"Where do you Live?" list
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Being a web developer myself I can sympathise with Chris on this subject. Trying to get a list of all countries in the world is a nightmare. You will always end up missing a country or two. Also one needs to weigh up the benefits of having a complete list over a usable list. Other things like "is it Britian, UK, Great Britian or England and is it USA, America, the States?" cause trouble as well. As the old saying goes "You can please some of the people all the time or all the people some of the time, but never all the people all of the time." :) I don't think Pakistan was intentionally left off :) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
"is it Britian, UK, Great Britian or England and is it USA, America, the States?" I think you meant Scotland rather than England there didn't you? The Sassenachs won't mind being lumped in with us Jocks. :-) Cheers, Gavin PS Apologies to any Welsh, Northern Irish, Manx, ... Gavin Greig
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"is it Britian, UK, Great Britian or England and is it USA, America, the States?" I think you meant Scotland rather than England there didn't you? The Sassenachs won't mind being lumped in with us Jocks. :-) Cheers, Gavin PS Apologies to any Welsh, Northern Irish, Manx, ... Gavin Greig
Ok, bear with an ignorant South African then :) Great Britian = England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? United Kingdom = England? and is there a difference between Great Britian and just Britian? (Britania?) and who are the Manx? and of course the Scots rrrrule :-D (I was descended from them, but that is all I know) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
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I thought that it's not the country to be wiped out but the terrorists and those who "harbour and support them" :eek: ;)
Thanks for that George. It's frustrating and a little depressing hearing the press continually talk about Afghanistan as if it's about to be wiped off the face of the Earth. It must totally SUCK being there at the moment. I can't even imagine... cheers, Chris Maunder (CodeProject)
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Ok, bear with an ignorant South African then :) Great Britian = England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? United Kingdom = England? and is there a difference between Great Britian and just Britian? (Britania?) and who are the Manx? and of course the Scots rrrrule :-D (I was descended from them, but that is all I know) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
Ok, here they are: Great Britian = England, Scotland and Wales. [The] United Kingdom [of Great Britian and Northern Ireland] = England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are some other islands, Isle of Man (Manx) and the Channel Islands (Jersey, Gurnsey, etc) that might be part of the UK (or even GB, I forget them all and their true designation). Regards, Ray
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Ok, bear with an ignorant South African then :) Great Britian = England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? United Kingdom = England? and is there a difference between Great Britian and just Britian? (Britania?) and who are the Manx? and of course the Scots rrrrule :-D (I was descended from them, but that is all I know) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
It is confusing because politics gets mixed up with physical geography. The United Kingdom is the political union of various bits of these islands, and excludes the Republic of Ireland, which is most of the physical island of Ireland. Northern Ireland, while part of the physical island of Ireland, is also part of the United Kingdom. Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, and is called Great because it is bigger than Brittany (which is in France, and not an island). The two islands of Great Britain and Ireland, plus about 500 smaller ones, make up the British Isles. Some people object to this term but I don't know of a politically correct alternative to describe the archipelago. What screws it all up is that subjects of the United Kingdom are usually referred to as British. As a result, the perfectly sound geographical term "British Isles" offends some in the Republic of Ireland, because although geographically they live in the British Isles they are not politically British. England is the southern part of the island of Great Britain, and contains well over half of the population of the political union of the United Kingdom. This is why it is often confused with the United Kingdom, but in fact it is only one part of the United Kingdom. The largest of the other parts are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Royal family, often regarded as English, is actually more Scottish, as the English royal family died out in 1603 and King James the Sixth of Scots was invited to become James the First of the United Kingdom, so it would plainly be more sensible to call all Brits "Scots" than it is to call us "English". ;P Of course, it could be claimed that they're more Dutch or German than either Scots or English. Politically, the parliament of the United Kingdom is the Westminster parliament, in London, which is in England. England does not have its own parliament, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own "parliaments" at a level under the United Kingdom parliament, although these bodies all have different names and powers from each other. These parliaments are all fairly recent creations, although a Scottish parliament existed before 1707, and a Northern Irish assembly existed in the 1970s. As a Scot, I am also a subject of the United Kingdom (although citizen might be preferable), and I am therefore British, but I am not English. The Manx are the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, which lies somewhere between England, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and has its
