Are You Geo-Ignorant?

Who could forget last August when Miss Teen South Carolina fumbled through her response to the purported statistics showing 20% of Americans can't locate the U.S.A., their own country mind you, on the world map. I was so utterly embarrassed for the girl. I recently looked up the National Geographic/Roper poll and found even more unflattering were the results showing what young Americans (18-24) knew very little about the geography of the world. According to the National Geographic/Roper poll since the war in Iraq began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel. Nine in ten couldn't find Afghanistan on a map of Asia. And 54 percent were unaware that Sudan is a country in Africa. Remember the December 2004 tsunami and the widespread images of devastation in Indonesia? Three-quarters of respondents failed to find that country on a map. And three-quarters were unaware that a majority of Indonesia's population is Muslim, making it the largest Muslim country in the world. Wow!

Fast forward one year to the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. (By the way I thought they were amazing.) As the 204 different participating countries made their way into the Olympic stadium I thought it would be fun to see how many countries I could locate on a map. At the end of the two hour procession my results were a little disappointing. Although I could for the most part figure out what continent they belonged on there were many I could not locate on a map. There were a few counties that sadly I don't think I've ever heard of like Gabon and Cape Verde. The gloomy part is I am well above average when it comes to most Americans geographic knowledge. So I shouldn't be to hard on myself. After all I can locate some of the key countries that affect me as a resident of the United States. Can you locate China, Sudan, Venezuela, Russian and Iceland on a map? And even more important, do you know what they have to do with you? Look them up next time you are perusing Google Earth (at earth.google.com).