The Other “Stans”
August 3, 2009 – 2:27 pmWhile preparing for a lesson on the Central Asian “stan” countries for our church’s Vacation Bible School last week, a friend stumbled across a Wikipedia entry of the other “stan” countries. How many of these have you visited?
§ Absurdistan - sometimes used to satirically describe a country where everything goes wrong.
§ Boratistan - name used by Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko to describe an image of Kazakhstan created by Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, Borat.
§ Canuckistan, Soviet Canuckistan - derogatory nickname for Canada.
§ Donundestan, capital Rillirillibad - Fictional country in the Middle East in A Prairie Home Companion
§ Ethniclashistan - sometimes used satirically to describe countries in which multiple ethnic groups were thrown together, who then began fighting each other, e.g. Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union. It was featured in the satirical The Onion newspaper in June, 2001 as being placed in the West Bank in the article Northern Irish, Serbs, Hutus Granted Homeland In West Bank (here spelled Ethniklashistan)
§ Hollandistan - sometimes used to describe the rise of Islam in the Netherlands it is a combination of Holland and -istan
§ Hotdogestan - Fictional country in the Middle East in A Prairie Home Companion
§ Incumbistan - introduced by columnist Mark Steyn to refer to the efforts of politicians of all parties to unite to enact rules seen as assuring their continued reelection.
§ Londonistan - the British capital of London was given this sobriquet by French counter-terrorism agents.
§ Londonistan (book) A book that sounds a warning about how the culture of the United Kingdom is being changed by a high concentration of immigrants.
§ Nukhavastan - fictional country created by The Onion that has nuclear weapons.
§ Pourrikistan - (can be translated by Crapistan) Fictional country seen on the french desencyclopedie website concerning any country were the living conditions for expatriates are considered as very bad. It can be applied on many middle east countries, as well as mid Asian countries.
