Re: why must Debian call Taiwan a "Province of China"?

From: dircha (dircha_at_bethel.edu)
Date: 04/05/04

  • Next message: Winkle, Christine: "unsubscribe" 
    Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:31:58 -0500
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    John Hasler wrote:
    >>The problem is that we have to use some
    >>STANDARDIZED source of country names.
    > Why?

    First, the purpose of Debian in selecting and presenting a locale name
    is not to make a political statement or political value judgment.

    What is the purpose of Debian in selecting and presenting a locale name?
    The purpose is to best facilitate the selection of the appropriate
    locale by those who may need to select it.

    In this case, both "Taiwan" and "Taiwan, Province of China" are adequate
    to this purpose.

    But what additional information does, "Province of China" convey? Does
    it serve to disambiguate between two otherwise ambiguous locales?

    What then, is a "Province", and what does it mean to be a "Province of"?
    Of the definitions before me, the gist of those most plausible in this
    context is that it is to stand in a relation of a part to a whole in
    which the latter has political authority over the former.

    Unless for those who may need to make an unambiguous locale selection
    there is a legitimate disambiguating purpose served by appending,
    "Province of China," then it is clear that the sole informative effect
    of appending "Province of China" is to express that "Taiwan" stands in a
    relation of political authority to "China", in which the latter has
    political authority over the former.

    No legitimate disambiguating purpose is served by appending "Province of
    China". Possibly in the case that there are two distinct locales
    possibly referred to as "Taiwan", one which is a province of China and
    one which is not a province of China, there may be a legitimate
    disambiguating purpose served. But this is not the case. In this case,
    both "Taiwan" and "Taiwan, Province of China" as commonly employed do
    not refer to distinct locales, or even distinct geographic locations.
    When I say "Taiwan" in the context of a locale, no one is confused as to
    what I refer.

    The only informative effect of appending "Province of China", therefore,
    is to convey information about a political relation. Conveying
    information of this political relation does not legitimately serve the
    purpose of selecting a locale - a currency, encoding, etc.

    Texas, State of the Union.

    India, colony of the Royal British Empire.
    (or whatever was the historically accurate term; you get the idea).

    >>According to the UN listing, the country name of the location called
    >>Taiwan, is "Taiwan, Province of China".
    > Screw the UN. Shorten it to "Taiwan".

    This doesn't need to be a political choice at all.

    dircha 

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