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I thought that it's not the country to be wiped out but the terrorists and those who "harbour and support them" :eek: ;)
Much as the whole situation sickens me I cannot believe that any military action (big or small) taken against Afghanistan to root out the terrorists and their supporters will spare the country or it's people very much. For one the Taliban is not going to give up without a fight, and the fight will be within their borders, their cities and their towns. When push comes to shove they are either going to hand over bin Ladin or join him and so far handing over does not look very hopeful. Second the terrorists will undoubtedly wreak as much havoc as possible, fighting guerilla style down to the last man (not to mention the other 61 nations around the world were their terrorist cells exist and will strike out from). I can imagine they will hurt their own country simply to generate shock and outrage and foster calls for the war to end and the "allieds" to pull out. Third from what we saw in Kosovo the "allied" tactics will be to cripple and maim the infrastructure of the country (I had a good friend in Kosovo and I have to admit that the tactics used against them were pretty shocking, the country is desolate and pretty much wiped out even now). Yes it is a different country and a different war but I don't see the "allieds" reigning themselves in and giving the terrorists any chance of escape. It is going to be an all or nothing war. As Chris says so eloquently, it must totally SUCK to be there and I don't think many of us can begin to imagine the horrors about to be visited upon the innocent people of Afghanistan. But on a lighter note maybe that noble peace prize offered to Bush will stay his trigger finger... regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
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Much as the whole situation sickens me I cannot believe that any military action (big or small) taken against Afghanistan to root out the terrorists and their supporters will spare the country or it's people very much. For one the Taliban is not going to give up without a fight, and the fight will be within their borders, their cities and their towns. When push comes to shove they are either going to hand over bin Ladin or join him and so far handing over does not look very hopeful. Second the terrorists will undoubtedly wreak as much havoc as possible, fighting guerilla style down to the last man (not to mention the other 61 nations around the world were their terrorist cells exist and will strike out from). I can imagine they will hurt their own country simply to generate shock and outrage and foster calls for the war to end and the "allieds" to pull out. Third from what we saw in Kosovo the "allied" tactics will be to cripple and maim the infrastructure of the country (I had a good friend in Kosovo and I have to admit that the tactics used against them were pretty shocking, the country is desolate and pretty much wiped out even now). Yes it is a different country and a different war but I don't see the "allieds" reigning themselves in and giving the terrorists any chance of escape. It is going to be an all or nothing war. As Chris says so eloquently, it must totally SUCK to be there and I don't think many of us can begin to imagine the horrors about to be visited upon the innocent people of Afghanistan. But on a lighter note maybe that noble peace prize offered to Bush will stay his trigger finger... regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
You have to remember this is a different kind of war to anything we have seen before. There isn't a lot left in Afghanistan to bomb as the Russians and the Afghan internal conflict took care of that. More likely this war will be fought by special forces with air-support. Intelligence from special forces and friendly Afghans will identify the targets, the special forces will move in and destroy the target whilst the airsupport gives back up. I read in the papers that our own SAS is already on the ground keeping an eye on possible terrorist camps. I guess when they are ready they'll call for the helicopters and do the dirty work. Well thats my take on it, Michael :-)
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Being a web developer myself I can sympathise with Chris on this subject. Trying to get a list of all countries in the world is a nightmare. You will always end up missing a country or two. Also one needs to weigh up the benefits of having a complete list over a usable list. Other things like "is it Britian, UK, Great Britian or England and is it USA, America, the States?" cause trouble as well. As the old saying goes "You can please some of the people all the time or all the people some of the time, but never all the people all of the time." :) I don't think Pakistan was intentionally left off :) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes
Just to give you a straight answer as well as my other efforts, if you are offering a list of "Where do you live?" alternatives, then to offend least people I think you should offer "Republic of Ireland" and "United Kingdom". People like me will appreciate it if you offer "England", "Scotland", "Wales" and "Northern Ireland" instead of "United Kingdom", but frankly I wouldn't bother - "United Kingdom" is safer. Gavin Greig
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Thanks for that George. It's frustrating and a little depressing hearing the press continually talk about Afghanistan as if it's about to be wiped off the face of the Earth. It must totally SUCK being there at the moment. I can't even imagine... cheers, Chris Maunder (CodeProject)
Actually, I CAN imagine how they feel. I was in Serbia in 1999, when we had NATO bombings. The day before the whole thing started, we watched on TV the planes that were preparing to bomb us. The difference is that those guys in Afghanistan don't have TV. P.S. Why there is no Serbia in the list? ;-P I vote pro drink :beer:
