Hey geograpeeps, Barby here.
Hope you're having a great summer.
I actually got a little tan over this summer.
It's all part of my scheme when I go to Bahrain so I can blend in a little bit more so I don't look like a typical annoying American tourist.
But anyway, this is gonna be a very important video, because it addresses one of the most common questions that you guys always have.
"What countries will Geography Now be covering?"
So as some of you guys already know, I'm doing the countries alphabetically.
I am not taking requests because that opens up too many doors for conflict and anger.
"Hey! Do my country next!"
"No! Do my country!"
"Why did you do his country? You hate my country?"
"Uh! I hate that country! Don't do that country!"
"You are a racist!"
"Bigot!"
"Misogynist!"
"Homophobe!"
"Radical extremist!"
"Privileged!"
"Ethnocentric!"
"Hateful monstorous (bleeped!)"
Yeah, so I'm doing it alphabetically because order helps alleviate chaos.
"Oh, but Paul! What countries are you including in that alphabetical order? Because some countries are only partially recognized,
and some are just vying for independence!"
That is a good question.
See, here's the thing. Technically, there isn't an exact number of countries in the world.
2 of my favorite YouTubers, CGP Grey and Wonder Why do an excellent job explaining this, check out these videos.
CGP Grey, Wonder Why, if you're ever free, let's hang out sometime.
So anyway. Depending on who you are, or what you believe,
the range could be anywhere between around 200 to 2,000 countries in the world.
However, I personally believe that the most efficiently rational order that these videos should follow
is the list of significantly full-recognized independent sovereign states.
And I believe the easiest reference for that would be the UN.
As of right now, there are 193 states in the UN, these are the ones I'm gonna be doing first.
However, the UN does recognize 2 observer states that aren't completeley sovereign but do have some degree of autonomous legislation
These countries will get their own videos, but after we finish the fully-recognized sovereign states first.
These states are Palestine and Vatican City.
In addition, the UN also has a list of 11 "other" states that aren't recognized and have limited governmental status,
but still have a substantial number of people that are vying for succession.
These states are, in alphabetical order:
Abkhazia, the Cook Islands, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Niue, Northern Cyprus, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic of Western Sahara,
Somaliland, South Ossetia, Taiwan, and Transnistria.
So, here's what I gonna do. I'm gonna take Kosovo and Taiwan and add them to the Palestine-Vatican City category
because out of all the "other" states,
these states have the most recognition and diplomatic missions, so by all reasonable pragmatic definitions,
these states could act like observer states.
But because of politics, business, yada yada yada... they can't.
BUT, they pretty much could
and here at Geography Now,
that's kinda close enough.
Also, for practical reasons, Taiwan will go under the name of "Taiwan"
not the "Republic of China" or "Chinese Taipei" simply just because everybody knows this area as that name.
I mean it's shorter, it's simpler and easier. Deal with it, okay? Stop crying. I haven't even gotten to Canada yet.
Speaking of which, certain countries go by double names, and this is where things get a little tricky.
First of all, for this country, I actually talked to a Burmese guy and I asked him, "what would you call your country?"
"Burma or Myanmar?"
And he told me, "Look, since you're dealing with today's generation, you may as well just call it Myanmar,"
"because that is kinda technically the official name. However, the older generation would prefer to call it Burma."
"But just call it Myanmar."
So, this country will be called "Myanmar", and it will go under "M".
Not "B" for "Burma."
For those twin countries that are separated by either a geographical or categorical prefix that designates their sovereignty,
we will go by the country name first and then separate them alphabetically by the prefix.
So, for example, we will put both of the Koreas under "K" for Korea, and then separate them by North first, and then South "S" second.
Both Congos will go under "C" and then the Democratic Republic will go first, and then the Republic second.
Both Sudans will go under "S", and then Sudan will go first and then South Sudan will go second.
Also, I'm sorry if this sounds a little Anglocentric, but we will go by the English names of countries.
So for example, countries like the Ivory Coast will go under "I" and it will not go under "C" for Côte d'Ivoire.
