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I guess a lot of people aren't at all familiar with Africas geography. I mean the whole article is called "Diary of an African Cryptocurrency Miner", presumably

I guess a lot of people aren't at all familiar with Africas geography. I mean the whole article is called "Diary of an African Cryptocurrency Miner", presumably because Kenya was too specific and obscure for their target audience. If your mental map of a continent is largely "here be dragons", I guess it's easy to associate Nigerian scammers with Kenyan cryptocurrency miners, who live some 3500km and several international borders away. It's not limited to Africa though. I'm from New Zealand, and I've had Europeans ask if I visit Japan a lot, because I'm so close (I'm about as close to Japan as Germany is). I've had Americans ask if I was ok when they heard news that tropical cyclones were hitting Queensland (I'm as far from Queensland as a Jamaican is from Ohio). And the hemisphere thing stumps so many people. Usually they just constantly forget that the seasons are reversed, but I've had one educated, multilingual gentleman from east Asia ask me if North and South mean the same thing in the southern hemisphere, or if they have opposite meanings.

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jsmthrowaway 9y ago
To be fair, New Zealand is about 1 AU from everything, so it’s especially difficult for a lot of us non-kiwis to grasp. :) A relative and I were just discussing this the other day: he was convinced Australia was further south than you until I got out my phone, I think because he was confusing New Zealand with New Guinea. I’ve noticed we do tend to heavily associate you with Australia in the States, too, so the Queensland question doesn’t surprise me. Most Americans probably mentally conflate Tasmania and NZ. To your point, I could probably name most African countries but not place them exactly from memory, particularly in the interior and on the western coast. Niger is hot news in the U.S. right now, and we had a week or so of everyone collectively figuring out not only that it’s distinct from Nigeria but also proper pronunciation, simply because we don’t think about Africa much (which is lame, I agree). Legislators were surprised we had troops in Niger, which should really say a lot. Geography education is already iffy in a number of places, and I imagine ubiquitous digital maps are going to exacerbate that problem the same way we are already losing the ability to memorize phone numbers. John Oliver has been having fun with this by highlighting the wrong country as a recurring gag on his show.
sliverstorm 9y ago
I didn't realize the Tasman Sea was that big. Of course I struggle to keep track of the relative size of all major bodies of water, really.

deleted 9y ago

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jsmthrowaway 9y ago

To be fair, New Zealand is about 1 AU from everything, so it’s especially difficult for a lot of us non-kiwis to grasp. :) A relative and I were just discussing this the other day: he was convinced Australia was further south than you until I got out my phone, I think because he was confusing New Zealand with New Guinea. I’ve noticed we do tend to heavily associate you with Australia in the States, too, so the Queensland question doesn’t surprise me. Most Americans probably mentally conflate Tasmania and NZ. To your point, I could probably name most African countries but not place them exactly from memory, particularly in the interior and on the western coast. Niger is hot news in the U.S. right now, and we had a week or so of everyone collectively figuring out not only that it’s distinct from Nigeria but also proper pronunciation, simply because we don’t think about Africa much (which is lame, I agree). Legislators were surprised we had troops in Niger, which should really say a lot. Geography education is already iffy in a number of places, and I imagine ubiquitous digital maps are going to exacerbate that problem the same way we are already losing the ability to memorize phone numbers. John Oliver has been having fun with this by highlighting the wrong country as a recurring gag on his show.

sliverstorm 9y ago

I didn't realize the Tasman Sea was that big. Of course I struggle to keep track of the relative size of all major bodies of water, really.