Bee Travel
Name changes confuse travelers
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
It's the song I can't get out of my head that started it all. The song played in the background on television the day Matt Lauer landed in Istanbul, Turkey. (Thanks, Matt; much as I love Istanbul, the song is making me NUTS.) Anyway, to paraphrase pieces (and sadistically get this song into your head):

"Istanbul was Constantinople; Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone… Even old New York was once New Amsterdam; Why they changed it, I can't say.

(People just liked it better that way.) …"

It goes on to ask the musical question, "Why did Constantinople get the works?" and musically answers, "That's nobody's business but the Turks."

I suppose that's true. But Constantinople did it to Byzantium first, and it seems this business of renaming has been a popular distraction. Distraction, indeed. One needs a score card to keep up with the changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. I just wish such changes caused larger headlines or came with obvious signage.

We are all reading accounts of the terrible tragedy in Myanmar, aka Burma. Now, don't ask me why, but I was out of the loop when they stealthily swapped Myanmar for Burma. I must just have been in the right place or business at the right time. So, imagine my surprise when no one called me ahead of time to tell me that Rangoon, too, had lost its political correctness. When last I ordered them, they were not called Crab Yangon. (There is still so much controversy about the Burma/Myanmar swap that it isn't officially recognized universally. I hope I said that politically correctly.)

Rome has always been Rome. Paris hasn't always been Paris, but it's pre-name, Lutece, dates back centuries ago. London: London. As my husband would say, "So simple."

Not any more. Glasnost took the Leningrad out of Russia and gave us back St. Petersburg. Calcutta turned into Kolkata. Siam adopted Thailand. Ceylon became Sri Lanka.

The continent of Africa in particular has its fair share of red editing ink. Rhodesia gave birth to Zimbabwe by ceding territory. In similar fashion, Zambia morphed out of South Africa. The Belgian Congo became Zaire, then the D.R. Congo. Upper Volta improved its name to Burkina Faso - at least in my opinion.

What happened to Peking? It's Beijing, now. Again, there's been no menu change to Beijing Duck. How is one to keep on top of these things without the clues? Will the show "Miss Saigon" become "Miss Ho Chi Minh City?" And I just don't feel right ordering a "Mumbai Sapphire Gin" martini. And what's to be done about Burmese and Siamese cats?

Change - it's unstoppable. In a perfect world, we'd all get the memos. But I suppose I'll learn to live without the memo or the signs. A shame, since some of the cleverest were those "Myanmar Shave" road signs that used to dot U.S. highways. (It is still U.S. - isn't it?)

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)