[WikiEN-l] Name Game

Wed Feb 19 13:54:48 UTC 2003

The reason geographical names are crucially important to some 
people is that they are actively engaged in political advocacy. 

For example, the "occupied Palestinian territories". This simple 
term carries a lot of baggage. 

The term means that Gaza and West Bank are _under occupation_, 
which in turn implies that Israel is wrong to have its military 
forces there. The term also means that the territories belong 
to "Palestinians"; when we de-reference this latter term, we 
find that Palestinians are a stateless people (nearly all Arabs)
 living in (or desiring to live in) the region formerly known 
as Palestine. 

So, every time someone mentions Gaza and the West Bank, they 
have a choice: simply call them "Gaza and the West Bank", which 
doesn't imply much of anything; or call them the "occupied 
Palestinian territories", which implies that Israel shouldn't 
have those lands but the stateless Arabs should.

Wikipedia actually has to make this choice. It can choose to 
get to the bottom of the controversy, take an objective stance, 
and educate people as to the real truth. Or it can do its best 
to stay out of the controversy and merely report on what the 
various advocates say. I have tried to word the various Arab-
Israeli conflict article so that Wikipedia can stay above the 
controversy (BTW, how'm I doin? ;-).

What does this have to do with Polish or German names? Well, 
I don't know: nothing, I hope. But I worry that some advocates 
may be playing a variation on the "occupied Palestinian terri-
tories" game. If the REAL name of a geographical feature is 
Polish, that implies that its REAL OWNER is Poland. Or, real 
name German implies real owner is Germany.

I think we should rise above this controversy as much as we can:
* Acknowledge the _existence_ of alternate names.
* Avoid any pronouncement that either alternative is the 
  "right" one.
* Where controversy is heated, describe it in the article, 
  e.g., "German historian Adolf Hamburger calls this village 
  Frankfort, while Polish geographer Jerzy Polska call it 
  Phrangforcky."

My 2 cents.

Uncle Ed, aka Ed Poor
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