[Delta0311]

Oh CNN. Keep the gems coming.. Apparently the "West" is not giving Africa enough credit for it's size when it comes to maps.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/18/africa...ica/index.html

[Doc Oc]

That was quite an interesting article. I didn't realize just how big Africa was. Amazing really...especially compared to Russia.

[iEuropa]

Maps are all about controlling distortion. I have heard about this many a time as a geographic information systems professional!

[roastbeef]

I was just talking with a friend the other day about how unfortunate such a huge and geographically awesome place is so littered with shitty countries.

[UncleWede]

or just how small Greenland really is, despite it's place on a map

[insanecoder]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

I was just talking with a friend the other day about how unfortunate such a huge and geographically awesome place is so littered with shitty countries.

Many centuries of European colonialism would make any country "shitty"

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by insanecoder

Many centuries of European colonialism would make any country "shitty"

Those countries where shitty long before we white boys rolled in there.

And some turned to shit once white boys where moved out of power.. Zimbabwe once the bread basket of Africa; now slightly less of a shit hole than Somalia.

[Maestro]

First this is nothing new, I remember reading way back the counties in the Northern Hemisphere look larger because of stretching a curve surface on to a flat surface. Known issue with map making. Africa does not see this stretching because it is mostly centered around the equator. This is true for any country nearer to the equator, and there are maps available which do not show this stretching effects.

But go figure that CNN want to make it look like the non-African world did this on purposes to make Africa look less important. I would said CNN is racist to say size matters. Kind of an odd statement call people from Africa are larger, they playing into a stereo type.... These guys are looking for conspiracy everywhere.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

Those countries where shitty long before we white boys rolled in there.

And some turned to shit once white boys where moved out of power.. Zimbabwe once the bread basket of Africa; now slightly less of a shit hole than Somalia.

This is true, grant it the Brit and the Dutch made it worse and through they could bring some order to it all, but we saw what happen. Like the middle east, when you have societies as old as these who have been trying to kill one another for 1000's of years you are not going to change it over night.

Everyone wants to blame white boys for their problems, but they been fighting long before the modern world rolled in and saw value in its resources.

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by Maestro

This is true, grant it the Brit and the Dutch made it worse and through they could bring some order to it all, but we saw what happen. Like the middle east, when you have societies as old as these who have been trying to kill one another for 1000's of years you are not going to change it over night.

Everyone wants to blame white boys for their problems, but they been fighting long before the modern world rolled in and saw value in its resources.

Good point on the Middle East. Iraq for example, an artificial state formed up of three different ethnic groups that cannot stand each other.

[Wolf 335]

Leaving those countries in their current state has its benefits to those in higher power.

A lot is orchestrated and over exaggerated propaganda

[Maestro]

Not sure why I bothered, but this reporter is a freelance reporter and CNN is her outlet. I am willing to bet this person did not pay attention in Geography class growing up and miss the whole discussion on map making and how countries further from the equator get stretch more. (This is why she is freelance, no one will hire her permanently since she probably did not pay attention in other classes as well)

She think this was done on purpose which the western world made up to minimalize Africa. People like her is the reason we continue to have problems, she trying to convince people this was done on purpose. She is trying to say some dude (Geert de Kremer) back in the 1600's decide that Africa could not be the larger than the other countries and did this on purpose and the rest of the world decide to follow along for the last 400 yrs. As I said you can buy maps which shows everything to scale size no stretch and guess who came up with those maps, the modern western world.

Sorry about the rant, I just do not like people like this.

[J.M]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

I was just talking with a friend the other day about how unfortunate such a huge and geographically awesome place is so littered with shitty countries.

NA? True, but don´t be so hard on yourself.

PS: Stupid post deserves stupid answer.

[1and1]

surprised this hasn't been posted yet...

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by 1and1

surprised this hasn't been posted yet...

LMAO first time seeing this.. Of course it's the pesky Germans.. Keeping the non-Aryans safely way in their ghettos.

[Alfisti]

Australia seems like another one, looks pretty small then you overlay with the US and WTF?

[Shipkiller]

Not Racist..


Simple Definition of racism

: poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race

: the belief that some races of people are better than others

Full Definition of racism

1
: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2
: racial prejudice or discrimination

[Karman]

Western world is savage yo

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by Maestro

This is true, grant it the Brit and the Dutch made it worse and through they could bring some order to it all, but we saw what happen. Like the middle east, when you have societies as old as these who have been trying to kill one another for 1000's of years you are not going to change it over night.

Everyone wants to blame white boys for their problems, but they been fighting long before the modern world rolled in and saw value in its resources.

Yeah, not really.

[GuidoK]

I really dont get what cnn is trying to say with this piece. Either I'm too smart or I'm too stupid.
Somthing about the surface area of a country is relevant to its importance in the world? and that maps dont give an accurate portrayal?

I guess it all comes down to whether you had a globe as a kid or not....instead of blaming some 16th century cartographer that probably knew better what he was doing than the cnn editorial office..

[Karman]

Okay so there's an accurate world map then there is this world map , just so happens the inaccurate map gets used probably 99 percent of the time...coicidence?

[Lups]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

Oh CNN. Keep the gems coming.. Apparently the "West" is not giving Africa enough credit for it's size when it comes to maps.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/18/africa...ica/index.html

This is hilarious.

A few years back I was arguing with a friend about me driving across usa. He said and I quote: "anna you're out of your mind. You're thinking Finland size while taking on usa. No fucking way will you make it. "

I've passed basic geography in school so I have some understanding of how big something is. Usa is the fourth biggest country. Fine, I've done europe in a rush faster than I drove through usa ever, so canada the summer after the first was going to be a short drive.

You really don't realize just how wrongly the old globe image you remember from the classroom is until you think you're a day away from the great lakes, and the map says you have 2000 miles to drive before you're even getting close.

So yeah, what we think is big ends up being very, very small. And what we think is a day drive, ends up being soooo long you find yourself in detroit just to avoid admitting the slight miscalculation.