The Mapping Stereotypes
The Mapping Stereotypes is project is the work of Yanko Tsvetkov, a graphic artist who also goes by the name Alphadesigner. Tsvetkov has lived all over Europe, but back in 2009 when he got the idea to produce maps charting prevailing stereotypes, he was still in his native Bulgaria.
There is nothing quite as obsolete as an out-of-date map: untrustworthy, suspect, politically incorrect. An atlas that still has Czechoslovakia on it may be historically interesting, but it illustrates a world that no longer exists. Change is constant: new countries spring into being, population centres shift, capitals are shunted from one place to another. With every adjustment, another map is rendered useless.
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Why not map ignorance instead? In a fast-changing world, national stereotypes remain remarkably stable. View the globe from an American perspective and you can still get away with labelling the whole of Russia “Commies”. If nothing else, it saves you having to spell Tajikistan.
“There was a gas crisis, a pretty harsh winter, and we were a little bit cold,” he says. His first map posited a Europe made up of competing interests and reductive presumptions. Russia is simply labelled “Paranoid Oil Empire”. Most of the EU comes under the heading “Union Of Subsidised Farming”. Turkey has been renamed “No YouTube Land” and where Georgia should be it says “Armed Winegrowers”. He titled the map Where I Live and put it up on his website.
“People started leaving comments about it,” Tsvetkov says. “People I didn’t know. And then, by the unknown laws of the internet, it got quite popular.” Tsvetkov realised this could be the beginning of a larger project. He made a map of “The World According To Americans”, with Kazakhstan renamed “Borat”, the Falklands marked “British Riviera” and all of North Africa summarised as “Fucking Desert, Dude”. His map of Berlusconi’s worldview is both hilariously vulgar and, one suspects, not far wide of the mark. No matter where you’re from, you should be able to find something here to offend you.
To add to his growing collection, Tsvetkov has created two new maps for the Guardian, one titled The Arab Winter and the other Crystal Ball View Of Europe In 2022. In the former, Algeria has been renamed “Gaddafi’s Sperm Bank” (“Because most of his family ran away to Algeria,” Tsvetkov says, “so it’s like a sperm bank for the preservation of his legacy”). In the latter a smaller territory in northern Italy has been coloured orange and labelled “Gays”. “The region around Rome will be under gay occupation,” he says, “because at some point all gay people will get tired of Pope Benedict’s homophobic remarks and will invade the city to shut his mouth for ever.” Most of the references are self-explanatory, although a working knowledge of geography (or, in my case, an old atlas with Czechoslovakia on it) comes in handy.
Tsvetkov himself is nowhere near as narrow-minded as his maps. He speaks several languages, currently lives in Spain and feels comfortable throughout Europe. “I have friends in most major European countries,” he says. “I work as a designer, so we are a big community. We’re like the European ideal.” Has his cosmopolitanism also made him an expert on local prejudices and stereotypes? “Yes, there are things that you can only perceive when you are among the people, but the internet helps.”
Tsvetkov has also lived in London, and in his Europe In 2022 map the UK (minus Scotland) is called Passive Aggressive Kingdom, a nickname that stems from David Cameron’s recent refusal to sign an EU treaty. “It refers to the British way of thinking about Europe,” Tsvetkov says. “It doesn’t want to have much to do with the continent, but it wants to have a say. It’s about wanting to achieve something by not doing anything.”
Arguably these maps could do as much to reinforce stereotypes as ridicule them, but their primary purpose is to entertain. “If there is a serious problem, I prefer to present it in a funny say,” Tsvetkov says. “I think there is enough serious coverage, and loads of people who can analyse it way better than I can.”
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dumb stereotypes
AMERICA HOME OF THE BRAVE, LAND OF AWESOME, CIVILIZED WORD?
WHO MADE THIS LIST? OF COURSE AMERICANS!!
