#FOWC Archives – Page 2 of 111

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026

T is for Tajikistan

The seven “stans” with Tajikistan highlighted. Generated from Mapchart.

Fast Facts:

Named for: Persian: تاجیک, romanized: tājīk, the Tayy tribe, whose first member may have been named “he who plastered the well”
Capital: Dushanbe
Long/Lat: 38.30 N/68.5 E , 7100 miles or 13 hours east of Castro Valley
Population: 10.8 million or 164 CVs
Size: 55,300 sq mi,or 3100 CVs
Avg temp in April: 68 F/ 20 F
Median income: $1,100 annually
Ethnicity: 86% Tajiks, 11% Uzbeks
Main industries: Aluminum, cotton, immigrant remittances (workers in other countries sending $$ home)

Like many of you, I have always been confused with the “-stans,” the seven Central Asian countries whose suffix means “land.” Everyone jokes about being unable to tell them apart–well, “everyone” who doesn’t live anywhere near there. I am sure that Tajikistanis would look at the USA and laugh at us creating Colorado and Wyoming. Squares? Americans have no imaginations! Why does Florida look like a man’s–

In the ongoing A-Z spirit of educating ourselves, I decided to make “T” Tajikistan, even though it’s not an especially small country. It’s 94th in size, which is in the middle of the list; it’s in the middle of the -stans, and the middle of Asia, the middle of what was once Persia, the middle of the Silk Road. It is in the middle.

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 20, 2026April 20, 2026

The Panama Canal: 500 Lives per Mile

The original Panama Canal still operates a century later. Kajmeister photo.

A grand vision. Incredible hubris. Stupidity and poor planning. Thousands of lives lost. A miracle of modern science and engineering. A doorway between oceans. The Panama Canal was–and is–all of these things.

Yesterday, I wrote my A to Z post about the country of Panama. But I mentioned the serendipity of being in Panama while it was time to write about Panama. And the first thing anyone usually thinks about Panama is The Canal.

Knowing I was planning this trip through the canal, Nan, one of my chickleball friends, recommended an excellent history of the canal: David McCullough’s The Pathway through the Seas. It earned a Pulitzer Prize 50 years ago, and for good reason. I had to speed-read the last of the 600 pages, just finishing it it in time–phew! otherwise, we would have been stuck in the locks. Spoiler: they did it. It was cray-cray. Herein, I will give you the speed version, 2000 words instead of 600 pages, the How, Why, and What the Canal was all about.