Assignment 1

Exploring Maps, "Day 1"

http://www.worldmapper.org/images/largepng/19.png
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=19

 The map above is cartogram that illustrates what countries are most traveled to. They indicate the popularity of each country, in terms of tourism. I believe this is incredibly interesting because every part of the world is unique. Every part of the world has its own "specialness", or notoriety. However, Europe, and North America and parts of industrialized Asia to some extent are most visited. Is it because of the sophisticated cityscape or the ease of access due to the modern build? Perhaps it has more to do with the colonial history and influence that has continued to affect travelers of today. I'd personally love to travel some of the countries that some may not be able to find, like Brazil and Indonesia.

 

 http://www.worldmapper.org/images/largepng/568.png
http://www.worldmapper.org/display_religion.php?selected=568

This is another cartogram that shows the prevalance of the Buddhist religion around the world. There are 368,955,415 adherents worldwide according to "worldmapper", however the countries of Buddhist most noticeable are clustered in and around South and East Asia. Africa and South America seem to have almost no populations of Buddhists and North America and Europe are not too far ahead. I am not particular surprised by the map data. But, it is interesting to think about how readily Judeo-Christian religions have been spreading around the world compared to the more seeingly stagnant spread of Buddhist. I am a Nichiren Buddhist living in Los Angeles and I somewhat like a pioneer on the frontier of this "unexposed" territory, based on this map.



  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/images/maps/mapMEethnic.jpg
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/ethnicMEmap.html

The map above shows the variety of ethnic groups living in the Middle East region, in different colors. I chose this map because there has been so much social and political change in many of these countries and because I have heard of the possibility of groups seeking sovereignty/independence from the country they were drew into. I say "drew into" because much of the political borders established in this region were made by outside, and specifically by Western, nations who did not wish to draw borders on the basis of regional stability or on historical precedent. Especially Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States coincedentally or not have been involved militarily. I believe these borders will be changing in the near future.