ISO 3166 (country codes) Maintenance Agency Web pages move

Mark Crispin MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU
Tue, 26 Feb 2002 10:46:29 -0800 (Pacific Standard Time)


On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, John Cowan wrote:
> Passports, however, are issued by the Romanian state to citizens of
> that state as such, and not in their capacity as ethnic Romanians.
> There are lots of ethnic Hungarians (and a small number of Germans,
> Ukrainians, and of course Roma) there too.

True, but when individual sensitivities are involved, discretion is the
better part of valor.  I can think of certain other three letter codes
which are perfectly appropriate for a particular ethnic group, but which
would cause vehement objections if it was applied to a country -- even if
that country has nationals of that ethnic group.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.