Catalonia is not a country nor a nation

Do the options of Galicia or Canary Islands also bother you?

I agree this is not the best place for a political discussion of any kind, this is a site for chess. But the issue at hand is not just a mere opinion or something that you either like or dislike. Nationalisms should not be an option in place like this, where the issue at hand is not really understood. Why? an obvious reason, nationalisms encourage divisions and ultimately, if the leaders have the means, riots, disorder, waste of time and resources...apart from creating hates that have no reason of being among peoples of the same country. I think partisans of these movements do not really know what they are doing, nor thinking by themselves but instead allowing to be dragged by an idea with no foundation.I disagree with any kind of separatists but the most noisy ones are always Catalonia and the Basques...

Apart, I dont see any sense discussing something which has no relevance for anyone here...but at least, let it be known that the flag of ones country is not irrelevant!

I'd actually be interested to hear about some of the history of this, but as far as chess.com is concerned, you are telling people what kind of flag they can or cannot use, and asserting that if chess.com does not get rid of certain flags then your country will break into pieces. Well, this ain't the UN. If people want to identify as Catalonian, or Galician or Scottish or International, what the hell, we'll give it to them. That's their business, not yours.

You might be looking too deeply into these 200 odd pixels. I never really took the flags as an opinion on politics or nationalism, just region of geography. I don't see these icons causing anyone to rise up in arms against their neighbors. Adressing this Catalonian issue is one thing, but chess.com isn't the place to do it. Nothing would get accomplished by removing certain flags, it might even provoke those already content by the current situation. Leave a person be with their choice.

This - in a nutshell.

A flag may assume a bloated importance to particular individuals, but in the overall scheme of things it is pretty irrelevant.

I will have to 'flag' your comment.

So, don't we discuss about politics. Let's go back to my initial point: chess.com lists a menu of "countries" where some of the options presented ARE NOT COUNTRIES. If they want to call it a list of "flags", perfect, but perhaps someone would like to choose the nazi flag, the pirate flag o Greenpeace flag. I just say that it is an error to call COUNTRIES some places which ARE NOT COUNTRIES ACTUALLY. Can anyone add to the list the places he likes most and call them COUNTRIES, or chess.com is the benevolent dictator who decides what is a country and what it is not? In anyone can choose his country, then I ask for the following "COUNTRIES" to be added to the list of chess.com: Tattoine, Dagobah, Mount Sumeru, Helliconia, Syldavie, Springfield, Smallville, Gotham City and Danville, please. Thank you...

It is clear how much has maddened this post to everyone around here...I dont think the intention was to get political but in order to defend an idea or a belief, specially when there has been so much and angry opposition, does not seem to me out ol place.

All of you hold your opinion, that is fine, but is your opinion and remains at that. I defend here, with our out of proportion post, the unity of our country and the right, same as everyone, to speak and expose what is right. I did not know it until now, but people dont care at all about the idea of country, loyalty to ones heritage and let me tell you the one of Spain is one of the greatest. So dont critizice what you dont understand.

Apart, I was never rude to anyone or your ideas, beliefs ...or rather lack of them but some comments were totally out of place and proportion.

One world,  one human race,   chessers unite!

Fortunately for you, Whaleeyeman, Spain discovered the islands where you live, almost a century before the date you say. Fortunately for some thousands of people living at Marianas, Filipinas septentrionales, Palaos, Yap, Marshall, Carolinas, Nuevas Hébridas, Nueva Guinea, Galápagos, Volcano, Bonin, Schonten, Salomón, Juan Fernández, Ellice, Marquesas, Santa Cruz, Tuamotu, Banks, Australia, and Hawaii, his grandfathers where listening carefully what Spain had to say when in 1611 all these places had been discovered by Spain. In Europe, the Pacific Ocean was called in the XVII century, the Spanish Lake. En 1611, the University of Manila was founded, the first University in Asia. When do you say England founded the first University in India? 250 years later, in 1857. By that time, lots of people had listened carefully and in Spanish, what Spain had to say, my friend. Perhaps you shouldn't watch so many pirates films, and instead read a little bit of History. I understand it is very hard for someone living in such an old pirate refuge as Bahamas, but try it. It doesn't hurt: read!

Whaleeyeman, you are another poor victim of a wide spread lie about Spain, another that has believed what other liers have said and the greatest tragedy is that you think you are doing all the thinking and rule over your own mind. There is no such thing! What you just said has been said before not only in your country but in most, of the former Spanish colonies. There are plenty documents and serious historians that can prove it otherwise, the English were indeed the ones that came to take advantage of the native Americans, the proof...there are but a few and scattered groups of them in places for tourist to see them. Spain had a totally different policy...it was to educate them, treat them as persons with the same rights as the spanish peoples and the authorities in America had very strict orders from the Catholic Kings to fulfill this. So, heed to what Tercio advised you to do and read.

Again, you are not saying anything new, the same old "estribillo"...

Columbus could pay for the expenses of his trips because of the open minds of the Catholic Kings when no one else would...

It's a minor error, a totally trivial error - not worth raising one's blood pressure a single mm of Hg about. Let's keep things in perspective, for heaven's sake!

Jees! after reading this i want Catalonia to be independent..I think there flag looks better anyway...Stop sucking the money out of Catalonia!!

Long live The Catalan president  Artur Mas.

Stop spouting arguements about other countries histories..When Spain had the inquesition...Also dodgy dictators such as Franco whom collaborated with the nazis.And who did they educate Axel the south americans..What did they teach?  How to stock pile silver and gold.

brilliant!!

Spain discovered all these places!

the inhabitants jumped for joy when they were finally discovered.

"we're saved!!! we're saved!!!"

LOL

Now I have a question. When Spanish explorers firststepped foot in every one of these places tercio listed above, there found that there were already peolple living there.

So, how did Spain "discover" them??

also Australia was discovered by Dutch explorers

Sorry, you are wrong. According to the Australian Government (http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/european-discovery-and-colonisation): "The first records of European mariners sailing into 'Australian' waters occurs around 1606, and includes their observations of the land known as Terra Australis Incognita (unknown southern land)."

These European ships were three Spanish ships, whose commander were Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese born navigator. The three ships left Callao in Spanish Peru, on 21 December 1605, with Torres in command of the "San Pedro." In May 1606 they reached the islands which Queirós named La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo; Austrialia being a compliment to the House of Austria, to which the king of Spain belonged. 

Luís Vaez de Torres,Galician or Portuguese, (born c. 1565; fl. 1607) was a 16th-17th century maritime explorer serving the Spanish Crown, noted for the first recorded navigation of the strait which separates the continent of Australia from the island of New Guinea, and which now bears his name (Torres Strait).

What has all this got to do with chess.com labelling something "country" instead of "flag"?? Good grief! 

You're right, fburton. I just said there was a coding error in the list of "countries" of chess.com, and instead of just fixing it, I have found a number of quite crude and ignorant attacks about History or politics. I can't understand which rule, if any, chess.com follows in its list of "countries". I propose, by example, the UN list, which anyone can read in this web: http://www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml. Another option can be the list of 193 Member States of UNESCO:

http://erc.unesco.org/portal/UNESCOMemberStates.asp?language=en

Frankly, I expected some of the members of this site to have at least some knowledge about World History, and also expected chess.com admitted an error and simply fix it. It so easy... But, as I said in a previous post,  no hay peor sordo que el que no quiere oir.