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Just to give you a straight answer as well as my other efforts, if you are offering a list of "Where do you live?" alternatives, then to offend least people I think you should offer "Republic of Ireland" and "United Kingdom". People like me will appreciate it if you offer "England", "Scotland", "Wales" and "Northern Ireland" instead of "United Kingdom", but frankly I wouldn't bother - "United Kingdom" is safer. Gavin Greig
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Thanks for that George. It's frustrating and a little depressing hearing the press continually talk about Afghanistan as if it's about to be wiped off the face of the Earth. It must totally SUCK being there at the moment. I can't even imagine... cheers, Chris Maunder (CodeProject)
I just saw part of a 20/20-style show last night. It showed how awful it is to be stuck in Afghanistan even before this all happened (unless you're one of the people in control). All kinds of horrible things were shown, and they were everyday life for most of the people in that country. (Women and their children starving because they are widowed and not allowed to work, most of the buildings destroyed by war have never been rebuilt, and the governing powers turned an internationally funded soccer stadium into a place for executions since there laws are so overbearingly strict.) John
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You have to remember this is a different kind of war to anything we have seen before. There isn't a lot left in Afghanistan to bomb as the Russians and the Afghan internal conflict took care of that. More likely this war will be fought by special forces with air-support. Intelligence from special forces and friendly Afghans will identify the targets, the special forces will move in and destroy the target whilst the airsupport gives back up. I read in the papers that our own SAS is already on the ground keeping an eye on possible terrorist camps. I guess when they are ready they'll call for the helicopters and do the dirty work. Well thats my take on it, Michael :-)
It's my understanding that the SAS were already working with the Northern Alliance before hostilities broke out. My current feeling is that: The Northern Alliance, the UN recognized government of Afghanistan will be quietly backed by allied forces with material, food, munitions and arms, while the blockade around the country effectively prevents that kind of support going to the Taliban. In under 60 days, the Northern Alliance will control significant portions of the country, and then formally welcome the ROW force into the country to help stabalize things. The Afghan people could certainly rise against western Infidels who attacked their country, but would they declare a holy war against the Northern Alliance? David
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It is confusing because politics gets mixed up with physical geography. The United Kingdom is the political union of various bits of these islands, and excludes the Republic of Ireland, which is most of the physical island of Ireland. Northern Ireland, while part of the physical island of Ireland, is also part of the United Kingdom. Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, and is called Great because it is bigger than Brittany (which is in France, and not an island). The two islands of Great Britain and Ireland, plus about 500 smaller ones, make up the British Isles. Some people object to this term but I don't know of a politically correct alternative to describe the archipelago. What screws it all up is that subjects of the United Kingdom are usually referred to as British. As a result, the perfectly sound geographical term "British Isles" offends some in the Republic of Ireland, because although geographically they live in the British Isles they are not politically British. England is the southern part of the island of Great Britain, and contains well over half of the population of the political union of the United Kingdom. This is why it is often confused with the United Kingdom, but in fact it is only one part of the United Kingdom. The largest of the other parts are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Royal family, often regarded as English, is actually more Scottish, as the English royal family died out in 1603 and King James the Sixth of Scots was invited to become James the First of the United Kingdom, so it would plainly be more sensible to call all Brits "Scots" than it is to call us "English". ;P Of course, it could be claimed that they're more Dutch or German than either Scots or English. Politically, the parliament of the United Kingdom is the Westminster parliament, in London, which is in England. England does not have its own parliament, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own "parliaments" at a level under the United Kingdom parliament, although these bodies all have different names and powers from each other. These parliaments are all fairly recent creations, although a Scottish parliament existed before 1707, and a Northern Irish assembly existed in the 1970s. As a Scot, I am also a subject of the United Kingdom (although citizen might be preferable), and I am therefore British, but I am not English. The Manx are the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, which lies somewhere between England, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and has its
*stumbles off to the pub for a pint of their finest* yes, most definitley more confused than before. Oh well, I am flying to London tonight which is in one of the countries/territories/kingdoms/fiefdoms/thralldoms/etc. you mentioned. I will ask the customs official what she thinks. If she throws me out of the country for being insolent then phuket, I want to know! :-D thanks for the answer though, interesting stuff actually regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible." - Chretien Malesherbes