African Union Urges Adoption of World Map Showing Continent's True Size 259
The African Union has endorsed the "Correct The Map" campaign, urging governments and global institutions to replace the distorted 16th-century Mercator projection with the Equal Earth map that more accurately represents Africa's true size. Reuters reports: "It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not," AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was "marginal," despite being the world's second-largest continent by area, with 54 nations and over a billion people. Such stereotypes influence media, education and policy, she said. Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the 'Correct The Map' campaign led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa has revived the debate, urging organizations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries' true sizes.
"The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school. "We're actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all (African) classrooms," Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones. [...]
The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, though users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer. On the mobile app, however, the Mercator projection remains the default. 'Correct The Map' wants organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps.
"The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school. "We're actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all (African) classrooms," Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones. [...]
The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, though users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer. On the mobile app, however, the Mercator projection remains the default. 'Correct The Map' wants organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps.
Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Interesting)
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The obligatory xkcd here would have been the one about the "gulf of Amurikah", as it is a better example of cadastral revisionism.
But I cannot find it for some reason.
Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Interesting)
Peirce quincuncial [wikipedia.org] is pretty cool, especially if you want to break traditional perceptions. Map projections are not Africa's biggest problem, but sometimes having a small victory can help you face bigger problems.
Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Insightful)
Mercator gets the angles right - essential for arriving where you want to go.
In reality: the world is a globe.
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The real question is what do you want the map to show accurately--size, distance, area, or some other quality? On a flat surface there are tradeoffs and there is no perfect map projection.
Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Insightful)
But over global scale, Mercator isn’t so useful for navigation because travelling at a constant heading (technically track made good) gives a rhumb line rather than a great circle. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
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No one has "Given Up" on Mercator who actually has to use a map for navigation.
Mercator gets the angles right - essential for arriving where you want to go.
In reality: the world is a globe.
A million times this. Perhaps Moky Makura can show us the flat surface projection that accurately shows all of the world.
Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought most people had given up on Mercator projections, since my school did many years ago. It seems most of the maps sold on Amazon are Mercator. Google Maps uses Mercator, which is surprising. Peirce quincuncial [wikipedia.org] is pretty cool, especially if you want to break traditional perceptions. Map projections are not Africa's biggest problem, but sometimes having a small victory can help you face bigger problems.
Do you agree with Fara Ndiaye (FTA)"It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." , co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school.
If an abstract thing like what size any particular area looks like on a projection harms identity and pride, then pray tell what projection should be adopted that will show all areas at their true size, and won't harm children's identity?
There is only one map of our oblate spheroid that is correct. Problem is, it has to be on a physical globe. The others have to be various projections onto flat paper.
Identity politics is on the ropes, but rears its head every so often. How about looking into why African children are damaged by a map instead.
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If an abstract thing like what size any particular area looks like on a projection harms identity and pride, then pray tell what projection should be adopted that will show all areas at their true size, and won't harm children's identity?
There are a whole bunch of projections that preserve area. One is mentioned in the summary, but it's not the only one. These projections accurately depict areas by distorting angles (where Mercator does the reverse, accurately showing angles by distorting areas). It's a question of what map is more suitable for a particular purpose - I guess it's unlikely kids in school are going to use their map to circumnavigate the world?
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You put the penguins (maybe), "correct the map campaigners", "let's the true map not be sexist by phostoshoping peninsulas, obvious misogynists weapons campaigns", etc. whoever seems to have a real, profound, identity and pride take on the choice of projection on a catapult and project them onto a wall and the biggest splas
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I'm not actually sure what you are saying. You seem really emotional about it, though.
Right - Can you tell me what I was really emotional about? Or just trying to dismiss what I wrote by the accusation?
I've seen reactions like your's before. They always occur when a person has nothing to accurately refute a person who they really want to disagree with.
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I am much more worried about why the feelings of the president are hurt by calling a gulf "Gulf of Mexico", or even worst, "Fort Bragg" and other slaver-honoring names. Identity politics is on the ropes you say ? Maybe you need a mirror ?
