The REAL World Map - You are being lied to

Well....not quite. The Peters projection has been part of standard geographical teaching in secondary school in theUK for quite some time now and Oxfam have been selling them for years... in my school there is also an 'upside-down' copy of the world map I purchased in Australia a few years ago outside our library with the heading 'How do you see the world?'. We do become very familiar with the particular projection of the earth with which we are routinely presented, but projecting a spherical earth onto a flat surface...the page of an atlas or a map..can be done in a number of ways, each with its particular advantages and disadvantages. What they say about area comparisons and the Mercator Projection in this clip is true....and how does that slant our world view, particularly in terms of perceptions of the 'Third World'? UK students are used to seeing the Mercator projection with Greenwich, London centrally-placed along the Meridian......there are many examples of countries that start with themselves as the centre point of a world map and it certainly challenges students' ability to identify countries when outside the comfort zone of the familiar. I wouldn't describe it as conspiracy or a lie however....far too dramatic....but an interesting point to debate.