Suriname

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*Surinam(e)* is a South American, Guyanese country located near the North of the Amazon Basin. In TSIGPIGS, they're both female in the mapping and object style, and compete in the team of Amazon Basin. Suring the selection process Suriname was officially selected as a single candidate/contestant, and were not forced to join a union during the "lower cast mandate for MS".

## Geography

Suriname is specifically located in the northern section of the South-American continent, bordered by Guyana to the West, Brazil to the South, and France (French Guiana) to the East, with a coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana, along with the Zulian Region of Venezuela, and the Amapa state of Brazil are sometimes referred to as the "*Guianas*", Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese (respectively)

### Political Geography

Suriname is divided into 10 districts, which kind of goes like the political division of Algeria, the coast/northern districts are rather smaller, and form a compact, concentrated, densely-populated line surrounding the larger district to the South (*Sipaliwini*), which covers the Amazon rainforest coverage of Suriname.

Also, Suriname has 2 disputed areas in the South-West with Guyana at the headwaters of the *Couarantyne* River and in the South-East with French-Guiana at the headwaters of the *Litani* River. If you don't include these disputed areas along with Suriname, it'll make the country the smallest in South America.

The capital, *Paramaribo*, lies on the coast, and holds about half of the entire country's population.

#### Landmarks

Suriname also has some quite delightful sights to explore, like:

* Historic Inner City, Paramaribo (a UNESCO world heritage site)
**The most famous places in this site are:**
	+ Fort Zealandia (a museum)
	+ Waterkant
	+ Independence Square (Dutch: Het Onafhankelijkheidsplein)
	+ Palmentuin/Palm Tree Garden
	+ Waka Pasi Blvd

**Located outside the historical part are:**

* Central Market
* Readytex Art Gallery
* The Different Cultural Markets
* Old Dutch plantation Resorts
* Ft. Nieuw Amsterdam
* Peperport Nature Park
* Bigi Pan Lake
* Dark Water Creeks
* White Sand Savannahs

**Other top places in the jungles of Suriname are:**

* Brownsberg N.P.
* Voltzberg
* Blanche-Marie Falls
* The Many Sulas/Rapids (usually near eco-resorts)

### Physical Geography

Geographically, Suriname is located in the Guiana Field, a historically-coveted region of South America, with not only some of the most fertile land (like Mt. Roraima), but some of the highest biodiversity in the world.

The shield is known as a "craton", one of the oldest and the most stable sections of Earth's crust; unaffected by fault line, as it is located just far near the North-East corner of the South-American Plate. This advantage means that they of course don't get affected by earthquakes or tsunamis.

The further inland we go within this shield, and specifically in Suriname, the land slightly rises to 3 main mountain chains:

* The Backhuis Mts. to the West,
* The Tumuc-Humanc Mts. to the South-West, and
* The Wilhelmina Mts. near the center, but in the South-East. In this mountain, the tallest peak is Juliana Top, at about 1,200 m high.

From these highlands, the longest river fully within the country, the Suriname River, flows North to the Atlantic Ocean, but not before flowing into the largest inland body of water, that takes about 1% of the entire country's owned landmass, the *Brokondpo* Reservoir. This reservoir was a by-product of the *Afobaka* Dam, on the North side of the reservoir, which is the largest in the country build in the '60s, and reached its full flooded level in 1971. The reservoir only has an average of about 13 meters in depth, which means the more elevated sections of the lake area created hundreds of shallow reservoir islands. The whole country, however, runs on rivers, and flanked on the sides of the Suriname River are the *Tapanahony* River in the East, the *Coppename* river to the West, and on the borders (as aforementioned)-the Courantyne (the longest shared river of the country with Guyana) and Maroni Rivers. These are the 5 powerhouse rivers of Suriname. The only section of Suriname that seems to have a stark contrast to the otherwise overbearing green forest format would be the Sipaliwini Savannah Nature Reserve in the South, where the landscape suddenly turns into a somewhat arid-grassy hill domain, seldom explored, and continues into Brazil's *Tumucumaque* Nation Park.

However, humiliatingly ironically, despite being loaded with rainforests, Suriname's barely loaded with cropland at around half of around 1% of the arable land found there.

#### Mineralogy

In terms of land exploitation, Suriname actually prefers to take the mineral route, instead of the agricultural one.

To this day, Al (in the form of bauxite), and Au are the largest exported products of Suriname

Otherwise, they've been able to extract oil from their off-shore deposits; all produced by state-owned company .

#### Flora and Fauna

Due to the heavy forest loads, Suriname is filled with influx of wildlife. Today, in those forested regions, 200 animal species inhabit over there, with nearly 300 reptiles and amphibians and over 700 birds, like the national animal, the Lesser Kiskadee.