Right - which has fuck-all to do with this.
I'm much more worried about the mental state of people who are so deranged by that asshat that they try to make every thing about him. He lives rent free in your mind, and has caused you to be stupid. Might want to get a brain scan, sounds like Trump cancer.
Easier than what? (Score:5, Interesting)
From link in TFA: https://equal-earth.com/equal-... [equal-earth.com]
"Straight parallels that make it easier to compare how far north or south places are from the equator."
? Easier than what? Show me a (popular) projection that *doesn't* have straight parallels. Mercator, Roberts, Peters, all have them.
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Yeah, there aren't a lot of popular map projections that fail that test, unless you perhaps count the polar projection used for the UN logo [wikipedia.org]. I'm guessing that sentence is there as a result of editing; perhaps it originally said equally-spaced parallels (which is true of the Robinson projection) but someone math-savvy was consulted to correct the claim to its current form (without seeing the context) and the maintainer of the page wasn't knowledgeable enough to realise it should just be removed.
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Also possible. OpenAI's models do love their bullet points, and especially having exactly three examples in a list. The catchphrase "math magic" at the end also reeks of GPT-4's didactic blandishment.
Which projection to use depends on the application (Score:5, Insightful)
Its of course impossible to project the curved earth onto a flat map without distortion. Different projections result in different distortions so which one to use depends on the specific application. Online maps can simply project an image of the globe at the desired zoom and angle, so physical maps are gradually becoming less important.
Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score:5, Insightful)
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Pretty much this, Africa is right at the centre.
The notion that because it makes africa look smaller than it is relative to other countries this makes africa less relevant makes no sense whatsoever. The projection is centred on greenwich with the poles at the top and bottom due to the relevance of the british empire at the time. This then puts africa right at the centre of the map. The world being spherical, they could have chosen to centre the map entirely on greenwich.
Also the UK looks tiny on all maps be
Re:Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score:4, Informative)
It distorts the size difference between the continents. The Equal Earch map makes Europe and Russia much smaller, showing the true relative size of the African continent.
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Absolutely true but the truly stupid thing here is that, because Africa is on the equator, it's one of the continents that is least distorted by the mercator projection. Not only that but the default is to centre of the Greenwich meridian which puts Africa at the centre of the map. I'm finding it really hard to understand why using a map projection which distorts Africa the least and centres the entire map on it can be interpreted as "marginalising" Africa and making them feel less valued, indeed if anything it makes it look like the map makers cared more about Africa than anywhere else.
Moky Makura's accusations that a projection is "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." and that it harms African children as an added emotional appeal, is simply blaming Mercator projection on certain groups of people, and just exposes it as an example of identity politics.
The good news for him and the children being harmed by this projection is that he is free to have a projection made that is equatorial - polar (Might be a better name for
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But there is a whole other point of view, which is about the method of cultural criticism. In culture people think a lot about meaning. And they also think a lot about power and racism. Some of this came from the world of literature, where, as a critic, you read a text and start to detect any hidden meanings within the text. The meanings are there because they're in the structure of how the text is formed. Often it is claimed the author themselves didn't realise the inherent structures they were writing in. Like how people learn language and use grammar without consciously knowing the rules of grammar.
Do you have an example of that related to racism (or nationalism, or continentalism, or whatever)?
Re:Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score:5, Insightful)
People tend to greatly under-estimate the size and potential of Africa.
I suspect that most people neither under nor over estimate the size of Africa because most people just don't care enough to estimate the size of Africa.
But I'm at a complete loss as to why you think estimating the size of Africa has anything to do with estimating the potential of Africa. Centuries of history provide strong evidence that size of countries/continents/islands has very little correlation to what they have the potential to accomplish.
And estimates by foreigners of the size of countries/continents/islands has even less to do with the potential of those countries than their actual size does.
Do you think Taiwan or Japan or the UK have been negatively impacted by people looking at maps and thinking that they're smaller than Africa? I don't think people looking at maps and saying "that region isn't very big" affects the region's potential negatively at all, and making it look bigger on the map isn't going to undo the non-existent negative impact at all.
