Reading Robert D. Kaplan's
Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power (which I still hope to
comment on at some point) makes me want to put some of our actual and would-be political leaders (and I include a
certain monetary expert) in front of a map of Asia with the national borders delineated but no identification of the countries, and see how many of them could find, say,
Indonesia. On a brighter note, this
NPR interview with Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo) makes it clear he would pass the test.