The vietnamese will tomorrow or on saturday be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the end of 'the american war' ... so there is another regional difference in terms
Can't agree in re the Vatican, 'country' connotes something of region or district, yes it is often used as synonymous with nation-state, but generally, at least here and anywhere else i can recall it used, it retains some flavour of its primary definition ... the word comes to us from old english 'cuntree', which comes through old french from the medieval latin 'contrata', which meant literally, 'that which is opposite', hence 'landscape' ... if memory serves, the french contrée has more of the connotation of region, is less used as nation-state, if ever
Neither is the Vatican a nation .... you could argue that it is the seat of government of all catholics, but those people are quite diverse, not a nation in the sense we use the word in english ... and anyway, Christ is said to have said, 'my kingdom is not of this world', and even the pope is said to have to listen to him .... the word nation has as primary definition, 'a body of people', perhaps qualified by something about territory and/or those people's awareness of nationhood, still it begins with a body of people, and that is what it connotes first .... the word nation is from the same root as natal, natural, native, etc in english - the latin nativ(us], meaning inborn, or innate, it means you were born into the group, unless, presumably, they permitted you to natural-ise into it
So country is first about geography, you can have country without a nation, e.g. Antarctica ... nation is first about a body of people, you can have a nation without country, e.g. palestinians .... the Vatican has neither really, so it is a state period imho, a term based in legality, in recognition as such by others ... they don't do so bad, they have no divisions according to Stalin, but don't seem to need them, don't even have to pay taxes in a high-rent district there in Rome
Still, its citizens, few though they may be, do have a natural right to self-determination .... they do not however, have a right to cross the sea, or cross some river, or even cross the freakin street that forms their boundary, to take the lands of others. |
