[OSM-talk] OSMF silently sides with Russia?

[Andy Townsend]

On 20/11/2018 19:43, Tomas Straupis wrote:
>
>    Do you know a country which has a fluctuating representation of its
> borders say in schoolbooks?

In my lifetime, lots - countries (and I don't mean where boundaries 
changed, but the external recogition of them did).  For example, the US 
only recognised the People's Republic of China in the 1970s.  I suspect 
that the 20th-century Chinese history gets a very different treatment in 
Beijing and Taipei, but I'm sure that no-one in Taiwan teaches kids that 
their government still controls mainland China.  Rather more recently, 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_constitutional_referendums,_1998#Nineteenth_amendment 
changed the area claimed by the Republic of Ireland as part of that country.


> Doesn't every country have ONE OFFICIAL
> claimed border?


No, for a few reasons.  One is that countries might be in the process of 
accepting something like UNCLOS arbitration (so there isn't a settled 
border to claim yet), or they may have multiple claims some more rooted 
in reality than others. For example how much of Karelia east of the 
current border would you consider part of Finland, if any?


>    All borders are verifiable mostly only by checking official documents.

Which often aren't suitably licensed for use in OSM, or are quite vague 
("that area over there really belongs to us").

Best Regards,

Andy