and the Southern Sudanese (Black Africans of various ethnic groups from the Sudanic group, speaking English and Christian and Sabian by faith).
After the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2010), the government in Khartoum signed a comprehensive peace agreement with the rebels of the south, and this granted autonomy to Southern Sudan.
Following a referendum held in January 2011, Southern Sudan became an independent country on July 9, 2011.
Sudan was inhabited at least 60,000 years ago. The area was known to the Egyptians as Kush and had strong cultural and religious ties to Egypt.
In the 8th century BC, the kings of Kush extended their influence into Egypt.
The dynasty's intervention in Syria caused a confrontation between Egypt and Syria. When the Syrians in retaliation invaded Egypt, Taharqa (688-663 BC), the last Kush king, withdrew and returned to Kush.
In 590 BC, Egypt sacked Sudan.
In the 6th century, Rome Christianised Sudan.
Sudan became Muslim gradually beginning 632.
In 1820 Egypt invaded Sudan. Sudan was ‘unified’ with Egypt.
In 1881, Muhammad Ahmad (ancestor of Sudan’s former prime minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi) set up his own dynasty after deposing the Egyptians.
In 1898, British-controlled Egypt conquered Sudan.
Britain gave independence to Sudan on January 1, 1956.
In 1955, the year before independence, a civil war began between northern and southern Sudan. The southerners, anticipating independence, feared the new nation would be dominated by the north.
Southern Sudan was once in British East Africa with Uganda and Kenya.
The British had attached Southern Sudan to Northern Sudan.
The First Sudanese Civil War, lasted from 1955 to 1972.
The 1955 war began when southern army officers mutinied and then formed the Anya-Nya guerilla movement.
In 1972, a cessation of the north-south conflict was agreed upon under the terms of the Addis Ababa Agreement, following talks which were sponsored by the World Council of Churches. This led to a 10-year hiatus in the national conflict.
In 1983, the civil war was re-ignited following President Gaafar Nimeiry's decision to circumvent the Addis Ababa Agreement.
Nimeiry attempted to create a federated Sudan including states in southern Sudan, which violated the Addis Ababa Agreement that had granted the south considerable autonomy.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), based in southern Sudan, was formed in 1983 as the successor of the Anya-Nya movement.
The leader of the SPLA was John Garang.
In 1989, General Omar Al-Bashir became president of Sudan and imposed Wahhabi policies that further destabilised the country and intensified the civil war.
The war went on for more than 20 years and killed an estimated two million people.
Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2004. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.
The agreement granted Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence.
It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil deposits equally, but also left both the north's and south's armies in place.
John Garang, the south's peace agreement appointed co-vice president died in a helicopter crash on August 1, 2005, three weeks after being sworn in.
Just as the long north-south civil war was reaching a resolution, some clashes occurred in the western region of Darfur between the pastoral tribes.
The rebels accused the central government of neglecting the Darfur region economically.
The government used Arab-speaking northern militias known as the Janjawid to suppress the Muslim but English-speaking Darfur rebels.
The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad.
Thus far, over 2.5 million civilians have been displaced and the death toll is estimated from 200,000 to 400,000.
In 2006, the Sudanese government and Darfur's largest rebel group, the SLM (Sudanese Liberation Movement), signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, aimed at ending the three-year conflict.
The agreement specified the disarmament of the Janjawid and the disbanding of the rebel forces, and autonomy for Darfur.
The terrain of Sudan is generally flat, broken by several mountain ranges; in the west the Jebel Marra is the highest range; in the east are the Red Sea Hills.
The Blue and White Niles meet in Khartoum to form the River Nile, which flows northwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.
Blue Nile's course through Sudan is nearly 800 km long and is joined by the rivers Dinder and Rahad between Sennar and Khartoum. The White Nile within Sudan has no significant tributaries.
The amount of rainfall increases towards the south. In the north there is the very dry Nubian Desert.
Sudan’s rainy season lasts for about three months (July to September) in the north, and up to six months (June to November) in the south.
The dry regions are plagued by sandstorms, known as haboob, which can completely block out the sun.
In the northern and western semi-desert areas, people rely on the scant rainfall for basic agriculture and many are nomadic.
Nearer the River Nile, there are well-irrigated farms growing cash crops.
Rich mineral resources are available in Sudan including gold, silver, chrome, asbestos, manganese, gypsum, mica, zinc, iron, lead, uranium, copper, kaolin, cobalt, granite, nickel and tin.
Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80 percent of the workforce.
The Merowe Dam, also known as Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is a large construction project in northern Sudan, about 350 km north of the capital Khartoum.
It is situated on the River Nile, close to the Fourth Cataract where the river divides into multiple smaller branches with large islands in between.
The main purpose of the dam is the generation of electricity. Its dimensions make it the largest contemporary hydro power project in Africa.
Sudan has more than 550 tribes that speak over 400 different languages and dialects, but there are two distinct major cultures — Arabised Black African people and non-Arabised Black African people.
Muslims form 97 percent of Sudanese, followed by Sabians (2 percent) and Christians (1 percent).
North Sudan is 1,886,068 square km with 30,894,000 people.
It has 15 provinces.
Khartoum is the capital of North Sudan.
South Sudan.
South Sudan is a country in East Africa. Its capital and largest city is Juba, located in the southern state of Central Equatoria.
The landlocked country is bordered by Ethiopia to the east, Kenya, Uganda, and Congo-Kinshasa to the south, the Central African Republic to the west and Sudan to the north.
South Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, the Bahr Al Jabal.
South Sudan is rich in oil.
The country is rich in fauna. Boma National Park, west of the Ethiopian border, as well as the Sudd wetland and Southern National Park near the border with Congo, provide habitat for large populations of hartebeest, kob, topi, buffalo, elephants, giraffes and lions.
South Sudan's forest reserves also provided habitat for bongo, giant forest hogs, Red River Hogs, forest elephants, chimpanzees and forest monkeys.
Most South Sudanese are Sabians, followed by Christians and Muslims.
South Sudan is 619,745 square km with 8,260,490 people. South Sudan has 10 provinces.
Juba is the capital of South Sudan.
