Stupid names, Part I
Dear Johnny,
After reading “Hey, ISO: Taiwan isn’t China” by Craig Crawford in Tainan (Letters, Feb. 1, page 8), I was outraged. I clicked on the link provided at the end of the letter, and informed the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) of its naming error for Taiwan. This morning, I received a response, including this: “The purpose of the standard ISO 3166-1 is to provide codes for the representation of names of countries, territories or areas of geographical interest, such as “TW”, “FR”, “GB”, etc. It is not established to provide the names of countries, territories or areas of geographical interest.”
It seems that the ISO takes its cue from the UN, and I’m guessing that e-mailing the UN on this matter will be a waste of my time and energy.
Unsure of where else to turn, I’m writing to you and to an ex-colleague at the Bureau of Foreign Trade. I’m guessing you both will be as outraged as I am but have more resources at your disposal to effect change.
On another subject, I thoroughly enjoy your column. It was one of the highlights of my Saturdays when I lived in Taipei, and it still is, almost three years after my move back to the US.
Sara Reals
East Syracuse, New York
Johnny replies: Wow, Sara, you’ve been with me since near the beginning. You can probably write my reply for me.
1. Your colleague will sympathize but say nothing for fear of demotion or retrenchment.
2. The ISO must be on crack to think that deferring to the UN lends it legitimacy.
3. Never underestimate your ability to effect change. The right combination of lobbying, embarrassment and the truth can corner and influence even the most cloistered bureaucrat.
Stupid names, Part II
Dear Johnny,
Its always amusing to see the boilerplate propaganda phrases churned out by the PRC/CCP ministry of propaganda. But you can get a lot of mileage out of inverting their phrases.
“Chinese Taipei” can become “Chinese Beijing.”
“Hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” can become “Hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people/Tibetan people/Falun Gong people.”
I’m sure you can think of more. The great thing is that they are memes that everyone can start using, and will spread because they are funny.
Big Jim
Johnny replies: Problem is, the only people who talk this way are politicians and journalists.
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