Last fall, I was in my Japanese class and we had a word search puzzle where we had to match capital cities with their countries. Australia was one of the last remaining countries and I couldn't find Sydney on the capital list. I thought that maybe I reading the words wrong until Australia was the last country remaining. Looking at the last remaining capital, I thought, WTF is "キャンベラ”？
I immediately pulled out my phone and Googled the capital of Australia and found Canberra. I knew I'd been Mandela-ed. I was taught that Sydney was the capital of the country, not just the capital of New South Wales. I had never even heard of Canberra and if you search any Mandela Effect posts on the internet, neither have most people. The design of the city alone should have made it some type of wonder of the world.
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| Canberra, capital since 1913? |
People keep saying that those who thought Sydney was the capital were just mistaken because the city is so well-known. Well, tell that to all the news outlets that reported Sydney as the capital, even in the 21st century.
Either we've shifted realities or the American education system sucks!
Personally I think that the references to Sydney as the capital of Australia are simply the result of the fact that Canberra is virtually unknown and evokes no mental images when it's mentioned, whereas Sydney has a famous landmark like the Opera House. After all, journalists can make mistakes too.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't about a few journalists making mistakes. Sydney is what we were taught in school from elementary to high school. There were references to Sydney as the capital on TV all my life as well. Why in the world would the capital of a major country be virtually unknown?
DeleteYou shifted realities, just like me. If you remember your pulse being in the middle of your arm and not under the thumb bone like it is now, then you're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
ReplyDeletePulse was definately (not definitely!) in the middle of your arm. I learned that in elementary school!
DeleteGreat information. Lucky me I came across your blog by chance (stumbleupon).
ReplyDeleteI have bookmarked it for later!
oh God thanks!!! it was F****** Sidney... i had a big book in my shildhood with the world map and that book was specifically to learn all the capitals of the world... thing that i did!
ReplyDeleteI was a nerdy kid who loved maps and globes and I knew all the major capitals since elementary school. There was no Canberra!
Delete"Either we've shifted realities or the American education system sucks!"
ReplyDeleteOr both.
Seriously, never heard of Canberra before. I'm 48. I always thought the capital was Sydney, too.
Guess I'm an uneducated simpleton.
Yeah. I'm 45. Never heard of it until a few years ago when I did that word search for my class.
DeleteOne of the newspaper clips was a little misleading. It was a true/false question "Sydney is the capitol of austrailia" but the answer was never shown.
DeleteThe point is that someone obviously thought it was the capital. There are the other examples there, so it's not like that was the only one I posted.
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