Monday, March 07, 2005

Quiz : see if you can figure it out

Which country in Asia

1.was the first to become a republic, but replaced a sitting president in 2001 without benefit of elections, death or disability, resignation, or impeachment?

2.was the first to embrace democratic processes, but whose elections are the region's bloodiest and most fraudulent?

3.was the first to write a constitution for itself but endured 14 years of dictatorial rule?

4.had the second highest gross national product [GNP], next to Japan, in 1938?

5.has been characterized by UNICEF as "first among the worst-managed children's health care systems in Asia"?

6.has the weakest, most under-funded Armed Forces?

7.is the largest per-capita debtor to the International Monetary Fund?

8.spends one-third of its annual national budget to pay the interest fees on its foreign debt?

9.has the highest per-capita crime rate and is known as the region's "kidnap capital"?

10.is overwhelmingly Catholic, but has the second largest number of child prostitutes?

11.pays the second highest retail electricity rates, next to Japan?

12.is currently, next to Bangladesh, the region's poorest nation- state?

Which country in the world

13.is the only one named after a foreign colonizer-king?

14.is the only one, save for Nepal, that continues to face a communist insurgency?

15.is the only one to ask for and host foreign combat troops to help quell criminality?

16.taught the world how to grow rice but for the last 10 years has been a net importer of the staple?

17.has been characterized by the World Health Organization as "the epicenter of the global tuberculosis epidemic?"

18.expects its metropolian population to double [from 11 million to 22 million] in less than 17 years and its total population to double [from 80 million to 160 million] in less than 29 years?

19.has been tagged internationally as "the number one violator of intellectual property rights?"

20.ranks second only to Madagascar worldwide in the list of countries with the most threatened mammals?

21.currently ranks, among 180 states surveyed, as the 11th most corrupt country?

22.in a study of 186 countries, is the 6th most culturally fragmented nation-state [containing 87 distinct nations that speak in excess of 160 living languages, excluding their dialects]?

23.deforests its remaining timberland at the rate of 100,000 hectares/year?

24.used to be the largest exporter of abaca hemp and sugar, but is low the world's largest exporter of domestic labor?

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