1.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
2.
Piton des Neiges
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The Piton des Neiges is a massive 3,069 m shield volcano on Réunion, one of the French volcanic islands in the Mascarene Archipelago in the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is located about 800 kilometres east of Madagascar, Piton des Neiges is the highest point on Réunion and is considered to be the highest point in the Indian Ocean. The volcano was formed by the Réunion hotspot and emerged from the sea about two years ago. Now deeply eroded, the volcano has been inactive for 20,000 years and is surrounded by three massive crater valleys, the Cirques, Piton des Neiges forms the northwestern two thirds of Réunion, with the very active Piton de la Fournaise comprising the rest. Despite its name, snow practically never falls on the summit, the volcanic island is considered to be about three million years old, the other two islands in the archipelago, Mauritius and Rodrigues, are 7.8 million and 1½ million years old, respectively. The island possesses a high endemism of flowering plants, this has justified the creation of a reserve on the lower slopes of the Piton des Neiges. There are three medium-difficulty tracks leading up to the peak, one from the Cirque de Salazie, one from the Cirque de Cilaos and they meet at a staffed mountain hut about an hours walk below the peak at la Caverne Dufour. Walkers often arrive there after a day trek up the mountain. The mountain hut offers heated indoor lodging, outdoor tent lodging and it is best to make reservations. The hike starting from Cilaos is about 6.5 hours up and 4 hours down, to reach the start of the hike, drive through Cilaos toward la Mare à St Joseph. About 3 km past Cilaos, you see a sign. You may also leave your car downtown and follow the road to the trail head, the hike is very steep, and one should be cautious if the trail is wet. The hike starting from la Plaine des Cafres is about 8 hours up and 5 hours down with a change in elevation of 1700m, to access the hike, follow RN3 past Le Tampon, all the way to La Plaine des Cafres and Bourg Murat. 2.5 km after Bourg Murat, take a left on the GR R2 road toward Savane Mare à Boue, follow for 2 km and park at the trail head. List of volcanoes in Réunion List of islands by highest point List of Ultras of Africa Piton des Neiges – Gros Morne Important Bird Area Reunion island Hike starting from la Plaine des Cafres
3.
Overseas department
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An overseas department is a department of France that is outside metropolitan France. The overseas departments should not be confused with the overseas collectivities, each overseas department is also an overseas region. In 1798 the Russian Admiral Ushakov evicted the French from these islands, and though France regained them in 1802, since 1982, following the French government’s policy of decentralisation, overseas departments have elected regional councils with powers similar to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Following a yes vote in a referendum held on March 29,2009, the overseas collectivity Saint Pierre and Miquelon was an overseas department from 1976 to 1985
4.
French people
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The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. To be French, according to the first article of the French Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of origin, race. The debate concerning the integration of this view with the underlying the European Community remains open. A large number of foreigners have traditionally been permitted to live in France, indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries, the European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector. Seeing itself as a nation with universal values, France has always valued. However, the success of such assimilation has recently called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves, the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration, the name France etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire, in the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar, the area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish vernacular language disappeared step by step to be replaced everywhere by Vulgar Latin, which would later develop under Frankish influence into the French language in the North of France. With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture, the Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands, at the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is spoken as a kind of Dutch in northern France. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace, the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there and they were competitors of the Franks, thats why it became at the Renaissance time the word for German in French, Allemand. By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process
5.
African diaspora
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Some scholars identify four circulatory phases of migration out of Africa. The term has also commonly been used to refer to recent emigration from Africa. Its constitutive act declares that it shall invite and encourage the participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent. The phrase African diaspora was coined during the 1990s, and gradually entered common usage during the 2000s, use of the term diaspora is modelled after the concept of the Jewish diaspora. Much of the African diaspora was dispersed throughout the Americas, Europe, beginning in the 15th century, Europeans captured or bought African slaves from West Africa and brought them to the Americas and Europe. The Atlantic Slave Trade ended in the 19th century, and the Arab Slave Trade ended in the middle of the 20th century, the dispersal through slave trading represents the largest forced migrations in human history. The economic effect on the African continent was devastating, as generations of people were taken from their communities and societies were disrupted. Some communities created by descendants of African slaves in the Americas, Europe, in other cases, blacks intermarried with non-blacks, and their descendants are blended into the local population. In the Americas, the confluence of multiple ethnic groups from around the world created multi-ethnic societies, in Central and South America, most people are descended from European, indigenous American, and African ancestry. In Brazil, where in 1888 nearly half the population was descended from African slaves, in the United States, there was historically a greater European colonial population in relation to African slaves, especially in the Northern Tier. There was considerable racial intermarriage in colonial Virginia, and other forms of racial mixing during the slavery, one of the results of this implementation was the loss of records of Indian-identified groups, who were classified only as black because of being mixed race. See Emigration from Africa for a treatment of voluntary population movements since the late 20th century. From the very onset of Spanish exploration and colonial activities in the Americas, juan Garrido was such an African conquistador. He crossed the Atlantic as a freedman in the 1510s and participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan, Africans had been present in Asia and Europe long before Columbuss travels. Its constitutive act declares that it shall invite and encourage the participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent. Their descendants are now found around the globe, but because of intermarriage they are not necessarily readily identifiable, a long line of scholars has challenged conventional views of the African diaspora as a mere dispersion of Black people. For them, it is a movement of liberation that opposes the implications of racialization and their position assumes that Africans and their descendants abroad struggle to reclaim power over their lives through voluntary migration, cultural production and political conceptions and practices. It also implies the presence of cultures of resistance with similar objectives throughout the global diaspora, from this view, the daily struggle against what they call the world-historical processes of racial colonization, capitalism, and western domination defines Blacks links to Africa
6.
Malbars
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There have been people of South Indian origin on the island since the 17th century, and those were mostly from Pondicherry. Most were originally brought in as indentured labourers in the half of the 19th century and were mostly South Indian Tamils. Since then, the Malbars have developed some patterns of behaviour that are not quite those of their ancestors from Tamil Nadu nor those of the inhabitants of Réunion. Malbars is derived from the word Malabar, a term which was used often by the French and other Westerners to refer to all Southern Indians, including the Tamils, Malayalees, Telugus and Kannadigas. Indian workers came to Réunion from South India, mostly from French settlements in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, most of these immigrants were ritually low in the caste system. Hard living conditions at home were the reason behind their departure to La Réunion. The immigration of indentured workers from South India started in 1827, the French government in Réunion made the first Malbars become Christian. However, many Malbars were only nominally Christian, the Tamil language was lost to language shift. The Malbars desire to learn their ancestors culture, and started studying their language, recently many Malbars, particularly those of upper and middle classes, have started to become completely Hindu rather than nominally Christian. They also now wanted to translate their newly acquired civic and political rights into a gradual and increasing participation in local, a sit-in protest was organised to support Sri Lanka Tamils by the Réunionnais organisation TAMIL SANGAM presided by Dr Shanmugam. Hundreds of Tamils and non Tamils protested against the genocide of Sri Lanka Tamils, a genetic study has shown that the majority of the Indian origins of Malbars lie in the South-east of India. A significantly larger proportion comes from Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, the study also showed that 15-20% of the origins of Malbars come from India. Less than 1% comes from Europe, jean-Paul Virapoullé is currently Mayor of Saint Andre and first Vice President of the General Council of Réunion
