How many countries have you visited?

[Shemeska]

USA
Scotland

....

I need to get out more.

 

[talinthas]

USA
Canada
India
Singapore
Korea
United Kingdom
France
Jamaica
Russia
Hong Kong

 

[Pinotage]

Sorry Pinotage I should have phrased my question differently. I was thinking about the 15-year economic and political decline rather than the physical geography. When I was there, Zimbabwe was just beginning to fall noticeably from being the prosperous, organized place it was in the 1980s. The World Bank had just imposed Structural Adjustment. So I was sort of looking to know how far it had slid politically and economically between 1992 and 1996.

As evinced in my postings in the on-topic areas, I see everything in terms of religion, culture and politics so I didn't even go to Hwange when I went. My trip highlight was Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo.

I seem to recall things going pear-shaped a year or two after my visit there, but since it was my first visit to Zimbabwe, I can't really compare its political or cultural state with what it was before. When I was there you could get about 2 Zimbabwe Dollars to a SA Rand, but a year or two afterwards it shot up to 10 or 11. Things started going downhill quite quickly after that.

While I agree that landclaims to a certain extent are justified, the manner in which they were done was atrocious. South Africa has tens of thousands of cases of landclaims, but they're all handled through the landclaims court without intimidation and forced eviction.

I just hope things improve there - it's a beautiful country.

Pinotage

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm not clear on whether Ahvenanmaa counts.
And what about Greenland?

Greenland counts.

Ahvenanma--I'm not sure. I just learned about this fine place.

Maybe we should just go to the criteria I established: a)Does it have it's own olympic team, b) Is it a member of the UN, or c) Does it have separate entry/visa requirements from Finland?

Not a big deal really.

It's obviously very difficult to determine what level of autonomy means it's a separate country. Russia has a number of autonomous states (many more famous than the the one embroiled in a long conflict) which I have visited. Kazan, for example, has its own president (as well as a separate official langauge and a number of other differences)! In my visit to India I was also impressed by the considerable differences between the different regions. Many Indian states (India is divided into 20+ 'States') have distinct ethnic nationalities, languages, history, etc, that would make them just as worthy of the status of country as say England, Wales, or Scotland.

In reference to a few previous posts, Texas is most definitely not a separete country

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Double Post

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

UK
France
Belgium
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Monaco
Spain
Andorra
Italy
The Vatican
Croatia
Serbia
Greece
Turkey
West Germany
East Germany
Switzerland
Austria
Denmark
Sweden
Poland
The Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia at the time)
USA (15 maybe 20 different states)
Canada
Mexico
The US Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands
Egypt
Tanzania
Kenya
Japan
South Korea

Need to do the oceania and south east asia things really, plus south america at some point

 

[jonesy]

Ahvenanma--I'm not sure. I just learned about this fine place.

Maybe we should just go to the criteria I established: a)Does it have it's own olympic team, b) Is it a member of the UN, or c) Does it have separate entry/visa requirements from Finland?

Not a big deal really.

It's obviously very difficult to determine what level of autonomy means it's a separate country.

Well, Ahvenanmaa is very tricky in that regard (oh and I probably should have called it Åland, since that is the name the people who live there use).

- While a demilitarized zone, the Finnish military protects its territories.
- The UN recognizes them as an autonomous region, but they still use the Finnish representation there to run their affairs in the UN.
- While the official first language of Finland is Finnish and the secondary Swedish, Ålands primary is Swedish and they have no obligation to offer any services in the Finnish language.
- They have a special partnership with the IOC, yet they compete under the Finnish flag.
- They have their own parliament, even though they have people in the Finnish parliament.
- For visa purposes (as far as I can tell) they act as if they were both a separate country in the EU and a part of Finland.
- They are under the Finnish legislation, but can make their own laws.

In other words, I have no idea whatsoever.

 

[Nisarg]

Wow.. I see the latinamerican countries appear to be pathetically under-represented. Let's try to remedy that:

Canada
United States
Mexico
Cayman Islands
Uruguay (current residence)
Argentina
Brazil
Peru
Chile
England
France

Nisarg

 

[tec-9-7]

United States (home) but only parts of it
England (I wish that was my home - I loved England)
Canada (only Vancouver, and only for a day, but [arnold voice]I'll be back.[/arnold voice])
Bahamas
St. Maarten (the Dutch half)

 

[nakia]

In reference to a few previous posts, Texas is most definitely not a separete country

Have you been, cause it certainly seems like it wants to be!

No, it does not fit the criteria. But no other US State, and not even some of the other countires I have visited, have as much invested in regional identity or pride as the average Texan. I kinda dug it while I was there.

To inform the ignorant American (that would be me): where is Ahvenanmaa?