I've always known about Kabul because there is a town in my state named for it - except it is spelled the older English way of Cabool. As for Baghdad, yes, us dumb Americans had heard of it before the Iraqi war. Even Hollywood knows about it - The Thief of Baghad, Baghdad, Baghdad Cafe, etc.
I know Bagdad from the Tales of Sinbad the Sailor. He always returned from his travels to the magnificent city of Bagdad. Its one of these legendary cities of the Old World like Rome, Babylon, Timbuktu or Samarkand. Kabul, on the other hand, I think hardly anybody in the west had heard about before 2001.
What's special about Doha? Aside from being 4 letters & fairly easy to remember. I can kind of see Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, Tehran, Jerusalem, maybe Damascus, Beirut, Kuwait, as being semi-relevant to everyday news. I don't think Qatar or Doha have had much relevance outside of the Fifa World Cup
If "Palestine" were a sovereign state, not just the name attached in the 60s to the land inhabited by a bunch of Arabs (not meaningfully distinguishable from the Jordanians, etc.) whom no other Arabs will let in because their propaganda value is too high for the region's dictators (and because of their unfortunate predilection for blowing themselves up in crowds), and if this Neverland were to take political control of a city populated primarily by Israeli Jews who want to live in Israeli Jerusalem, and if it then managed to achieve some semblance of law, then it might be the case that Jerusalem is the lawful capital of Palestine. But you knew that, of course.
I always wondered why Gaza does not just become part of Egypt and the West Bank part of Jordan. That seems like such an easy and convenient solution for everyone. Weird that nobody seems to want it that way.
Yeah, while not all, (or most) Palestinians want war, their leaders do, and Jordan is known as a mediator in the Middle East, it was the second country in the region to sign a peace agreement with Israel. They wouldn't want the extremity and complications that comes with accepting the West Bank as its own.
As for Egypt, they hate Hamas as much as the Israeli do. Many forget (and/or like the original comment are astonishingly uneducated) that Hamas used to carry out terror attacks on Egyptian soil for decades. Right now they are a bit busy fighting a war they started and crying about it though.
Also, Israel offered the Palestinian authorities a two-state solution five times in the past. Guess what? They were rejected all five times. Within some of the negotiations, the idea of incorporating the Palestinian territories with their Arab "brothers", but all propositions fell through.
Another note on Gaza, Israel left it in 2005, until the ongoing war started by Hamas.
Also, there is one very apparent problem with Hamas. They care more about hating and hurting anyone that is different from them than they do about keeping their people safe.
(Yes this is an addition to the comment above, sorry, I ran out of characters... then I wanna believe people will actually read it XDDD)
amm14: There are many Sabras who are also indistinguishable from Jordanians and Palestinians. That may be because they are one people and need to stop killing each other.
Indonesia doesn't seem to make the news for anything outside of vague naval actions or territory control issues etc. I'm not sure how powerful they are. Or how much of their relevance is due to physical size & population. All I know is large population, Muslim, shares border with Malaysia etc. Think they have problems with PNG. Relevant in SEA, but it's a small class.
Bangkok is easy to remember. Thriller in Manila. I'm surprised by Pyongyang, Taipei, Abu Dhabi, Hanoi. Kathmandu is pretty fun & memorable IMO. Maybe Baku with F1 relevance, but that's a small audience. Probably varies by current events, like cities & rivers of Ukraine.
Singapore airlines. The city-state is a world leader on a lot of country rankings. Israel's de facto capital until recently was Tel Aviv. Also Israel mysteriously counts as Europe for sporting and singing competitions.
As an Israeli, Jerusalem was the de facto capital since 48'. You might think that because it is where the airport is, or maybe because the military command centers are there. However, all the government buildings, offices, and major state resources are there.
Saying Tel Aviv has been Israel's de facto capital is like saying New York City was the U.S's de facto capital (I know it was but that was like 245 years ago)
Not trying to come off as angry or judgmental, sorry if it came of that way. Just wanna help people learn :)
As an Israeli, it is true that a lot of embassies (especially the ones where no diplomatic emergencies usually happen or the smaller countries who [no offense] really don't have much impact of Israel in the day-to-day)
However, Jerusalem is Israel's capital and almost all of the government buildings, offices, and national resources are found there.
Singapore is easier to remember because the name of the capital is the same as the country. Some people also tend to associate Israel with Europe because it participates in Eurovision and is in the UEFA confederation in sports.
Interestingly the order of percentages for this quiz is not the same as the overall order.
I also was surprised not to find Jakarta in this list but Kabul, but it seems Kabul is more often in the news than Jakarta and before I started to do quizzes here I didn't know the capitals of Indonesia or the Philippines and a lot of other countries since they are far less often in the political and cultural news than cities like Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi or Baghdad
I would say in the absence of an official capital, the city in which the majority of a nation's central governing institutions are based can be considered the de facto capital. In the case of the Republic of Singapore, that would be the city of Singapore. Thus it is fair to consider Singapore to be the de facto capital city of Singapore.
Also, there needs to be some capital of every country, otherwise, this site would be totally wrecked. If there is no capital, then a de-facto capital is needed. For a de-facto capital, you can look at the city where the majority of the governing bodies are placed.
As for Egypt, they hate Hamas as much as the Israeli do. Many forget (and/or like the original comment are astonishingly uneducated) that Hamas used to carry out terror attacks on Egyptian soil for decades. Right now they are a bit busy fighting a war they started and crying about it though.
Also, Israel offered the Palestinian authorities a two-state solution five times in the past. Guess what? They were rejected all five times. Within some of the negotiations, the idea of incorporating the Palestinian territories with their Arab "brothers", but all propositions fell through.
Another note on Gaza, Israel left it in 2005, until the ongoing war started by Hamas.
These kids🤦
(Yes this is an addition to the comment above, sorry, I ran out of characters... then I wanna believe people will actually read it XDDD)
Bangkok is easy to remember. Thriller in Manila. I'm surprised by Pyongyang, Taipei, Abu Dhabi, Hanoi. Kathmandu is pretty fun & memorable IMO. Maybe Baku with F1 relevance, but that's a small audience. Probably varies by current events, like cities & rivers of Ukraine.
Missed Kabul.
Saying Tel Aviv has been Israel's de facto capital is like saying New York City was the U.S's de facto capital (I know it was but that was like 245 years ago)
Not trying to come off as angry or judgmental, sorry if it came of that way. Just wanna help people learn :)
However, Jerusalem is Israel's capital and almost all of the government buildings, offices, and national resources are found there.
I also was surprised not to find Jakarta in this list but Kabul, but it seems Kabul is more often in the news than Jakarta and before I started to do quizzes here I didn't know the capitals of Indonesia or the Philippines and a lot of other countries since they are far less often in the political and cultural news than cities like Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi or Baghdad
Saying that Singapore is the capital of Singapore doesn't make any sense. Would the quizmaster consider changing?
I wonder what capacity the government of Yaren, or Funafuti has, beyond the easy to find corruption of most governments
What would you go by? Fragile State Index?
Which would be, Somalia, Yemen, S Sudan, DRC, Syria, Afgh, Sudan, CAR, Chad, Haiti, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mali, Guinea, Nigeria, Zimb, Libya, Ukraine
Spooky to see the 3 most populous African countries there, along with birth rates.
Kinda surprised to see Kabul on the quiz.