The CIA World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. While the CIA World Factbook is helpful for finding factual tidbits of information like the average number of children born per woman in Angola (5.37) or when Kiribati will hold their next elections (2019), it says little about the cultural highlights of a country or region.
I propose a website describes the favorite cuisines, coffee, movies, books, fads, websites, and other cultural information for each country. It would answer questions like:
- What are traditional dishes in Bolivia? (salteñas, locro, and quinoa, to name a few)
- What is the best selling music album of all time in the Philippines? (Nandito Ako, by Thalía)
- What are the most important literary works from Nicaragua? (probably the poetry of Rubén Darío)
- What is the coolest annual festival in Mallorca? (Es Firó, where the community re-enacts a pirate attack)
Perhaps the world can be subdivided by land area into 365 regions, and each region can be updated and featured for one day of the year.
The website I know of that comes closest to this idea is Safari the Globe.
Do you know of any other websites that focus on world cultures? Let me know in the comments!
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