Re: Ministry of Finance in the Republic of Macedonia uses Debian in its servers
On Thu, 28 Feb 2008, rahul23@mailinator.com wrote:
> Don Armstrong wrote:
> > Until the issue is actually resolved by a decision by the country
> > known to the UN as FYROM...
> ... it's only reasonable to call it with its UN assigned name.
The UN assigned name is what the UN for reasons of diplomacy have
chosen to refer to the country which is calls itself RoM or perhaps
RoMS.
> > calling them by whatever name they call themselves
> > (http://www.finance.gov.mk/gb/index.html) is appropriate.
>
> Even if they would like to call themselves Republic of California,
> Republic of Scotland, Motherland of all Armstrongs, or European
> Superunion?
Of course. What they call themselves doesn't change who they are.
> May I remind you that the taiwanese people call themselves "Taiwan
> Republic of China", and have unsuccessfully attempted to gain a UN
> member status with this name and have repeatedly failed? A name with
> hints of usurpation of geographical or historical terms should not
> be used by Debian, until the issue is permanently settled.
I'm quite familiar with the issues surounding PRoC and RoC, and if you
were familiar with them too, you would realize that what RoC is
actually called has little to do with its inability to be recognized
by the UN. They could call themselves "Island Surrounded by Water" and
they still wouldn't be accepted into the UN.
In any case, in this instance, as the governmental agency in question
calls itself with exactly the same title that we have given it, using
it is appropriate. Calling them by some other name puts Debian in the
position of determining what their proper name actually is, which is
an area which we need not get embroiled in.
> I think Don Armstrong got it completely backwards, but let's stick
> to the good news, ie. that they decided to use Debian and keep
> politics aside.
Changing what the agency itself calls itself is brining politics into
it, instead of keeping them aside. If anyone is going to seriously
become outraged at Debian over a press release, then they're being a
bit too easily offended.
I've no problem with double checking with the agency in question that
we're refering to them as the name that they want to be refered to. If
they confirm it, our choices are two: use the name the call themselves
or don't issue the press release.
Don Armstrong
--
It seems intuitively obvious to me, which means that it might be wrong
-- Chris Torek
http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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