By Joanne Arcand
The other day, I was looking at an old jigsaw puzzle which shows a map of the world. It’s from the early eighties, so I expected the “East Germany”-“West Germany” difference, but it’s amazing how many countries have changed since back then. In case you’re updating your Geography books, here’s a sampling:
Top Three Geography lessons
Mount Everest isn’t called Mount Everest
Way ‘back in the day’ when India was a British colony, the name Everest was given to the mountain to honor the British surveyor, Sir George Everest, who mapped and measured it in 1852. It always seemed strange to me that it would have a British name- after all someone guided him to the top of the mountain and that person wasn’t what we would call a newbie. China has officially contested this name and reintroduced the name given to it by Tibetan officials working for Emperor Kangxi in 1717. Mount Everest is now called either Qomolangma (sometimes written the way it’s pronounced- Chomolungma) or Sagarmatha (the name in Nepalese)
Burma was renamed Myanmar, but not everyone is buying it
On the 1980’s map, you might find a country named “Burma” southwest of China. Like many Asian countries, the people of Burma/Myanmar have a spoken, colloquial language that is different from the written language. When speaking, they call their country Bama. In written form it’s closer to ‘Myanma’(spelled Myăma). When the military regime renamed Burma ‘Myanmar’ in 1989 it was supposedly to recognize the history of the region before it was overtaken by the British in the 19th century. Like my efforts to change the boys’ name for that anatomical part from their colloquial ‘weenie’ back to ‘penis’, the renaming of Burma to Myăma (or the anglicized Myanmar) seems to be accepted in governmental type offices, but not in the blogosphere. The general debate is whether a military regime has a right to rename a country without the support of its people. Some Chinese and Vietnamese people have avoided the debate altogether by using an entirely different name for the country- they pronounce it “Miam”.
Brush up on your “USSR”
The biggest change on the map is of course all those countries that have been recognized since the dissolution of the USSR. On my puzzle, there is this great, big, pink chunk of land labeled "USSR". The only things I knew about it in the early eighties were the ideas spawned by Indiana Jones movies and that Rocky movie where he fights that big blond dude. I know, I know…but I had to pick Geography or History and the History teacher was cuter.
That section of the map today is a cornucopia of pretty colors and countries such as Kazakstan, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Belarus, and the quirky ‘Russian Federation’. Yugoslavia has also broken up into Serbia, Montenegro (for a brief time these countries lumped themselves together as ‘Yugoslavia’, but they officially separated in 2006), Kosovo (in 2008), Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, The Republic of Macedonia, and Slovenia.
But wait, there’s more!
In the effort to be more inclusive of our cultures, many place names in Canada and the USA are coming under scrutiny. It’s amazing how long that N-word that radio announcers aren’t allowed to say has lasted in the cartography of High School classes. Nine states have taken steps to eliminate these references to our earlier, unenlightened state and become more culturally sensitive.
The moral of the story
Awareness, as always, is the key. Take the time to look at the most recent reference you can find. Learn along with the kids-this is one area where they may in fact know more than you.
