static boolean isNotACountry(final String tag) {
        // Tested and found that .equals is much faster than .matches, even if
        // it's done several times and .matches is done once.
        if (tag.length() == 0 || tag.equals("---") ||
                tag.equalsIgnoreCase("XXX") || tag.equalsIgnoreCase("none"))
            return true;
        return false;
        
//        for (String match : noCountryStrings) {
//            if (tag.equalsIgnoreCase(match))
//                return true;
//        }
//        return false;
    }