Day 39: Democratic Republic of the Congo

[WMS]

Having a ton of natural resources does not equal stability, prosperity, or security...

They're going to have their first ever elections this year...how free and fair they are is rather unknown at this point, although getting the voters to the polls without them getting killed would be a nice first step.

[WMS]

So, do you insist on calling Germany - Deutschland, Russia - Rossiya, Finland - Suomi, Albania - Shquiperia, Egypt - Mysr, India - Bharat, etc.?

Touché. Of course not; it was merely to illustrate that it's not entirely ridiculous to decry the use of "Cambodia", although it is inaccurate. I freely admit my error, in any case.

My point on Myanmar stands, though.

Are you sure everyone else calls Burma Myanmar? From what I recall that horrible military government there changed the name on their own but the actual Burmese people still consider their country to be named Burma, even if they have to use Myanmar or get arrested, tortured, and killed...

[WMS]

Are you sure everyone else calls Burma Myanmar? From what I recall that horrible military government there changed the name on their own but the actual Burmese people still consider their country to be named Burma, even if they have to use Myanmar or get arrested, tortured, and killed...

I don't know about that- Myanmar is derived from the Burmese name for the country, and they've always called it that. In any case, it's true that I exaggerated; many countries don't recognize the current government, so they still call it "Burma". It's certainly controversial, but it's technically more accurate to call it Myanmar.

Hmm, I don't recall an official name change until sometime in the 1990s, and it was clearly from the top-down, not agreed to by the population. That muddies things a bit...

[WMS]

Hmm, I don't recall an official name change until sometime in the 1990s, and it was clearly from the top-down, not agreed to by the population. That muddies things a bit...

Well, yes, the official change to Myanmar was made fairly recently. But it has always been (part of) the Burmese name for the country. It was also the name of the kingdom destroyed by the British in the 19th century, according to this Wikipedia article. It wasn't an artifical name chosen arbitrarily.

This is what you meant by popular discontent, I think (also from the article):

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So it's ethnocentric. But so is "Burma", as it derives from the Burmese bama.

The UN recognizes "Myanmar" over "Burma", by the way

Interesting bit on the history.

And the military regime is extremely racist, so I see why they changed the name.

And the U.N. is, eh, sorry, way too easy a target to attack.

[WMS]

And the U.N. is, eh, sorry, way too easy a target to attack.

It was a bad example.

Oh, right, the DRC has just about tamped down the embers of The First African World War that raged there for several years...Rwanda and Zimbabwe hate each other's guts now as a result of that war.

Good story: under French pressure, Chad sent some forces via the Central African Republic to fight on the side of Angola and Zimbabwe. They entered northern DRC, ran into the Ugandans, and discovered what a competent military is like. It wasn't theirs, needless to say...the Ugandans hammered the crap out of them, and the Chadian remnants fled the DRC and refused to get further involved.

And then there were the Libyans, both major Sudan factions, all the Burundian factions, the Namibians, the Zambians, plus a country or two I may have forgotten about. Plus the de facto backing of different sides by the U.S. and France. What a mess.