Geographical Illiteracy
An article written by one of my favorite writers ^-^
sadly it's the only translated article
>__< hope he will translate the others *-*
" Geographical Illiteracy
By : Fahd Amer Alahmady
The UN decided to conduct an international survey on the latest food crises. Therefore, they posed this question in different countries:"Please tell us your opinion about the food shortages in the rest of the world." However, they were surprised that none could answer this question because of the following reasons:
In Africa, they did not know what "food" means.
In Western Europe, they did not know what "shortage" means.
In the Middle East, they did not know what "opinion" means.
In South America, they did not know what "please" means.
And in the United States, they did not know what "the rest of the world" means.
As you could tell, no surveys of this type have been conducted. It is just a joke intended to show the cultural paradoxes between the nations of the world, and to assure the ignorance of the Americans of what is taking place out of their borders.
The real survey is that which is periodically organized by the National Geographic magazine since 1989 to measure the knowledge of the world's nations about each other - the Americas knowledge about the rest of the world.
In the latest survey conducted in 2006 for the world's young people of the age 18-24, the Swedish and the Italians respectively held the first and second place in terms of their geographical culture, whereas the Americas and Mexico held the final place.
For Americans, it was obvious that more than half of the respondents failed to identify the location of Saudi Arabia and Iraq on the map, while 20% only said that Sudan in located in Asia, and 48% said thought that India is an Islamic country.
Personally, I was not surprised for this result as I was on my way back from New York in August 1996 when an American young man who was sitting next to me in Kennedy Airport asked me spontaneously: "where are you from?" I replied:"From Saudi Arabia." He knitted his brows asking:"in which state?" I answered laughingly:"Saudi Arabia in not in the states but in Asia." He pretended understanding and said:"Ah, near China". I said:"Yes, and exactly north Germany".
\
In America in particular, there is abysmal ignorance on the world's geography, the names of countries, and the location of continents (a thing that can be noticed by anyone lived there for a short time). Although the curriculums there bear part of the responsibility of this ignorance compared to the ones in Sweden, New Zealand, and the Asian Tigers, I personally found another reason - by virtue of my direct experience - that is more important and particular; America alone forms an integrated and self-efficient world to the extent that it does not give any chance to the ordinary people to have a look, or even have the desire to know what is going on abroad although it is an open country, and is rather a principle resource of news and information . However, its self-efficiency and media superiority made it a gate that opens in one direction in which the whole world knows everything about it, while it knows nothing about the rest of the world.
Anyway, I think we criticized the Americans very enough. Let us try to conduct a survey on the Saudi level in the same way as that of National Geographic conducted for the rest of the world.
Are you ready? Well, here you go:
1- Where is Bhutan located?
2- With whom Germany shares its north boarders?
3- Which is more deeply in the north: (Najran or Jazan)?
4- How many countries is there Scandinavia?
5- On which region there is a conflict between India and Pakistan?
6- What is the difference between Burma and Myanmar?
7- Which river passes through Syria and Iraq (Tigris or Euphrates)?
8- What is the lake from which the Nile flows?
9- How many independent countries are there in South Africa?
10- And finally, which ocean witnessed the Tsunami of Sumatra 2004?
Count your points out of ten and always remember that illiteracy in these days means to be ignorant about what is going in the rest of the world. And before criticizing others, remember what Omar Bin Abdel Aziz said:
"Blessed is he who identified himself"
source
i like his way of writing and how he choose a lot of subjects to talk about
sadly it's the only translated article
>__< hope he will translate the others *-*
" Geographical Illiteracy
By : Fahd Amer Alahmady
The UN decided to conduct an international survey on the latest food crises. Therefore, they posed this question in different countries:"Please tell us your opinion about the food shortages in the rest of the world." However, they were surprised that none could answer this question because of the following reasons:
In Africa, they did not know what "food" means.
In Western Europe, they did not know what "shortage" means.
In the Middle East, they did not know what "opinion" means.
In South America, they did not know what "please" means.
And in the United States, they did not know what "the rest of the world" means.
As you could tell, no surveys of this type have been conducted. It is just a joke intended to show the cultural paradoxes between the nations of the world, and to assure the ignorance of the Americans of what is taking place out of their borders.
The real survey is that which is periodically organized by the National Geographic magazine since 1989 to measure the knowledge of the world's nations about each other - the Americas knowledge about the rest of the world.
In the latest survey conducted in 2006 for the world's young people of the age 18-24, the Swedish and the Italians respectively held the first and second place in terms of their geographical culture, whereas the Americas and Mexico held the final place.
For Americans, it was obvious that more than half of the respondents failed to identify the location of Saudi Arabia and Iraq on the map, while 20% only said that Sudan in located in Asia, and 48% said thought that India is an Islamic country.
Personally, I was not surprised for this result as I was on my way back from New York in August 1996 when an American young man who was sitting next to me in Kennedy Airport asked me spontaneously: "where are you from?" I replied:"From Saudi Arabia." He knitted his brows asking:"in which state?" I answered laughingly:"Saudi Arabia in not in the states but in Asia." He pretended understanding and said:"Ah, near China". I said:"Yes, and exactly north Germany".
\
In America in particular, there is abysmal ignorance on the world's geography, the names of countries, and the location of continents (a thing that can be noticed by anyone lived there for a short time). Although the curriculums there bear part of the responsibility of this ignorance compared to the ones in Sweden, New Zealand, and the Asian Tigers, I personally found another reason - by virtue of my direct experience - that is more important and particular; America alone forms an integrated and self-efficient world to the extent that it does not give any chance to the ordinary people to have a look, or even have the desire to know what is going on abroad although it is an open country, and is rather a principle resource of news and information . However, its self-efficiency and media superiority made it a gate that opens in one direction in which the whole world knows everything about it, while it knows nothing about the rest of the world.
Anyway, I think we criticized the Americans very enough. Let us try to conduct a survey on the Saudi level in the same way as that of National Geographic conducted for the rest of the world.
Are you ready? Well, here you go:
1- Where is Bhutan located?
2- With whom Germany shares its north boarders?
3- Which is more deeply in the north: (Najran or Jazan)?
4- How many countries is there Scandinavia?
5- On which region there is a conflict between India and Pakistan?
6- What is the difference between Burma and Myanmar?
7- Which river passes through Syria and Iraq (Tigris or Euphrates)?
8- What is the lake from which the Nile flows?
9- How many independent countries are there in South Africa?
10- And finally, which ocean witnessed the Tsunami of Sumatra 2004?
Count your points out of ten and always remember that illiteracy in these days means to be ignorant about what is going in the rest of the world. And before criticizing others, remember what Omar Bin Abdel Aziz said:
"Blessed is he who identified himself"
source
i like his way of writing and how he choose a lot of subjects to talk about