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[Reelya]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia

[majikero]

But why is there discussion about the Philippines here as well?

[Reelya]

Thread search to work out the occasions we've mentioned Philippines:

2013 - two posts, in relation to the huge Tsunami that was going on. That was pretty much a big deal because it was huge news in the region.

2016, june 5th: it was brought up by Martinuzz, the same guy who brought up separate China and Afghanistan stories just now. So it was mentioned in the wrong thread for the same reason. That one slipped under the radar, because it's in the Pacific ocean, thus close enough to Oceania/Australasia even if it's not technically part of it. Since they don't have their own thread, places like Indonesia, Signapore, Philippines, Fij, Tonga. They're all fair game for this thread, at least in my opinion.

I had to call it when there started to be stories about Afghanistan here however. Really, Pakistan/India/Afghanistan would actually be more fitting for e.g. the middle east thread, since we aren't going to have individual threads on literally every region.

[Loud Whispers]

Pakistan/India/Afghanistan would be more fitting in South Asia thread

[Reelya]

Well, I was thinking that we don't want 20 different politics threads to cover each subregion of the world.

The main reason this thread exists is because there are a fair number of Australians and some Kiwis on the forum.

What might work is another blanket thread for Asia, Africa and Latin/South America. They get sporadic amounts of news and don't really fit in the other categories.

[Loud Whispers]

BRIC and MINT thread would be well gud

[Descan]

There's already an East Asian thread.

... Third World News thread?

[Loud Whispers]

Nah fam BRICS and MINT thread
3rd world is unfair for countries that are beefy but not quite bison

[Reelya]

Googling "bay12forums [east] asian thread" only gives this thread, thanks to your comment Descan . I'd say that thread is well and truly dead.

EDIT: well I found it by trolling through the board. But it's been inactive for 9 months. Can't be much worth talking about in East Asia, right? I think a more broad asia + africa + south america thread would be good, because none of those things gets enough talk to sustain a thread proper by themselves.

[Edmus]

You need that core audience to maintain the thread.
Here that'd be Australians. I think talk spilling into SE Asia ain't so bad, but I'm biased.

Pretty sure this thread has gone dark months at a time on a few occasions.

[martinuzz]

For lack of any specific Central Asian thread for Afghanistan, or East Asia thread for the Phillipines, and because I think there's quite enough regional threads, I'll just keep stubbornly posting news about those here, since at least Asia is part of the thread title's name. It would be more awkward posted in the EU or non EU thread, and Afghanistan is definitly not part of the middle east, unless there's a rule where every country bombed by international coalitions against terrorism automatically become part of the middle east.

[Culise]

For lack of any specific Central Asian thread for Afghanistan, or East Asia thread for the Phillipines, and because I think there's quite enough regional threads, I'll just keep stubbornly posting news about those here, since at least Asia is part of the thread title's name. It would be more awkward posted in the EU or non EU thread, and Afghanistan is definitly not part of the middle east, unless there's a rule where every country bombed by international coalitions against terrorism automatically become part of the middle east.

I've seen definitions that tie Afghanistan to the Middle East, actually, due to the significant religious ties and a certain amount of mutual history with Iran.  By the same token, though, I've seen definitions of the Middle East that are narrow enough to boot the Iranians due to them not being Arabic or...ah, arid enough.  Even Pakistan gets lumped in sometimes, which is admittedly pushing things quite a bit, as well as it being used as a synonym for MENA (Middle East/North Africa) when people start talking about "Middle Easterners" from Morocco or Tunisia, though that particular twist rarely includes anything east of Iran.  It's quite a flexible term, actually.

[inteuniso]

...when people start talking about "Middle Easterners" from Morocco or Tunisia, though that particular twist rarely includes anything east of Iran.  It's quite a flexible term, actually.

Maghrebis are special.

Anyway, Asians tend to get along with each other well. Probably because of cultural emphasis on diplomatic communication (the whole "face" thing) and hospitality. Not to say other cultures aren't just as hospitable; Asians just have a military-hard discipline attached to it for one reason or another.

[Reelya]

Historically, the English term Middle East was actually centred on Iran, and included Afghanistan/Pakistan. Near East was used for the bit west of that. But the UN uses "Near East" instead of "Middle East", and to the UN it includes all the regions from Egypt to Afghanistan. Whereas the British/Americans dropped the term Near East and replaced it with Middle East, omitting Afghanistan/Pakistan from it. But that's a modern decision to do so. As for the Americans, the Bush Administration referred to the "greater middle east" which includes Afghanistan/Pakistan.

So, historical usage has Afghanistan in the Middle East or Near East more often than not.

[Loud Whispers]

Afghanistan is Central Asia tho

George Dubya cannot into geography

(Or we're all judging this subjectively)