Updating Our Map of the World

By Sofia Santos

I spent twelve days on holiday in South America, divided between Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Uruguay — Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo. I returned rested, but above all challenged. Not only by what I saw, but by what I realised about what we carry with us when we travel: expectations, prejudices, and mental maps that are often outdated.

I was genuinely surprised by the level of development in these cities. The quality of urban infrastructure, the efficiency of services, the design of public spaces, and, very concretely, the speed and organisation of immigration processes at airports. In Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, crossing the border was smooth, digital, with no long queues or unnecessary bureaucracy. A detail? Perhaps. But details say a great deal about how a society functions.

Another aspect that struck me was the digitalisation of the economy. Throughout the entire trip, I never withdrew cash even once. Electronic payments, apps, cards, and integrated systems were part of everyday life, in a simple and natural way. This experience contrasts with the still persistent idea that outside Europe — or outside a certain “West” — everything is slower, more rudimentary, or less reliable. It is not true. Or at least, it has not been for a long time.

This journey forced me to confront a subtle but deeply rooted prejudice: that some regions of the world are, by definition, less developed, less organised, less advanced. This perception says less about those places and more about our collective ignorance. An ignorance that is now fuelled by a global narrative of division, conflict, and hierarchy between peoples, cultures, and geographies.

Walking through Buenos Aires or Montevideo, observing the rhythms of urban life, social balances, conversations in cafés, and ways of inhabiting shared space, I often thought that there are truly wonderful things in the world — and that they do not belong to a single hemisphere. There are multiple ways of living well, of organising the economy, of building social bonds, and of creating collective meaning. None holds a monopoly on truth.

Perhaps it is time to accept that the centre of the world is not fixed. That the idea of progress is neither linear nor exclusive to the Global North. And that the moral comfort of believing that “we know better” is incompatible with the humility required to learn from others.

Travel remains one of the most effective ways to update our thinking. Not only because we see new landscapes, but because we are forced to revisit old certainties. The world has changed — and continues to change — at a faster pace than our narratives about it. Updating our thinking is not an intellectual luxury; it is a necessity if we are to live on a diverse, interdependent, and deeply interconnected planet.

Perhaps the first step is simple: to look with more curiosity and less presumption. And to accept that truth, like development, rarely resides in a single place.

Published on VER