Could Paramus be the Center of the World? A New Map will Show

What’s a Map?

Is this a crazy question, or what?

Everybody knows what a map is. It’s a piece of paper that shows the world – or part of it. It offers useful information such as the distance between places, where the lakes are and the squiggly borders between nations. Pretty straightforward stuff, right?
Wrong! Or at least inadequate. Maps are much more than that. To illustrate: before closing a college course on mapping, I invited participants to say what they thought a map is and does. The range of their answers may surprise you:

• Background to use when I listen to the news
• A reliable source of information
• A prelude to prayer
• A pipeline to people I’ve never met
• Humbling; it puts us in our place
• Helps students “connect” with their studies in literature, languages, math and science, history (this from a high school teacher)
• A helpful corrective to some of our prejudices
• A means of separating “them” from “us”
• A device for telling me more than I could ever guess at
• It answers questions like How far? How big? Where?
• A way of telling people everywhere “We’re all in this together”
• A map can make me cry because it tells me a lot about what’s going on
• It reminds me of the variety and richness of the world
• Every time I see a world map it’s like falling in love
• What a wonderful world!

Clearly, as these students were amassing facts and sharpening skills they were, at a deeper level, gaining a broader appreciation of the world. And that, let’s be clear, is the point: not just to master the technical stuff but to let maps reveal the world to us in ever increasing wonder.

Maps Send Messages

German historian Arno Peters developed a world map in 1974 that started quite a storm. It looks like this:

I was privileged to publish the map for the English-speaking world while doing the daily commute from Diane Place to Manhattan. Since retiring I continue to interpret it through radio and TV interviews, lecturing in colleges and universities, conducting continuing ed courses for teachers, and as a guest in international events. Some people love it, some despise it … but it’s becoming harder every day to ignore it. Out of the thousands of world maps in existence, this one now stands near the top of the heap in sheer number of copies sold and impact on people’s views of the world.

How so? Largely because the Peters is an equal-area map. As a result, every country, every section is shown at exactly the right size.

And why, we may ask, is that so special? Of course a map should show sizes accurately!

Ah, there’s the rub! Where size is concerned, traditional world maps get it all wrong. And always with predictable bias. That is, they show “the North” bigger than it really is, and equatorial regions – that is, “the South” or developing nations -- smaller than they are. Thus the Mercator, still the most common map inside people’s minds, gives Scandinavia more space than India (it’s less than 1/3 the size of India) and makes Alaska look bigger than Mexico (just the opposite of grounded reality).

In the images below from a traditional map, every one of the size comparisons presents a false picture. Africa, for example, is much larger than North America; but how would anyone know that?

That’s why I assert: Maps send messages. Whenever the Mercator or similar map is used in an ad or in classrooms or TV shows or even -- until recently -- as a backdrop to presentations by the U.S. Secretary of State, the subliminal message is

• North, the “developed” world, the traditionally “white” world, predominates
• We’re big, we’re powerful
• Some people count for more than others
• It’s all about us.

Conversely, an equal-area map – the Peters being a prime example – conveys respect for all people, fairness to all. Nobody gets put down; no regions gain undeserved expansion.

Of course there’s more than we can cover here (why else would I keep writing books and giving lectures?) But this, I hope, gives you the idea. Maps both reflect our human self-understanding and help shape it.

Paramus, Heart of the World

Some of us remember a time when Paramus was dubbed the “Shopping Center Capital of the World.” That, to be sure, was exaggeration … but a greater claim is provable: this community stands at the geographic center of the world. And here’s the map to prove it:

Actually, this map was custom-created for us by a colleague, Prof. Leonard Guelke of the University of Waterloo. In technical terms it’s an azimuthal equidistant map centered on 400 94’ North Lat./ 740 08’ West Long. Is it useful? Is it accurate? Absolutely! You can use it to measure distance from your home or business in Paramus to anywhere else on earth. It distorts shapes and sizes, however. Don`t try to navigate a plane or ship by it. Don`t estimate distance from, say Miami to Paris on this one. Still, for its announced purpose: to show real-world distance from the center-point of our planet – Bergen County – it`s totally reliable. Judged by its purpose, this is a perfect map.

Which brings us back to our opening question: What`s a map? Let’s add one more answer to the list my students gave: A map is a device for achieving a particular purpose. It comes with an agenda, it carries a message. Only as we exercise informed judgment can we know what those messages are … only then can we keep from being deceived by false messages – whether given by maps or blogs or demagogues. But with that background maps can enrich our lives and our global competence.

For Your Follow-Through

To learn more, check out Seeing through Maps in Bergen County libraries or at odtstore@odt.org. (In the interests of full disclosure, I co-authored the book.) A new edition is being published this month; you can download the first chapter at www.diversophy.com/maps.htm. Being too modest to tell you how good it is (you believe that, don’t you?) I’ll turn to others:

• Corey and Ilene Fauer, well-known librarians in Hackensack and Paramus until 2005, gave the book their “highly recommended” rating, especially for young adults.
• Prof. Tom Koch, Univ. of British Columbia, calls it “absolutely the best introduction available on map projections, their history and importance.”
• Edward Peck, former US Ambassador to Iraq, now a TV commentator and consultant to the Department of Defense, says, “ … for those teaching social studies, critical thinking, global studies, ESL, and certainly for my students in the US diplomatic corps, these are powerful, startling and important revelations. This book is an impressive achievement … and a great read.”

One thing is sure: it’s a complex, often confusing world we live in. Reason enough not to settle for misleading, even dangerous views of the world and our place in it. On the other hand, it can be unsettling to get rid of the old and try something new. But from those who face the risk I hear comments pointing to a widening worldview, a new awareness of the many forces that shape us, a stepped-up competence in dealing with difference.

This is no promise that your experience will be the same … but it could be. And if you give it a try, I’ll be glad to hear from you.

Ward Kaiser
newmapper@aol.com