The country has over 16 nature reserves/parks, taking up about an 1/8th of the entire country's landmass.

Many new species are currently being discovered by scientists annually, like the Blue Poison Dart Frog, in the South Sipaliwini Nature Reserve, discovered back in 1969.

***"DUDE! You can't just talk NSFW on Suriname!!" — Solomon Isles***
Note: **DISTURBING CONTENT AHEAD!**Viewer discretion is advised to some viewers.

Suriname quite frankly also has the Suriname Toad, which has one of the most strangest and hideous way of being a mother in nature. The toads lay their eggs on their backs, which then fuse-in with their mother's skin; and from there, the eggs hatch, and the fully-formed baby toads pop out like bursting pimples from their mother's spine, leaving a pocket-scarred backside like a "rotten" (or destroyed) honeycomb.

#### Pomology

Suriname's fruit culture however is similar to that of Carribean, where most people have gardens in their homes where they've access to tropical fruits and produce.

## History

Suriname is said to be first inhabited in year 3,000 BC during the arrival of the first Indians in the country. The name Suriname may have come from a Taino group, an Arawak-speaking tribe called Surinen, which was first spelled Surinam by the first settlers at the Marshal’s Creek along what is now known as the Suriname River. It was in the 16th century when the country was discovered by French, Spanish and English explorer and in 17th century when the Dutch and English established plantation colonies along many rivers of the country, and the Dutch brought in African slaves to cultivate coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, and cotton farms. The Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863 but it was only 10 years later that the slaves were released following mandatory work in plantations that gave them minimal pay. In 1954, the Dutch placed the country under a system of limited government, that is, the Netherlands would remain in control of the defense and foreign affairs. The year 1975 was unforgettable for Suriname when it was granted its independence by the Dutch but only for the democratic government to be sidelined by a military coup in 1980 and the torture and killing in 1982 of many citizens suspected of plotting against the government. This resulted in chaos in the country up to early 1990s. In 2000, public discontent over a rising inflation rate forced elections of government officials. The New Front for Democracy, led by Ronald Venetiaan, after forming an alliance with A-Combination, a party representing the descendants of former slaves, won the elections, only to suffer heavy losses in the 2005 elections, although it remained as the largest party having the most number of elected members of the National Assembly.

## Transportation

Getting around in Suriname is not the easiest task; Everything is either a road, or a river.

### Via Road

Paramaribo is basically the central hub where all roads connect to in the country the furthest you can travel to on paved road would be the small town of *Pokigron* in the Suriname River, on the Nartin Luther King Highway.

Otherwise, the JFK Highway is the longest that traverse the inland area all the way to Courantyne river on the border with Guyana. There are currently no bridges connecting them to Guyana/French Guiana, and all land vehicles wishing to cross must take ferries. Currently, there's also no road access Brazil in the South.

For railways, they're considering building a rail line between Paramaribo and *Onverwacht*.

### Via Air

The largest and busiest airport where most international travel arrives would be Johan Adolf Pengel International, servicing Paramaribo, although it's 28 miles (45 km) South to Paramaribo. So, if you want to arrive more central to the city, you can take a plane from Guyana on Trans-Guyana Airways to the only other international airport, Zorg en Horp International, which is right in the middle of the city, and it can only accommodate smaller aircrafts holding up to 20 passengers max.

Otherwise, the country also has over 50 smaller regional airports and airstrips (mostly unpaved) across the country. Majority, of about 3/4 of all airstrips are located in outskirt areas which are difficult to acces; mostly the native communities of the Sipaliwini District. The southernmost airstrip of the country is the appropriately named community of Sipaliwini.

### Via Sea

From there, most of the remaining communities inland are only accessible via boat transportation on various rivers that intertwine the complex thick forests of the interior.

## Trivia

* Sipaliwini is so underrated/foreshadowed that it doesn't even has its own administrative capital.
* Suriname is the only country in South-America to not border a Spanish-speaking country.
* The town of Onverwacht, where the Paramaribo-Onverwacht rail line ends, means "unexpected".
	+ Suriname also has towns named "Waterland", and "Boom Jachtlust".
* Suriname's first building was Fort Zealandia.
* Suriname's the most carbon-negative country in South America.
* Suriname's the most forested country in the world, where above 95% of their land is covered with forests.
	+ It is so much forested that Suriname is literally seaweed (dark green) in color when seen from above.
* ***Case Trivia:*** One time, a helicopter flew into the forest, but it crashed, and they actually never found the helicopter again, since the forest's mass density.
* There are currently no patent laws in Suriname.