As we know, the UN General Assembly has taken an important step to changing the world map under a project called “Correct the Map”.
The purpose of this project is to correct the distortions in commonly used world maps — especially the Mercator projection, which is seen as misrepresenting the sizes of continents such as Africa and some equatorial regions. The resolution is titled “Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa”.
Let’s give a quick example: in the maps that we use (which also use the Mercator projection), the countries that are closer to the equator — most notably Africa — look smaller than their real size, making it roughly the same size as Greenland. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland. The goal of this resolution is to truly represent regions such as Africa and the Global South and end a representation that visually diminishes those regions.
The vote
Let’s look into the voting: there were 164 in favor, which is the vast majority of the UN member states. They are really determined to make that change, as shown by the voting. But there is the USA, which is the only country to vote against it. Finally, there are 6 countries that have chosen to abstain. Those countries are: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Why would the USA vote against such a thing as this, you might ask? I do too, but when I really looked into this, I saw the reason. They do not see a big necessity in this project as they do in lots of other topics. They called this “superfluous”. And usually, the U.S. generally votes against non-binding UN declarations that might guide global standards of education, media, or publishing choices.
So generally, while 164 countries viewed the resolution as a symbolic attempt to correct historical bias, the States seemed to somehow ignore it. I suppose they care more about changing their own maps in their favour in the East rather than correcting it first. Yet the General Assembly has approved the resolution in order to suggest to countries worldwide that they correct the maps, even though this resolution is not binding.
Ahmet Tuğra Hisar