Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 GMT From: Kang-min Liu <gugod@gugod.org> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: conf/138672: ISO 3166 call Taiwan a wrong name, please call Taiwan "Taiwan" as before. Message-ID: <200909170050.n8H0o3Dq081412@freefall.freebsd.org>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
The following reply was made to PR conf/138672; it has been noted by GNATS.
From: Kang-min Liu <gugod@gugod.org>
To: bug-followup@FreeBSD.org,
linpct@gmail.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: conf/138672: ISO 3166 call Taiwan a wrong name, please call Taiwan "Taiwan" as before.
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:10:03 +0900
Although it has been stated several times that it's a political
problem instead of a technical ones, it shall be also pointed
out, the decision of simply following ISO 3166 in FreeBSD is
nonetheless, political.
The ISO 3166 FAQ has an entry on the naming of Taiwan issue:
http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166-faqs/iso_3166_faqs_specific.htm
Please notices the facts that:
- UN holds strong positions in the making ISO 3166
- Taiwan has never been the member of UN
- The names in ISO 3166-1 are taken from United Nations sources
Being a technology leading country, I guess Taiwan has been
politically weak for way too long. The application to be UN
member has been failed for very long time. It's not like Taiwan
government has never put effort on it, they tried, for tens of
years, but the political force against their efforts has been
huge.
Is it really politically neutral to follow ISO 3316 ? Please
re-think about it. It is indeed very technically convienent to
simply use ISO 3316 database because it contains a lots of
country names. But the outcome of leaping without thinking, could
be very bad.
I've always think it's fairly neutral not to use "Country"
selector in but "Region" selector (in whatever program UI.)
Region is a much better choice since the word itself doesn't not
refer to political identity of the its residents.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200909170050.n8H0o3Dq081412>