Independence day of the Republic of Colombia

Colombia, officially Republic of Colombia, Spanish República de Colombia, country of northwestern South America. Its 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of coast to the north are bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and its 800 miles (1,300 km) of coast to the west are washed by the Pacific Ocean. The country is bordered by Panama, which divides the two bodies of water, on the northwest, Venezuela and Brazil on the east, and Peru and Ecuador on the south. It is more than twice the size of France and includes the San Andrés y Providencia archipelago, located off the Nicaraguan coast in the Caribbean, some 400 miles (650 km) northwest of the Colombian mainland. The population is largely concentrated in the mountainous interior, where Bogotá, the national capital, is situated on a high plateau in the northern Andes Mountains. The only American nation that is named for Christopher Columbus, the “discoverer” of the New World, Colombia presents a remarkable study in contrasts, in both its geography and its society. The lofty snow-tipped peaks of the country’s interior cordilleras tower high above equatorial forests and savannas where surviving Indian groups still follow the lifeways and traditions of their ancestors. In the cooler mountains, at intermediate elevations, modern cities are juxtaposed with traditional rural landscapes where mestizo farmers cultivate their small plots of coffee, corn (maize), and other crops. The more accessible Atlantic lowlands, dominated by large livestock haciendas and a tri-ethnic population, have a distinctively different character.Colombia strongly reflects its history as a colony of Spain. It is often referred to as the most Roman Catholic of the South American countries, and most of its people are proud of the relative purity of their Spanish language. Its population is heavily mestizo (of mixed European and Indian descent) with substantial minorities of European and African ancestry. The economy is traditionally based on agriculture, particularly coffee and fruit production, but industries and services are increasing in importance. Colombia is the most populous nation of Spanish-speaking South America. More than one-third of its inhabitants live in the six largest metropolitan areas, of which Bogotá is the largest. The nation’s political instability has been historically tied to the unequal distribution of wealth, and the illicit trade in drugs (mainly cocaine) remains a major disruptive factor in Colombian life. Land - Relief Few countries boast such striking physical variety as does Colombia. Its broken, rugged topography, together with its location near the Equator, creates an extraordinary diversity of climates, vegetation, soils, and crops. The Andean cordillera, one of the world’s great mountain ranges, dominates the landscape of the western part of the country, where most of the people live. North of the border with Ecuador the cordillera flares out into three distinct parallel ranges. Two great river valleys, those of the Magdalena and the Cauca, separate them and provide avenues of penetration from the Atlantic coastal lowlands into the heart of the country. Volcanic activity in the geologic past blocked the middle course of the Cauca River to form a great lake that once filled the western inter-Andean trough for some 120 miles (190 km) south of Cartago. The river eventually broke through the dam to leave the level floor of the Cauca valley at some 3,000 feet (900 metres) above sea level; today it is one of the nation’s most productive agricultural areas. The Colombian cordilleras belong to the northern portion of the great Andean mountain system, which extends along the Pacific coast of South America. The Andes are among the world’s most youthful mountain ranges and among the highest. The geologic history of this northern sector is less well understood than that of the central and southern parts. It is clear, however, that the entire cordillera has been thrust up through the subduction of the crumpled eastern margin of the Nazca Plate and, to the north, the Caribbean Plate under the more rigid but lighter South American Plate, which has been forced westward by the spreading Atlantic seafloor. These tectonic forces, similar to those found elsewhere around the Pacific Rim, continue to operate, as is evidenced by the high frequency of often destructive earthquakes. At the Pasto Massif, near the Ecuadoran border, the mountains divide into the Cordillera Occidental (“Western Range”), which runs parallel to the Pacific coast, and the Cordillera Central (“Central Range”), which, with its numerous volcanoes, forms the backbone of the system in Colombia and runs generally southwest to northeast. At the Great Colombian Massif of the Cordillera Central, near the San Agustín Archeological Park, the Cordillera Oriental (“Eastern Range”) branches off in a more decidedly northeasterly direction.Of the three ranges, the nonvolcanic Cordillera Occidental, which forms the barrier between the Cauca valley and the rain-drenched Pacific coast, is the lowest and least populated. Two passes at elevations less than 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) between Cali and Buenaventura on the Pacific coast mark the lowest depressions in the range. Elsewhere the crest is much higher, reaching 12,992 feet (3,960 metres) at Mount Paramillo in the department of Antioquia. From there the Cordillera Occidental fingers north into the three distinct serranías of Abibe, San Jerónimo, and Ayapel, forested ranges that drop gradually toward the piedmont plains of the Caribbean littoral. A lesser topographic feature on the Pacific coast is the Baudó Mountains, separated from the Cordillera Occidental by the valley of the Atrato River, which empties into the Caribbean Gulf of Urabá; the Baudó Mountains represent a southward extension of the Isthmus of Panama. The Cordillera Central is the highest of the Andean ranges of Colombia, rising to an average height of 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). It is a continuation of the Ecuadoran volcanic structure. Crystalline rocks are exposed at several places on its flanks and are the foci of localized gold and silver deposits. Sandstones and shales of the Paleogene and Neogene periods (about 65 to 2.6 million years ago) are also a part of the older basement that has been capped by ash and lava derived from some 20 volcanoes of the Quaternary Period (the past 2.6 million years). Several of the latter reach well into the zone of permanent snow, above 15,000 feet (4,600 metres). The highest are Mount Huila (18,865 feet [5,750 metres]), southeast of Cali, and the Ruiz-Tolima complex (some 17,700 feet [5,400 metres]) between Manizales and Ibagué. The fertile ash from their eruptions has produced the high, cool plateaus of Nariño department and the often steep slopes to the north that support much of Colombia’s coffee production. In November 1985 Mount Ruíz erupted, melting the snow and ice that covered it and sending great mudflows downslope, destroying the city of Armero and killing more than 25,000 in one of the country’s greatest catastrophes. North of Mount Ruíz, near Sonsón in the department of Antioquia, the volcanic Cordillera Central gives way to the deeply weathered, granitic Antioquia batholith (an exposed granitic intrusion), a tableland averaging some 8,000 feet (2,500 metres) above sea level. It is divided into two parts by the deep transverse cleft of the Porce River, which occupies the U-shaped valley in which is situated the expanding metropolis of Medellín, Colombia’s second city. The batholith contains gold-bearing quartz veins, which were the source of the placer gravels that gave rise to an active colonial mining economy. Beyond Antioquia the lower, remote San Lucas Mountains extend northward toward the confluence of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Colombia

