[TYPO3-dev] Static tables missing countries

[Ries van Twisk]

On Jul 16, 2009, at 9:58 AM, Rudy Gnodde (WIND Internet) wrote:

> Ries van Twisk wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 16, 2009, at 4:47 AM, Francois Suter wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>> it appears that Static Table Countries are missing the following
>>>> countries:  England, Scotland, Wales and NOrthern Ireland
>>>>
>>>> I did got some 'funny' comments from my client about that :D
>>>>
>>>> Anybody what to shed a light on this???
>>>
>>> Well, it's kind a tricky. There are not really countries. They are  
>>> part
>>> of the United Kingdom. They have some indepedence, like local
>>> parliaments and such, but they don't have their passports or their  
>>> own
>>> army, for example. In some sport events, they also appear as  
>>> countries
>>> (like in soccer and rugby).
>>>
>>> But strictly speaking they are not countries, as can be checked in  
>>> the
>>> list of country ISO codes:
>>>
>>> http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements
>>>
>>> No Scotland or Wales there... so it wouldn't even be possible to  
>>> fill
>>> the static_countries table properly.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> -- 
>>>
>>> Francois Suter
>>
>>
>>
>> hey Francois,
>>
>> thanks for responding...
>>
>> wikipedia states  : "The United Kingdom is a constitutional  
>> monarchy and
>> unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Northern  
>> Ireland,
>> Scotland and Wales.[18]"
>>
>> That sentence states 4 countries...
>>
>> Now I realize that it is kinda tricky, in this case but I see it  
>> like this:
>>
>>
>> The table static_countries should list countries, not sovereign  
>> states
>> (it has United Kingdom listed), unless for convenience reasons this  
>> is
>> marked so in the static_countries table.
>> So somehow I would expect the 4 countries to be listed in the table
>> static_countries.
>>
>> 1) The funny thing is that Nederlandse Antillen is mentioned as a
>> country, while it fact it still belongs to holland (also according to
>> WikiePedia) This let me to believe that the table static_countries is
>> inconsistent
>> 2) Green is also listed in static_countrys, but officially belongs to
>> Denmark (According to wikipedia it's a country).
>>
>> Wikipedia also states : "Some entities which constitute cohesive
>> geographical entities, and which were formerly sovereign states are
>> commonly regarded and referred to still as countries. England,  
>> Scotland,
>> and Wales which form Great Britain are examples of entities that,  
>> while
>> not being countries in the true technical sense are customarily  
>> referred
>> to as such. "
>> ......
>> "In common usage, the term country is used in the sense of both  
>> nations
>> and states, with definitions varying. In some cases it is used to  
>> refer
>> both to states and to other political entities,[1][2][3] while in  
>> some
>> occasions it refers only to states[4] It is not uncommon for general
>> information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition
>> for purposes such as illustration and comparison.[5][6][7][8][9]"
>>
>>
>> So it might make sense to add Enland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and
>> Wales as countries in the static countries table, because people  
>> often
>> refere to them as countries, much like Greneland is used as a country
>> and others.
>>
>>
>> In my case some object is in some country, and I cannot divide  
>> England
>> from Scotland
>>
>> Ries
>> PS: I am not saying that wikipedia is right!!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Hello Ries,
>
> The problem with this is that it quickly becomes politics. Like Tibet
> for example. While TYPO3 uses the official ISO list of countries we
> don't have to justify any country that is included or not. We can just
> refer any complainers to ISO.
>
> If we take it on ourselves there has to be a clear policy and  
> "Wikipedia
> calls it a country" isn't good enough in my opinion. I say stick to  
> the
> ISO standard.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rudy

Rudy,

you have a good point there...
it's just that was odd to see at some point since in our case
we simply have england and scotland as separate entities.

If you ask somebody from 'Scotland'
'Where you from', I don't think he will say 'United Kingdom sir!'
We have a case that we need to say Scotland, and not UK :)

That said, I will create my own little countries table...

Ries