Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the people's democratic republic of Ethiopia, is a country of eastern Africa, situated on the Horn of Africa, and covering an area of 472,400 square miles. The capital and also largest city is Addis Ababa (Hodd 81). It is about 700 miles in length northwest to southeast, and 640 miles in width, northeast to southwest. Ethiopia is bordered by on the east by Djibouti and Somalia, on the south by Kenya, and on the west by The Sudan. It has 628 miles of coastline along the Red Sea, on the northeast and about 150 Red Sea islands belong to Ethiopia (Hodd 84). The population of Ethiopia is approximately 78 million, second only to Nigeria among African countries. The geographic coordinates of Ethiopia are 8° N 38°E and is slightly less than twice the size of Texas. Ethiopia is unique as one of the oldest countries in the world, one of the first countries to adopt Christianity, and one of the few areas of Africa which was never a European colony except for a brief period under Italy in the 1930s (Munro-Hay 112). The main staple languages that are spoke here include: Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, other local languages, and English (which is the major foreign language taught in schools.) Ethiopia's do have a system of Currency, which as of January 26, 2005, is known as a Birr. The labor Force is made up by various Occupations, which include agriculture and animal husbandry 80%, government and services 12%, industry, and other 8%. The most shocking fact of all perhaps is the life expectancy of an individual living in Ethiopia, which is merely 37 years old.
The climate of Ethiopia and its dependent territories varies greatly. Somaliland and the Danakil lowlands have a hot, dry climate producing semi-desert conditions; the country in the lower basin of the Sobat is hot, swampy and malarious. But over the greater part of Ethiopia as well as the Galla highlands the climate is very healthy and temperate. The country...