Geography Lessons

Recently, one of the major news stories was that Vice-Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin was unaware that Africa is a continent, not a country. This flagrant ignorance of basic high-school geography called into serious question her qualifications to serve is VP and, potentially, as President of the United States and Leader of the Free World. It is, indeed, a scary thought that someone with that level of ignorance could come so close to ruling the "free world," as it were, particularly on the heels of the disastrous Bush administration of the previous eight years—an epitome of the calamitous consequences of ignorance in power and leadership. One can only hope that the new Obama administration possesses some basic knowledge and understanding of geography as it pursues its foreign policies and, given the extent and globally savvy nature of President-elect Barack Obama's education, things do appear to bode well—from a geographic standpoint at least.

It has almost become a cliché to disparage the geographic knowledge of most Americans, but the fact is that we live in a world of increasing specialization and unless one happens to be an academic, a statesman or a world explorer, most people tend to forget one's high school geography lessons by the time one reaches adulthood. After all, if it isn't relevant to your day-to-day life, why would you care about it?

Furthermore, one's knowledge of geography tends to be stronger the closer it is to home. For instance, most Americans are clearly aware that the Rockies are the major mountain range in North America while the Andes are the the major South American mountain range, but how many Americans know (or care) what the capital of Tibet is? And, likewise, how many Tibetans know (or care) anything about the Rockies or the Andes?

So, in an effort to expand our collective geographical knowledge—at least in an attempt to ensure that the next presidential candidates have some basic knowledge of the rest of the world, Horizon Cybermedia continues to present our flagship film series, Exploration with Uday Gunjikar. Check it out at http://www.explorationtheseries.com and do stick around for many more amazing voyages of exploration to come.

Wishing you the very best,

Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.