#AtoZChallenge Archives – Page 4 of 51

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026

Q is for Qatar

Fast Facts:

Named for: Ancient land of Catarhei, according to Pliny the Elder.
Capital: Doha
Long/Lat: 25.2 N/51.3 E, 8000 miles and 16 hours east of Castro Valley
Population: 3.2 million, or 48 CVs. Approx 90% are migrant workers or expatriates.
Size: 4400 sq mi, 240 CVs. High population density.
Avg temp in April: 93 F/32 C
Median household income: $75,000 annually
Ethnicity: 48% Arab, 43% South Asian
Main industries: Oil, trade, commerce, tourism

Qatar is the only country that starts with a “Q,” and I never do this challenge if I can’t manage the Q, so there you go. Even though I just wrote of Oman, here we are again at another country right in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz.

In fact, yesterday the NYTimes pointed out that Qatar is between a rock and a hard place. That is, they are friendly with the U.S., meaning strong business ties and a military base, but they are also on good relations with Iran. Neither country is cheerful about dealing with a compromiser. As a result, Qatar has been subject to 700 missile and drone attacks since the Trump War started.

April 19, 2026April 19, 2026

P is for Panama

The country of Panama, on the isthmus situated between Costa Rica and Colombia.

Fast Facts

Named for: Possibly “butterflies” or “bannaba”=distant place or “place of many fish,” both in indigenous tongue.
Capital: Panama City
Long/Lat: 8.6 N/79.3 W, only 6 hours or 3000 miles SE of Castro Valley. Very close to the equator.
Population: 4.3 million, 65 Castro Valleys
Size: 29,000 sq mi, or 1600 Castro Valleys
Avg temp in April: 90 F/32 C (humidity 85%/ CV usually around 70%)
Median household income: $7,800
Ethnicity: 65% mestizo (mixed), 12% indigenous, 10% Black, 7% white.
Main industries: Trade, commerce, shrimp, copper, hydropower

Sometimes there is serendipity; the stars align. Things can be helped along by choice, but happy accidents may begin the process. Today is the day to write a post on “P” and today, as it happens, we are going through the Panama Canal. The A to Z challenge meets the travel blogs! Due to this exciting circumstance, I will write two posts. Today, I will cover the country of Panama in the same fashion as before, A through O. Tomorrow we will talk about the reason for the trip: going through the Canal.

The Most Ancient History of Panama

Today, let’s focus on early pre-Canal history. Really early, 200 million years ago: Pangaea.

If long-lived intelligent beings were to look through a telescope at this part of Earth, they might ask, Can’t they make up their minds? First, it’s all land, then it’s all sea, then land, then sea, then land… In other words: Pangaea, the Central American Seaway (CAS), the isthmus, the canal, then all the bridges. Humans want all the ways to go, sometimes through the water and sometimes on the roads.

April 14, 2026April 14, 2026

M is for Malta

Malta, the two tiny islands south of Sicily and west of Tunis. Graphic by Nuclear Vacuum.

What is it?
The stuff that dreams are made of…
Sam Spade, describing the Maltese falcon in “The Maltese Falcon”

Fast Facts

Named for: Greek meli (μέλη) for honeyed. There are native bees.
Capital: Valletta
Long/Lat: 35.5 N/14.3 E , 6700 mi East/11 hours East of CV. Nearly directly south of Liechtenstein.
Population: 520,000, or 9x Castro Valleys
Size: 122 sq mi, 8x CV. The population density and size of about 10 CVs.
Avg temp in April: 62 F/16 C (CV-like)
Median household income: $60,000, also high on a world standard
Ethnicity: 78% Maltese, meaning a mix of Italian, Spanish, Arab, French etc.
Main industries: Tourism, banking. In theory, limestone, but not too much.

Unlike Liechtenstein from yesterday, Malta is a tiny dot of great strategic importance. It’s in the Mediterranean, just south of Sicily and Italy but just East of Tunis and North Africa. Tunis was the springboard for the Phoenicians, who advanced sailing and the alphabet, but they were more traders than conquerors. The Romans took over in their turn, as did Hannibal and the Carthaginians. The Goths and Visigoths came through, followed by Islam sweeping across southern Europe and northern Africa. And that’s just the first half of their story of civilization.

Aleccio, Matteo Perez d’; The Siege of Malta: Attack on the Post of the Castilian Knights, 21 August 1565; National Maritime Museum.

It was a place of launching dreams of conquest or re-conquest. When the Crusaders made their move to “take back” land, they pushed from Europe south, establishing footholds in the Mediterranean from Venice and the Riviera to islands like Malta and Cyprus going down to Jerusalem. There were multiple waves of Crusades in the Middle Ages, and, at some point, a group of Benedictine monks built a hospital to minister to the wounded and sick Christian Crusaders. This was the Order of the Knights Hospitallers, affiliated with St. John. Their surcoat with the white cross against the red background is the inverse to the Knight’s Templar, but both captured the idea of a monastic order, beginning from ministering to the sick and needy, yet grounded in a military base.