IN EUROPE AMERICA IS FAMOUS FOR OBESITY AND IGNORANCE, AMERICA WAS PART OF MEXICO
EUROPE ACCORDING TO THE SWISS? ITALY THIRD WORLD?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
SWITZERLAND IS A COUNTRY MADE BY ITALIANS, FRENCH AND GERMANS, IN FACT THE OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF SWITZERLAND IS ITALIAN, GERMAN AND FRENCH
BY THE CREDIT SUISSE REPORT, ITALIANS OWN $ 12.7 TRILLIONS. SWISS ARE ENOUGH SMART TO KNOW ITALY BETTER THAN AMERICANS. SWISS KNOW THAT ITALY IS THE 10TH LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD
THIS ARTICLE ISN’T WROTE BY A REAL ITALIAN BUT FOR SURE BY ONE OF THIS SILLY AMERICAN WITH 2% OF SICILIAN OR SOUTHERN ITALIAN ANCESTRY THAT CLAIM TO BE ITALIAN
FIRST OF ALL, REAL ITALIANS ESPECIALLY FROM THE NORTH AREN’T TANNED BUT WHITE PALE.
IN FACT ITALY BORDER WITH AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND, SLOVENIA AND FRANCE. NORTH ITALY IS PART OF THE ALPINE TERRITORY AND NORTH ITALIANS ARE PART OF THE ALPINE GROUP AND AREN’T MEDITERRANEAN
DO YOU WANT TO SEE A REAL NORTH ITALIAN IN ITALY?
CHECK ON YOUTUBE OR YAHOO THIS NORTH ITALIAN PEOPLE BELOW
FEDERICA FONTANA
MADDALENA CORVAGLIA
ANTONELLA CLERICI
ALESSIA MARCUZZI
PAOLA BARALE
MARA VENIER
BARBARA D’URSO
LAURA CHIATTI
MADDALENA CORVAGLIA
FLAVIA VENTO
PAOLO BONOLIS
VALERIA MARINI
EVA GRIMALDI
CHECK ON YAHOO “RACIAL REALITY ITALIANS GEOCITIES”
THAN ABOUT THE HAND GESTURE, ONLY SOUTHERN ITALIANS SUCH NEAPOLETAN OR SICILIAN USE THEIR HANDS WHEN THEY TALK. 80 % OF WHAT YOU CALL “ITALIANS” IN AMERICA ARE FROM SICILY OR OTHER SOUTHERN ITALIAN REGION
NOBODY IN THE NORTH USE THEIR HANDS
ITALY ISN’T SUNNY, ONLY SOUTH ITALY
CHECK ON YAHOO OR YOUTUBE THIS NORTH ITALIAN CITIES OR REGIONS BELOW
“SOUTH TYROL, BOLZAN, DOLOMITE, MONTE BIANCO, COURMAYEUR, MILAN, TURIN, LOMBARDY, VENETO, BRIANZA, MONZA, VALLE D’AOSTA, SESTRIERE”
MORE THAN 78 % OF ITALIANS ARE HOMEOWNERS AND IS NOT TRUE THAT ALL ITALIANS ARE LIVING WITH THEIR PARENTS, ONLY IN SOUTH ITALY IS IN SOME PART PEOPLE TEND TO LIVE WITH THEIR PARENTS AND THE REASON IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE AN HIGH % OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE COMPARE THE NORTH
IN AMERICA YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LIVING BY THEIRSELF ONLY THANKS TO MOMMY AND DADDY THAT PAY THEIR RENTS EVERY MONTH, ANYBODY ARE ABLE TO LIVE BY THEIRSELF IF MOMMY AND DADDY ARE PAY THEIR RENT.LOL
BUT IN THE NORTH NOBODY LIVE WITH THEIR PARENTS
NOTHING IS ORGANIZED AND EASY TO USE IN ITALY? AHAHAHAHAH
ITALY HAS THE SECOND BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD, THIRD BY PERFOMARCE, ITALY HAS THE SECOND LARGEST MANUFACTURER INDUSTRY IN EUROPE, THIRD LARGEST EXPORTER
ITALY IS MEMBER OF THE G7, G8 AND G20 THAT IS A GROUP OF THE MOST POWERFUL AND INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS IN THE WORLD
CHECK ON YAHOO “EUROPEAN WEALTH REPORTS: WHY MEDIAN ITALIANS ARE FAR RICHER THAN GERMANS”
CHECK ON YAHOO “FOUR MOTORS FOR EUROPE”
