The Continent

Jess writes:

Remember that West Wing episode where C.J. Craig sits in on a meeting of a cartography lobby group that is trying to convince the U.S. government that our current maps of the globe are wholly inaccurate and, with some truly mind-boggling proof, they manage to completely readjust C.J.’s worldview, resulting in her random outbursts (i.e. “Where the hell is France?!?”) for the remainder of the episode?? Come on, that was one of my favorites!! Well, anyways, off the preamble…

This last week, oddly enough, I was involved in more than one conversation that revolved around the incorrectness of maps and the ginormous size of Africa (yes, many volunteers are dorks, like myself, and yes, we do have these types of conversations sometimes!). Then, as luck would have it, I was sent a link (by someone who is aware of my dorky-ness) that just so happened to introduce me to Mr. Kai Krause and his noble cause, “The Fight Against Rampant Immapancy”! The link itself was a redrawing of Africa with other recognizable countries drawn to scale within its interior, in order to show exactly how ginormous Africa really is! How convenient!!! So, as my excitement would have it, I’ve included this image here:

(Since the jpeg is equally enormous, I’d suggest checking out the actual article - click here - to see the original picture!!)

So, as you can see, my recent obsession with ‘The Continent’ and the incorrectness of our world maps is not wholly irrelevant! Africa really is unbelievably huge and our current maps really are unbelievably misrepresentative!!

Anyways, I always find these little tidbits interesting, so I figured I would pass it along. And isn’t it cool to think that if Adam and I ever do manage to do a Cape-Town-to-Cairo trip after our service, we’ll actually be travelling the whole of Japan, India, and Eastern Europe, as well as most of China and some of the E.U.?!? Now that’s a journey!!!