I see this from a few people: think Oldupai Gorge, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, the Great Rift Valley, and The Serengeti Plain.
How many people here aren’t doing what the OP asks, to come up with three somethings to say about each and every country on the list in turn until they can’t?
I got as far as Transnistria, a state whose existence I was completely unaware of.
It helps to be variously interested in archaeology, geology and history…and African. None of the African countries flustered me, I at least know stuff like languages, former colonial powers and major ethnicities, even for places like Togo and Gambia.
Uzbekistan is interesting for the trivial reason that it’s one of only two doubly-landlocked countries.
I had to look up the meaning of that: surrounded by other landlocked countries, i.e. an inhabitant must cross at least two borders to reach a coastline. (The other such country is Liechtenstein).
I found in the process (re my puzzlement about capitals in those parts) that Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan; whereas Kazakhstan’s capital was Almaty (Alma Ata) until the late 1990s, but it’s now a place called Astana. Curiouser and curiouser…
I always confuse Mauritius and Mauritania. One is an island and one, as the Onion put it, “Holy Shit! This place still has fucking slaves!” or some such.
Off that list: probably Ghana. I know Kofi Annan, and I coulv’ve said it was one of the biggest African countries without reading that list.
Not speaking of population, the African country I can safely say I know the least about is Zambia. It used to be Malawi until Madonna adopted a kid from there, now I know one fact. I actually did a report on the DRC. Europe, not counting micronations, is maybe Slovakia. I know it split from Czech and that it’s not Slovenia (I know lots more facts about that one). Capital is Bratislava. South America probably Ecuador, but still more than other countries.
If it makes you feel better, it’s not recognized by the UN or most nations as an independant nation, but as part of Moldova.
Neither are Euskal Herria, Western Sahara, South Ossetia or Ambazonia, but I at least know they exist as territories with greater-or-lesser drives to autonomy. I had no idea about the existence of Transnistria as a region, never mind a place that had a war of independence as recent as '92.
I’d heard of Transnistria, but never before of Ambazonia – this thread is, for sure, educational. Google informs that Ambazonia is not, as the name might suggest, in South America – it turns out that it’s a kind of mid-western, English-speaking chunk of mostly-francophone Cameroon.
I’m not very good at geography, and have been using, “Nobody from there has ever been in my kitchen” as one of my things.
That’s the first time ever I hear about Ambazonia.
It sounds made up, doesn’t it? Like Elbonia or Ruritania.
Another name on the sounding-made-up / quasi-existing, borderline: is Azania. I understand that in the times of classical antiquity, the Mediterranean peoples coined the name “Azania” for an area somewhere far southward in Africa – supposed location vague, but the idea tending toward its being on the Indian Ocean side.
The name surfaced later in history, in various ways. Mr. Dibble – if I understand rightly, for a while in the latter half of the 20th century, black militants in your country of South Africa, sought to rename the country, once white rule got rid of, “Azania”. This of course did not in fact happen: I wonder whether in part, because of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Black Mischief, set on the fictitious island-state, off Africa, of Azania. Waugh, an author whose views were highly conservative and indeed white-supremacist, depicted his Azania, black-ruled, as run in a shambolically incompetent and corrupt way. Perhaps this gave pause to some of those who might otherwise have supported the re-titling of South Africa?
I learn from Google, that there are today in Africa, a couple of semi-actual / putative “Azanias” (not featured as such in the OP’s linked-to list – I’ve checked). One is the extreme south-western part of Somalia – which has in recent years seemingly fluctuated between breakaway independent state, and autonomous region. The other: the name “Azania” has seemingly been proposed, for what is at present South Sudan.
Never mind 3 things, I can’t tell you ONE thing about Uzbekistan.
I figure some former SSR would trip me up.
I’m a geography idiot, so I was stumped by number 4, Indonesia.
Well, my aunt and uncle thought it was important to know basic information about other countries, so around the dinner table, and on car trips, we got quizzes on nation’s capitals, official languages, continent of location, type of government, and leader.
Fortunately, I’ve kept up, so I knew that Upper Volta is now Burkina Faso, and Zaire is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. My knowledge did not stagnate the year I was graduated from high school.
I got stuck at 87, Benin: could not remember the capital. Bummer, because the next two were easy, Hungary and Sweden.
Aren’t they somewhere near the Duchy of Grand Fenwick?
The problem with the three-thing theory is I can chump my way to three legitimate facts about anywhere.
For instance, I know basically nothing about the Central African Republic except that it used to be called the Central African Empire. But it’s in Africa, obviously, so that’s two, and it’s poor, so that’s three. I know it’s poor because pretty much all African countries are poor, and the ones that are better off than most, like Botswana, well, that’s one of the things I know about them.
I don’t know much about Mongolia, but it’s in Asia, it’s between China and Russia, and it’s full of Mongols. That’s three things.
My favorite Mongolian fact is the Mongolian Neo-Nazi Movement.
How about a modification where you can only use a thing once. So if your thing is that Tanzania is in Africa, then you can’t use the same thing for CAR.
You wanna get serious? Name things that are only true for each country.