2022/07/20

DPIIT-CII delegation meeting with Ministry of Economic Development of Poland and Polish Agency for Investment and Trade

Useful discussions on deepening India-Poland economic ties , esp promoting investment and manufacturing in India, were held between officials of the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland and Polish Agency for Investment and Trade and the DPIIT-CII delegation, 24 June, 2022

2022/07/15

Polsko-rumuńskie konsultacje z udziałem wiceministrów Grzegorza Piechowiaka i Luciana-loan Rusa

Rozwój współpracy handlowej i inwestycyjnej między Polską a Rumunią, promocja eksportu, współpraca w ramach Inicjatywy Trójmorza, wsparcie Ukrainy i wpływ wojny na gospodarki – to główne tematy spotkania sekretarzy stanu odpowiedzialnych za handel międzynarodowy Luciana-loan Rusa wiceministra przedsiębiorczości i turystyki Rumunii oraz Grzegorza Piechowiaka, pełnomocnika rządu ds. inwestycji zagranicznych.

2022/07/15

Bastille Day of the French Republic

France, officially French Republic, French France or République Française, country of northwestern Europe. Historically and culturally among the most important nations in the Western world, France has also played a highly significant role in international affairs, with former colonies in every corner of the globe. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Alps and the Pyrenees, France has long provided a geographic, economic, and linguistic bridge joining northern and southern Europe. It is Europe’s most important agricultural producer and one of the world’s leading industrial powers. France is among the globe’s oldest nations, the product of an alliance of duchies and principalities under a single ruler in the Middle Ages. Today, as in that era, central authority is vested in the state, even though a measure of autonomy has been granted to the country’s régions in recent decades. The French people look to the state as the primary guardian of liberty, and the state in turn provides a generous program of amenities for its citizens, from free education to health care and pension plans. Even so, this centralist tendency is often at odds with another long-standing theme of the French nation: the insistence on the supremacy of the individual. On this matter historian Jules Michelet remarked, “England is an empire, Germany is a nation, a race, France is a person.” Statesman Charles de Gaulle, too, famously complained, “Only peril can bring the French together. One can’t impose unity out of the blue on a country that has 265 kinds of cheese.”This tendency toward individualism joins with a pluralist outlook and a great interest in the larger world. Even though its imperialist stage was driven by the impulse to civilize that world according to French standards (la mission civilisatrice), the French still note approvingly the words of writer Gustave Flaubert: I am no more modern than I am ancient, no more French than Chinese; and the idea of la patrie, the fatherland—that is, the obligation to live on a bit of earth coloured red or blue on a map, and to detest the other bits coloured green or black—has always seemed to me narrow, restricted, and ferociously stupid. At once universal and particular, French culture has spread far and greatly influenced the development of art and science, particularly anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. France has also been influential in government and civil affairs, giving the world important democratic ideals in the age of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution and inspiring the growth of reformist and even revolutionary movements for generations. The present Fifth Republic has, however, enjoyed notable stability since its promulgation on September 28, 1958, marked by a tremendous growth in private initiative and the rise of centrist politics. Although France has engaged in long-running disputes with other European powers (and, from time to time, with the United States, its longtime ally), it emerged as a leading member in the European Union (EU) and its predecessors. From 1966 to 1995 France did not participate in the integrated military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), retaining full control over its own air, ground, and naval forces; beginning in 1995, however, France was represented on the NATO Military Committee, and in 