Entertaining, thank you, M Shahid Alam. We in Asia should ban all reference to the Far East etc, and instead call Europe the Middle West, and America the Far West.

I am surprised ! I learned all that in junior hight school 45 years ago. It was part of general knowledge. It was in old Europe.
(Switzerland and Germany).

aquicke wrote:
Entertaining, thank you, M Shahid Alam. We in Asia should ban all reference to the Far East etc, and instead call Europe the Middle West, and America the Far West.



Depends on where you view the World from.

I live in Australia. over half a century ago our Prime Minister of the day re-educated us to refer to what Brits still quaintly refer to as The Far East as "the Near North" - for viewed from here is is preposterous that lands like China, Japan etc should be considered to the "east".
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When a Brit talks about Asians and when an Aussie speaks of Asians a certain confusion can result, for the two are usually not talking about the same crowd.

Mention "Asians" to a Brit and he usually straight away thinks of the Indian subcontinent. Apart from old colonial ties Britain now has millions of citizens of Indian/ PAkistani/Bangladeshi anticedents. So This is the "Asia" that has captured Britains imagination. By comparison, the Indian subcontinent has been off Australia's radar screen until recently. POssibly because this region has been the most energetic as our trading partner, an Australian normally mentally pictures those lands that front up towards the PACIfic Ocean - places like CHIna, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, populated by peoples who could broadly be described as mongol.

I was once in conversation with two friends, a married couple. Both are highly educated; one was an Australian of Polish parentage. In the flow of conversation I mentioned India - to which my Polish-Australian friend challenged "but Indians are not Asians?" This lady is no dumb Polack - she was just reflecting an impression she had picked up from the wider society around her.

There are plenty of my compatriots who are only half convinced (at best) that Indians are really Asians. It would be close to impossible to convince an AUssie that Iranians, Syrians or Turks are Asian - yet according to our (misleading) European derived maps of the World, IRan, Syria and most of Turkey are all located on the continent of ASia.

(come to think of it, just how many Europeans, North Americans or even Israelis would seriously consider Israel to be "Asian"?)
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Go back about 2,400 years in time and some Greek Geographer must have stood on the western shore of the Bhosperous and declared "over this side is Europe, home of my beloved Hellenic civilisation (and therefore home to all that is good and wholesome)". Casting his eye across the strait towards Asia minor he then said "Over there is Asia; seat of the dreaded Persian Empire (and that's In'jun country" - or words to that effect).

Ever since we have lived with the dubious impression that Europe is a seperate continent to Asia rather than a sub-continent of Asia.

I question whether Asia deserves to be considered a continent in its own right as much as an agglomeration of subcontinents.

"I question whether Asia deserves to be considered a continent in its own right as much as an agglomeration of subcontinents."

So do the vast majority of paleogeologists and population biologists, who use the term "Eurasia," Humans, as is their nature, like to impose artificial boundaries to suit their needs, whether its political - e.g. the "Great Game," "54 - 40 or fight," St Martin/Maartin, etc. - or racial - "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" (Kipling).

NOW that I have had a chance to read Shahid's article, I Can only comment "what else is new?" For the author is hardly breaking new ground in alluding that Asians led us down from the treetops. I would follow on with the suggestion that in recent memory western civilisation has repaid the debt in full.

India has a railnetwork because the British built it for them whilst the cities of ASIA are lit up at night because an American named Thomas Edison invented the electric light globe. AND so on!

Beware of the simplifier! I doubt the British build the railway
in India as a gift to the Indian people. I would think it was in
their self interest to do so. As for the light bulb which Edison
invented, it is not illuminating the Asian cities. It is the
Fluorescent lamp. It took over 50 years to develop and English,
American, German and French scientists were involved. Just to mention a few names: Geissler, Crookes, McFarlan Moore,Claude and
Germer.

Being pedantic about petty details does not alter the fact that ASIANS are now benefiting from a host of western innovations just as we have in the past benefited from theirs.