Coordinates	52.65°0′0″N5.07°0′0″N
Name	Nouakchott
Native name	نواكشوط
Pushpin map	Mauritania
Map caption	Map of Mauritania showing Nouakchott
Coordinates region	MR
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name
Subdivision type1	Capital district
Subdivision name1	Nouakchott
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Ahmed Hamza (2007-)
Population as of	1999
Population total	881000
Area total km2	1000
Population density km2	881
Area total sq mi	400
Elevation ft	}}

Nouakchott (Arabic: ''or'' (believed translation from Berber "The place of the winds", Nawākšūṭ) is the capital and by far the largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city is the administrative and economic centre of Mauritania.

History

A tiny fishing town until 1958, Nouakchott was mentioned little during pre-colonial and colonial history. It is possible that the Berber Muslim Almoravids were originally from the area. Despite its name, based on a Berber expression meaning "place of the winds", the city was selected as the capital city for its moderate climate and central location within the country. It did, however, sit on one of the most valuable trade routes to West Africa. Mauritania was part of the larger French colony of French West Africa, and as such had no capital during the colonial period: Saint-Louis, in Senegal, held that position. In 1957, this small port town was chosen to be the capital of the new country, and an ambitious building program was begun to increase its population to 15,000, starting a year later. In 1958, Mauritania was formed as an autonomous republic in the French Community, and in 1960 it became an independent country, with Nouakchott as its capital.

Since independence

The city was attacked in 1976 by the Polisario Front, as part of the Western Sahara independence movement. Between 1988 and 1989, racial tensions between Arabs and blacks escalated. There was discrimination and retaliation by Arabs and blacks. The were also three days of "bread riots" starting January 21, 1995.

The city has had rapid growth, driven by the north African drought since the beginning of the 1970s: many have moved to the city in search of a better life. The population is estimated to have been just under 1,000,000 in 2000, and to have grown to above 2,000,000 as of 2008.

There is currently a large amount of Chinese investment in Mauritania that is focused on the city.

Geography

thumb|left|200px|Nouakchott seen from Spot SatelliteLocated on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert, it lies on the west coast of Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean. With the exception of Nouakchott Wharf and a deep water port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood. The coastline includes shifting sandbanks, and sandy beaches. There are also areas of quicksand close to the harbour. The city is being covered by the sand dunes advancing from its eastern side (salmon-coloured on image to left), which pose a daily problem. There have been efforts to save particular areas, including work by Jean Meunier. The city is largely flat.

Owing to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. Most buildings are one-storey only. It also often acts as an interface between urban Mauritanians and their nomadic fellow citizens.

Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Abdel Nasir, which runs northeast through the city centre from the airport. Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian or international figures of the 1960s: Avenue Abdel Nasser, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.

The city is broken into numbered ''arrondissements'', sub-divided into alphabetised ''Îlots''. The Cinquième Arrondissement is home to a large shopping area.

Climate

Nouakchott features an arid climate with hot summers and warm “winters”. Temperatures are hot for much of the year in the city, due to its location. However, Nouakchott possesses a mild temperature range compared to other cities in this climate. While average high temperatures are relatively constant at around , average low temperatures can range from during the summer months to during the "winter" months. Average low temperatures can be as low as during “winter” months in Nouakchott. Average rainfall in the city is a year. The bulk of the precipitation typically falls within August, the one month that forms the city’s very brief wet season.

Government

The town was first divided into districts (''moughataa'') in 1973. First it was divided into four. From 1986, the city has been split into nine districts.

Arafat

Dar Naim

El Mina

Ksar

Riad

Sebkha

Tevragh-Zeina

Teyarett

Toujounine

Demographics

For comparison, its population was only 20,000 in 1969 and 150,000 in 1980. Part of the difficulty in estimating the city's population is that part of it is literally nomadic, setting up tents in suitable locations, then packing up when the need strikes. Some estimates put the 2008 population at over 2 million; more conservative estimates put that number at 800,000, itself estimated to be close to one-third of the country's population.

