Imagine discovering that the map with which you studied state borders and understood the distribution of the oceans and continents is built upon an intentional lie. This has been the reality that half the world encountered last Friday following the historic decision by the UN General Assembly to abandon the classic Mercator cartographic projection in favor of other models that provide an accurate representation of the actual size of countries and continents, such as Equal Earth.The map by cartographer Gerardus Mercator was born in 1569, with a Eurocentric bias that has been justified by the logic of its utility for navigation, despite the excessive oversizing of territories as they move away from the Equator. Conceived in a context of the expansion of European imperialism over the global south, this cartographic manipulation has stood the test of time and has proven to be a propagandistic configuration in favor of Western and Euro-descendant regions. Its design of our world influences our perception of the greatness of the Old Continent, to the detriment of territories in the southern hemisphere such as South America or Africa, a continent fourteen times larger than Greenland and which the Flemish geographer chose to represent in a size comparable to that of the northern territory.This distortion of reality perfectly portrays white fragility, a concept coined by whiteness scholar Robin DiAngelo that describes the defensive response to the slightest challenge to the white racial position. Intolerance towards the questioning of white supremacy seeks to maintain and/or restore the white privilege inherited from a colonial past favorable to Euro-descendant regions. The persistence of a fictitious map over half a millennium and the neutralization of any alternative proposal—such as the Gall-Peters projection, championed for more than 50 years by entities and international organizations like UNESCO—seek to preserve an imperialist representation of the world, maintaining the illusion of naturalized greatness from which the dominance over the Global South, which has already lasted more than 500 years, has been sustained.

The easiest way to represent our planet is as it is: with a globe—a sphere. But things get complicated when we need to represent it on a flat surface—a sheet of paper or a screen—to create what we know as a map. The answer to "Which is the most accurate map of the world?" or "Which world map is most similar to reality?" is confusing: all of them or none. Any cartographic projection of our planet is a simulation, a tool for a specific purpose.

We face increasingly complex collective problems of all kinds, with overlapping and intertwined issues. It often happens that the public administrations responsible for responding have a division of powers and levels of government that frequently makes it difficult to know who is responsible for what. But if, in addition, the most relevant administration in Catalonia uses different maps and territorial divisions in each department, the situation becomes very worrying. Indeed, the various departments of the Generalitat of Catalonia operate with territorial divisions that do not coincide. It is true that this lack of uniformity stems from the specific historical and logistical needs of each area of government (healthcare, education, etc.), but it is also true that, as the effects of changing times make things more complicated, as we mentioned, we could begin to see a situation where "people have problems, the Generalitat has departments."

Subscriber Josep Roca sent me a complaint about two issues related to graphic design. First, he points out: "Something I appreciate about the most widely referenced newspapers in English-speaking or French-speaking countries is the practice of accompanying news stories with good maps, especially when the events take place in locations unfamiliar to the average reader. And this is a major deficiency, in my opinion, of AHORA: a lack of maps." He concludes by providing an example: "On page 20 of the Sunday, October 26th edition, the text mentions several Ukrainian place names, such as Pokrovsk, Koupansk, the Oskil River, Vovchansk, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk. Inexplicably, none of them appear on the accompanying map. The borders of Donetsk and Luhansk are also missing from the map, despite their inclusion in all of Trump's 'peace' talks."

This Sunday's elections draw a map of Germany very different from that of four years ago. The decline of Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are two common facts throughout Germany, but in some places the populist and xenophobic force of Alice Weidel has imposed itself with more than 36% of the 8% of the votes.

The elections on Sunday draw a very different political map of Germany than four years ago. The decline of Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are two common facts throughout Germany, but there are some places where the populist and xenophobic force of Alice Weidel has imposed itself with more than 36% of the 8% of the votes.