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People tend to greatly under-estimate the size and potential of Africa.
But I'm at a complete loss as to why you think estimating the size of Africa has anything to do with estimating the potential of Africa. Centuries of history provide strong evidence that size of countries/continents/islands has very little correlation to what they have the potential to accomplish.
The Netherlands has 3 times the GDP of the largest economy in Africa. $1.228 Trillion compared to South Africa's $410 million. If you add Africa's total GDP up, the Dutch alone make almost half that. Their land area is about 16K square miles. Africa is almost 12 million square miles.
In wealth production, land size doesn't necessarily matter.
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Because it distorts other countries and continents far more, making them seem bigger than Africa when in fact they are smaller or similar size.
There are very real issues stemming from that. People tend to greatly under-estimate the size and potential of Africa.
Okay, what projection should be used that eliminates any issues for the entire world? If Africa is damaged by a projection they do not like, and with the reality that there is no accurate way to place a glob onto paper - who do you suggest be minimnized so the poor children are not robbed of their identity in this "world's (sic) longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop."
This Mercator map is harmful to African Children mantra is just a victim's narrative. Because
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The want the Equal Earth projection: https://equal-earth.com/equal-... [equal-earth.com]
It isn't perfect but it is a lot better than Mercator, at least as far as showing countries with relatively accurate sizes.
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Re:Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score:4, Insightful)
"Large population willing to work hard will mean economic growth."
We'd all like to believe that, but sadly, it's not true. A corrupt leadership means the population will never get out of poverty no matter how hard they work.
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"Large population willing to work hard will mean economic growth."
We'd all like to believe that, but sadly, it's not true. A corrupt leadership means the population will never get out of poverty no matter how hard they work.
The leadership is a reflection of the culture at large. It starts at the very bottom. If a young man decides to better his station in life, and start a business, the first time he starts getting ahead, his father will swoop in and claim it. Because the culture says that the head of the clan owns everything his wives and offspring produce.
It wasn't westerners that came up with the expression "Africa wins again". It was Africans.
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It is possible to outgrow that mindset. The ancient Romans had it. Look up the term "paterfamilias" and rights accruing to one over his children in ancient Roman law.
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I don't want to call you ignorant, but a Google search would reduce your ignorance [statista.com].
If you can't figure out how to use Google, I mean, ChatGPT is there for you. Might be able to make it into a girlfriend, too! Bonus!
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If you can't figure out how to use Google, I mean, ChatGPT is there for you
If Google and ChatGPT are how you "solve" your ignorance, you're in for a shocker.
Africa has an unemployment problem, coupled with a cultural problem of playing r-strategist for retirement. Excess population != "economic success is just around the corner!!"
It means getting stuck in a vicious welfare state where much need infrastructure, security and health spending is sacrificed to keep everyone fed.
Unless your ignorance is a super power that does guarantee "large populations" transform into economic succ
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You don't even want to cure your ignorance.
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don't they have more important things to worry abt (Score:3, Insightful)
Worry about more important things. This is slacktivism
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Worry about more important things. This is slacktivism
Dividing up concerns by priority may affect a small little country like the USA, not a large continent like Africa where the 1billion people can be concerned and address more than one problem at a time.
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Africa is not that big. It is well known to fit into just one corner of Mother Russia. You can see it clearly in the very factual news video at https://youtube.com/watch?v=BX... [youtube.com] .
Re:don't they have more important things to worry (Score:5, Interesting)
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Nah. The argument about his hand size.
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See, this is how a good cause loses reasonable people.
Yes it is true that a flat map depicts Africa smaller than it actually is.
But we're to believe that A. this is a tangible, real factor in the continent's generational poverty, and B. that it is done willfully and intentionally (the fact that such visual distortions come with transferring a sphere to a flat map is purely coincidental) to that effect.
I like to believe I am a reasonable person, but I think perhaps there are factors that more acutely impact
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Snowflakes as a form of frozen water are very beautiful, so using the word as an insult is weird.
