Czech Republic vs Chechnya vs Czechoslovakia

A few comments to all Americans who are spreading complete bullshit about the Boston attackers coming from Czech Republic on all various social media, e.g.

http://storify.com/suchosch/e-en-sko

1. Czechoslovakia doesn't exist since 1992
2. Czech Republic is a completely different country than Chechnya, which was a part of the Soviet Union
3. Citizens of Czechoslovakia are white (or "caucasians" is the "politically correct" term I think) and most of them are atheists or christians

Americans are not, on the whole, noted for their great talents in the field of geography or topography. If it's not in America, they don't know it. As for your point three: Chechens are white, too - the word caucasian means "from the Caucasus", which is where Chechnya is located.

Thanks for the correction - what is the "politically correct" word that I should use ?

[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]

Thanks for the correction - what is the "politically correct" word that I should use ? [/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what you mean. Chechens are, I think, a Slavic people, which makes them "white" in the sense in which that word is usually applied. From wikipedia: "Chechens belong to the Caucasoid type, exhibiting traits typical of European and Caucasian peoples. The majority of Chechens are dark-haired (medium to dark brown or black), but there are Chechens with blonde or even red hair, while eye color ranges from blue to brown and skin tone is typically rather pale and light (though there are some Chechens with olive complexions)."

Probably most people in Europe would regard them as Eastern European in physical appearance, with the Czechs being considered Central Europeans.

I see ... so the term I was thinking about probably can't be translated to English. But never mind that :-)

I guess...just out of curiosity (always eager to learn new words, you know), what Czech term were you thinking of?

I was just learning a lot about this today because I'm a stupid American and I don't know anything about geography.

Apparently a few years ago some terrorism in Chechnya killed 300 kids in an elementary school in the first day of school, and I couldn't help but thinking... 24 people get shot in a school here and we go bonkers, but 300 kids get killed somewhere on the other side of the world and we hear nothing about it?

Ugh, we are kind of messed up sometimes.

I didn't realize people were mixing up Chechnya and Czech Republic, though. That's hilariously stupid.

Just to clarify: I'm not saying Americans are stupid, I'm saying the vast majority of Americans are ignorant of geography outside their own country. In all fairness, I don't think most Europeans could point out more than about five American states on a map.

I remember reading about the tragedy in Chechnya over a day or two when it happened, but it definitely didn't stay a headline for long here in the U.S.

[QUOTE] [b]shannaschaffer wrote:[/b]

I remember reading about the tragedy in Chechnya over a day or two when it happened, but it definitely didn't stay a headline for long here in the U.S.[/QUOTE]

Really? Here in Europe, the media were talking about it for weeks! Naturally, it didn't stay on the front pages for that long, but still...they've even aired documentaries about it.

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]shannaschaffer wrote:[/b]

I remember reading about the tragedy in Chechnya over a day or two when it happened, but it definitely didn't stay a headline for long here in the U.S.[/QUOTE]

Really? Here in Europe, the media were talking about it for weeks! Naturally, it didn't stay on the front pages for that long, but still...they've even aired documentaries about it. [/QUOTE]

It was covered constantly on all the news channels - the entire horror of it. We were stunned, saddened, and riveted to the TV and then... nothing.

This just in, nhl veteran Jaromir Jagr has just been detained for being a czech terrorist :D

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]

Just to clarify: I'm not saying Americans are stupid, I'm saying the vast majority of Americans are ignorant of geography outside their own country. In all fairness, I don't think most Europeans could point out more than about five American states on a map.[/QUOTE]

Why should they? It's non-essential knowledge of one country.

Knowledge of states in one's own country should bear no comparison to being able to name (and locate on a map) five other countries.

I bet you my entire music collection that more Europeans can name 5 US states than Americans can name 5 countries other than their own (with the exception of countries the media has told them they should bomb at some point in the last 50 years).

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]

Just to clarify: I'm not saying Americans are stupid, I'm saying the vast majority of Americans are ignorant of geography outside their own country. In all fairness, I don't think most Europeans could point out more than about five American states on a map.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, the internal politics of a country are pretty irrelevant to people living outside that country. I'd say it's good enough if you can locate the country and it's capital city.

You wouldn't expect an American to recognise the states of Brazil on a map, so why should the brazilians recognise US states either? (I know Brazil is not in Europe, but it's a pretty good comparison!)

The issue is not one of politics, but one of scale: the U.S. is larger than the whole of Europe, so from a topographical point of view I don't think it's unjustified to equate knowing the lay-out of European countries with that of U.S. states or Canadian provinces. I don't think it's strictly necessary for most people to know where all fifty states are located on a map, but I was putting American ignorance of international geography into perspective - on the whole, European high school students can point out more countries on a map than their American peers, but their knowledge of North American topography tends to be as sketchy as that of American students of European topography. Because the U.S. and Canada are countries on a pretty much continental scale, you can't compare their internal topography to that of, say, Germany or France.