Capital gains

In recent months, remote countries have been acquiring new capital cities or rather re-acquiring their old ones. As Sri Lanka's bloody civil war reached its endgame, we were repeatedly bombarded by reports from the country's 'capital' Colombo, when its true locus is Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. Even worse, was the Central Asian state Kazakhstan when the England football team went out to play there. Ignorant commentators continually referred to Almaty as the centre of power, when for almost a decade, Astana in the north of the country has served that role. In the last few days, Lagos has been attacked by Niger River delta rebels, but it was called Nigeria's commercial capital, an important qualification and a caveat absent in less geographically aware journalists, such as the one who said Sarajevo was the capital of Bosnia's bitter rival Serbia.