>>>>>>>Why is it that the UK participates in the Olympics as "Great Britian and Northern Ireland" but in the World cup as England? That freaky St. George's cross makes me nervous like Richard the Lionhearted is about to attack. Why not field "United Kingdom" teams for both? Or is Gibralter holding out?
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>>>>>>Been thinking about this. I figure that it's NATIONS that compete in the olympics AOT countries. Sure, a country CAN be a nation but although I'm English (though I haven't a drop of English blood in my body) my NATION is Britain
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>>>>>Maybe, but Canada is a country not a nation. We have the french-canadians and the native peoples (first nations). So I guess we are a collection of nations.
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>>>>I have to disagree. We are a country and a nation:
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>>>>Nation: a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government (Websters)
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>>>>The way I see it, if you are surrounded by national boundaries, you are in a nation.
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>>>Tell that to Somalia.
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>>Seeing ones self as being a member of a certain colour, culture, religion, creed, gang, sexual orientation, waist size or whatever doesn't change the definition of a nation.
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>>When the U.S. had a civil war, it was a war within a nation. It may even have been seen as a war between two competing nations, but as I said to Thomas, where is it written that one nation cannot be part of another nation?
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>Right here actually. This is the clearest definition that I've seen. Generally these 3 words are blurred together.
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>"In the English language, the terms nation (cultural), country (geographical) and state (political) do have precise meanings, but in daily speech and writing they are often used interchangeably, and are open to different interpretations. For example, Cornwall is considered by some to be a nation in England which is a constituent country, or home nation, of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is an internationally recognised sovereign state, which is also referred to as a country and whose inhabitants have British nationality."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation#Nation.2C_country_and_stateAnd here is Websters:
Nation:
b : a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government c : a territorial division containing a body of people of one or more nationalities and usually characterized by relatively large size and independent status
I think the writer of the Wiki has superimposed connotations of those words on the definitions. The definition in Websters seems pretty clear to me and I see no good reason for semantic gymnastics.