Slum resettlement

In 2009, the government of Mauritania announced that it would begin a process of clearing the slum on the outskirts of Nouakchott. 24,000 families would eventually be relocated to planned housing within the city. The process is scheduled to begin with the relocation of 9,000 families from the outskirts into the poor Arafat department neighbourhood of "Kosovo", popularly named for its high crime rate and poor services. The government plans to begin moving families in June 2009 despite concerns from aid agencies that needed infrastructure cannot be put in place in the receiving neighbourhood.

Infrastructure and administration

Nouakchott has a deep-sea port, opened in 1986, primarily used for imports. Annually, imports account for around 96.4% of traffic at the port. It handles 500,000–800,000 tonnes of cargo a year. Recently, China has agreed to invest US$282 million in the port, aiming to extend the main quay, the deepwater Quay of Friendship, by . A road connects the city with Néma via Boutilimit and Kiffa. The city also features an international airport, Nouakchott International Airport. Road transport is problematic, the main problem being overcrowded roads. Fuel for cars is also hard to obtain in Nouakchott.

An agreement was signed on August 5, 2007 between Mauritania, Sudan, and China to build $630m Mauritania Railway linking the port of Nouakchott and phosphate mines at Bofal, about 430 km away. The line goes near the border with Senegal.

The city is home to the US Embassy. , it is the home to over 30 international or diplomatic institutions.

Economy

Salt, cement, insecticides, rugs, carpets, embroidery, and craft products are produced in Nouakchott, with the port also exporting copper. , there are over 30 small or middle-sized factories in the city. Administration and financial enterprises are also important. The airline Mauritania Airways has its head office in the city. When Air Mauritanie existed, its head office was in the city.

Fresh water

Although the rocks beneath the city contained a vast reservoir of fresh water, known as the Trarza Lake, fresh water is running out, owing to the large growth of the city. Engineers have warned it could run out by 2054, since it is not rain-fed, and is therefore non-renewable. The problem is particularly bad in the sandy shanty towns where the majority of the population lives.

Many people already have to buy water, which is expensive compared with the average wage in the city.

Education

The city is home to the Université de Nouakchott, which is the only university in Mauritania and was opened in 1981. Approximately 8000 students study there, and it has a considerable impact on the city, according to some. Other higher education facilities include the National School of Administration, and the National Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies. There are many primary and secondary schools, and an American International School of Nouakchott.

Culture and religion

thumb|200px|Fish market at the Nouakchott beach.Attractions in Nouakchott include Nouakchott Museum, several markets including Nouakchott Silver Market, and the beaches. One beach is devoted to fishing boats where various species of fish can be bought fresh. The city also hosts the National Library and National Archives. Nouakchott is the principal location in Africa for world distribution of native Saharan meteorites.

There is a mosque donated by Saudi Arabia in the city centre, and a Moroccan mosque further south. Although Islam is the state religion in Mauritania, Nouakchott includes the Cathedral of St. Joseph, a Catholic cathedral. It is home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nouakchott, founded in 1965.

International relations

Twin towns - Sister cities

Nouakchott is twinned with: Madrid, Spain Tucson, Arizona, USA Lanzhou Municipality, China Amman, Jordan (1999)

See also

Transport in Mauritania

References

Armelle Choplin et Riccardo Ciavolella, 2008. " Marges de la ville en marge du politique ? Logiques d’exclusion, de dépendance et d’autonomie à Nouakchott (Mauritanie) », Autrepart, n°45. Choplin A., 2006. ''Fabriquer des villes-capitales entre monde arabe et Afrique noire: Nouakchott (Mauritanie) et Khartoum (Soudan), étude comparée''. Université Paris 1, 535 p. Choplin A., 2006. ''Le foncier urbain en Afrique: entre informel et rationnel, de Nouakchott, Mauritanie'', Les annales de géographie, n°647, pp. 69–91. Anne-Marie Frérot, ''Nouakchott, du puits nomade à la ville des pétroliers. Risques et représentations'', ''Maghreb-Machrek'', n°190, c.December 2006-2007. Philippe Tanguy, « L'urbanisation irrégulière à Nouakchott: 1960-2000 », ''Insaniyat'', n°22, October - December 2003, (vol. VII, 4). Diagana I., 1993. ''Croissance urbaine et dynamique spatiale à Nouakchott, Thèse doct.'': géographie: Lyon II, 314 p. Pitte J.-R., 1977. ''Nouakchott, capitale de la Mauritanie''. Paris : Univ. de Paris-Sorbonne, p. 200.

