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by
Thomas Millington
Member since:
September 14, 2006 NAME THIS COUNTRY
June 06, 2007 06:25 PM EDT
(Updated: November 14, 2007 08:19 AM EST)
views: 23
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comments: 13
I think every country should have a name. It helps to distinguish one from another. If you're going away on vacation you should be able to tell your family and friends where you are going. Most countries have names - for example Afganistan, Canada and Zimbabwe. We've all heard of these places. We know pretty much where they are and what their people are called - Afgans, Canadians and Zimbabwians. There are two countries that have the same name - Congo - there are two Congos. Imagine if you tell someone you're from the Congo and he says "which one"? Then there is a country with two names - Burma and Myanmar. Imagine how confusing that could be. If you can't spell one you can use the other name. But then, most surprisingly, there are, believe it or not, several countries with no name at all. These generally go by descriptive terms that tell us what they are or what continent they are on, but without a distinctive name. For example we have Central African Republic. This is not a name. All we know is it's a country in the middle of Africa. The people there must have low self-esteem. Do you think those people say "I'm proud to be from a place in the middle of Africa"? No, they have to keep their pride to themselves. Then there are, what I call, the 'U' countries. These are countries with no name, but they want you to know that they are unified, their people get along with each other. If they ever had a civil war they've gotten over it by now. The first one is United Arab Emirates. Emirates are like States; they're together, and they are Arab, uncontaminated with anything else. You'd think they could have come up with a name. Then there is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Wow, that's a mouthful. The people living in that country are the most confused on earth - they don't know who they are. A lot of people call the place England, which is fine with the English, but the Scots and the Irish don't like it, and probably not the Welsh or the Manx either. Actually there is no country called England. After the English started conquering surrounding territories they had to come up with another name. So far they haven't been successful. So they're stuck with UKOGBANI at least for the time being. Last but not least we come to the mightiest giant of all the no-name countries - the land that lies between Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. If you look on any world map you'll see that this country is designated as United States of America. The founding fathers of this country wanted us to know that the various states, each of which, conveniently, has a name, have their acts together. They are united, till death do us part, so to speak. And they are located in the Americas. Their motto, translated into English, is "out of many, one". One what? Couldn't they think of a name? Unfortunately they didn't. So, sadly, we've had to make do , usually with the erroneous 'America', which it is not. Brazilians, Nicaraguans and Canadians are all 'Americans" too, living in disparate regions of 'America'. Therefore I am proposing a competition to Name This Country. Pretend you are one of the founding fathers and you are proposing to Congress a name for this new country. What is your suggestion?
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Comments: 13
America the Beautiful is a great song that tells
many great things about this country. North
America and South America, God shed His grace
on thee!
It is fun to think about what we would call ourselves, though, if the States were to lose their sovereignty and everything were run by the Federal Government. (Which is what we'll get if Clinton gets into office. What a nightmare!!!)
- Jeanjaz
You are going to think I am very slow, but I only recently figured out where my comments are listed and have been going back through them to see what people have responded. (smile)
What a pretty compliment! I have homeschooled for over 20 years - my own daughter and other people's kids. So I have at least a rudimentary knowledge of U.S. History and a pretty good knowledge of grammar. I don't really concentrate on grammar when I'm writing comments, but I guess after 20 years it comes a little more naturally. The poor writing skills you see rampant here is one of the main reasons I homeschool. Schools just don't cut it - not public nor private ones.
What country did you grow up in? I have spent a LOT of time overseas and understand the obtuse mindset the typical U.S. citizen has. It isn't really arrogance as so many other countries think, it is ignorance.
If you've ever read "Pride and Prejudice" and heard the discussion about the main guy's "Pride" being unconscious and so being all the worse than if it was a practiced attitude. (Sorry, I never can remember character's names.) I've thought a lot about that discussion and wondered if it really is worse or not. It seems that if you KNOW you are looking down on people and do it intentionally you are insecure and putting people down in order to make yourself feel important. But if you are unaware that you think of yourself as better than those around you, then it is unconcious and innate. You aren't doing it to put people down to lift yourself up, but simply because it is your paradigm. Does that make sense?
I said all that to say that the typical U.S. citizen doesn't really understand how the rest of the world thinks or how it views us. We go naively about our merry way not realizing how much we insult other peoples. I think we seem to think that other peoples live the way they do by choice and we romanticize it to a degree.
I watched a show where these 'scientists' were studying a primitive people group near the Philipines. I should say a people group living in a primitive fashion. Studying them like they are an animal subspecies, not human beings equal to themselves - the only difference being exposure and education. It reminded me of that scientist that goes and lives with apes. So arrogant.
They were wanting to "preserve" their way of life. Not taking into consideration what those people wanted. It made me want to stick the scientists into a controlled environment and 'study' them and keep them in a set lifestyle with no choices. Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.
In 200 years, people are going to wonder what our lives were like. We can stick these scientists (who know it ALL) into a closed environment and not allow them to evolve or learn anything new so we can preseve our 21st century way of life. Have you ever read the book Dune. I think it is three in the series that sort of does the same thing. A 'museum' group of people showing how we used to live. Ha ha - I think that would be SOOO justified.
Gosh, I wrote a novel here. Too bad we don't get points for word count. (smile)
- Jeanjaz
I agree with you about the language.