CHECK ON YAHOO “MILAN EXPO CITY LIFE”
CHECK ON YAHOO “FERRARI ITALO TRAIN RENAISSANCE ON CNN NEWS
ITALY HAS THE MOST ADVANCED TRAIN IN EUROPE
ITALY HAS THE OLDEST AND ONE OF THE BEST UNIVERSITY IN EUROPE
ITALY= FERRARI, LAMBORGHINI, MASERATI, DUCATI, PAGANI, ALFA ROMEO, EVANTRA F&M, VIRUS MOTORBIKE, MV AGUSTA, BIMOTA
PEOPLE ARE ONLY ENVY OF ITALY AND ITALIANS BECAUSE ITALY MAKE EVERYTHING AND BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE
THE ROMAN EMPIRE RULED AND CONQUERED THE WORLD FOR 1000 YEARS AND THIS IS A FACT
ITALIANS ARE THE FOURTH LARGEST EUROPEAN ANCESTRY IN USA, ALL THIS PEOPLE BELOW HAVE AN ITALIAN ANCESTRY BY MOM, DAD OR BOTH PARENTS
NICOLAS CAGE, LEONARDO DI CAPRIO, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, BRADLEY COOPER, LINDSAY LOHAN, ROBERT DE NIRO, JOHN TRAVOLTA, AL PACINO, MADONNA, LADY GAGA, HAYDEN PANETTIERE, PARIS HILTON, KAYLE CUOCO, JOE PESCI, JON BON JOVI, SUSAN SARANDON, MARTIN SCORSESE, FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, QUENTIN TARANTINO,
CECK ON YAHOO “FERRARI HAS BEEN NAMED WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL BRAND FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING
CHECK ON YAHOO “RACIAL REALITY WHITE AMERICANS GEOCITIES”
CHECK ON YAHOO “BEN FRANKLIN ON STUPID SWARTHY GERMANS”
CHECK ON YAHOO ‘Rich history surrounding Roman villa discovered in Ingleby Barwick goes on public display”
check on yahoo “German Archaeologists Hail New Find: Discovery of Roman Battlefield Poses Historical Riddle”
CHECK ON YAHOO “Archaeologists Discover Roman Battlefield in Northern Germany”
CHECK ON YAHOO “German battlefield yields Roman surprises”
As the Roman Republic expanded outward, it enslaved entire populations, thus ensuring an ample supply of laborers to work in Rome’s farms and households. The people subjected to Roman slavery came from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Such oppression by an elite minority eventually led to slave revolts; the Third Servile War led by Spartacus was the most famous and severe. Greeks, Berbers, Germans, Britons, Slavs, Thracians, Gauls (or Celts), Jews, Arabs and many more ethnic groups were enslaved to be used for labor, and also for amusement (e.g. gladiators and sex slaves). If a slave ran away, he was liable to be crucified. By the late Republican era, slavery had become a vital economic pillar in the wealth of Rome. In the Roman Empire, probably over 25% of the empire’s population, and 30 to 40% of the population of Italy was enslaved.
Calm the fk down bro,they’re stereotypes o_o
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO AN ITALIAN
THE ROMAN EMPIRE RULED AND CONQUERED THE WORLD FOR 1000 YEARS
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Yo, what’s with all the hate? Of course this is not accurate but it is funny as hell! I mean I am from Greece and according to the stereotypes I must be a gay man who owns a bankrupt restaurant .. funny as hell dude.
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