External links

Life in Nouakchott

NASA Image

Category:Populated coastal places in Mauritania Category:Capitals in Africa Category:Populated places in Mauritania Category:Planned cities Category:Regions of Mauritania

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Coordinates	52.65°0′0″N5.07°0′0″N
name	James Beeland Rogers, Jr.
birth date	October 19, 1942
birth place	Baltimore, Maryland, USA
occupation	investor, financial commentator, and author
alma mater	Balliol College, OxfordYale University
website	www.jimrogers.com
footnotes	}}

James Beeland Rogers, Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor, financial commentator, and author based in Singapore. He is chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI).

Rogers is an outspoken proponent of the free market, but he does not consider himself a member of any school of thought. Rogers acknowledged, however, that his views best fit the label of Austrian School of economics.

Biography

Rogers was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Demopolis, Alabama. He started in business at the age of five by selling peanuts and by picking up empty bottles that fans left behind at baseball games. He got his first job on Wall Street, at Dominick & Dominick, after graduating with a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1964. Rogers then acquired a second BA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford University in 1966.

In 1970, Rogers joined Arnhold and S. Bleichroder. In 1973, Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros. During the following 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200% while the S&P advanced about 47%. The Quantum Fund was one of the first truly international funds.

In 1980, Rogers decided to "retire", and spent some of his time traveling on a motorcycle around the world. Since then, he has been a guest professor of finance at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

In 1989 and 1990, Rogers was the moderator of WCBS' ''The Dreyfus Roundtable'' and FNN's ''The Profit Motive with Jim Rogers''. From 1990 to 1992, he traveled through China again, as well as around the world, on motorcycle, over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) across six continents, which was picked up in the ''Guinness Book of World Records''. He tells of his adventures and worldwide investments in ''Investment Biker'', a bestselling investment book.

In 1998, Rogers founded the Rogers International Commodity Index. In 2007, the index and its three sub-indices were linked to exchange-traded notes under the banner ELEMENTS. The notes track the total return of the indices as an accessible way to invest in the index. Rogers is an outspoken advocate of agriculture investments and, in addition to the Rogers Commodity Index, is involved with two direct, farmland investment funds - Agrifirma, based in Brazil, and Agcapita Farmland Investment Partnership, based in Canada.

Between January 1, 1999 and January 5, 2002, Rogers did another Guinness World Record journey through 116 countries, covering 245,000 kilometers with his wife, Paige Parker, in a custom-made Mercedes. The trip began in Iceland, which was about to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Leif Eriksson's first trip to America. On January 5, 2002, they were back in New York City and their home on Riverside Drive. His route around the world can be viewed on his website, jimrogers.com. He wrote ''Adventure Capitalist'' following this around-the-world adventure. It is currently his bestselling book.

On his return in 2002, Rogers became a regular guest on Fox News' ''Cavuto on Business'' which airs every Saturday. In 2005, Rogers wrote ''Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market''. In this book, Rogers quotes a ''Financial Analysts Journal'' academic paper co-authored by Yale School of Management professor, Geert Rouwenhorst, entitled ''Facts and Fantasies about Commodity Futures''. Rogers contends this paper shows that commodities investment is one of the best investments over time, which is a concept somewhat at odds with conventional investment thinking.

