map

Here's my version of the aforementioned map. The trail of comments/debate on the site about which countries got noted, ignored, swallowed, etc. is pretty amazing. His stance is that the borders of the mapmaking tool will be governed by UN recognition of nations.

In many ways, the idea of generating this kind of map feels more than a little imperialistic but I'm influenced by my recent read about colonial Hong Kong. Nevertheless, to ease my own conscience, I will note the superficial nature of this map of mine, reflecting neither length nor depth of experience in a given place (and often single city within a country). The more I write, the more absurd this seems but ah, everything's a journey.

There is no way really to transfer stories and memories layered upon each other into one single simple fixed three-colour two-dimensional political map, so let's treat this as a conversation-starter and not a badge... more like a favourite photo pinned to a cubicle wall than a display of stamps in a passport. My memories of travel are much more deeply imprinted on images of specific places and people, rather than the outlines of borders, but here goes nothing. For the record, if the map showed places I want to visit or live (and visit or live again), almost everything would be one colour.