geography -- distances, borders, distinct cultures -- is  "so yesterday."   as Friedman clownishly proclaims, the world is flat (at least in the presently prevailing collective fantasy).  everywhere is at most 12 hours from anywhere else.  and if it isn't, then it's a place that just doesn't count.  NYC is closer to Paris than it is to Nowhere, Kansas -- virtually speaking.  an affluent burb is closer, by electronic and financial ties, to another affluent burb a continent away than to the slum on its physical border.

ironically the feverish global churning of finance and trade, increasing vastly the interconnection between us all, does seem to have diminished people's interest in or awareness of the actual physical geography...  it does seem strange.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...