wouter van ooijen wrote:
>> I've never quite figured out how there can be that much difference  
>> between what a country calls itself and what everyone else 
>> calls it.   
>>     
>
> For a start: should we call ourselves "Nederland" or "Holland"? If
> "Nederland" (which is our official name), why blame the rest of the
> world for remembering that it used to be '*de* verenigde nederlanden'
> hence *the* netherlands (or, translated almost literally) "le Pay-Bas"?
>
> As a child I used to be upset because one of our southern provinces is
> called "*North* Brabant" (the souther part is in Flanders), and nobody
> could explain me why there is a "Norwegen" buth no "Southwegen". The
> world is so nicely inconsistent.
>
> Wouter van Ooijen
>
>
>   
While on the off-topic of country names and compass points, let me 
enlighten you to some trivia....

South Africa is the only country in the world named after it's 
Geographical location.

Then again, there have been a few times in my travels when I have met 
geographically challenged (but otherwise very nice) people who wanted to 
know what country in South Africa I come from.... ;-)

Rolf

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