M&D Deep Duck 4-6: Equator

[kelber at mindspring.com]

A boundary ordained by the stars, by Mother Earth (slightly tubby in the waistline, despite - because of! - all that spinning). It's a border, but no war has ever been fought over it (though, certainly, many have been fought across it).

But implicit in it are some of the things Joseph and others have been discussing: colonialism and slavery, in particular -- the general European colonialist attitude towards the darker people who lived "down" there as somewhat lesser, for living at the "bottom" rather than the "top." Is there a homoerotic metaphor here? The mapmakers make the decisions, but when did it become ingrained in the popular consciousness that South = Down? John Bailey, chime in, please: Isn't it specifically white Australians who decided to get defensively cute in bragging about living Down Under - to lure tourists across the equator?

It's odd, in a way, that the European colonialists who imposed borders on the indigenous peoples of Africa and South America never thought to use the Equator as an official national border. A nice straight line, but no Masons or Dixons up to the task of hacking through such remote wilderness to draw it. Still, you'd think they could at least pick a spot and call it the Equator. Who was going to argue with them if it was a couple of kilometers off?

By the way, here's a list of the countries the Equator passes through: Ecuador [Equator - someone at least took note!], Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia and Kiribati. Note that Equatorial Guinea is not among them.

Ecuador actually has a tourist spot with an official line drawn to show where the Equator is. Only problem is, it's off by a few hundred feet. No one cares, but M&D would be appalled.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/much-ado-about-nothing-at-the-equator-8514125/?no-ist

Laura

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