Wednesday, January 08, 2025

Roses and Oceans




’Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague,
What's Montague? It is not hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face. O be some other name,
belonging to a man!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other word would smell as sweet.


Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, promised to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

He was not the first Crazy.




In July, 1963 The Times of India reported the startling news that Indonesia's President Sukarno wanted Indonesia's Navy to call the Indian Ocean as the Indonesian Ocean and his Chief of Staff of the Navy Eddy Martadinata had issued an order making the change.




Today, matters of sea are even more important to Indonesia which BTW is a nation of islands. This includes the Natuna Islands, an archipelago of 272 small islands that lie in a part of the sea where they rub up against China. That whole area is generally known as the South China Sea but recently the Indonesian government said that the part near their islands would now be called the North Natuna Sea.




An even more intensely felt maritime dispute in the region has been running for decades over the name for the sea between Korea and Japan. The general convention is to call this the Sea of Japan, but South and North Korea affirm passionately that they always called this the East Sea and that its appropriation by Japan continues the humiliating colonisation of Korea by Japan and atrocities committed during WWII. 








2 comments:

  1. North Borneo Sea sounds a lot better and more accurate.
    Hainan Island is a looooong way off.

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately for u, North Borneo was a no-man land when that sea had already known as South China Sea!

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