In response to David Henn's reply, I think there needs to be
clarification.
With respect to David's assertions that there is no ambiguity, ("The
Middle East is a defined area, I would never connect it with Asia.")
The Encyclopedia Britannica (EB) would disagree with his assertions.
For example the EB website defines the location of the Middle East
as "the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, extending from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula
and Iran and sometimes beyond." For even greater certainty, it
lists most of the countries as follows:
"... the term Middle East was given to the British military command
in Egypt. Thus defined, the Middle East consisted of the states or
territories of Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine
(now Israel), Jordan, Egypt, The Sudan, Libya, and the various states
of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar,
and the Trucial States, or Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates]."
The EB goes onto say that other countries are also included from as
far east as Lybia and west to Pakistan depending on circumstances.
It is worthy to note that the EB supports my original missive to the
group - the term "Middle East" includes countries from Asia and
Africa. In fact, it could be argued that Middle East could be found
in Europe, because Turkish territory in both Asia and Europe. (I
hadn't realized this myself until I had drafted this reply.) As a
result, I would find it difficult to agree with the notion that the
area of the Middle East is defined.
Lastly, I do not dispute that Belize is located in Central America.
However, it is accepted that Central America is located within the
continent of North America. The EB defines North America as follows:
"North America is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the
east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea,
and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. To the northeast,
Greenland is separated from Iceland by the Denmark Strait, and to the
northwest, Alaska is separated from the Asian mainland by the much
narrower Bering Strait; North America's only land connection is to
South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama."
Belize, by definition, is located in North America. Furthermore, any
confirmation of amateur radio contacts with Belize for the ARRL's
Worked All Continents awards are classified as North America. As a
result, listing Central America with South America instead of North
Amterican is an error.
I would be pleased if David would be kind enough to list the standard
references so that their information can be compared to that of the
EB.
I am more than happy to take this to simplex now.
73
Jim, VE3XJ
--- In FT817@y..., "David Henn" <drhenn@y...> wrote:
--- In FT817@y..., ve3xj@r... wrote:
David:
At the risk of sounding anal retentive,
I suspect that many have not bothered with your poll because at
best, your choices are ambiguous. For example,
if I were living in Belize, what is the correct answer?
If I was located there, either North America or South America and
Central America are correct because Central America
is part of North America. The same goes with the Middle East.
I believe what we normally think of the Middle East is in Asia,
but there are those who would include bits of Africa.
Hello Jim,,
Many thanks for your comments.
I think for the people who live in the region, I don't think there
is any
ambiguity, maybe only for people who are not familiar with them.
I have used standard references, the only exception being that I
split
"EMEA" into distinct areas for better granularity. The Middle East
is
a defined area, I would never connect it with Asia.
I think you may need to think carefully over "your" statement of
where
is Belize. The following is a statement from the official "Belize"
web site.
"Belize has been recognized as a genuine Central American nation
by its isthmus neighbors"
In terms of poll responses.. It would have been nice to have higher
poll rate, But in terms of surveys 7% is excellent 3-4% is the norm.
If you want to take this simplex.. that's fine by me.
The poll was me being curious.
Rgds - David