2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the country would rejoin the organization’s military command. As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—together with the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and China—France has the right to veto decisions put to the council. The capital and by far the most important city of France is Paris, one of the world’s preeminent cultural and commercial centres. A majestic city known as the ville lumière, or “city of light,” Paris has often been remade, most famously in the mid-19th century under the command of Georges-Eugène, Baron Haussman, who was committed to Napoleon III’s vision of a modern city free of the choleric swamps and congested alleys of old, with broad avenues and a regular plan. Paris is now a sprawling metropolis, one of Europe’s largest conurbations, but its historic heart can still be traversed in an evening’s walk. Confident that their city stood at the very centre of the world, Parisians were once given to referring to their country as having two parts, Paris and le désert, the wasteland beyond it. Metropolitan Paris has now extended far beyond its ancient suburbs into the countryside, however, and nearly every French town and village now numbers a retiree or two driven from the city by the high cost of living, so that, in a sense, Paris has come to embrace the desert and the desert Paris. Among France’s other major cities are Lyon, located along an ancient Rhône valley trade route linking the North Sea and the Mediterranean; Marseille, a multiethnic port on the Mediterranean founded as an entrepôt for Greek and Carthaginian traders in the 6th century bce; Nantes, an industrial centre and deepwater harbour along the Atlantic coast; and Bordeaux, located in southwestern France along the Garonne River. Land of France France lies near the western end of the great Eurasian landmass, largely between latitudes 42° and 51° N. Roughly hexagonal in outline, its continental territory is bordered on the northeast by Belgium and Luxembourg, on the east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and Andorra, on the west by the Bay of Biscay, and on the northwest by the English Channel (La Manche). To the north, France faces southeastern England across the narrow Strait of Dover (Pas de Calais). Monaco is an independent enclave on the south coast, while the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean is treated as an integral part of the country. Relief The French landscape, for the most part, is composed of relatively low-lying plains, plateaus, and older mountain blocks, or massifs. This pattern clearly predominates over that of the younger, high ranges, such as the Alps and the Pyrenees. The diversity of the land is typical of Continental Europe. Three main geologic regions are distinguishable: the skeletal remains of ancient mountains that make up the Hercynian massifs; the northern and western plains; and the higher young fold mountains in the south and southeast, including the Alps and the Pyrenees, with their attendant narrow plains. Much of the detailed relief can be attributed geologically to the varying differences in the resistance of rocks to erosion. A great deal of the present landscape detail is due to glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). France lay outside the range of the great ice sheets that descended upon the northern part of Europe, so the direct sculpting of the land by ice was restricted to the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Vosges, Corsica, and the highest summits of the Massif Central. Just outside these glacial areas, in what are known as periglacial lands, repeated freezing and thawing of unprotected surfaces modified slopes by the movement of waste sheets (formed of shattered bedrock), producing very much the landscape that exists today. Pleistocene periglacial action generated the sheets of the fine windblown limon, or loess, that is the basis of the most fertile lowland soils, and it possibly also created the Landes, a sandy plain in southwestern France. The development of river terraces (flat, raised surfaces alongside valleys) was another characteristic of periglacial action. More …. Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/France

2022/07/14

After Royal Lazienki the Odyssea cantata was also performed in Kraśnik, home to the 24th Lancers regiment.

