From owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 17 00:50:03 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-bugs@hub.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4E64106566C for ; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3E388FC16 for ; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (gnats@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n8H0o3Cg081413 for ; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 GMT (envelope-from gnats@freefall.freebsd.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n8H0o3Dq081412; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 GMT (envelope-from gnats) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 GMT Message-Id: <200909170050.n8H0o3Dq081412@freefall.freebsd.org> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org From: Kang-min Liu Cc: Subject: Re: conf/138672: ISO 3166 call Taiwan a wrong name, please call Taiwan "Taiwan" as before. X-BeenThere: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Kang-min Liu List-Id: Bug reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:50:03 -0000 The following reply was made to PR conf/138672; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Kang-min Liu 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.