dzd@cosivax.UUCP (Dean Douthat) (07/29/85)
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Recently, there was an article by David Canzi entitled: "Watch them closely
when they quote statistics" which dealt with misleading graphics accompanying
a newpaper story. Distortions and propaganda seemingly aimed at divisiveness
may be more common than usually supposed. While browsing through a local
bookstore, looking at some of their nautical charts, I overheard two black
women next to me. They were looking at a world map of unfamiliar type. On
its border, the map had some explanations. One of them, reading this border
material, said: "Look here how whites have made maps to show where they live
is bigger than where blacks live." The other woman then commented: "Isn't it
terrible how racist white people are?!"
After the two women left, a closer examination of the map revealed these
additional "scientific" criticism of traditional maps:
1. "Traditional maps are skewed to the advantage of the Northern
hemisphere, white people's traditional home, over the Southern,
consisting mostly of black people. For example, Russia appears
over twice the size of Africa, though Africa is actually larger
[Russia 8.7 million square miles (MSM); Africa 11.6 MSM]."
2. "They use the projection invented by the German Mercator first
published in 1569. On this map, Europe appears to be larger than
South America though actually South America [6.9 MSM] is nearly
twice the size of Europe [3.8 MSM]."
3. "They are off-center, that is, the equator is not halfway between
top and bottom. For example, Germany is near the center even
though it is well North of the equator."
4. "They are not compatible with the objectivity which is required
in a scientific age. For example, two-thirds of the area is used
by the Northern hemisphere, with the Southern hemisphere jammed
into the remaining one-third."
5. "They favor Colonial Powers by showing 'The North' [18.9 MSM] as
twice the size of 'The South' [38.6 MSM]." NOTE: this statement
has an accompanying mini-map showing 'The North' by shading.
Also note the quaint capitalizations -- Colonial Powers, The
North, The South.
Such propaganda -- breathtaking in its audacity, catholic in its scope and
demoralizing in its cynical estimate of average intelligence -- borders on
greatness within its genre. How smoothly it leads its readers to substitute
the comfortable old shoe of social and racist victim for thinking, learning
and simple common sense.
The first statement gives the impression that the Northern hemisphere is
populated mostly by white people. Consider that the `Far East' [China, India,
Japan, Korea, Philippines and S.E. Asia] are all non-white, all in the
Northern hemisphere and half that hemisphere's population. Japan, though
colored, is far from poor. Ethiopia, though Northern, far from wealthy. On
the other hand, significantly less than half the population of the Southern
hemisphere [~45%] is black.
Africa has more area North of the Equator [~53%] than South of it; and more
population too [~59%]. On traditional world maps, Africa and Russia appear
reversed in size because of *distance* from the Equator, not *direction* from
it. On the same maps, Antarctic appears even more out of proportion compared
with Africa than Russia. In any projection from sphere to plane, most regions
must be distorted. The commonly used one produces less distortion nearer the
Equator -- thus favoring tropical regions by depicting their geography more
accurately than arctic regions. These suffer East/West stretching which leads
to area over-representation, misleading direction indications and bad shape
distortion.
For the same reason, distance from the equator, the sun's rays strike
Africa more directly than Russia. Black skin pigmentation gives better
protection from these burning rays and tropical climates. White skin
pigmentation retains body heat better. That Blacks live in Africa and whites
in Russia is a tautology.
In the second statement, we learn Mercator [1512-94 CE] is German. (Aren't
German people genetically racist? Maybe Mercator was even a crypto-NAZI!)
Naturally, his projection shows Europe larger than South America. As before,
it is Europe, being farther from the Equator, which suffers greater distortion
than South America. Moreover, Mercator wasn't German; in 1569, nobody was
German, no such nation would exist for another three centuries. He wasn't
even from an area included in present day Germany. In fact, Mercator was
Flemish (a native of Flanders, currently part of Belgium).
