A new survey by Zoghby International of 15,000 US citizens and 1,000 respondents from Bethlehem, Americans have once again proven the quality of geography education in the States.
Most Americans placed Bethlehem in Israel, when it is actually under occupation in the West Bank, and cut off from Jerusalem by the Wall.
Bethlehem, a town that has probably the oldest Christian presence in the world, is at risk of losing its Christian heritage as members of the community increasingly leave due to hardships posed by occupation and the construction of the Apartheid Wall.
The two surveys show that American perceptions of the town are wildly at odds with the perceptions of those who live there.
While the Christians of Bethlehem overwhelmingly (78%) blame the exodus of Christians from the town on Israel’s blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9%) to blame it on Islamic politics and are reluctant (7.4%) to blame Israel.
And while four out of ten Americans believe that the wall exists for Israel’s security, more than nine out of ten Bethlehemites believe it is part of a plan by Israel to confiscate Palestinian land.
The Zogby survey shows strong support for the town in the US, where 65.5% of the population want the UN to list it as a world heritage site. Americans are also strongly in favour (80.6%) of Bethlehem retaining a strong Christian presence.
Americans are also ambivalent about the Israeli wall, with 31.5% in favour of it, with another 31.6% opposed.
But more than two-thirds of Americans believe Bethlehem is unsafe to visit, while 80% of Bethlehemites consider their town safe for visitors.
While the US survey showed that Americans are sceptical about Muslims and Christians living contentedly alongside each other – only 17% thought they lived together in peaceful coexistence – the Palestinian survey showed they do: around 90% of Christians said they had Muslim friends, and vice-versa.
The Israeli government could well be shaken by the discovery that Americans’ tolerance of the wall would be strained by the discovery that it separates communities and families, cuts Bethlehem off from Jerusalem, and requires the seizure of privately-owned land.
US Christians, meanwhile, are likely to be shocked by the discovery that seven out of ten Christians in Bethlehem believe Israel treats the town’s Christian heritage with brutality or indifference.
The Bethlehem poll, which was carried out by the Palestinian Centre for research and Cultural Dialogue, shows on the other hand that more than two-thirds (73.3%) of Bethlehem’s Christians believe that the Palestinian Authority treats Christian heritage with respect. That result will surprise some who believe that the election of Hamas has strained Christian-Muslim relations in the town.
Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem’s Chief Executive, says:
“Our US poll shows overwhelming support for Bethlehem’s Christian heritage, yet our survey of Bethlehem’s own citizens shows the city cannot retain this heritage and its Christian community while the wall remains.
“The choice is stark. Either the wall stays and Bethlehem ceases to be a Christian town. Or Bethlehem retains its Christian population – in which case the wall has to come down. The international community needs to wake up to what is happening and choose.”
Come to think of it, hey May... there could be a whole other aspect of the marriage prospect issue in this. Actually there is, not just could be. When I meet Christian young people in the West Bank, it's not unusual for them to be like ooo do you have a brother? Or, do you want to meet my brother? I've been told that for Christian Palestinian women in the West Bank, they by far end up marrying someone with an education level that is far less than theirs, because the educated guys all left. The leftovers had to drop out of school and work. The point is that finding a mate is kind of an obsessive topic for Christian young people as their choices become increasingly constricted with the outmigration.
Obviously, Jamie Foxx is a really good actor. Let's just get that out of the way right now.
And let's also get out of the way that I don't make it a habit to poke fun at a man whose A) performances of Wanda skyrocketed my big bootied self-esteem in Jr High like nothing else and B) biceps are almost as impressive as Khaled B's legendary "mini mountains."
Not that I'm afraid that Jamie will ever hit me; I just don't wanna take the chance. I've been told on more than one occasion that I have really good bone structure.
Still, I'm about to call out Jamie Foxx on sounding stupid about geography. Please, don't interpret this as mean spirited on my part. Interpret this as the last time KABOBfest posted about someone sounding stupid about geography, we received over a bazillion hits in one day and became the #2 site Google directed the "miss teen usa geography" search string to until she went on the Today Show the following Monday and explained her meltdown which we didn't cover because it was super staged and super boring, and so now we've dropped down to #4.
But for the record: as popular as that video was for KABOBreaders, it still wasn't as popular as the footage Fadi posted of Israeli soldiers beating Palestinian children. And this... this is a statistic that comforts me.
Still, I wish we had YouTube footage on Jamie Foxx's recent visit to the Middle East when he decided he fell in love with the environmental disaster/hip-hop video that is Dubai, raved about all its money and expensive cars, and described the palace he stayed in as measuring "850,000 square kilometers."
See, at this moment, video would be helpful in gauging whether Jamie Foxx was just being funny (he used to be really funny) or was, in fact, embodying Miss South Carolina. Was he being sarcastic, like when I say that we received "a bazillion hits in one day" when in reality we only received a trillion hits in one day, or does he really not know how big 850,000 sq km is? To be fair, let's not forget that A) they don't teach us about the metric system here in the U.S. because our hatred for the French runs that deep and B) Jamie Foxx is a U.S. American.
