Best Group of Countries

if you don't vote Lucky Countries you have no heart

second option should read: The Border Areas (Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, UK)

quote from piece: It's a center for finance and media, but London may be best understood as a world-class city in a second-rate country.

xp lol! RIP England (outside London), Scotland & Wales miss u

tbf most of London while lovely to walk through is riven with discontent and wage-slave oppression

Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia)

...got cut off up there

ah, good ol' d&w-s.o.

"Lucky" b/c they are geographically isolated from the rest of the global horror show??

Depends entirely on the criteria you're using really, voted for New Hansa for political reasons.

Oh man. Articles like that should be great fun, but are invariably disappointing ime. Got a link?

(how's the UK or Ireland a border area exactly? The border of what?)

relevance

NO

Border of Europe and the Atlantic. Not entirely committed to the idea of Europe but kidding themselves if they think that the North American block takes them seriously.

I don't want to vote for the Hanseatic League but I fear I'm going to have to.

AND WHY THE FUCK CANT NEW YORK BE A CITY STATE TELL ME

this is basically my dream

lucky countries?!

Yeah come on if Paris deserves fake-independence then surely NY does.

Did Israel get written out of this thing?

Oh wait, Tel Aviv.

Splitting hairs a bit there, having Gaza, West Bank, Tel Aviv and presumably the rest of Israel all in different categories. Caribbean and Southern Africa not quite getting such nuanced treatment.

New Hansa's kicking ass in this year's Legatum Prosperity Index: http://www.prosperity.com/

Where the heck are countries like Guyana and Suriname? They get screwed here.

The partition here

Russian Empire (Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine)
The Wild East (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan)
Iranistan (Bahrain, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria)
Greater Arabia (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen)
The New Ottomans (Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)

seems to me to have several instances of rong, although they may of course have good reasons I haven't read (feel free to school me if I'm misinformed here):

-- Kazakhstan surely not even close to the level of "wild" of Afgh, Kyrg, Pak, Tajik??
-- Azerbaijan obv belongs to Iranistan (12 to 18 million Azeris in Iran vs about 8 mill in actual Azerbaijan! Also, Shia), or alternatively New Ottomans even (lang/ethn);
-- Don't really get Iranistan as it stands at all (Syria mainly Sunni plus was actually a part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt not long ago)
-- Am sure Transnistrian rebels would be happy with Moldova's reunification with Russia rather than where Romania is;
-- Talking of which, whither Georgia? That's a tough one;
-- etc.

(I guess a problem here is the decision to follow current country boundaries in making up new groups (apart from the city-states))

Got a link?

here

No DPRK, no credibility. The glorious Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not only the best answer, it is the only answer. There is no life outside of DPRK, typical imperialist lies to the contrary. Long live the glorious DPRK!

The Border Areas AKA Everywhere In Europe We Couldn't Think Of A Snappy Group For (Except The Ones We Didn't Remember Existed At All)

"New Hansa" sounds quite pleasant and more importantly like somewhere you can buy some good drinks (admittedly possibly at wallet-bleeding Nordic prices), will probably vote for that

Myonga OTM yet again.

Isn't this article basically saying "Countries in a certain region will tend to have linked fortunes, and many ties and similarities, except occasionally they don't". Fun to read, but not enormously useful IMO.

also "lol Britain"

Isn't this article basically saying "Countries in a certain region will tend to have linked fortunes

Seems to be, which is why I am amused by the fiddly dissection of Europe into swathes, except - oops! There are a bunch of countries left, some at the opposite ends to each other, and some scattered down the middle. Oh, and there's Austria, Bosnia and Serbia, we'll just ignore those completely.

Of course, they could've avoided this completely if they'd listed already-named regions instead of picking out individual countries, but then the article would've seemed all the more obvious: we already know these regions are vaguely similar and loosely politically linked, that's why they shared a name long before the author sat down with an atlas and a pencil.

(I admit it only speaks to my own parochialism that I can't find the same inconsistencies in the other continents, where they surely exist too. And yes, this post is stating the obvious as much as I imagine the article is. Which I haven't read anyway, so, y'know, shut up, spacecadet.)

They should be so lucky! Lucky! Lucky! Lucky!

Azerbaijan should be with the Ottomans, surely? Think I'll go with the borderlands though, it makes being British sound much edgier than it actually is.

It's a center for finance and media, but London may be best understood as a world-class city in a second-rate country.

wondering which ones would be considered the "first-rate" countries. Germany and Japan, I guess. Sweden? U.S., Russia. so many other candidates seem to have too many "yes but"s factoring in

e.g., the article's take on France:
France remains an advanced, cultured place that tries to resist Anglo-American culture and the shrinking relevance of the EU. No longer a great power, it is more consequential than an Olive Republic but not as strong as the Hansa.

makes me think i should go back to school and study geography with an aim towards churning out ad&d monster manual-type classifications of countries

N. Korea
Special Defenses: Cultic Umbrella
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Psionic Ability: Leader Types

Would play cross between AD&D and Risk.

(Actually, might not play, in case it is like Diplomacy, which I have a personal aversion to after it became a cult-like craze at university)

voted Olive Republics, they know how to drink and eat, pretty dope climates, good sense of style and design.

voted north american alliance tbh

I hate that London-as-separate-city-state meme btw. It bloody isn't! For a few financiers and recent immigrant groups maybe a bit - for everyone else, no.

i have always wanted a rubber belt...

voted Olive Republics, they know how to drink and eat, pretty dope climates, good sense of style and design.

yeah, any place that prioritizes good eats, conversation, dancing, i.e., "partying", and siesta-ing is okay by me

as it is, though, temperamentally i fit more into the "border areas". i require a happy medium btwn bergmanesque and mediterranean

"Best" for what?

Not entirely committed to the idea of Europe but kidding themselves if they think that the North American block takes them seriously

yes Ireland's famous desire to be considered a world superpower by America is seriously embarrassing.

I was just chuckling the other day thinking about my ancestral homeland's foolish attempts to impress me.

Maybe subsititue "quixotic" for "foolish".

yes Ireland's famous desire to be considered a world superpower by America is seriously embarrassing.

well......yes?

I hate that London-as-separate-city-state meme btw. It bloody isn't! For a few financiers and recent immigrant groups maybe a bit - for everyone else, no.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, October 27, 2010 7:22 PM (3 hours ago)

speak for yrself

Iranistan is a not so coherent swipe at places suffering from too much Islamic religious turmoil but why Bahrain is included is a little beyond me not mention putting Persians and Arabs, and Sunni, Shia and Christians all into the same 'stan'.

Also where is Austria in this?

Based on its historical relationship with Jews, Austria should be with Iranistan

Well, by that measure so should England (expelled from 1290 to 1656), France, Spain and Hansa all-star, Germany.

also Egypt circa 500-600 BC

Ha ha, yes, though perhaps not Babylon, eh?

limerick in 1904

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The article sounds pretty stupid and the quoted parts are annoying.

Voted "olive republics" for the same reasons listed upthread, but many of the divisions seem arbitrary and are unsatisfying to me.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

die subjectivism