The Economist Shop : From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow

By David Edenden

Below is a review of a book on political geography with a very odd name. What caught my attention was the reference to "Greece, which fears separatism by the Slavs in its own province of Macedonia".

From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow:
The Economist Shop :

"Mostly, that just creates a lucrative line in new maps and atlases. But sometimes it also causes huge controversy. In theory, Macedonia, independent since 1991, is still struggling to persuade the world that it is entitled to that name. To placate next-door Greece, which fears separatism by the Slavs in its own province of Macedonia, it languishes under the clumsy “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, or FYROM. Such nomenclature is shorthand for political affiliation: if you speak of “Judea and Samaria” you are a Likudnik; if you call the same patch the “occupied territories” you are not."
...

The author is clearly blessed with a good sense of humour, which, sadly, he partially suppresses, presumably in deference to the stiff-necked culture of American officialdom and academe. Another, odder, weakness is the illustrations: the maps in the book are cheap, monochrome reproductions, and there is no attempt to show what Bloody Dick Creek and Molly's Nipple look like in real life.

But the bigger point is well made. Maps are about power: the rich, powerful and victorious determine place-names, just as they write history. The final defeat for losers is when they are wiped off the map.