| Where, how large, and flat is Africa? - or is there space for Peace/Coexistence? | |
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   22 Feb 2007 @ 15:23, by Heiner Benking
There is mauch confusion in modern society about maps and models, truth and fidelity, plans and reality. With the opening question "How large and where is Africa" some central questions about comparability and coherence need to be answered, as we confuse scales, proportions consequences. This is dangerous in real life, but worth when we have to act on larger scales. This piece is about the Millennium Development Goals, and global Education and Economic Programmes, but also about numbers and scales. Recommended are theses sites: Earth Ignorance and Earth Cultural Imperialism.
The central question is not only if Africa is on the map, but are the Oceans and the Poles or other regions like Europe fairly represented on the map.
Why? Because if there is not truth and equal-area relation be can get wrong pictures, wrong ideas, and maybe even wrong impressions about climate-change modelling or desertification - and how such living conditions are central to war and peace.
Not just among our Youth, but in the general public, there seems to be great confusion about basics of our Planet and survival in general.
Digging deeper, working with young people and people who stayed young in mind, we realised that they still compare and question what they see and feel! - and wonder about details! Details that truly make a difference that matters!
Last week, a friend shared some materials from the 43th Munich Security Conference. [link] -- [link]
- where people were very upset and frightened by Pres. Putin's remarks.
I hesitated - is it really such a huge country that Putin was speaking up for? - considering the outlines of Aisa and Siberia. When comparing with the signets from the Decade of Sustainability Education (UNESCO-DESD) and with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the confusion increased, Russia sooo big and Africa sooo small?
Isn't such a world-map a reminiscence from the cold-war times? see Fig. 15 at: [link]
Remembering the recent best-seller "The world is flat" I got furious. What do our policy and security makers base their decisions on? What do we learn in school?, and why do some military people have very different maps? (like the New Pentagon Map) - is it to serve their views and perspectives, or to please their momentary ends or aspirations?
Isn't the world real, fixed and finite, and shouldn't we restrain from inflating or shrinking places and heights as it just pleases us? I refer here to the "Earth Literacy and Earth Ignorance?" Initiative mentioned below, [link] or: [link] but maybe it is time to revisit!
see also: [link] or [link]
Have you ever looked at the size of Africa on maps like the Butterfly Map below?
DO: Africa beyond Poverty ..., visual demagogy, MDG _ DEKADE _ Security - Ignorance, ...
   
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