>That said, it's fair to say that there's a widespread presumption in western democracies that if a region of a country holds a legitimate vote to split off, they should be allowed to do so.

Somaliland did and is not recognized by anybody.

The actual assumption is that if a region of a country holds a legitimate vote that is recognized as so by the rest of the country, then it should be allowed to do so.

Votes in Quebec, Scotland, South Sudan, Erythrea, Timor Leste were recognized by the main country before they happened.

The only exception is Kosovo where Serbia opposed the vote.

Scotland is in a different position because the UK already has varying degrees of constituency (e.g. compare crown dependencies, "countries" and so on). Over the past century the UK has effectively paved the way that enables votes like the one in Scotland in the first place (contrast this with Ireland a century ago).

But you are right: what matters isn't whether the vote is legitimate but whether the sovereignty of the seceding territory is (internationally) recognized. This is certainly not the case in the Ukraine, nor is it the case in Spain (Catalan) or Turkey (Kurdistan).

As another poster said, Scotland is sort of a unique case for historical reasons but in general you're right that a key criterion is recognition by the rest of the country. Otherwise, the international reaction is (for the most part rightly) that whatever dispute exists is really an internal matter and other countries shouldn't get involved my recognizing breakaway provinces/regions. There are exceptions but it's a sensible default.

>cash managers are also based in the city known for its casinos, where hotel rooms costing as little as $69 a night provide cheaper lodgings than banker stops in New York, Boston and Newport Beach, California,

LOL. As if a cheaper hotel room is relevant when discussing transactions in dozen of milions !!!

I'm not sure India is the best example either.

Sure, at the National political level, it's a democracy.

But there are several issue that allow citizens of some lesser democratic states enjoys more freedom in some cases... (it's very un-even though)

Religious rights, women's rights... Or the amount of power that some have at the local level (cast issues, landowners, etc..).

That's probably why early civilization develloped in valleys of river that flooded.

In the Nile and Euphrate/Tigre valleys, there was plenty of food but efforts were required for storage. And one that was done, there was plenty of idle time for parts of the year.

Hence pyramids and stuff. (and writing for book keeping of stored food)

I can't think of any other likely candidate for that "title".

And I'm into litterature. And I'm Francophone (which makes me more likely to consider non-anglophone litterature).

Probably not.

Because you'll only make money if the stock stops being undervalued. And there's no sign that the reasons it's undervalued will change any time soon.

It's the Politicians who have not considered it.

It's not only on low-end phones.

Lots of people (in all the economic brackets) keep multiple phones numbers in the develloping world..

Some because it's usually cheaper to call within a carrier so they use a certain line to call certain numbers. Some to be reached more easily (for the same reason as above). Some because there's no number portability and they want to keep their old number while they want to use a new one for whatever reason. Some because networks can be unreliable. Some because they'll give separate numbers to separate people (Pro/Personnal , wife/mistress, anybody/VIP).

And since most people are on prepaid, there's little to no cost to having multiples lines.