Belarus or Belgium? It’s the same
Is it just me or geographical mix-ups with Belarus are now happening more and more often? New Dehli TV (India) reports from Paris:
“Bhupathi and Xavier Malisse of Belarus registered an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory over Gilles Muller of Luxemburg and Christophe Rochus of Belarus to move into the second round of the clay court event.”
I guess when you are coming from one-billion strong nation on another continent (or “subcontinent” as they like to call themselves in भारत गणराज्य), Belarus and Belgium might appear very similar, especially because they are so damn similar — both start with a “Bel”. How are you supposed to distinguish between the two? It’s very hard.
P.S. By the way, Moscow has been moved to a more proper place on that funny Sky Europe map, but Belarus border is still not drawn. So our country is still non-existent or already nuked, according to Sky Europe.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Lol… thats a rather odd mixup… mebe its very similar in… what do they use in India… Sanskrit? Its the first time in my knowledge that Belgium and Belarus were mixed up… They sound completely dissimilar, rather strange. It’s possible that the person administrating their website isnt very skilled with shockwave flash… hence actually drawing lines rather than moving a layered object takes more time. Ive re-emailed them to atleast thank them for positioning Moscow correctly. Ive also told them of a number of problems regarding their website (broken links). Hopefully they will also update the terminals dotted through the mall…. Still didnt receive a single reply.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
> Lol… thats a rather odd mixup… mebe its very similar in… what do they use in India… Sanskrit?
Sanskrit is a kind of dead language.
They speak mostly English and Hindi, and then dozens of other smaller languages.
The reason is that on Roland Garros and other ATP tennis tournaments the acronym for Belarus is BLR, and BEL for Belgium. So an Indian reporter saw “BEL” and assumed it’s Belarus. This mistake is also probably due to the fact that their best tennis player Bhupathi used to play together with Mirnyi (of Belarus) for many years.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Ahhh… I see :) Thanks for the explanation. I dont really follow any sports (altho I am familiar with the acronyms) so I dont know much about tennis or any sports whatsoever.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
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March 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well.