Wales vs. Tarrant County

[Texan]

In a different post, JammyJim said that most Americans he met did not know where Wales was located. I had pointed out that most Europeans don't know where Tarrant County is.

Originally Posted by JammyJim

Its a county. Not a country with its own culture/language/parliament.

It was just a side point thats unrelated to the real issue of your original post.

Since it is a side point unrelated to the original post, I thought I would make a separate thread.

Tarrant County has its own government as does Wales. You can call it a national government or a county commission. They are still governments with very similiar functions.

Wales is part of the UK, which is part of the EU.
Tarrant Count is part of Texas, which is part of the United States.

Wales has 2.8 million people and Tarrant County has 1.4 million people. (I thought the populations would be closer in size. I thought Tarrant County had well over 2 million people.)

Tarrant County=863 sq miles.
Wales=8,000 sq miles. (Hmm... too big a difference here to make this whole idea a valid comparison.)

Speaks Welsh=26 percent
Speaks Spanish=20 percent (speak Spanish at home)

Just to finish off my argument even though I have already lost because of the vast difference in size of Wales and Tarrant County.

The culture of Wales is really not that different from Tarrant County. If you want, you can list the differences between the two cultures. The similarities would be almost endless. I think some of the biggest differences you will find are things like capital punishment or using the fork in the left vs. the right hand. Driving on the wrong side of the road is a big one I guess. Texans prefer having sex with cows, whereas the Welsh prefer sheep....

[1-X]

I'm not here to contribute, just wanted to say I admire the way you argued with yourself and lost before anyone else could add a word.

Can we keep him? Can we? Can we? Can we?

[Zar]

Tarrant County is a County
Wales is a CountRy

EU is a collection of Countries.
The USA is a single Country.

Therefore Wales is a country within the UK (a group of countries), within the EU (a larger group of countries).
Tarrant County is a county, within a state, within a country.

Wales is technically 2 levels higher than Tarrant County. Below the Country status of Wales lies Countys and Districts (assume a state in the usa is a county in the uk, and a county in the usa is a district in the uk)

[Cayl]

The main problem is that you made an off the cuff and exaggerated argument for the sake of making a point, and it didn't bear up to the facts. Shall we examine things with a different example? I'm going to pull the Wales stats from your original post.

Wales is part of the UK, which has a seat in the UN
Arizona is part of the United States, which has a seat in the UN

Arizona = 114,006 square miles (the difference now swings way the other way in terms of land mass, but since it only grants the UKers an advantage, we'll let them have it)
Wales=8,000 sq miles.

Wales has 2.8 million people
Arizona : 5,130,632 (as of 2000) (again advantage UKers)

Speaks Welsh=26 percent
Language other than English spoken at home in Arizona: 25.9% (Now thats pretty close)

So now looking at it this way, with an advantage going to the UK crowd, do you think its a better comparison?

[Texan]

One minor point. The word state originally meant nation state or country. The Republic of Texas, an independent nation state or country, joined a Union, much as Wales joined a Union with England. I really don't see any difference, though i have had this same argument on this forum in the past.

The United States are a group of states joined in a union.

The United Kindom states are a group of states joined in a union.

The European Union states are a group of states joined in a union.

If you consider that Wales gave up some of its sovereign rights when it joined a union with England, and the United Kingdom gave up some of its sovereign rights when it joined the European Union, then I think you might be able to imagine how I see Tarrant County in relation to Wales.

Wales< UK< EU
Tarrant County< Texas< U.S.

Wales just happens to be 10 times larger with twice the population. BTW the county seat of Tarrant County is Fort Worth. You may have heard of it.

[Cayl]

I don't think EU is quite the same as the US just yet... the various countries still have too many sovereign powers reserved for themselves to consider it that way. The US gives up sovereign power voluntarily to join lots of organizations such as the WTO but thats hardly a definitive way to determine when an Organization is actually a parent state.

I do think the UK is more analagous to the US than not in this regard however.

[Dante Hicks]

While I get JJ's original point, knowing where Wales is, is not important. It might be indicative of a wider problem, but by itself does not mean anything.

I very much doubt most UK'ers could put Kyoto (say) on a Japanese map. Or what about Shanghai, which population dwarfs Wales to a silly degree.

[Nondescript Human]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

While I get JJ's original point, knowing where Wales is, is not important. It might be indicative of a wider problem, but by itself does not mean anything.

I very much doubt most UK'ers could put Kyoto (say) on a Japanese map. Or what about Shanghai, which population dwarfs Wales to a silly degree.

I could do both easily.

[Apothos]

Originally Posted by Nondescript Human

I could do both easily.

[Dante Hicks]

Yeah, and so could I. So what?

[Apothos]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I very much doubt most UK'ers could put Kyoto (say) on a Japanese map. Or what about Shanghai, which population dwarfs Wales to a silly degree.

3 out of 3 surveyed say they can!*

[Dante Hicks]

I'm sure this forum is perfectly representative of people of the UK!

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I'm sure this forum is perfectly representative of people of the UK!

I know I am.

[Apothos]

*May be 99.99999995% incorrect?

[Vaio]

I know where Wanker County is

Vaio

[BoredOfThis]

Most American's don't know where Tarrant County is so stfu

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by BoredOfThis

Most American's don't know where Tarrant County is so stfu

Oh to be young and stupid.

[BoredOfThis]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

Oh to be young and stupid.

Hey Hey if it isn't our resident adulterer

[Proteus]

Texan hasn't been doing too well on the "making sense" front lately, it would seem.

[KoeN]

this thread is one big riddle to me tbh.

[A2]

Originally Posted by Texan

If you consider that Wales gave up some of its sovereign rights when it joined a union with England, and the United Kingdom gave up some of its sovereign rights when it joined the European Union, then I think you might be able to imagine how I see Tarrant County in relation to Wales.

Wales has its own International football and rugby teams though. Even if you're using the argument that Wales is basically a large county in the UK as a whole, it is still represented more than a county in Texas where the only International teams are the USA ones 2 levels up from the county.

I see where you're coming from, but I think comparing an actual state with Wales, like Cayl did, is probably a bit more productive, as well as having the smaller size differences.

[Blastoderm]

Originally Posted by A2

Wales has its own International football and rugby teams though....

And Tarrant County doesn't.

Wales = CountRy
Tarrant = C o u n t y.


End of discussion.

[Phang]

american education is america-centric whereas british education is balanced but shit.

there.

[JammyJim]

It seems that my arguement still stands

heh

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Phang

american education is america-centric whereas british education is balanced but shit..

Balanced towards what? That we learn more about their country than they learn about ours? Possibly.

But the British education system is staggeringly eurocentric.

[Phang]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

Balanced towards what? That we learn more about their country than they learn about ours?

That's the most bizarre distortion of a single word I've heard today, heh

But the British education system is staggeringly eurocentric.

it's Western-centric, certainly, but eurocentric isnt altogether fair.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Phang

That's the most bizarre distortion of a single word I've heard today, heh

Well, what did you mean by balanced?

it's Western-centric, certainly, but eurocentric isnt altogether fair.

Well, if you wish to be anal it's "euro-ethno-centric" but that's a supid term. Eurocentric applies to the Europeans and their "descendents" (i.e. the America's, Australia, etc). It's not particularly "western" as knowledge of Latin America is pretty poor.

[KaneED]

we should learn more languages when we're young.


and it would seem that comparing Tarrant County to a country, would be the same as comparing the borough of basingstoke and deane to a country because it has a large proportion of speakers of yuppy language and an ghigher proportion of people who speak scallyish.