Rumored to have been donated by a correspondant in 1972, our office's vintage (circ. 1961) desk globe continues to deny more than four decades of history while asserting French, British and Dutch domination over much of the world's geography.The coastlines and continents are recognizable to dwellers of the modern world, but the globe declines to recognize the outcome of the civil war that gave birth to Zimbawe. Ne Win's Myamar still beckons Bob and Bing as exotic (if war torn) Burma, and vast stretches of Eurasia remain under Soviet thrall.
A spokesman for the manufacturer insisted that "political instability gives heart burn to cartographers" and denied that the company would ever stage a coup just to sell more maps.
Following continued badgering (and admittedly some verbal abuse) the spokesman rather heatedly continued, "Look, you bought a globe not a subscription. If you want a new globe buy a new globe. We don't send around a technician to paint over your [UNPRINTABLE] globe everytime some [UNPRINTABLE] government falls."
Asked if he meant to suggest that the former East and West Germanies were [UNPRINTABLE] governments, the spokesman abruptly terminated the interview.
