GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL


NEXT TOPIC! (: The next unit is Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this movie Jared Diamond is asked the question we all would like to know the answer to. Yali asked why white men have so much "cargo" and black men have so little. Diamond takes us on an adventure through time to show us how different parts of the world were formed. Mostly he said everything came down to geographical luck. Who had the most fertile land, who had the most resources, and who had the animals able to be domesticated. The geographical luck does not pertain to race as who is the smarted of the people. Because Europe had plenty of resources and had plenty of animals able to be domesticated in their area they had time to start building up their technological things. They had time to make swords better, advancements on guns, and other military things as well as factory things. They were producing goods incredibly fast and had an industrial revolution. While this was happening people in places that did not have the fertile land and resources they were fighting daily to get food to live just one more day. What they had to work with could not last long and when your working just to survive you can not build on other subjects. Plus they had to do all the work by themselves because there were no animals that were very useful to what they had to do in their area.


An example of a country in Africa that is currently living in poverty is Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in Africa and it is not due to laziness or lack of intelligence. The people in Zimbabwe are living in poverty mainly because of illness, specifically, AIDs. Because of illness many people can not work. Many families have lost one or both of their parents to AIDs. Some people in America believe if you are poor you are dumb and lazy. But that is hardly the case and, as proved to be true in Zimbabwe, the most common reason for people in poverty is illness. Source I: here! The unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is 80 % and 68 % of their population is living in poverty! Because the country is so in debt the banks have to make more money but this furthers their debt in the long run and inflation is rising like crazy. Source II: here! Another reason that Zimbabwe is living in poverty is because they are going through a drought which cause those who find a job in agriculture will not be able to make much money because their crops cant get what they need. Also the animals are dying, for a country relying so much on their land to provide for their needs a drought is devastating. As proved by how the drought is effecting Zimbabwe. Source III: here!


SOOO to conclude the story of Guns, Germs, and Steel everything comes down to geographical luck. It is weird to look back and see how plentiful the plant life in Afghanistan and now you see it is all desert because of deforestation. Poor Africa just continues to get the short end of the stick. They didn't really have all that much they could grow, didn't have very many animals to domesticate, and now they have like the highest number of people with AIDs. I wonder if their luck will ever turn for the better.....