With a very specific interpretation it is a valid insult, but neither SirSlud nor the Anonymous Coward I'm replying to seem to know what that interpretation is, so they both are failing pretty hard in their attempt to be insulting.
Kind of like trying to insult someone by calling them a star or brilliant or genius or gorgeous. Any of those words could be an insult under certain circumstances with the right contex
Size (Score:5, Insightful)
Blah blah, pride.
Blah blah, fair.
It isn't about size of your continent, it is how you use it ;)
My projection is bigger than your projection (Score:2)
Clearly, the world's mapmakers favor Russia and Canada, because they are shown as the largest land areas based on the most common projections. It's not fair!
Come on people. People's stereotypes of Africa have nothing to do with the size of the outline on a map.
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Clearly, the world's mapmakers favor Russia and Canada, because they are shown as the largest land areas based on the most common projections.
But they also really love Alaska... so we Americans give them a pass regarding Russia and our 51st state.
All maps lie (Score:3)
All maps tell lies.
Maps that tell the least impactful lies for their particular application are the maps that are successful.
Re:All maps lie (Score:5, Insightful)
Except they objectively don't. Unless you're flying a plane or navigating a boat across the ocean you have no reason to use a map projection that traces a path of constant azimuth as a straight line. The mercator projection is somehow the most popular despite the fact that it's primary application is useful for only a tiny minority of people.
Painting this as some success of application applies some kind of knowledge that simply doesn't exist. Most people in the world are so clueless as to the mactator projection that they don't even understand its purpose. It is only successful due to its "marketing" i.e. it's use as an educational map - an application where it is successful despite being absolutely the worst possible projection for the job while telling the most impactful lies.
Reality is the exact opposite of your post.
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The Mercator protection has benefits like filling a rectangle, which this hobby-horse projection does not do.
Being big angry that people like a different map projection than you is a sign of a small mind.
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Most people in the world are so clueless as to the mactator projection that they don't even understand its purpose.
I want to share a small secret with you: most people aren't really into map projections strongly enough to have an opinion.
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Most people in the world are so clueless as to the mactator projection that they don't even understand its purpose.
I want to share a small secret with you: most people aren't really into map projections strongly enough to have an opinion.
I want to tell you that you are exactly correct. If African children have identity issues, maybe it isn't the Mercator map projection.
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All maps lie.
They distort either area or shape.
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Except they objectively don't. Unless you're flying a plane or navigating a boat across the ocean you have no reason to use a map projection that traces a path of constant azimuth as a straight line. The mercator projection is somehow the most popular despite the fact that it's primary application is useful for only a tiny minority of people.
Which map projection should we use? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Painting this as some success of application applies some kind of knowledge that simply doesn't exist. Most people in the world are so clueless as to the mactator projection that they don't even understand its purpose.
Seems to be a bit of cluelessness by most people about how to get an accurate map onto a flat surface that in reality, the landforms are on an oblate spheroid.
But here is the answer to the poor African children and their loss of identity caused by the Mercator projection maps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... The Craig Retroazimuthal projection. You start with what will help childrens identity and make that the center of the map.
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"Except they objectively don't"
Except they absolutely do. A map is attempt to portray a curved surface on a flat plane. It is physically inevitable that it will not correspond completely to reality. You pick the lie that tells enough useful truth for your purpose. Mercators ,as has been pointed out, are quite useful for navigation.
Re:All maps lie (Score:4, Insightful)
All maps tell lies.
Maps that tell the least impactful lies for their particular application are the maps that are successful.
Is the problem that the map is misleading? Or is the problem that people are not smart enough to read and interpret maps?
If the latter is the problem, then altering the map doesn't address the problem.
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Smart doesn't really come into it. The human brain can know and understand things, and yet still be influenced by superficial features that it knows are wrong or irrelevant. That's just how it works, with few exceptions for people who are very unusual minds.
Take cats as an example. Lots of highly intelligent people love cats. We know that cats don't feel quite the same way about their staff though. All that fussing and cuddling is because they learned that that's how they get food and massages, for the most
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There isn't a problem at all! That's the thing.
