Geography quiz!

[dreamer_easy]

I received this JPG in email:



Eighteen nations are named on the map. How many are "Arab lands"?

Only nine of the eighteen countries named are Arab nations: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. None of the others identify themselves as Arab nations, belong to the Arab League, or have a majority Arab population.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

Yay me, I got it right! (helps to have worked with a few Persians...)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I got it wrong, though - Sudan is a member of the Arab League. *goes to fix it*

[barrington.livejournal.com]

I think you made a slight mistake; Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen makes nine countries, not eight. Did you include an extra one, or are there really nine?

Incidentally, this reminds of something I learned recently: Turkey was the only country in an international survey where a higher percentage of the population rejected evolution than in the United States. This fact helped explain why the only person to ever tell me Darwin was evil was Turkish.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

What a turkey.

I left out Sudan, but left in Tunisia even though it's not on the map, so in fact, the total should be nine. Geography I can manage, with the help of Wikipedia and the CIA Factbook. Maths, not so much. :)

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

The good ol' muslim=arab conflation. Meh.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Looks that way. Although what Armenia (98% Christian) is doing on the map remains a mystery.

[hnpcc]

*eye roll* I didn't even notice Armenia (font's too small) but that looks like "all those ex-Soviet republics are Muslim!"

Sudan would have to be a bit 50:50 though to be a member of the Arab nations though surely - according to this site it's only 39% Arab, although it is 70% Muslim.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Yah - that does point to it being a map of Islam, not Arab, er, Arabianness? Arabosity?

[almostwitty]

Looks like someone just assumed any country with a ...stan was Arab... which I'm sure comes as a surprise to the people there.

You'd have thought someone with a genuine interest in "ending unjust Jewish occupation" would generally *know* that Pakistan is not an Arab country...

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I think they're trying to say that Israel is surrounded by Arab countries, so that makes it all right for Israel to occupy Arab land, 'cos there's so much to go around. It's just more unhelpful sloganeering.

[hiraethin.livejournal.com]

Striking contrast, though, ain't it?

A better caption, in my view, would be "Count the nations with democratically elected governments." Not quite as striking a contrast as it would have been in 2002, but reason perhaps for optimism.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Striking contrast, though, ain't it?

Hmmm. How do we meaningfully compare countries? By area, population, arable land, GDP? The US isn't on that map, yet it occupies one country and is a close ally of another: how does this affect the map's meaning?

[drox.livejournal.com]

"Count the nations with democratically elected governments."

ISTR that Hamas was democratically elected in Gaza. Which rather upset the U.S. administration, which had long been trumpeting the benefits of democractic elections (never mind their own electoral...irregularities).

Compounding the Muslim == Arab fallacy, there's the "democratic election == good, humanitarian leadership and/or U.S. ally" fallacy.

[laputain.livejournal.com]

The most repulsive attitude of the Zionist regime is that Arab=Arab=Arab, and if they occupy Gaza that's okay because the native people can go live in Egypt or Jordan or wherever. (Until the Likudniks decide that Eretz Israel needs to be even larger, but never mind that.)

It's like if China occupied Sydney, and sarcastically said to 4 million refugees "OH BOO HOO HOO! THERE'S STILL PLENTY OF AUSTRALIA, YA CRYBABIES!" Never mind that the various forms of Arabic are near-to mutually unintelligble.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Without necessarily disagreeing - 'cos the map backs up what you're saying, at least for some folks' attitudes, as does marlowe1's "kick them out" posting - I have a terribly hard time taking anything seriously that uses phrases like "the Zionist regime". :)

[laputain.livejournal.com]

*shrug* Israel is a Zionist regime, just as Cuba is a Communist regime. I know anti-semites use "Zionist" as codeword for "Jew", but that's the correct name of the political movement which founded Israel and to which all Israeli political parties subscribe.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It's technically correct, of course - it just gives me the giggles. :)

[hexacontium.livejournal.com]

Just an utterly and completely random note: I'll move to Qatar later this year :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I used to collect stamps from th YOUR ICON OMGWTF

[hexacontium.livejournal.com]

Can't remember having made THAT my default icon O_o. I probably also was in a rather random mode when I made it ;) he has a nice backside, doesn't he?