In December 2007, Rogers sold his mansion in New York City for about 16 million USD and moved to Singapore. Rogers claimed that he moved because now is a ground-breaking time for investment potential in Asian markets. Rogers's first daughter is now being tutored in Mandarin to prepare her for the future. He is quoted as saying: "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia." In a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo broadcast on May 5, 2008, Rogers said that people in China are extremely motivated and driven, and he wants to be in that type of environment, so his daughters are motivated and driven. He also stated that this is how America and Europe used to be. He chose not to move to Chinese cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai due to the high levels of pollution causing potential health problems for his family; hence, he chose Singapore. He has also advocated investing in certain smaller Asian frontier markets such as Sri Lanka and Cambodia, and currently serves as an Advisor to Leopard Capital’s Leopard Sri Lanka Fund. However, he is not fully bullish on all Asian nations, as he remains skeptical of India's future - "India as we know it will not survive another 30 or 40 years". In 2008 Rogers endorsed Ron Paul for President of the United States.

Rogers has two daughters with Paige Parker. Hilton Augusta(nicknamed Happy) was born in 2003, and their second daughter Beeland Anderson in 2008. His latest book, ''A Gift To My Children'', contains lessons in life for his daughters as well as investment advice and was published in 2009.

On November 4, 2010, at Oxford University’s Balliol College, he urged students to scrap career plans for Wall Street or the City, London’s financial district, and to study agriculture and mining instead. “The power is shifting again from the financial centers to the producers of real goods. The place to be is in commodities, raw materials, natural resources."

In February 2011 Rogers announced that he has started a new index fund which focuses on "the top companies in agriculture, mining, metals and energy sectors as well as those in the alternative energy space including solar, wind and hydro." The index is called The Rogers Global Resources Equity Index and the best and most liquid companies, according to Rogers, go into the index.

Books

1995: ''Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers''. - ISBN 1-55850-529-6

2003: ''Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip''. - ISBN 0375509127

2004: ''Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market''. - ISBN 140006337X

2007: ''A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market''. - ISBN 1400066166

2009: ''A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons For Life And Investing''. - ISBN 1400067545

Further reading

External links

The Millennium Adventure, Official Jim Rogers website

The Rogers International Commodity Index A site for information on the RICI

The Jim Rogers Blog

;Articles

"An Early Christmas for Jim Rogers". - ''BusinessWeek'' - December 8, 2004.

"Invest In Commodities – and Keep Your Shirt". - November 23, 2006.

"We Want Our Kids To Learn Chinese". - MySinchew. - July 19, 2008. - (article about Rogers' life in Singapore)

"Adventure Capitalist". - ''PODER Magazine''. - April 2010.

;Interviews

Curated Interview With Jim Rogers From Market Wizards

Jim Rogers on the British Pound, US Dollar, And China

Jim Rogers, The Adventure Capitalist

Jim Rogers and George Soros Started the Quantum Fund

rediff.com: The Money Interview/Jim Rogers, investor, globetrotter

Financial Sense Newshour's Ask The Expert: Jim Rogers:

*2003.

*May 6, 2004.

Riverside Conversations: a 3 Part TV Series with Marc Faber

SCMP video interview, September 8, 2008.

Investors Chronicle interview. - (on the decline of the US/Europe, emerging markets, commodities). - November 2008.

Bloomberg Night Talk interview. - November 24, 2008.

Jim Rogers on The Lew Rockwell Show:

*"The Crash of '08". - December 12, 2008. - (*.MP3 audio)

*"Economic Advice to My Children (and You)". - May 17, 2009. - (*.MP3 audio)

Bloomberg TV Jim Rogers Special. - December 24, 2008.

''TIME'' Q&A: Jim Rogers:

*April 28, 2009.

*October 31, 2008.

Interview from March 2009 on Channel 4

Jim Rogers Sat 3 Interview German TV Sat 3

References

Category:Austrian School economists Category:1942 births Category:American investors Category:American money managers Category:Living people Category:Hedge fund managers Category:Financial analysts Category:Stock traders Category:Stock and commodity market managers Category:Columbia Business School faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:People from Demopolis, Alabama

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