Continents vs. Countries

I have a hard time grasping why most people treat the world like Antarctica. Antarctica is the only piece of land that is a continent and could possibly be a country if only it had citizens. Some people argue that Australia is a country and continent, but most argue that Australia and its surrounding islands are known as Oceania. Anyway, there are just some things that I hear typically and I’m like, “Umm, I think you’re forgetting something.” When people say Asia they mostly think of Asians, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. But I think people forget that Asia also includes India, which includes Indians. I recall that India has its own ocean but not its own continent. But look at Russia; a country that geographically is in Europe and Asia, but Russia is not its own continent. On the other hand Africa is a continent, but it does include 54 different and separate countries. I emphasize this point because when people think of Africa, they put it in a box. South Africa, Nigeria, and Algeria are not all alike. It’s weird when people say, “Yeah I want to visit Africa.” I’m like cool, but what part. I never hear people say, “Yeah I want to visit North America.” I either hear: the States, Canada, or Mexico. I say that personally to certain people for this reason; I didn’t have the best stay in Ghana and won’t be returning again, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going back to the continent of Africa to visit other countries. Africa is too vast to include it in one box. Europe is another country that is too vast to be put into a box. People do divide Europe into countries more often than those of Africa. But for those that don’t, they have to understand that France, the United Kingdom, and Romania are not all alike. The United Kingdom is an island, France is in Western Europe and Romania is in Eastern Europe… why would you even think they could somehow be grouped as the same? The whole continent vs. countries is weird when it comes to the Western Hemisphere, i.e. South America and North America. People recognize that these two continents do indeed have different countries. People may not know all the countries that these continents have to offer, but they are aware of the most popular ones. People want to go to Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Canada, Belize (Central America but it still within the North American continent), etc. That’s good to hear, but you don’t need a map to know that the United States and Mexico aren’t the same, or that Guyana and Chile aren’t the same. The world in its entirety is too huge, too vast, too different, too culturally equipped to be put in one box. The same thing goes with people. You can’t put someone in a box and say that someone with a certain skin tone must be from or belongs to a certain continent. But we’ll save that post for another day…if there even is such a day. 🙂