A landlocked, rural nation in southern Africa, Swaziland has significant problems. Nearly a third of the country's population lives in extreme poverty, and about as many are infected with H.I.V., one of the world's highest prevalence rates for the virus. Life expectancy is low, around 50. A recent drought and an infestation of armyworms, an invasive species, devastated crops.
So the kingdom's 1.4 million residents might have been surprised on Thursday when King Mswati III, one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchs, announced the news: The country will henceforth be known as eSwatini, the kingdom's name in the local language. (It means "land of the Swazis" in the Swazi — or siSwati — tongue.)
The king, who has reigned since 1986, announced the name change — an adjustment, really — during a ceremony in the city of Manzini on Thursday to mark his 50th birthday.
Many African countries upon independence "reverted to their ancient, native names," The Associated Press quoted the king as saying. "We no longer shall be called Swaziland from today forward."
According to Reuters, Mswati argued that the kingdom's name had long caused confusion. "Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland," the king said, according to Reuters.
Also at BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43821512.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @09:34AM (23 children)
"Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland,"
What god damn people are that dumb?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @09:49AM (6 children)
Lots, including many in the USA: http://mentalfloss.com/article/50209/5-pairs-countries-americans-confuse [mentalfloss.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @06:46PM (1 child)
Ok, so Swaziland and Switzerland were not on that list, but Switzerland and Sweden were? That is arguably must worse.
Slovakia and Slovenia is a bit more understandable, given that they sound a like, are both in that part of Europe with lots of smaller countries and came into existence recently at about the same time (yes 1990s is recently for nations).
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday April 25 2018, @12:14PM
There are of course even more confusing ones that aren't on that list, it's just that their international footprint is small enough to slip under most people's radar. I'm sure many people confuse the various Guineas (including the Papuan one), ditto Congos. I'm sure if you were to drop two pins onto a map in Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan, and ask people which was which, the result would be little different from a coin toss.
And the final one's not the worst town name confusion, mostly because there are too many towns with identical names. Many being European towns whose names have been liften wholesale to name early and pre-US settlements. Yanks who think that St. Petersburg is in Florida really piss me off. (My revenge is to refer to all US-ians as "yanks".)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:32AM
It's even worse. Many people in the USA can't even tell the difference between America and the USA.
(Score: 3, Touché) by jb on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:41AM (1 child)
Such as, for example, former US President George W. Bush, who once famously told the press how pleased he was to be "at the OPEC summit in Austria" when in fact he was at the APEC summit in Australia.
Instead of complaining, the people of Swaziland should consider capitalising on the mistake.
Perhaps they could try exporting Swazi chocolate, or Swazi clocks, or perhaps try something rather more ambitious...
...after all, anyone who is both silly enough not to be able to tell the difference between Switzerland & Swaziland and greedy enough to want to avoid tax probably won't be averse to investing his money in a Swazi bank, for example...
...and the interest rate differentials the Swazis could earn from such deals might go a long way towards reducing their domestic poverty.
Just a thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @07:10PM
Dear Sir
I have been requested by the National Swazi Bank to contact you for assistance in moving funds matter.
You assistance is requested as a non-Swazi citizen. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed. In exchange for your accommodating services, the National Swazi Bank would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of the total amount.
However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Swazi law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in National Swazi Bank.
If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful.
Please call me at your earliest convenience at 12 345 678. Time is of the essence in this matter;
Yours truly,
Prince Happy Goodluck
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:27AM
The last case from that link:
In other words: Claim you misheard, get a free vacation day in Australia. ;-)
But seriously: I wonder what the Airport personnel was doing. Normally they check your ticket when you board the plane, and I'd expect if the ticket is not for the plane you try to board, even if it goes to the same destination, they would not let you board it.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday April 24 2018, @09:49AM
Have you meet people? There are some that are dumber.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @10:53AM (1 child)
There was that episode of "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" where the lady wasnt sure if europe or paris or rome were countries and didnt believe a country could be name hungary but if it did exist then it should take over turkey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:31AM
And rightly so, as there exists a country named Hungary, but none named hungary. ;-)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pTamok on Tuesday April 24 2018, @11:56AM (2 children)
"Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland,"
- What god damn people are that dumb?
It depends on what you mean by dumb: ignorant, or stupid (intellectually challenged).
Many people are ignorant, and you should not mock people for their ignorance: their life experience could be very different from yours. Ignorance can be remedied, if the ignorant person is willing, by education.
Stupid people should not be mocked. Common human decency is not to mock the less able, but to help them.
In both cases, the appropriate response is XKCD 1053: Ten Thousand [xkcd.com]
However, there are some people who actively choose to avoid an opportunity to learn. Active Ignorance is difficult to remedy, but some good people try [wordpress.com].
People who actively avoid learning, preferring ignorance and irrational belief, even when this has been pointed out to them: now they can and should be mocked.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:41PM (1 child)
Active ignorance needs to be distinguished from information triage. I've had people trying to push an argument who insisted that I could see their side if only I would read a lengthy book. When I said I didn't have time for that and that brief citations to bolster their argument should be enough, they wouldn't accept that and accused me of being willfully ignorant. In a sense, I am--but this is a good kind of ignorance. We all do it. It's why scientific papers have abstracts. You chose to read or *not* read papers based on abstracts. If we didn't chose to ignore some information, everything would slow to a crawl as everybody tried to digest everything ever written.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday April 24 2018, @07:51PM
For me the litmus test (or touchstone, if you prefer) is Richard Feynman's aphorism: "If you can't explain it in simple terms, you don't understand it."
