No benevolence for you
More nonsensical strutting and chest-puffing about the horrible crime of burning a single copy of a widely available religious book:
Sweden should not expect Turkey to back its Nato membership bid, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, days after a copy of the Quran was burned in a Stockholm protest.
…
“It is clear that those who caused such a disgrace in front of our country’s embassy can no longer expect any benevolence from us regarding their application.”
Erdogan is a dictator in all but name; that’s the real disgrace here.
Turkey, a majority Muslim country, denounced the Swedish government’s decision to allow the protest as “completely unacceptable”.
“No one has the right to humiliate the saints,” said Mr Erdogan in his televised remarks on Monday.
One, no “saints” are “humiliated” when some people burn a book. Two, oh yes we do have the right to express our dislike of a religion. Three, Erdogan isn’t a shining example of concern for human rights.
I’ve got it.
At its most northern extremity, Sweden has a small length of border with Russia. So maybe if Sweden gets blocked out of NATO by Turkey, the Swedes could offer some sort of deal to Putin. After all, as I recall, the Turks and the Russians have always got along very well. So it would be win-win-win all round. All would be sweetness, light, and one big happy family.
What could possibly go wrong with that.?
Nope. Sweden borders on Norway (really long border) and Finland. The Swedish–Finnish border extends from the point where Norway, Sweden and Finland meet down to the northern end of the Baltic.
It is Norway that shares a border with Russia. And Finland, of course, but that goes without saying.
A bit of history: At the end of World War II, Soviet forces invaded Norway from the north. The German occupiers employed a schorched earth tactic as they withdrew, forcing the civilian population south. But some remained behind by hiding in the mountains, and welcomed the Russians with open arms when they came. As the war ended, the Russians withdrew to the original borders.
Because of this, people in northern Norway have long had a much more positive attitudes towards the Russians than the rest of the population. There was much cross border traffic right up to the invasion of Ukraine, but now that has slowed to a trickle.
lol sheesh look at a map next time Omar. By the way Australia shares a small bit of border with Uganda.
LOL. Omar, as a kiwi, I’m laughing with you. Honestly.
OB, how could you get it so wrong? Obviously, Australia shares a border with Austria, it’s right there in the first 5 letters!
Oh well Austria yes, also Paraguay, just not with Russia.
Australia has multiple large port cities, something landlocked Paraguay has always lacked. Maybe the Chinese can fund a railroad from Asuncion to, say, Sydney?
Paraguay has no coast, but it has several ports. The Paraguay is a very big river that can support a lot of traffic (much bigger than the Manchester Ship Canal that allows Manchester to be a port).
Maybe you’re thinking about Bolivia, which complains endlessly about its lack of access to the sea.
Okay, so we all had our fun – hopefully not too much at Omar’s expense. And I’ll admit, whether it makes him feel better about his mistake or not:
Geography is hard. Omar’s mistake stood out as a sore thumb to me for the simple reason that Norway is my country. But looking at a a map of some far away region is a humbling experience. Take the Balkan countries, for example: I can’t for the life of me tell you what countries you’ll see along the eastern coast of the Adriatic sea, from Venice down to Greece, without consulting a map. Or exactly which countries border on Hungary? I have no idea, without looking at the map again.
I still remember how surprised I was to learn that Russia shares a border with North Korea, not far from Vladivostok.
Comment mk 2:
I’ve re-got it.
At its most northern extremity, Norway has a small length of border with Russia. So maybe if Norway gets blocked out of NATO by Turkey, the Norweigians could offer some sort of deal to Putin. After all, as I recall, the Turks and the Russians have always got along very well. So it would be win-win-win all round. All would be sweetness, light, and one big happy family.
What could possibly go wrong with that.? Apart from what went wrong with mk 1?
Also, as the Crimean War was fought between the Danes and the Swedes a long time ago now, a replay of that could maybe provide a distraction. For the pro-Putin Russians.
Harald, oh I know, that’s why I said lookatamap – I had to look at a map myself to refresh my memory. Remembering exactly how borders go is imPOSsible.
This was a fun conversation; geography is fun, but also confusing to a lot of people. Especially people who think Africa is a country. (i had a student one day go further than that – listing both African AND Europe as countries). I gave an assignment one time in Environmental Science about the problems with environmental issues that cross political boundaries.
I was horrified to realize my students didn’t know what “political boundary” meant.
What I want to know is how on earth Monaco gets to be a country. It’s a damn city! Not a very big city at that! How can it be a country?
There are a very few other city-states besides Monaco left in the world. Singapore would be reasonably considered the most important. I think Kuwait might count as a city-state. In some times & regions most states were single cities plus hinterland. Classic Greece, medieval & early modern Germany & northern Italy. Switzerland is a confederation of such mini-states.