Thanks so much. The original source I used (IMF) didn't have Somalia on their list, because information is hard to verify. I have added it now using information from another source.
@YouLoveEagle, that's what everyone thinks at first. I certainly wasn't expecting to get a feature when I joined the site, but now I have 3! If you are willing to dedicate yourself to the site and put out high quality quizzes, there's a decent chance one of them will get featured one day :)
Those were tough. I understand their inclusion on this quiz, but I don't think I would have guessed either one even if the quiz had a 10 minute time limit.
@cornflakesfu - With a 10 minute time limit, you'd probably have managed to get through all the countries of the world, and I'm sure you wouldn't have tried any of the Pacific island countries or any micronations before Guyana and Suriname.
I was wondering if this would be closer to a list of big countries or to a list of poor countries, and it definitely skewed towards the latter - very poor countries, of medium to large size.
Population is probably more of a factor though - a lot of big-but-poor countries are saved from the list by having loads of people, like Nigeria, India, Bangladesh.
So sad to see the results. So many resources in this amazing continent of Africa but immense poverty. The West needs to stop the exploitation and the leaders need to go, make way for the next generation to put Africa at the top where it belongs.
@snurtman, your first part might by right, but your second part not, that is misleading. Most comments here don't get a reply from the original poster because with so many quizzes on this site, a lot to do before having to do quizzes a 2nd time.
no correlation. That is like saying if your friend doesn't stop by to visit today HE is the one that stole your car. It is not evidence of anything (though unfortunately in real life this weird type of argument you will convince many people. Of course of things they already believe. And call it "proof"..
Sorry for the bad explanation in English. Hope you guys get my point.
Wow. Some ignorance here. Look up dependency theory and world systems theory. I wouldn't say it's the West exploiting Africa for raw resources, though. It's more local and global elites (and the global ones have been and are more concentrated in the 'west' but they're also in arab countries and increasingly China and elsewhere).
To give a more thorough answer: France has a lot of control over the financial systems in many of these countries. They use the CFA Franc, which is pegged to the Euro and mediated by France. This means France has control over things such as the printing of currency, interest rates, and foreign reserves in these countries. (Source)
There's some controversy about this: the French government claims it contributes to the financial stability of these countries but detractors say it's holding these countries back. I don't know enough about this issue to give a definite judgement, but it's also worth noting that English colonies like Ghana and Nigeria are less financially dependent on other countries and are also doing much better economically than the countries here.
I sort of expected Kazakhstan to be up here as well. But I guess they have a reasonable gdp.
Population is probably more of a factor though - a lot of big-but-poor countries are saved from the list by having loads of people, like Nigeria, India, Bangladesh.
Very interesting quiz, thanks!
no correlation. That is like saying if your friend doesn't stop by to visit today HE is the one that stole your car. It is not evidence of anything (though unfortunately in real life this weird type of argument you will convince many people. Of course of things they already believe. And call it "proof"..
Sorry for the bad explanation in English. Hope you guys get my point.
There's some controversy about this: the French government claims it contributes to the financial stability of these countries but detractors say it's holding these countries back. I don't know enough about this issue to give a definite judgement, but it's also worth noting that English colonies like Ghana and Nigeria are less financially dependent on other countries and are also doing much better economically than the countries here.
Probably doesn't miss out by much