Plug Converters

I leave for India on July 20^th, a little over two weeks from today. Unable to contain myself any longer, I have set to begin accumulating those things on my shopping lists, which are organized by store and subdivided by section of the specified store, having been written at least two weeks ago. In addition to small containers for shampoo and conditioner, pocket packs of Kleenex and tampons, I also needed plug converters.

Looking at the aisle of plug adapters in the electronics store stirred a part of me generally awoken by discussions on the viability of the “European identity” in the current economic situation, or the various MAD and NUTs positions on the utility of nuclear weapons.

Regarding systems of measurement, the world has come to general consensus, disregarding non-scientific Americans, on the metric system. Electrical systems on the other hand, seem to resemble more of a colonized world achieved not by history, but by a long game of Risk.

I find it best to explain with diagrams. The following is a map explaining where different plug systems can be used, based on the information found on the packaging of my own converter (which is good for India, Hong Kong, and only parts of South Africa).

For comparison:

My search for similarities with the colonized world of 1895 was met with confusion. At least according to this map I got from a nonacademic source on Google image search, The Dutch, who controlled South Africa and the western coast of India, had no claim to Hong Kong.  The Spanish too, seem to have given up on electrically influencing any of their colonies.

I was forced to create a more plausible story to explain why China has two possible plug options, Hong Kong has another two, some shared with England, some with Australia, and some with South Africa, who each do not share with each other.

Here is the story I have come up with: 
Early electrical engineers looked for a way to compare their newly designed electrical systems. Being competitive, they created real-life electrical Risk. 

The green team holed up in Australia and the surrounding islands, building their forces. The yellow player, who was not too good at Risk started in Africa, managing to scatter his pieces around the area but often unable to hold onto any country for a substantial period of time. He was saved though, by the powerful forces of the blue team of the Americas and the silent but strong green team in Australia fighting over Chinese territory and duking it out there rather than trying to cross the Himalayas. The dark blue player managed to hold onto Europe, but had to constantly defend itself against its open borders, and did not travel far. The red team was a miserable player with bad luck.

While my imagination has now rendered the electrical situation of the world perfectly plausible, you might realize that Italy and Israel remain left out of my story. This information is neatly filled in by a cultural study, the likes of which are regularly undertaken by international relations students to understand deep seated or longstanding conflicts. Italy and Israel have their own systems because they like to be special, and to make of a bit of a mess of things.