What's in a name

The more the number of adjectives in a country's name, the more you can sure that they are not true.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is hardly democratic, hardly a place for the people and hardly a republic. Here is another example; Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya during Muammar Gaddafi's day was not socialist, not the people's and it was definitely not a Jamahiriya (ruled by the masses). It isn't even on the Arabian peninsula.

An interesting twist on this theme is that it works at the other end too. Here is a list of the names of some of the most democratic nations in the world. Kingdom of Belgium, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kingdom of Norway, Kingdom of Spain and Kingdom of Sweden. All of these countries, though technically still monarchies, are hardly kingdoms.

The next time you see a banner proclaiming a small-time politician as being the 'magnanimous, principled, hard-working, and beloved Mr. ABC, you know how much of that is likely to be true.