long, long ago, when i was a child there was a place called the near east. it included the countries on the continent of asia, that were close to/had ports on the mediterranian.
Europe is a rather small continent, and its is connected to asia--the Ural mountains in the north are the 'dividing line', and further south, most of turkey is in asia, the straights of the dardenells (a passage from the black sea to mediterranian sea)and other bodies of water seperate europe from asia--i forget exactly which river.
i was taught the asian countries, (turkey, syria, lebenon, and israel to name a few), that touched the mediterranian sea, were the near east.
the mid east was made up of country that did not have mediteranian sea ports-- the mid east extended to india--which was labeled 'the indian sub continent' --(all of the land mass below the himalayan mountains--continents didn't care about what political enties existed). China, japan and countries with Pacific ocean sea ports were part of the far east.
now days, there is no 'near east'. "unrest" in israel is 'unrest' in the 'mid east'.
did 'near east' fall out of favor? is it part of some subtle political correctness that i missed? (i have caught on, its not PC to call asians 'orientals'--they should be referred to by country or ethic origins.)
to further confuse things, there are sub areas that have gotten more political clout/press, so now there is 'south east asia'--which includes several countries..
South east asia can be a political code word for 'vietnam', or for some of the 'asian tigers' (singapore and other areas, depending on context.)
am i the only one to have been sleeping when the near east disappeared?
are there other geographic area that have disappeared that i haven't realized? (i know countries and cities go through name changes, and political unrest (and outright war) moves borders round, all the time, between countries, but i am talking about big changes (i think 'losing' the near east is a big change!)
The US and Mexico have such good relation, that when the Rio Grand--(the nomimal 'border' between US/Mexico)moves (-it is a river with many meanders and is constantly changing its course) diplomats just sit down, and quietly haggle over who gets what, and the news rarely is important to anyone out side of a few counties in texas.
OP
