Comments for Amerigo's Legacy at http://www.rivierareporter.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.rivierareporter.com Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:55:42 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/734/132/#comment-246 The "non-existent place" situation exists more and more, most recently in Central Europe where Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia no longer exist as such. I have a Palestinian friend who was born in Bethany. He also holds an American passport but try telling the passport office that his birthplace is in Palestine. For them, it's automatically Israel. - Mike Meade Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:14:32 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/734/132/#comment-245 A Mexican friend of mine gets highly annoyed when the word 'Americans' is used to apply to USA citizens. He points out that America is not a country, but a continent (or two, depending on where you went to school) consisting of some 20 countries. Therefore he, and his Paraguayan wife, are both Americans. I always refer to US Americans where clarity is needed. In the same way, most of my Rhodesian friends, and I am using the word deliberately because they are Rhodesians and were born in Rhodesia, and also because I know it irritates some people who try to be PC, are Africans. The fact that they do not have black skins is irrelevant. Nobody over the age of 27 can have been born in Zimbabwe because it did not exist prior to 1981, and it annoys me that when I say: "I lived in Rhodesia" people 'correct' me, saying : "You mean Zimbabwe." I know where I lived and it was a far, far better place than the mess that the despotic tyrant madman Mugabe has created today. That though is to be discussed more fully elsewhere. - Mike P Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:26:05 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/734/132/#comment-242 As an american raised in France with a canadian father , I believe AMERICANS is the term for which our people has been referred to on the past 250 years.so AMERICAN I am! having been living in France for a few decedes now , I can tell you that french canadians have not invented that term , it is a france french invention in the mid eighties to refer to AMERICANS: french always prone to the " exception francaise". nevertheless when I have to renew my passport , I need go to the "ambassed des etats unis d amerique" , not the ambassade des etats unis etats uniens! wouldn t that sound grotesque! VIVE LE QUEBEC LIBRE! - AAAROTOSTATIC Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:09:01 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/734/132/#comment-42 Your French Canadian reader may be irritated by Americans being called Americans, but, like it or not, the official name of the country of its citizens is the United States of America. My American passport, a document generally recognized by other governments, is issued by the United States of America. "Etats-Unien" is a solecism: grammatically, geographically and historically. The term, apparently coined in Quebec, could equally refer to a Mexican (the official name of Mexico being Estados Unidos Mexicanos), or to a Brazilian from 1889-1968 (when the official name of Brazil was the United States of Brazil) or to citizens of other countries that also bear "United States" in their official names. I don't recognize "Etats-Unien" as referring to me or to 300 million of my countrymen. - Marie Fucci Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:11:12 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/734/132/#comment-41 We have, and an appropriate change has been made in the listing you refer to. Of the core Reporter team two - Mike Meade, born in Vancouver, and Nancy Wilson, born in Montreal - are Américains but not Etats-Uniens. M.M. - Riviera Reporter Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:10:32 +0100