Bro Bear scopes out The Philippines

My bear brain likes to know stuff- so i did a bit of googling to find out some information about the country where Dette our Brothers 3 Fans Philippines friend lives.

Maybe i will be lucky enough to one day go spend some time hanging out with Dette and get a more first hand experience of her lovely country!



 Official Name: The Republic of the Philippines.

from: www.lonelyplanet.com

There are over 7,100 islands that together are called The Philippines. This is called an Archipelago.

The two largest islands are Luzon and Mindanao.

 The capital city of The Philippines is called Manila- it is located on the island of Luzon.

 ( Brothers3 related factoid- Dette the Brothers3 Fans Philippines lives on the Luzon Island of The Philippines)

 Area- in terms of size- it's 300,000 kmsquared.


In comparison to Australia - Australia is 25.64 times bigger.  (Australia 7,692,024 kmsquared)

from:  http://the-most-travelled-watch-in-the-world.com/travel_to/Philippines/

Distance from Australia: 4,435 km.














 History:

The Spanish claimed The Philippines in 1521.
Then they ceded (gave) The Philippines to the U.S. in 1898.
During world war 2 the Japanese occupied the Philippines.
After WW2 the country gained it's independence in 1946.

from: http://travel.nationalgeographic.com.au/travel/countries/philippines-facts/

The Philippine Flag





Interesting fact- the flag can send a message- when you can see the blue stripe of the flag on top the country is in peace. If However you see the red stripe on top the country is at war.


Population: as of July 2014 - 100,096,496. 
In comparison Australia in 2014 had a population of  23,630,169.

Language: Filipino (based on Tagalog), English. But there are about 7 main dialects and so many more smaller known dialects - over 100.

School: Kids start school at the age of 7. What we think of as primary school is for 6 years. Then what we think of as high school for 4 years begins at the age of 13.

from: www.tourism.gov.ph

Money- the Philippine peso.
Exchange rates change but on 08/02/15 the exchange rate was- 1 Philippine peso equaled .029 Australian dollar- so that means about 30 Australian cents.





Economy:  agriculture, light industry, and services.
The agricultural produce of the country include bananas, rice, coconuts, corn, fish, mangos, pineapples, sugarcane, pork, and beef. In 2010 it was the largest producer of coconuts in the world- producing 19.5 tonne of coconut.


 F.Y.I.

Rice Terraces built about 2,000 years ago known as the Philippine Cordilleras are listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

from: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattortile/buzzfeed-bayan#.anyVp6moZ

Something many Australians are aware of- there were devastating cyclones in The Philippines in 2013.  Interesting fact you might not know though- In  Camiguin a Philippines province there are 7 inactive volcanos . The last time of volcanic activity was in the 1950s. The island Camiguin is on holds the world record for having the most volcanoes per square kilometre in the world.

The antibiotic erythromycin was created by a Filipino scientist - Abelardo Aguilar. As like it goes although he created this wonderful medicine he does not receive royalties (money) for having done this.

from: sukebandeka.blogspot.com

The yo-yo that we all know today was invented by hunters in the Philippines in the 16th Century coming from-  Ilocano, yóyo.




Information References to this blog post are as follows- there is so much more facts and information- i've just given you a taster of information to whet your appetite.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/kids/en_US/explore/countries/philippines/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com.au/travel/countries/philippines-facts/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattortile/buzzfeed-bayan#.anyVp6moZ

http://www.tourism.gov.ph/SitePages/Trivia.aspx

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/