The geography lesson
by Bob on September 9, 2007
People used to study and enjoy Geography. It used to be very important. It was how we found good and spices and grass skirts and the like and how to get there. It taught us not only where things are, and countries, and cultures, but what their significance was, and was to be.
I was used to think it was about a map and a globe. But it is much more than that.
National Geographic was a quintessential magazine or journal for the armchair explorer or geographer. To some extent it still is a gold standard.
It these days seems that most people get their knowledge of countries, not even their cultures, from the labels inside shirts and clothes. Try it. It's a real education. Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Myanmar (used to be Burma), Argentina, etc.
Notice the pattern ? Lower labour costs. We didn't see America, England, Germany and others.
So can get a real lesson in Geography and countries by just checking our labels of manufacture in our shirts, coats, shoes, socks, and other durable goods.
Time to get a new globe. And astrolabe. Or crystal ball. It's a long way back to the concrete real geography of Ptolemy or Strabo. But we rather do need a refresher course.