Next, we learn the "racist" Mercator centered his "native" Germany on his
map, thus pushing every other nation off-center. Mercator's claim to fame was
the first reasonably accurate map of the world, not "inventing" the
cylindrical projection of the sphere. Although commonly called Mercator's
projection, Ptolemy [circa 100-70 CE] used this projection in his
"Geographica" for maps. Earlier, Archimedes [circa 287-212 BCE] used the same
projection to determine the sphere's surface area. Legend has it Archimedes'
tombstone was carved with the figure of a sphere inscribed in a cylinder.
Flowery phrases like: "the objectivity which is required in a scientific
age" can be counted on to introduce subjective claptrap. Of all the habitable
land in the world (i.e. excluding Antarctica), 66% is in the Northern
hemisphere. Since Antarctica was unknown to Mercator, a two thirds to one
third division is exactly in proportion.
Population disparity is even greater with 90% of the earth's population
living in the Northern hemisphere. Population density in the Northern
hemisphere is five times that in the Southern. High population density
requires highly productive agriculture, which, in turn, requires a temperate
climate. Such climates exist primarily in the middle latitudes, between about
30 and 60 degrees from the Equator in either direction. Only about 10% of the
land in the Southern hemisphere lies in this temperate zone while nearly 47%
of Northern hemisphere land is located between these two latitudes. Of all
the earth's land between 30 and 60 degrees of latitude, 90% is in the Northern
hemisphere and 10% in the Southern.
The fifth statement quoted from the map is particularly clever. Before,
all references to 'Northern' and 'Southern' referred to hemispheres. Now, the
terms 'The North' and 'The South' are thrown in. It is natural to continue
assuming the same frame of reference. But carefully reading the small inset
map shows that 'The North' is that part of the Northern hemisphere North of
about 30 degrees latitude. 'The South' is all the rest, including, for
example parts of Florida and California, Mexico and Egypt. This move neatly
lumps all the tropical land of the Northern hemisphere with all the land [90%
tropical] of the Southern, yielding a region with 97% of its land area within
30 degrees of the Equator. This least distorted region is then compared with
the highly distorted remainder -- the home of 'Colonial Powers' (including
China, India, and Burma, to name a few).
Without doubt, the map's producers know all this full well. And they also
know full well that most people will fall for it. After all, it's much easier
to make excuses than to learn geography, mathematics, history and the like.
As recently as December 1984, there could have been a sign on this map saying:
"Your tax dollars at work." This gem was brought to you by the United Nations
Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
--
Dean Z. Douthat
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I have no connection with COSI except as a guest on their local network
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Only intelligent entities *can* communicate
Only intelligent entities *need to* communicatelkk@teddy.UUCP (07/31/85)
If anyone has seen a map which has the south pole on top, it becomes quite obvious what the subliminal effect of "traditional" maps is. On a traditional map we see Europe and North America ON TOP. We see Africa, Latin America, and most of Asia BENEATH. When you see this physical relationship inverted it is quite striking what a different view you get about the "power/quality/importance" relationship of those areas. -- Sport Death, Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (08/06/85)
In article <1068@teddy.UUCP> lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney) writes: >On a traditional map we see Europe and North America ON TOP. We see Africa, >Latin America, and most of Asia BENEATH. > >When you see this physical relationship inverted it is quite striking what >a different view you get about the "power/quality/importance" >relationship of those areas. Actually, what's located where depends on which country the map was drawn in. Cartographers tend to place their own country in the center of world maps. Maps drawn in the U.S. naturally have the United States in the center. Granted, maps drawn symmetrically around the equator will show some of the effect you mention. (I suppose a polar projection indicates that the Eskimos rule the world (-: ). It is instructive to look at historical maps of the United States as drawn in the United States and in Mexico. The areas labeled "ceded by Mexico" on our maps are labeled "stolen by the United States" on theirs. " ... there's not a square inch of land on the face of the Earth in the possession of its rightful owner." -- Mark Twain -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI Common Sense is what tells you that a ten 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. pound weight falls ten times as fast as a Santa Monica, CA 90405 one pound weight. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe