[somewhat OT] simple machine forums software update

[Nadav Har'El]

On Mon, Jul 04, 2011, is123 at zahav.net.il wrote about "[somewhat OT] simple machine forums software update":
> I noticed today the simple machine forums software that is used for many
> tech bulletin boards and forums has a new country in the countries list:
> 
> "Palestinian Territory, Occupied"

Do you seriously think that the authors of that specific software sat down
and compiled a list of all 200 or so countries, and had a political debate
on which country to accept, and decided on the fate of this "Occupied
Palestinian Territory" based on a serious debate of the merits of Israel's
position and that of the Palestinian position?

Definitely not. They probably just took a country list that someone else
compiled. E.g., perhaps they took a list from the United Nations:

	http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm

Or perhaps they took the official list of "country names" from ISO, the
International Organization for Standardization?

	http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements

As you can see, both lists officially list the "Occupied Palestenian
Territory". So this is definitely not some anti-Israeli decision by
some rogue antisemite free software developers, but rather a very sensible
decision by those developers to take a list from organizations (like the
UN and ISO) which they thought were impartial and professional.

So please don't complain about this "simple machine forum" or Richard
Stallman (!?). If you want to pick a fight, pick one with the UN and ISO.

> Anyway if you run a forum and use this software and object to the
> propaganda you might want to make your opinion known.

Please don't you spread propaganda against the poor guys who write free
software, and just need to get an impartial country list from somewhere.

The Occupied Palestenian Territory isn't even the most shocking country
name in the UN's list. Consider also "Taiwan, Provice of China", where
Taiwan has *NOT* been a part of mainland China for 60 years. Or consider
the ridiculous name "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" in the list of English country
names, where "Jamahiriya" isn't even an English word (it isn't even a real
Arabic word - it's a mixture of the words for "Together" and "Republic"
coined by Qaddafy). Or think of the poor Macedonians, whose country the
UN calls (by the insistance of the Greeks) by the ridiculously long name
"The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Or consider the three countries,
Zaire, North Korea and Laos, three of the countries with the poorest and
most oppressed people of the world, whose leaders had the audacity to make
the UN list the word "Democratic" in their name ("The Democratic Republic of
the Congo", "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", and "Lao People's
Democratic Republic", respectively).

So again, pick your fight with the UN or ISO - or create an alternative
country-list project (good luck walking out of that minefield...).
Just don't insult the free software developers who use the existing lists.


-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |      Tuesday, Jul  5 2011, 3 Tammuz 5771
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |The trouble with being punctual is that
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |nobody is there to appreciate it.