November 6, 2002

1:04 PM

What is it about countries whose names start with I (India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel) that links them inextricably to violence? Admittedly Italy's been quite quiet since WWII and Iceland wouldn't say boo to a goose, but still ...
posted by daveg (6 comments total)

Iceland wouldn't say boo to a goose

Tell that to the UK, who ``fought'' the Cod Wars against them in the 1950's, 60's, and '70's.

Of course, that's the united kingdom of great britain and northern IRELAND!!!!! so it's clearly an I too.

And Bog help us all when Apple founds i-nation.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:23 PM on November 6, 2002

I always thought the letter "H" was the problem: the ayatollah H; Hitler; Hussein; Hussein.

Remove this post forthwith!
posted by ParisParamus at 1:28 PM on November 6, 2002

Are all these countries spelled with an I in their native tongue?

PS, reminds me of a thought last night. All the presidents since my birth have mostly been ex-governors prior to becoming Prez..........just a thought.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:28 PM on November 6, 2002

Has the Republic of Ireland seen significant violence since the twenties? It's a pretty mellow place, I think. I terms of nation-state designation, you'd have to count Northern Ireland as part of the UK, so it would start with a "U" (or maybe "N", for Northern Ireland, or 'U", again, for Ulster).

If we're looking for a trend, we have to ask the question: "How do 'I' countries compare, inextricable violence-wise, to countries with names that begin with other letters?" I think we have all of the "I" countries; of these, about 5 of 8, or 62.5%, are in pretty bad shape, inextricable violence-wise. (This is a very liberal estimate--using a standard along the lines of "fought a war in the past 20 years". India and Iran are both pretty borderline, I think. If building nuclear weapons is enough to have your country inextricably linked to violence, then, well, you know.) Let's pick another letter at random: "R" gives us Russia, Romania, Rwanda, and Reunion Island, for a 75% inextricable violence rate. Again: "E" gives us Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ecuador, East Timor, El Salvador, Equitorial Guinea, Estonia, and Europa Island, for about 78% inextricable violence.

In short, there's nothing special about "I". It's just that the world is pretty fucking inextricably violent.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:30 PM on November 6, 2002

All of these countries have been oppressed more or less by White Anglo-Saxon Colonizers



Places like India, Iran (Persia) or Iraq were not a state as they are today, those borders (and that brings trouble like Iran-Iraq war) were set by the colonizers from the West.

Their only mission was to take over and to kill, in a way that's worst than the terrorists today....
posted by bureaustyle at 1:33 PM on November 6, 2002

'I' is well known in mystical cultures as the "Letter of the Curse". Its effects can be seen not only in country names, but in every aspect of life and area of study.

Chemists universally agree that iodine and iridium are the two most foul and hated elements. You will note that no beneficial compounds have been created from either of these elements.

The realm of computing is no exception. No self-respecting computer user would ever be caught buying an iMac, iPod, or iBook. And hackers just love IBM's iSeries mid-range servers. Informix has been voted Worst Database System year in and year out, and Intel has gone bankrupt over 100 times due to shoddy manufacturing and products that killed their owners. The Pentium II is not known as the Processor of Doom for nothing.

Back to geography, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana are well known for their high rates of violent crime (over 2.0 crimes per capita each second!). Indianapolis is a 21st century ghost town.

And then there's the unsettling fact that NASA's Cassini mission is hurtling towards certain doom when it impacts with Saturn's rogue moon Iapetus, causing a nuclear explosion (thanks to Cassini's onboard plutonium fuel source, that will knock Saturn out of its orbit towards a collision course with Earth! You won't find this information anywhere online because the government has been covering it up, but the Curse of I lives on!
posted by daveadams at 1:38 PM on November 6, 2002