Our Office of University Risk Management (yeah, I know, whatever) is asking us to inform them if we are going to travel abroad in the next two years. It also informed us that last year our colleagues traveled to the following countries:
Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Wales
This is how college professors referred to the countries they visited.
Clarissa's Blog 
I love both fruits and oranges.
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Yes, I wonder why none of India’s 29 (right?) states were mentioned separately. That’d inflate the list even more.
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Not to be contrarian, but how it is the university’s business where you travel as a private citizen?
Also, what in the world does “risk management ” mean as far as where you travel?
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No, this is only university related travel. It seems that they buy some sort of insurance policies on us when we travel. I just found out and I’m quite taken aback.
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I understand full well that this goes contrary to everything you believe in, but you may tell them you are going to “People’s Republic of Luhansk”. As an experiment. So that we could observe and verify if they are actually managing any risks, or if they will just put “People’s Republic of Luhansk” on their next list. Perhaps even onto some promotional materials?
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They sure do love putting the names of the countries we visit on promotional materials. This makes us sound more refined, I guess. And I’m sure nobody would verify what LNR actually is.
Or maybe I’m being too negative.
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Calling it “Palestine” is, um, political. I realize that there can be many reasons to refer to a place by many different names in many different contexts, what with distinctions between internationally recognized state names, historical names, names of peoples, names for greater geographical regions, etc. etc. I realize that sometimes the easiest way to avoid an argument is to use the place name that is most favorable to the people in the room with you. Still, putting “Palestine” on official paperwork is, um, complicated.
Then again, the same could be said of Kurdistan, Taiwan, Kashmir, places under the control of ISIS, etc.
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I thought Clarissa was commenting on the fact that England, Wales and the UK make it onto the same list.
Perhaps the Office of Risk management felt the need to inflate the list?
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Yes, I can see Clarissa responding to this …
“Counties that may or may not have been visited within The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland include: London, Middlesex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and in the event of a train or plane mis-routing, quite possibly also Wiltshire, Avon (Bristol), Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire, but just to be safe, let’s also include Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Surrey, and Essex … and quite possibly the Isle of Wight, in case the plane has to make an emergency landing whilst in the South of England and hasn’t anywhere better to land …”
Nah, too risky.
🙂
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I notice you don’t mention a single English county north of Bedfordshire which is a bit south-ist! 🙂 Now, trying to land in Kirklees, which is a Yorkshire metropolitan borough and probably larger than some counties, would definitely be risky. I don’t think we have a airport of any sort, mainly because we are more than slightly hilly, being half way up an ancient mountain range known as the Pennines.
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Clarissa only really went as far as London and Oxford, but just for that added risk management flavour, I added a few extra just in case …
🙂
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I think England, United Kingdom, Wales is the real problem here.
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I think Texas technically counts as a country.
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