INTP Live

A thread for geopolitical anomalies.

Got recommended a YouTube video about Transnistria, which I had never heard of. It's an autonomous region in Moldova that claims independence, uses a different language, alphabet, currency, etc.



They have a massive statue of Lenin outside their government building:



Then there's Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Artsakh, which are similarly clinging onto a sort of Soviet-era status quo. Very strange.

Nunavik is a semi-autonomous apology Inuit special administration zone the size of California located in Québec.

There are, so far as I know, no statues of Lenin there.

Utisz wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:53 pm

Then there's Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Artsakh, which are similarly clinging onto a sort of Soviet-era status quo. Very strange.

I'm guessing one or both of these:

1. The closest these lands got to political autonomy was under the Soviet Union.

2. The Soviet-era establishment in the republics is still in power, and the Soviet Union is their claim to legitimacy.

The messy division of India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) created numerous enclaves.

Within the main body of Bangladesh were 102 enclaves of Indian territory, which in turn contained 21 Bangladeshi counter-enclaves, one of which contained an Indian counter-counter-enclave – the world's only third-order enclave. Within the Indian mainland were 71 Bangladeshi enclaves, containing 3 Indian counter-enclaves. A joint census in 2010 found 51,549 people residing in these enclaves: 37,334 in Indian enclaves within Bangladesh and 14,215 in Bangladeshi enclaves within India.

I learned that from a trivia contest.

Some 8000 miles away from Britain, off the southernmost tip of Argentina, there are these godforsaken islands occupied by some deranged brits (no doubt for their shit weather) and declared British land. Wrap your head around that one.

The Norhwest angle.



It's cut off from the rest of the United States by a lake.

This is the only land vehicle access:

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/b ... s.html?m=1

Bir Tawil, Egypt and Sudan claim different areas both of which leave this small patch of territory unclaimed. It would be anarchy/libertarian paradise if it weren't an uninhabitable desert.

Ferrus wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:32 pm

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/b ... s.html?m=1

Bir Tawil, Egypt and Sudan claim different areas both of which leave this small patch of territory unclaimed. It would be anarchy/libertarian paradise if it weren't an unihabitable desert.

The border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq had a Neutral Zone that is of interest only to desert nomads.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... utral_zone

C.J.Woolf wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:50 pm

The border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq had a Neutral Zone that is of interest only to desert nomads.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... utral_zone

Yes but it was officially demarcated after the Gulf war from memory.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was the inspiration for the Federation-Romulan neutral zone in Star Trek.

Ferrus wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:34 pm

C.J.Woolf wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:50 pm

The border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq had a Neutral Zone that is of interest only to desert nomads.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... utral_zone

Yes but it was officially demarcated after the Gulf war from memory.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was the inspiration for the Federation-Romulan neutral zone in Star Trek.

If it dates to the Gulf War, I doubt it. It was actually a thing in the episode where the Romulans were introduced in TOS, Balance of Terror.