How many countries can you name in 5 minutes?

It's always weird to find Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and French Guiana considered as "countries" from the United States perception. They are fully part of the French Republic with the same status and representation as any other French departments/regions.

I know it looks weird considering they are so far away from the rest of France, but that's just the way it is. Considering its status, Nunavut is more a "country" than Guadeloupe is. Actually, each US state is more autonomous than Guadeloupe is!

If you're not satisifed, then blame Aimée Césaire who asked for Martinique to become a French department in the 60's (i.e. to become fully part of the French Republic), when most other French former colonies were becoming independent nations. The guy was a poet which probably explains such a weird idea, but the fact is that, since then, they can't legally be considered as countries... or that would mean they are countries inside a country, but then I guess Corsica should be there too (actually, Corsica has a slightly "autonomous" status granting them direct control on airports and harbours, which isn't even the case for French Guiana and the 3 other departments located overseas).

Well, why do I make such a fuss, after all, it's all about the Monroe doctrine after all. I don't know if it's worth something, but the CIA World Factbook (somehow representative of the US diplomacy) don't recognize any of these 4 departments as "countries".
 
Marla_Singer said:
It's always weird to find Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and French Guiana considered as "countries" from the United States perception. They are fully part of the French Republic with the same status and representation as any other French departments/regions.
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If I'm ever in Newfoundland, I'm planning a quick day trip to France :)
 
By the way, I got 109 on my first try... I've wasted 30 seconds trying to spell "Kyrgyzstan" correctly in English. :D
 
augurey said:
If I'm ever in Newfoundland, I'm planning a quick day trip to France :)
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Isn't Newfoundland some kind of empty Canadian province north of Quebec? Well, you should better plan you trip to France from Ontario, it offers better flight connections.
 
East

newfoundland.jpg


But I think that French island is closer to Quebec
 
Marla_Singer said:
Isn't Newfoundland some kind of empty Canadian province north of Quebec? Well, you should better plan you trip to France from Ontario, it offers better flight connections.
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iirc Labrador is the empty canadian province. newfoundland is the island with the capital, economy and industry and stuff. Stupidly it's considered 1 province. :crazyeye:
 
TheLastOne36 said:
Wrong again. that french island is south of the island of Newfoundland.

Having education in canada for a couple years rocks :p
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Yes, and knowing exactly where all French islands are is so important :)
 
warpus said:
East

But I think that French island is closer to Quebec
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Oh ok, Augurey wanted to talk about St Pierre and Miquelon. Well, that's a territory, not a department. It's not fully part of France. Don't ask me why that small fishing area of 5,000 people hasn't joined Canada cause I have simply no clue. The weird thing though is that they are proud to be French (which they actually are indeed). I even heard one of them played for the French Ice hockey team.

Anyway, the idea about French carribean islands becoming fully part of France didn't come up by some kind of evil colonialist mind from an office in Paris. It's actually a proposal from a Martinican politician and writer called Aimé Césaire (a kind of "French Martin Luther King" to make a gross generalization). The dude proposed the status of department for Martinique, and afterwards it had been also been granted to Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Reunion.

This may surprize you, but those places are democracies where independentist parties can run for the elections if they would want to. And as a matter of fact independentists don't represent anything consistent. The only thing independentist I have in mind is some trade union in Guadeloupe, but it hasn't organized any significant party.

To mention something even more bizarre, the island of Mayotte in the Comoros archipelago (near Madagascar) desperately want to become a French department. They are in the middle of a long process to become one around 2012 or something.

And finally, to make things totally absurd, the island of Anjouan which is part of the fully independent country of the Comoros asked about 5 years ago to join France (!!). Yes, that's no crap. Actually, France rejected the offer considering the sovereign Comoros integrity had to be preserved.
 
Merkinball said:
I'm pretty sure there is a cieling on it. I get to 137/138 and it freezes the time left...
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Same happened here. It stopped at either 27 or 37 seconds I'm not sure which.
 
45, with slow typing speed. But "Australian Antarctic Territory", hm???
 
74..............if english was my first language I would have done better....
 
Dunno, can't be bothered to try either!
 
116! I'm a god among mortals. I just started in Europe, worked to the Middle East, Africa, Asia then did Mexico and Canada, and a few other American countries before the time ran out. I forgot Austria, but remembered Liechtenstein and San Marino. Go figure.
 
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