# Spot the Difference ![rw-book-cover](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa89429d2-7052-413f-ac05-f15fc76bba69_800x848.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Jonn Elledge]] - Full Title: Spot the Difference - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: This week’s article discusses how we often misinterpret election results and mentions some countries that have changed their names. Notably, the author highlights the change from "Turkey" to "Türkiye" and the shift from "Czech Republic" to "Czechia." The text also touches on the complexities behind these name changes and their historical contexts. - URL: https://jonn.substack.com/p/spot-the-difference?__readwiseLocation= - Source File: web-only ## Highlights > The government of the country historically known as Burma announced it would henceforth be known as Myanmar back in 1989. The former is a British colonial name, imposed by outsiders; the latter the country’s name for itself. Simple, right? > Well, no, there are a couple of complicating factors. Firstly, it turns out that Myanmar and Burma are, unexpectedly, the same name: the Burmese language has very different vocabulary for different registers, and Myanmar is the formal, written version for the more colloquial Burma. Inside the country, the rebrand changed nothing. > Secondly, that rebrand came a year after the military government attempted to suppress a pro-democracy uprising, making itself a pariah: that raises questions about whether it was quite as into freedom and self expression as it claimed, or whether the name change was a distraction. As a result, much of the world kept calling the country Burma for years as a way of supporting the opposition. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jcnezf8xznazxjq1rdfv5j1y))