Knowledge

Was it really necessary to rename the Gulf of Mexico?

Let me start with the elephant in the room. I am neither American nor Mexican so I have no stake in the naming/renaming game. My opinion about the US politicians are mostly based on how they relate to and impact my country, i.e. my view on this particular topic is totally apolitical. But I have an opinion…

This is just one of those totally random, irrelevant “problems” that never really existed in the first place and will never really exist in the future either. Does the US want to call it Gulf of America? Sure. Nobody will stop them. Because who cares. Every country and every language has geographic names that are used only locally. Mexicans can call it whatever they want to as well. So can the Indonesians, Latvians and the Somalians or whoever.

Do you know what that narrow strait between the UK and France is called? It’s the English Channel. In the UK. You can probably guess that in France it’s called something else. Yep, it’s the La Manche. The name which is used by many other European countries too. But not by the Germans. Because they call it Ärmelkanal. The Spanish call it Canal de La Mancha. The Italian name is La Manica. The Albanian name is quite interesting too, because they call it Kanali i la Manshit. Seriously

My point is, I think it’s maybe a mildly interesting thing for the Americans, the rest of the world shouldn’t even care. There are way more important things to worry about.


No. It is an exercise in colossal egotism.

I note that Google Maps will now label it as the “Gulf of America.” They do something similar for a few other places. Korea calls the Sea of Japan the “East Sea,” and for for Korean users, that’s what Google shows them, and for Japanese users, it remains the Sea of Japan.

You’ll recall that in his inauguration speech, Trump claimed that God saved him from death from that assassination attempt last summer. He claimed that God saved him for the purpose of saving America. I think Trump sees himself as God’s chosen one, and he seems to be confusing himself with Jesus. Opposition to him or his policies therefore is against God’s will and therefore against God’s law. American laws seem not to matter, because several of his executive orders are clear violations.

I sort of wonder why God wants him to rename the Gulf, changing a name it has had for 400 years. I anticipate God telling Trump that Mexico should become South Arizona and Canada should become North North Dakota. Possibly Lake Michigan will become Lake Ivanka and Lake Ontario will become Lake Maga, because that would be what blue states like Illinois and New York deserve.

I sort of wonder if God will tell Trump to rename the Atlantic “the Christopher Columbus Ocean” and rename Britain “East New England.”

And can we avoid Trump renaming America’s toys? I think Mar-a-Lago Legos has a Trumpian bombast flavor to it.

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