This is the unit of Henryk Seroka, Maczek-veteran and father of Henri Seroka, composer and conductor of the cantata, dedicated to the odyssey of General Maczek and his soldiers during and after WWII. The citizens of Kraśnik clearly enjoyed the captivating music in the perfect setting of the city’s open air amphitheater, and thanked the artists with a standing ovation and insistent calls for an ‘encore’.

2022/07/13

Visit of The Deputy Yang Di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia and Sultan of Perak, His Royal Highness Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah Ibni Almarhum Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah Al-Maghfur-Lah, 21 to 24 June 2022

His Royal Highness Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah Al-Maghfur-Lah, the Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia and Sultan of Perak, is visiting Singapore from 21 to 24 June 2022 at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

2022/07/13

Statehood Day of Montenegro

Montenegro, country located in the west-central Balkans at the southern end of the Dinaric Alps. It is bounded by the Adriatic Sea and Croatia (southwest), Bosnia and Herzegovina (northwest), Serbia (northeast), Kosovo (east), and Albania (southeast). Montenegro’s administrative capital is Podgorica, though its cultural centre is the historical capital and older city of Cetinje. For much of the 20th century Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia, and from 2003 to 2006 it was a component of the federated union of Serbia and Montenegro.The country’s names—both Montenegro (from Venetian Italian) and Crna Gora—denote “Black Mountain,” in reference to Mount Lovćen (5,738 feet [1,749 metres]), its historical centre near the Adriatic Sea and its stronghold in the centuries of struggle with the Turks. Alone among the Balkan states, Montenegro was never subjugated. The old heartland of Montenegro, in the southwest, is mainly a karstic region of arid hills, with some cultivable areas—e.g., around Cetinje and in the Zeta valley. The eastern districts, which include part of the Dinaric Alps (Mount Durmitor), are more fertile and have large forests and grassy uplands. The drainage system of Montenegro flows in two opposite directions. The Piva, Tara, and Lim rivers follow northerly courses, the Morača and Zeta rivers southerly ones.Relief The terrain of Montenegro ranges from high mountains along its borders with Kosovo and Albania, through a segment of the Karst region of the western Balkan Peninsula, to a narrow coastal plain that is only 1 to 4 miles (2 to 6 km) wide. The coastal plain disappears completely in the north, where Mount Lovćen and other peaks rise abruptly from the inlet of the Gulf of Kotor. The coastal region is noted for seismic activity. Montenegro’s section of the Karst lies generally at an elevation of 3,000 feet (900 metres) above sea level—although some areas rise to 6,000 feet (1,800 metres). The lowest segment is in the valley of the Zeta River, which is at about 1,500 feet (450 metres). The river occupies the centre of Nikšić Polje, a flat-floored, elongated depression typical of karstic regions, as is the predominantly limestone underlying rock, which dissolves to form sinkholes and underground caves.The high mountains of Montenegro include some of the most rugged terrain in Europe and average more than 7,000 feet (2,000 metres) in elevation. Notable is Bobotov Peak in the Durmitor Mountains, which reaches 8,274 feet (2,522 metres) and is the country’s highest point. The Montenegrin mountains were the most ice-eroded section of the Balkan Peninsula during the last glacial period.Drainage Montenegro’s surface runoff in the north is carried away by the Lim and Tara river systems, which enter the Danube via the Drina River, which forms the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In southern Montenegro, streams flow toward the Adriatic. Much of the drainage of the karstic region is not on the surface but travels in underground channels. Lake Scutari (known in Montenegro as Skadarsko Jezero), the country’s largest lake, lies near the coast and extends across the international border into northern Albania. It is 25 miles (40 km) long and 10 miles (16 km) wide, with a total surface area of 140 square miles (360 square km), and some three-fifths of it lies within Montenegrin territory. The lake occupies a karstic polje depression, the floor of which lies below sea level. Montenegro’s mountainous regions are noted for their numerous smaller lakes. Soils A distinctive feature of Montenegro is the accumulations of terra rossa in its coastal area. This red soil, a product of the weathering of dolomite and limestone rocks, is also found in depressions in the Karst. Mountainous areas above the plateaus have typical gray-brown forest soils and podzols. Climate Montenegro’s lower areas have a Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Temperature varies