People who object to the Mercator projection have a political problem, not a map problem.
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All maps tell lies.
Maps that tell the least impactful lies for their particular application are the maps that are successful.
Is the problem that the map is misleading? Or is the problem that people are not smart enough to read and interpret maps?
If the latter is the problem, then altering the map doesn't address the problem.
It has to be the latter. All of the map projections are a marginally successful way to map a sphere onto a flat surface.
Rather than Ban Mercator, perhaps a teaching moment noting that the world's standard map projection is based on trying to make a sphere into a flat surface, and showing other projections. The children will soak that up like a sponge, and probably caught at the goofier projections.
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All maps tell lies.
Maps that tell the least impactful lies for their particular application are the maps that are successful.
They don't lie when the map is on a globe - ignoring that the Earth is actually an oblate spheroid, not a sphere - but close enough.
And therein lies the problem. How to make an accurate map from a globe onto a flat piece of paper. Because you cannot. Attempts to do that get more and more ridiculous until they are useless for most purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The strange thing is if this is somehow discriminating against Africa, the aggrieved can make an Africa-centric map projection - i
Size is not the problem. (Score:2, Informative)
It is totally true that certain popular (Mercator) maps make Africa seem far smaller than it is. But this is meaningless.
No one is going around saying "Hey, I would totally invest in/move to Africa, but it is just too darn small."
Africa has a reputation of being poor, uneducated, and prone to violence. That is why they do not put money in to it.
You want to help Africa? Fight those prejudices. The two wealthiest African countries are Seychelles and Mauritius, both of which are small islands that are far
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No one is going around saying
No one goes around and says any of their biases out aloud. That doesn't mean they aren't biased. That's fundamentally the point here - the things not said.
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You think people, in their heads, are saying to themselves, "Boy, that Africa sure is a small continent! No wonder it is so poor and full of violence!"?
I actually hope they get this new map implemented, so that people like you can then see that it will have zero effect on anything.
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No one is going around saying
No one goes around and says any of their biases out aloud. That doesn't mean they aren't biased. That's fundamentally the point here - the things not said.
Then again, who is saying that Africa is prohibited from having their own map? Some of the map projections can make Africa look huge and dominant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].
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No one goes around and says any of their biases out aloud. That doesn't mean they aren't biased. That's fundamentally the point here - the things not said.
How does one ascertain that which is not said?
Re: Size is not the problem. (Score:2)
A globe is accurate (Score:2)
All 2D maps are not
IIRC, Mercator has advantages for navigation
Re:A globe is accurate (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed and we should use it for navigation. No one is suggesting we don't. On the other hand it has little place in the classroom (where it is used to educate people about the world and its scale), or for commercial materials where it may distort regions in ways that don't reflect economic reality.
That's the whole point.
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No one is suggesting we don't.
Yes I am. Mercator produces sub-par routes when used for navigation, it merely makes planning a route simpler when using primitive tools. Determining longitude was pretty much impossible until late 17th century, you had to make a wild guess and follow a given angle based on your latitude and region of the sea -- this is what Mercator preserves.
Re: A globe is accurate (Score:2)
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I'm going to partially agree with you but just try to be less mean about it :)
European cities through the industrialization process created utter squalor and disease. Children sleeping in rooms where shit was literally coming up through the floorboards. Adulteration of all basic foods for profit. Many innocent souls were taken advantage of.
If we step right back and get really philosophical about it, we could say we were just going through a stage. Same for everywhere that's developing
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No. Mercator is terrible for navigation, too -- unless your navigating tools are so bad they can't handle going in a straight line.
Mercator was made in times when just getting to the other side of an ocean was a challenge, and shortest distance didn't get you to your destination fastest (or often, not at all) -- you had to follow "trade winds" thus having a distorted map wasn't a disadvantage. But in a plane or in a ship powered by anything other than the wind, you want to go in a straight line (in 3D a p
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unless your navigating tools are so bad they can't handle going in a straight line.
Um. NOBODY can go in a straight line. A straight line through the ocean would put your boat underwater.
