Guns, Germs, and Steel

Here is a brief summary of Guns, Germs, and Steel, a movie by National geographic and Jared Diamond.

Guns, germs, and Steel tells how the global patterns of society and economic conditions all boil down to a termed called geographic luck. this term describes how some places in the world were able to develop better and quicker that other places due to factors in their geography. Factors like animals that can be domesticated, nutritious food sources, and crops that could be cultivated. Areas that have these factors (such as the fertile crescent) would have people who were ahead of the others. Food surplus due to cultivated crop abundance lead to specialization of jobs in those societies that were geographically lucky to have domestic animals and nutritious crop. Once a person is not concerned about feeding himself, he can develop interest in areas like weaponry, masonry, and medicine. Europe developed much faster than America or Africa because they had food surplus and developed duns and swords. with the help of guns and swords, the Europeans conquered the New World, nut they needed another ally to defeat those vast empires. That extra element was germs. The germs that Europeans had developed by domesticating animals were completely foreign to the natives of America and Africa. With the help of germs the Europeans decimated populations invariably. The Europeans did the same as they did in America when they came to Africa. they came saw and conquered, even though the African germs in the tropics first attack them, they forced the tribes towards water and mosquitoes which used the germs against them. Basically, the African lifestyle was changed and thereby they lost the old ways in which they held the germs at bay. Europeans dominated these areas where the people were not as geographically lucky. This domination has ended today with modern views on democracy, but has left areas poverty stricken and corrupt.

Poverty in Africa is a Major issue. One country that has world renown is Kenya. Kenyan runners and athletes are famous for great feats of fitness, but what of this country's poverty and the common people who live in terrible third world situations?

Kenya was part of the British empire and was acquired in 1890. Kenyans had the same problems that other African countries had when settlers came in, but the tribes in the area were much smaller and it was not until the 1970s when Kenya really started to encounter its economic woes. Before the modern age Kenyans were ruled by Britain who had settlers in the are and these settlers stole Kenyan lands, thus creating the same problems that occurred to other African countries. The country has since 1956 been separated by the British crown, but not until many Kenyans were forced to work for the British and thus sending most of the population (that was not already in villages) into poverty. Kenya today deals with many problems with corrupt leaders and other government problems. due to the general poverty of the area, food is hard to come by and it the largest concern in Kenya. One idea to eradicate hunger and poverty is a move to use fish farming to fight both of those issues. The idea is to create jobs and solve hunger by making fish ponds that will require people to work at them (thus creating needed jobs). Kenyan poverty is mostly due to the fact that with new medicines available, people can live longer and the population has soared demanding more food and living space. This results in more people having to share resources and thereby creating a poverty stricken area. Other ideas are from outside sources, like this woman who is creating a soap making business to create jobs and improve cleanliness too! all is not bad for Kenya, and with foreign aid and new ideas the country will slowly come into the modern world fully and developed.

I believe Jared Diamond's view on the world and geographic luck is true, but it should not determine very thing as fated by geographic luck. What I mean is that if a group of people a confronted with a problem, such as poverty in Africa, then if those people believe and work hard enough they will find a way and overcome their problems. Guns, Germs and Steel is certainly true when on speaks on the broad scale of what has happened in the world, but i do no believe very little aspect of a group of people is controlled by geography and fate. In fact, many cases have arisen where people who aren't given the best resources do some truly remarkable things with what they have. An example is the people in central America who are struggling with feeding themselves. people in Nicaragua have built hydroponic plant growing systems out of trash and are now providing for themselves. That example shows how people, if they put their mind to it, can accomplish great things and beat out the cards geography has dealt them.