Stan (Idle Words)#

03.29.2003

Nick Denton chimes in today with a stellar example of cultural arrogance. I'm not talking about his suggestion that Iraq be partitioned - that's just plain old warblogger arrogance. I'm talking about his choice of joke names, 'Saddistan' and 'Shiastan', for the new statelets.

I suppose "stan" has become the suffix of choice for countries containing Muslim brown people, but I think the Arabs in both proposed 'stans' would be a little shocked to find their new country had a Farsi name. Sure, the names are humorous, but they don't exactly lend credibility to the rest of the post, which is dead earnest. Even the colonialists who carved up these states in the first place had the sense to give them native names, rather than, say, "Sandshire-on-Gulf".

This kind of sloppiness broadcasts one of two messages: "I am ignorant", or "I can't be bothered to care". Neither is very tactful when your government is busy invading the country in question.