If I were them (Score:4, Interesting)
If I were them, I would not want to advertise the fact that I have more land than most people think.
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If I were them, I would not want to advertise the fact that I have more land than most people think.
I'm pretty sure even the somewhat-ancient Romans had that one figured out. The fact that certain world leaders (well, one really) might be confused about it today doesn't really change that. All the people who are in a decision-making process which could affect Africa know this already. They are smart enough to look it up.
Ya, but ... (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't it just be easier to teach Trump how map projections work, so he doesn't think Greenland is HUGE?
Okay, re-reading that, I see the problem with that idea. Never mind. (sigh)
New Zealand here (Score:5, Informative)
Still at least Africa doesn't get left off maps, unlike New Zealand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. It is even missing from many of the maps in the video where Africa is complaining about bad maps.
Re:New Zealand here (Score:5, Interesting)
There's an interesting website for comparing country sizes: https://thetruesize.com/ [thetruesize.com]
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I have long been aware of the problems with the Mercator Projection but when you use a tool like that website it really shows how much it messes with your common perception of country sizes.
Africa has the right size (Score:2)
The north and south parts have the wrong size.
Map Projections (Score:2)
The general flat map we use is simply the simplest projection to use without curves. It is true that it normalises distance of longitude at any latitude, in a way that make non-equatorial countries look larger. Which map is best really depends on the use and the Mercator projection probably isn't the best.
Looking at the articles, they are simply using a Tobler hyperelliptical or a Eckert IV projection.
More on map projections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
That will be one big map (Score:2)
If the map should reflect politcal size (Score:3)
then it should be based on population, not area. Google tells me that's a cartogram. The results make Chine and India huge, and the UK, Japan and Indonesia much larger than any of the projections.
https://ourworldindata.org/wor... [ourworldindata.org]
Ban Flat Maps! (Score:2)
geography is so 19th century (Score:3)
... Let's instead use a map that sizes countries and regions by their economic impact on the world.
https://blog.richmond.edu/live... [richmond.edu]
Oh, that one illustrates that African leaders probably have vastly more important stuff to focus on like literacy and drinking water? Huh. Whaddya know?
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If you're going to advocate for weird maps, you might want to use one that is not hilariously outdated in its defining characteristic. Japan's share of world GDP is now about 4% -- even in nominal dollars, it's down about 20% from 1995. (There's a lesson in there for China.)
Um (Score:2)
I don't think anybody ever doubted that Africa was large.
Y'all might want to devote some energy to a few other issues ...
Continent's, or continents'? (Score:2)
Areas are so 19th century (Score:3)
What matters in the 21st century is the size of the economy. We should use a map of the world based on GDP [researchgate.net].
A spokesman for Greenland (Score:4, Funny)
told reporters that he saw nothing wrong with the Mercator projection.
Africa is Huge (Score:3)
So why do so many Africans flee to Europe instead of other parts of Africa?
I get that the Sahara needs fixing since the Pyramids are broken (it recently had the largest lake in the world) but there's still lots of Africa to inhabit.
If only for the Vitamin D health it just doesn't make sense. Heck, I can get ghostly pale in Winter and 43N might still be too arctic for my health.
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Because 400-500 years ago Europeans sailed down there and told them how great it was.
why no chinese labeled map? (Score:2)
The map is only localized to a handful of languages. So much for equity.
A bit late (Score:2)
Maps are DEAD.
Google Earth rules.
Re: (Score:2)
Africa is not a nation, you moron.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, those people from the nation of Africa are pretty ignorant, aren't they?
Re: (Score:2)
More often than not, those arguing about size are just insecure.
While one can suggest the we should be beyond that, ego drives a lot of (especially male) choices (and the African nations do tend to be male dominated).
Re: (Score:2)
This is not really the primary concern in any African government. Grandstanding for popular votes in order to continue to gorge at the public trough is.
Graft, bribes, nepotism and outright theft are considered standard perks. When you have a voting public that celebrates these behaviours and lauds the practitioners.... you're pretty much made.