[NOTE: The now infamous "U.S. American" phrase was actually very accurate seeing that the U.S. is not the only country in the Americas and in that I will defend Miss Teen South Carolina's honor even though she really had no fucking clue but we gotta give even a broken clock credit for being right twice a day, no?]
Jamie Foxx has fallen in love with the Middle East after getting the royal treatment on the set of his new movie The Kingdom. The actor/singer didn't know what to expect when he signed on to shoot the film in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - and he had no idea he'd be treated like a king.
He coos, "It was beautiful. There is so much money over there. The palace I stayed in was 850,000 square kilometres. You could play an arena league football game in my room. It was great.
"My room was like a mile away from my sister's room. They picked us up in Phantoms (Rolls Royce) and BMWs and armored Mercedes and all kinds of stuff. It was incredible."
And Foxx loved the food on set too: "There were a lot of dates to eat. I love dates."
Below is the transcript, but trust me -- you're going to want to watch it. Her makeup is flawless and helps distract from the pain.
JUDGE: Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?
MISS SOUTH CAROLINA: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq -- everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should... our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. -- or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future...
[AC SLATER removes microphone]
MISS SOUTH CAROLINA: ... for our children.
AC SLATER: Thank you very much, South Carolina.
[applause]
Is it wrong that instead of feeling sorry for the world right now, all I can do is wonder how many of these ladies AC Slater didn't sleep with?
"Propaganda, for your reading pleasure," his e-mail warned. I opened it up and began being schooled on the geography of the Middle East:
Totally made me go, "Actually, no... I mean, I can only kinda see Israel. But wow --- it's soooooooo small!!!! Is that what people are fighting for over there? That small piece of land??????? Are you kidding me? OMG, leave them alone!!! And look, how unfair -- that small drop of blue in that seeeeeeeeeeea of red blood. We musssst continue to give Israel our support. The underdog needs our support, America! Heed the call!!!"
Okay, I'm lying.
Lying not unlike that map.
Mark Monmonier, geographer and author of How to Lie with Maps, would probably agree with the "propaganda" warning. In fact, Monmonier includes a similar map from 1973 in his chapter entitled, "Maps for Political Propaganda." He writes,
"Sometimes propaganda maps try to make a country or region look big and important, and sometimes they try to make it look small and threatened... In the latter case, the map might dramatize the threat a large state or group of states poses for a smaller country. [The above map], for instance, portrays a cartographic David-and-Goliath contest between tiny Israel and the massive territory of the nearby oil-rich Arab nations. Even though the map's geographic facts are accurate, a map comparing land area tells us nothing about Israel's advanced technology, keen military preparedness, and alliances with the United States and other Western powers (p 94)."
Monmonier's book has been used by university geography departments for years to develop critical map-reading skills. Geographers know to approach maps with a "healthy skepticism." All maps lie. Every single one. As Monmonier states on the very first page,
To portray meaningful relationships for a complex, three-dimensional world on a flat sheet of paper or a video screen, a map must distort reality... to present a useful and truthful picture, an accurate map must tell white lies.
Monmonier continues,
Because most map users willingly tolerate white lies on maps, it's not difficult for maps also to tell more serious lies. Map users generally are a trusting lot... As with many things beyond their full understanding, they readily entrust map-making to a priesthood of technically competent designers and drafters working for government agencies and commercial firms... Map users seldom, if ever, question these authorities, and they often fail to appreciate the map's power as a tool of deliberate falsification or subtle propaganda.
To show that Israel is, as has too often been described to me as, "a drop in a sea of Arabs who want all Jews killed," is to not only show a lie, but an irresponsible lie costing thousands of lives and millions of livelihoods.
Please beware, reader, of anyone trying to tell you that maps don't lie. Unfortunately, these folks still exist. Googling the phrase "How to Lie with Maps," you'll find that the 5th result is a site insisting that everything you've just read is false: Maps Don't Lie!
Beware, reader.
The site, Masada2000.org, calls itself "Israel 101: A Survival Kit for Dummies" and enjoys using quotations around the word Palestinian as much as I like to use quotes around any reference to their use of "cartography" and "geography."
In said "geography" section, the site ends the lesson of Israel and the Middle East by including a map of Israel imposed on top of the U.S., in the midwest.
Their map shows another method of playing the size card. The "cartographer" has chosen to graphically compare Israel with the United States to say that Israel is, "Tiny, tiny, tiny."
So why on top of the U.S. and not on top of Canada or China (other countries similar in landmass)? It seems that the map hopes to serve as a call for sympathy specifically targeted to U.S. audiences, where political and economic support is the most crucial. That Israel has been placed on top of the midwest (which many Americans consider open, vast, sometimes "less significant" territory) is trying to "hit home" for the map-reader, hopefully getting him or her to deduce that the nation-state of Israel was created on equally barren, undisputed territory (a "backwater", as Pre-1948 Palestine is often described by Zionists, if you will.)
Makes one wonder how their readers would react if instead, Israel was imposed on top of Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, or Washington, D.C. It might make the map "hit home" but this time, perhaps for the other side.
