How big is Africa?

How big do you think Africa really is? As big as China? As big as China and America put together? Click on the image to the left to discover the truth.

Shocking isn't it? I'll admit, I knew that Africa was big but I didn't know it was that massive!! Bigger than Europe, the USA and China put together, it's a truly incredible continent. Such a lack of knowledge about the world is called immapancy, which means specifically insufficient geographical knowledge. Now I've made the joke before that a degree in Geography is advanced colouring in, but in all seriousness it's a very important subject. The sheer size of Africa helps explain many of it's problems; think of all the different cultures in Europe alone and then consider how many Africa must contain.

Alongside it's size is an almost pre-medieval tribal system, with hundreds of such ethnic groups each having it's own language and culture. These groups are spread across many different countries, mostly due to European colonisation which enforced it's own borders without any regard for tribal ones. Many of the problems in Africa today come from tribal conflict mostly as a result of opposing tribes being forced to live within the same borders.

It can be easy to ignore Africa, I'm not trying to preach at you, but here are some facts worth bearing in mind:

• AIDS is widespread in sub-saharan Africa with 11% of the population infected and 2 million deaths caused by it in 2005.
• 34 out of 53 African countries are counted among the least developed in the world.
• The vast number of languages, Nigeria alone has 250 different languages.
• There are currently 9 million people displaced by war as refugees.

If the current levels of conflict apparent in Africa occurred in Europe, people would be calling it WWIII and rushing to give aid and support. For a more detailed report on this I would recommend reading this:http://www.globalissues.org/article/84/conflicts-in-africa-introduction

It's difficult to imagine living in this kind of world. So whenever you hear an idiot like Cameron going on about "Broken Britain" just think of how much that is bullshit. We have got it so good and let's not forget it.