Sunday, November 16, 2008

Those in Glass Houses...

It has become common practice for people to ridicule Americans for their sub par knowledge of geography and countries not named Mexico and Canada. I won’t deny that I have participated in such ridicule, and have always been so thankful to know that nobody in Alaska can see Russia from their house. There’s also an abundance of videos on youtube making fun of Americans’ lack of familiarity with other countries. However, I had an alarming epiphany today as I was reading an article about Bor and thought:"exactly where is Jonglei State on a map of Sudan?" The epiphany, my friends, is that a lot of Sudanese people, especially those living abroad, do not know the geography of their own country well enough.

Don’t give me the “I can locate Jonglei State on a map of Sudan.” You can’t. You also can’t name all 25 states of Sudan. I hope you knew there were 25 states. At least Americans know they have 50 states.

Until you do your Sudanese geography homework, your rights of making fun of Americans' geography skills are revoked. We can still make fun of Sarah Palin and John McCain though (everybody knows Alaskans aren’t Americans, and McCain wasn’t born in any of the 50 states.)

If you actually can name and locate all 25 states, kudos to you. Otherwise, go ahead and familiarize yourself with the lovely Sudan. Click here to get started.

7 comments:

Amjad said...

Hey.. I thought Sudan had 26 states? :P

Amjad said...

And yeah,,, as the great Abraham Lincoln said:

"Never under-estimate the intelligence of the American people. BUT, never over-estimate their knowledge."

Optimist said...

You know I read 26 somewhere, but according to my best friend Google, it's 25. What's the 26th state?

Love the Abe quote. Considering Obama's win, I am no longer under estimating the intelligence of Americans though ;)

Amjad said...

Well, I'm not sure which one is the 26th state but I have always known that Sudan has 26 states.

Also, if you check the link you provided, even though it says they are 25 states, the largest ISO is the one of Red Sea which holds the number 26, so they are definitely 26 states... I'm not sure which number they missed since I'm not bothered to count and check, lol.

Optimist said...

This is hilarious... I just called the Embassy of Sudan in the US.

This is the exact conversation:

Lady: Embassy of Sudan

Me: Hi, I have a quick question, how many states are in Sudan?

Lady: States? There are no states in Sudan. It's a country.

Me (disbelief): Yes, but it is divided into States, like the US.

Lady: Oh. Hold on let me ask a Sudanese person.

(pause)

Sudanese Man: Hi

Me: Hi, yea, how many States are in Sudan?

Sudanese Man: fourteen I think?

Me: Ummm, no I think it's either 25 or 26.

Sudanese Man: Uhhh, I think it is much less than that.

Me: I googled it and it says its 25 but some people say it's 26

Sudanese Man: Okay hold on let me check

(pause)

Sudanese Man: It seems you are right, they are 25. They were 26 but one was dropped.

Me: Do you know which one was dropped?

Sudanese Man: No (laughs)

Me: Okay thank you!
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Anonymous said...

loool, thats hilarious.how can you work at the embassy of your own country and not know how many states does it consist of ,that is soooo unprofessional.

Amjad said...

This is sooooooooo hilarious yet extremely pathetic!!!!!