East Timor will go under "E" and not "T" for Timor-Leste.
And we will call the country Cape Verde and not Cabo Verde, although, funny enough,
São Tomé e Príncipe will still be called by its original Portugese name, because there's really no English alternative
except for the "e" becomes an "and" and so it's São Tomé and Príncipe
Countries that have either an article or a long, extended adjective phrase before the actual country's name -
those letters will not be taken into account for the alphabetical order and it will just go by the country's name.
So, for example, "The" Gambia will just go under "G" for Gambia.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will just go under "J" for Jordan.
Why? Because those are names that everybody knows those countries by, okay?
Here at Geography Now, we don't got time for "offici-al-iminatics".
The only exception will be this guy.
Depending of what you call this country, you could instill a lot of anger and uproar.
This country is referred to by the UN as "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
Because, well, it was a former republic of Yugoslavia, so the name makes sense.
However, if you ask anybody around the globe, granted, the few who actually care to understand anything about this region,
let alone the names of the things in it -
They'll tell that they just know this place as "Macedonia". Like, very few people actually go on their computers and like
"Hey! I feel like I just wanna reasearch about the For-mer Yu-go-slav Re-"
Nobody does that. Like, in every universal sense, this place is just kinda unanimously referred to as "Macedonia."
However, we are going to follow the UN's format and put it under "F" for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
but we will put "Macedonia" in parantheses right next to it.
Finally, the most common question I get is:
"Um, Barby? Are you gonna do the UK as one country or are you gonna split it up into 4: Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland."
So, here's the thing. Although we all understand that in every noticable sense, these areas are incredibly distinct
and definitive in their culture, history, and even to some degree, their autonomous governmental status.
I mean, Scotland has its own currency apart from the British Pound, for crying out loud.
Nonetheless, these areas are still considered "constituent countries" that are technically still under the overarching ultimate, end-of-the-day sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
(Booing sound effect)
Look, I know, I know. I didn't make up these rules. You guys did.
Scotland, you had a chance last year, you voted to stay in the union.
Nonetheless, after we finish all the countries, and the observer states, with Kosovo and Taiwan,
in addition with the "other" states,
we will also do videos on constituent countries like Scotland, Aruba, Greenland...
And we'll also include autonomous and dependent regions like Tibet and I guess kind of Puerto Rico.
That's a weird one.
Then you have all those incredibly confusing semi-permeable membrane regions of disputed area that kind of act like states,
but they kind of aren't, like Catalonia or Kurdistan.
And let's not even get started on the Spratly Islands.
If, by any chance, a new country becomes sovereign during the time that we film these videos, we will, for once, halt everything,
and nullify the alphabetical order rule if the name of that country starts with a letter that we already covered alphabetically before in prior videos.
If not, then the alphabetical order will continue and you will just have to wait for it.
And here's the thing, I mean, geography is ever-changing and ever-growing. It's always progressing and
I mean, when I was a kid, there were countries that don't even exist anymore, like Zaire or Czechoslovakia.
And there were countries that weren't even born yet, like South Sudan or East Timor.
And that's the exciting thing about this channel.
Not only do we get to learn about the world, but we are currently living in it and experiencing it the entire time.
I mean, just a few months ago, India and Bangladesh finally decided to start up on that inclave-exclave swap, which renders my Bangladesh video out of date.
Isn't that crazy? And we haven't even been up for a year yet.
Anyway, I'm really glad that you geograpeeps are having such an interest in Geography Now, and that you're such awesome geography enthusiasts.
I'm gonna film the next 4 episodes next week, and if I can edit fast enough,
especially with the help of my awesome friend Jason that I told you guys about,
the Brazil video might be able to come up by the end of next week, I'm not exactly sure, that depends on how fast I can edit.
But Brazil is gonna come soon, I promise you guys.
So anyway, yeah, thank you guys so much for the support on this channel,
I'm really glad that you guys are keeping up with the show.
Stay tuned. Stay cool.