In the world maps I have seen here,
Australia appears in the centre. In our maps, in an effort to make anything
round two-dimensional, Australia looks as if it is turning around on its axis (while
New Zealand incidentally is positioned sideways). It’s no wonder that
Australians are annoyed that no one realizes “how big Australia is”.
Now
I’m not going to get into whether the inhabitants of such a small portion of
living space should finally get the newsflash on Australia’s actual size in
relation to the rest of the world. Closer to home, these sort of debates over population density are to blame for a vote from the Teruel* electoral district counting more than a vote from the Madrilenian one in deciding the fate of Spanish
government. So I’ll limit myself to merely showing this poster, which
I’ve seen adorning the office walls of many of my colleagues here. It never
fails to amuse me.
Australia is a country of 22 million habitants with
one of lowest population densities in the world.
*Teruel, despite
having one of the smallest populations in Spain, benefits from the fact that under Spanish electoral
law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248
seats apportioned according to population. Consequently, smaller provinces like
Teruel have been overrepresented at the expense of larger provinces and Teruel
has gained the reputation of being a political trendsetter or bellwether ( to
toss in a fancy word) as it were.