greatly with elevation. Podgorica, lying near sea level, is noted for having the warmest July temperatures in the country, averaging 81 °F (27 °C). Cetinje, in the Karst region at an elevation of 2,200 feet (670 metres), has an average temperature that is 10 °F (5 °C) lower. Average January temperatures range from 46 °F (8 °C) at Bar on the southern coast to 27 °F (−3 °C) in the northern mountains. Montenegro’s mountainous regions receive some of the highest amounts of rainfall in Europe. Annual precipitation at Crkvice, in the Karst above the Gulf of Kotor, is nearly 200 inches (5,100 mm). Like most areas along the Mediterranean Sea, precipitation occurs principally during the cold part of the year, but in the higher mountains a secondary summer maximum is present. Snow cover is rare along the Montenegrin coast, averaging 10 days in karstic polje depressions and increasing to 120 days in the higher mountains. Plant and animal life One-third of Montenegro, principally in the high mountains, remains covered with broad-leaved forest. However, bare rock characterizes most of the southern Karst zone, where soils generally are absent. This area remained forested through Classical times, with oaks and cypresses predominating, but removal of forests for domestic fuel and construction led to widespread soil erosion and, ultimately, to replacement of the woodlands by the Mediterranean scrub assemblage known as maquis. Sparsely populated Montenegro is noted as a habitat for numerous mammals, including bears, deer, martens, and wild pigs (Sus scrofa). It has many predatory wild animals, including wolves, foxes, and wildcats. The country also has a rich variety of birds, reptiles, and fish. People of Montenegro - Ethnic groups Differences between Montenegrins and Serbs are a matter of continuing controversy. Although isolated from each other for centuries during the Ottoman period, when Albanian families came to dominate the intervening Kosovo region, both groups retained their Orthodox religious traditions and many other common cultural attributes—including the Cyrillic alphabet. Because of such obvious commonalities, most Serbs see Montenegrins as “Mountain Serbs,” and many—but certainly not all—Montenegrins see themselves as Serb in origin. Fluctuations between a Serb and a Montenegrin identity have been reflected in census figures. In 1981, for example, more than two-thirds of the residents of Montenegro identified themselves as Montenegrin, while only a tiny percentage reported themselves as Serb. By the early 1990s those proportions had changed to about three-fifths and one-tenth, respectively. In the early 21st century almost half of the population was identified as Montenegrin and about one-fourth as Serb. The largest non-Serb minorities are Bosniaks (Muslims) and Albanians, the former concentrated in the northern mountains and the latter along the Adriatic coast. Nearly three-fourths of the population of the coastal community of Ulcinj is Albanian.Languages and religion During the long period of separation from Serbia, Montenegrins developed characteristics and institutions of their own. For example, they did not adhere to the Serbian Orthodox Church but were led by their own metropolitan until the Montenegrin church was absorbed into the Serbian patriarchate in 1920. In addition, Montenegrin pronunciation is closer to Croatian than to Serbian. A strong nationalist movement grew alongside Montenegrin resentment of Serbian attempts to minimize their distinctiveness. Many (but by no means all) Montenegrins joined Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs in insisting that what is spoken in each of their respective countries is a language distinct from neighbouring languages, despite mutual intelligibility. Thus, they prefer that their language be called Montenegrin. Montenegrin, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian, and Croatian are all recognized by the constitution as official languages. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Montenegro

2022/07/13

Ambasador Kolumbii odwiedza Kraków

Podczas wizyty Panu Ambasadorowi towarzyszyła Konsul Honorowa Kolumbii w Krakowie Joanna Natasza Wais. Spotkanie z Prezydentem Jackiem Majchrowskim miało charakter kurtuazyjny i zapoznawczy, była to bowiem pierwsza oficjalna wizyta Pana Ambasadora w Krakowie. Ambasador Peña zastąpił na stanowisku J.E. Javiera Dario Higuerę, który – we wrześniu 2021 roku – dokonał otwarcia Konsulatu Honorowego Kolumbii w Krakowie.

2022/07/12

Prezentacja priorytetów czeskiej Prezydencji w Radzie UE

Ambasador Jakub Dürr w piątek 1 lipca br. w siedzibie Ambasady w obecności ministra ds. europejskich Konrada Szymańskiego zainaugurował czeską Prezydencję w Razie UE. W uroczystej inauguracji brali udział członkowie korpusu dyplomatycznego, w tym Ambasador Francji Frédéric Billet, Marzenna Guz-Vetter p. o. Szefowej Przedstawicielstwa KE w Polsce oraz pracownicy polskich ministerstw.

2022/07/12