I've been studying Geography for nearly the whole of my life. I've started learning it ever since i was in kinder garden. Throughout this time period I've learned that earthquake comes from moving continental crust, rain comes from the condensation of water particles in the clouds and that people move around to make a living. So, what truth does Geography hold?
None. Absolutely nothing.
Why? Well that is simply because it is a simplification of what happens around the world. You may say that some things always hold true in geography, that rivers meander and that long shore drift and coastal erosion reduces land mass and the number of beaches, and ultimately threatens the economy. True it may be, but it is a mere observation.
Geography often tries to answer the 'whys' about the world and proposes solutions for them, if they are problems. Naturally as human beings, we priorities problems that impact ourselves higher, that is why demographics is a major portion of geography.
Study of demographics shows that people work, they spend which drives the economy. The economy is everything, and people are the fundamentals of it.
So,
Problem: Africa is less economically developed (in relation to countries such as USA, Germany)
Observation (with reasoning): It is poor due to lack public services to educate the people to allow them to get jobs to boost the economy. Such services are provided by the government who in turn get money from tax, from the people.
Solution: Encourage foreign direct investment to use the vast labor force available. The injection of money will bring the country out of poverty.
Current situation: Africa is still less economically developed
Even when the problem, the cause of it, and the solutions to it have been found, the problem still remains. This is because it is an attempt to monitor human activity, which is all but consistent. Corruption may have been a factor to the continual of the problem, but the problem ot the solution is due to its assumption of an ideal environment. That is why there is no definite 'what do to' when a country is poor. There are never absolutes to theories and models geography (and other subjections) has proposed, they are just suggestions of what causes them, and what could be done to improve the situation.
That is why Geography holds no truths.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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