If someone is requesting that you put a lot of time into learning something, they need to be able to demonstrate that they themselves have learned and understood it - in which case, they can explain it in simple terms. For example, Feynman diagrams [wikipedia.org] condense a great deal of complicated mathematics into simple pictures. There is a subtle difference between having the skills and ability to replicate somone's work and simply being able to understand their work.
I have a lot of sympathy for your view on information triage - nobody can read everything, so you do have to be selective. How to be judicious in choosing your sources is a learnable skill, which I am still working on. It is probably a lifelong exercise. Peddlers of irrational beliefs often try to swamp you with abstruse information overload, which for me is a warning signal.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday April 24 2018, @12:05PM
I believe it's somewhere between Zamunda [wikipedia.org] and Nambia [bbc.co.uk]
(Score: 3, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 24 2018, @02:38PM (1 child)
Oh, you're from Austria? Well G'day, mate!
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:27PM
The facade is cracking, Trump couldn't do an aussie accent if his family's lives depended on it. Now maybe if HIS life was one the line...
(Score: 5, Funny) by bradley13 on Tuesday April 24 2018, @04:27PM
"Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland,"
What god damn people are that dumb
Well, since you ask :-)
I live in Switzerland. I have received mail that has been routed through Swaziland. That mail was sent from the US.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Freeman on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:48PM (1 child)
People in the United States of America think New Mexico is part of Mexico.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Wednesday April 25 2018, @01:51PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @07:20PM
Explains all the lost luggage.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Tuesday April 24 2018, @07:28PM (1 child)
Did you know a majority of EU passport holders can't name all the member states if asked? That more than a few college surveys concluded students often can't name the states and capitals? That most Chinese can't tell which countries they border given a list of countries in the region to choose from?
Fact of the matter is, geography is mostly trivia or occupational: Even if taught, most folks just don't retain this sort of knowledge unless they practice it in their vocations regularly. Personally, I don't think I ever even heard of Swaziland and were I to come across their name I would think it either a misspelling or an alternative spelling of Switzerland unless some very contextualized hint made me suspect otherwise.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, God save the king.
compiling...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:40AM
It's not like the US, the list of member states keep changing, there's always countries applying to become members and nobody can keep track of who has gone from applying to actual members and who hasn't - and once in a while, a country even leaves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by srobert on Tuesday April 24 2018, @09:15PM
"You know how dumb the average person is? Well, half the people are even dumber than that." --George Carlin.
(Score: 5, Funny) by pipedwho on Tuesday April 24 2018, @10:46AM (9 children)
He was originally thinking iSwatini, but didn't want to raise the ire of Apple. Swatini 365would confuse people when a leap year came around. And mySwatini is so last decade.
The main thing was to get a recognisable brand so they could maintain their tiered subscription model.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kell on Tuesday April 24 2018, @12:06PM
As much as I feel that the new name represents a progress move forward towards a digital future of the kingdom, I can't help but imagine "eSwatini" as being something a Jawa would yell.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 24 2018, @12:58PM (2 children)
No, he should have gone with "eSwazblockchain". That would have gotten Wall Street and other idiots pouring money in.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:25PM (1 child)
eSwazFaceblockchain
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @04:13PM
eYouTwitFaceSwagYolo420BlockTube.com
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Tuesday April 24 2018, @03:49PM (2 children)
My first thought was that they had sold naming rights of the country to some Internet company, like the GoldenPalace.com monkey [wikipedia.org]. eWhatever usually stands for "electronic", doesn't it?
Or it's a hip and trendy new kind of martini SWAT teams like to drink
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @07:03PM (1 child)
e and i are common prefixes in bantu langugaes, not sure what it does but i suspect denotes a noun or something like that
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @06:20AM
Likely similar to Botswana as the name of the country and Setswana as the name of the majority language. Bantu languages use prefixes where others use suffixes.
(Score: 3, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday April 25 2018, @02:45AM (1 child)
eSwatini has a lot of potential;
but iSwatini is more current.
either way, you can always switch, later, if you need to rectify.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:43AM
Since the country has rounded corners they simply could not risk a lawsuit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @12:07PM (2 children)
How about he rename it: Shithole
(Score: 1, Troll) by Nuke on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:12PM
He just did - "eSwatini" means "shithole". From now on anyway.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:15PM
eSwatni is a great place racist-homophobic-fascist-Islamophobic-bigot! It doesn't need you! It is great already! Also, please let their refugees into your Western Democracies, they cannot survive back home!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Nuke on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:16PM
I'm glad he's cleared that up. Now it's just certain parts of London where I keep thinking I'm in Africa.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NewNic on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:32PM (1 child)
The new name isn't "eSwatini". The new name is: "the Kingdom of eSwatini".
Details matter.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @08:57PM
eNjiggers gotta be eNjiggers.