Re: Myanmar (formerly Burma)

"Lars Eighner" <usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:slrng2ect3.2pnc.usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In our last episode, <QrGVj.159584$yE1.64824@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, the lovely and
> talented Mary broadcast on alt.fan.cecil-adams:
>
>> Don K wrote:
>>> "NadCixelsyd" <nadcixelsyd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>>
news:5b3d79d8-51ad-40e6-8f26-6ab6817e9e1f@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> Why does every mention of Myanmar on radio/TV have to add "formerly
>>>> Burma" to the text.  Does anyone say, "formerly British Honduras" or
>>>> "formerly Ceylon" or "formerly Hot Springs, New Mexico"?  Does the
>>>> stewardess say, "Welcome to New York (formerly New Amsterdam) Kennedy
>>>> air****t, formerly, Idlewild"?
>>>>
>>>> Anyone that, by now, doesn't know Myanmar's former name probably
>>>> doesn't care.
>>>
>>> If they hadn't told me Myanmar was formerly Burma, I'd have thought it
>>> was a sandwich spread.
>>>
>>> That sort of thing is necessary whenever some yoyo seizes control of a

>>> country
>>> and changes the name without telling anyone.
>
>
>> Meaning what, that the local yoyos should keep on using whatever name
>> the British Raj stuck the country with?
>
>> Was the country known as Burma to the inhabitants themselves prior to
>> British rule?
>
> It's nobody's business but the Turks.
>
Nice.

Glenn D.