Free...oh what was that country called again?

[davywavy]

Browsing the BBC website at the latest news for the recent earthquake in Asian, I came across this refence map which shows the affected region. There's a lot of effort been made to show the political reality - Indian and Pakistani controlled Kashmir is clearly marked.

Hang on a minute, I thought. Isn't something missing here? Looking at another map, I see that something quite large has been entirely removed from the BCC map of the region.

Perhaps someone should write the BBC and point out that they've missed an entire country off their map? You know, Tibet - big place, a lot of hills, ancient and honourable history. You can't miss it.
Or could it be that the BBC is so afraid of offending the Chinese government that they've decided to airbrush an illegal invasion and slaughter of civilians out of history?

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Much as we might wish it otherwise, Tibet is no longer a country in any practical sense. There's no point maintaining maps full of historical entities which have been invaded out of existence, even as a political gesture. Or would you like the BBC also to continue displaying Biafra, South Vietnam, and the Duchy of Burgundy?

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

mmm when we went to India in february and brought a map of the country, tibet was not shown, though the india/tibet/china area did show disputed boundries in places.

bit tragic really.

[borusa.livejournal.com]

The concept of a "legal" invasion is a little bit of a late-twentieth century oddity.

Most countries in the world have been shaped by invasion. I tend to agree with undyingking Tibet is not currently a country. It was, and I hope it will be again, but at the moment, it isn't.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Not was East Timor, but I'd lay a fiver to sday the BBC never missed it off ay maps...

[vierkilau.livejournal.com]

East Timor is a recognised state by the U.N wheras Tibet isn't. Although putting Kashmir as seperate controlling states is odd

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It was the punctiliousness about specifying which bits of Kashmir were controlled by whom compared with the removal of Tibet that made me notice it; if the map had simply been 'India, Pakistan China' I doubt I would ahve noticed anything wrong.

[vierkilau.livejournal.com]

Yeah it did make me double take. Maybe we should start a campaign for Ruritania to be included on maps

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Little difficult to tell, isn't it?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Actually, no, it isn't - my copy of the world political atlas from the BBC in the 1980's has East Timor in it, which was how come I knew I could use the example safely :)

Statute of Limitations

[applez.livejournal.com]

Conquering, Slaughtering, and Stamping Your Authority may be criminal, but with a sufficiently long occupation, it's something everyone else can live with...besides the hand-wringers like Richard Gere.

Don't think the Japanese are terribly keen on the continued American military presence in various parts...