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Why is South America at the Bottom? Listening

Fluency #81

Mike Spencer has been on the road for 23 years and has visited over 190 countries.
Having traveled non-stop since he was 21, he is now being called The Worlds
Most Traveled Man. While a few people may have visited an equal number of
places, he says that most of them are just tourists. He considers himself a true
traveler for having traveled extensively in all the countries hes visited, not just
staying for a few days like most people would.
During his travels, Spencer has visited natural wonders such as Mt. Everest and
visited some of the worlds mostremote places including the Galapagos Islands
and Antarctica. Hes faced danger on the road, too. He braved multiple war zones
and hitchhiked through Iraq during the US invasion. He even visited Somalia as
the first tourist in 20 years. He prides himself on not being just a tourist though. He
has always made an effort to really get to know the people of each country. For
example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo he lived with Pygmiesin a jungle
hut made of leaves, hunting for food with a spear.
Spencer is vague about the total number of countries he has visited because there
is a lot of disagreement about which places are actually countries. How many
countries are there? is a difficult question to answer. According to the U.N., there
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are 193 countries, but this doesnt really give us a complete answer. For example,
both Kosovo and Vatican City are independent countries, but they are not
represented at the U.N. Then there are places like Taiwan that have an independent
government and military, but many countries do not recognize it as actually being
separate from China.
Now, if you look at a map of the world to count countries, what you actually see is
the political view of the mapmaker. There is a famous quote that goes, The map is
not the territory, which means we should never confuse symbols of reality, with
reality itself. We have to remember that when using a map, we are of course just
looking at someone elses depiction of reality. For example, have you ever
wondered why North America and Europe are always shown at the top of maps,
while South America and Australia are always at the bottom? Is there a reason to
associate north with up and south with down? If not, then why is the world always
depicted in maps this way? Take a look at the upside down map on this page to get
an alternative view of the world. How does it make you feel?
Vocabulary
extensive: covering a large area
remote: distant, far from other people
hitchhike: travel by getting free rides from passing cars
vague: uncertain or unclear
territory: : an area of land
symbol: a thing that represents something else
depiction: a representation of something in the form of a picture or image