Why is there so much inequality in the world, where some societies have so much, while others have so little? Jared Diamond, a UCLA professor, spent 30 years trying to answer this question. During this time, he traveled around the world in learning new things about countries that led to his answer; geography. During one of his expeditions to what he calls his second home, New Guinea, he met a man named Yali who asked him a question that has puzzled him for years. Yali’s question was, “Why is that you white people developed much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" Diamond dedicated his life to these questions and when he came to an answer, he said, “History followed different courses for different …show more content…
Germs have helped and hurt people around the world. They damaged many societies by killing thousands of people and animals mostly in South Africa. This was helped the Europeans by spreading infectious germs like smallpox which wiped out an entire empire for them. For instance, connecting back to when the Europeans conquered native populations in America and South Africa, they were very successful mainly because of the diseases that their domesticated animals spread to humans. The main sickness during this time was smallpox. Millions died because of this as the animals infected people during the time that the Europeans traveled around the world conquering one country after another. The role of germs in conquest is that people can use them to their advantage. If their enemies are caught on with a disease and people start dying, this can make their work easier. Not only were germs horrible back then, but they still affect modern Africa today. For example, today, many people have vaccines to protect themselves from the harmful infections and diseases but some don’t like Zambia. It has become almost normal to them to see kids die every day. The number one health problem in Zambia is Malaria. Forty-five percent of the children have malaria and it is the #1 killer of African children younger than 5. The death rate for children has grown dramatically over the last few years and they hope to change that. Unlike Zambia, Malaysia and Singapore have developed rich economies despite having many of the same geographical and health problems faced by African nations. They did they by understanding their environment and through tremendous amounts of effort, they were able to almost completely wipe out malaria and transform their lives. This is exactly when Zambia hopes to do as time goes
Dave smith is know as the fighting priest, not only for his drive to help the less fortunate and troubled youth, but as a well-known boxer. He is an Anglican Parish Priest, based in Australia. Dave’s goal was to help high-risk teenagers especially those who have anger management issues or substance abuse, as he was formally a troubled youth himself. He uses his 6th degree black belt and professional boxer background to discipline and guide the teenagers. Father Dave was born in Newtown, Sydney in 1962 to Bruce and Joan Smith he was the oldest of three boys. His father, Bruce Smith, was a well-known Evangelical Anglican priest, public speaker and theological lecturer. Father Dave completed an Arts degree with honours in Philosophy in 1984 before heading to the Anglican seminary of Moore College in 1985. After he graduated he completed courses in theology in 1988 and was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in 1989. Father Dave also published a book and has taken a very public stance on various human
Getting to know Jared Wilson. Jared was born in Elmont, New York on May 31, 2000. He claims to have a normal family. He lives with his grandparents and his older brother which is 18 years old. He has another brother in New York that is 23 years old. Some things that he does in his spare time is hanging out with friends and driving around and wasting gas that he doesn’t pay for. His favorite sport is baseball and his favorite baseball team is the Yankees. He often listens to Coldplay. But also likes to play video games such as grand theft auto, saints row, and word cookies on his cell phone.
In this casebook the authors contribute their ideas on what might have lead to our separations of classes and inequality among our world. Henry Louis Gates Jr. states in his article that the research that he has obtained has concluded in the fact that former slaves in the 1920’s, when African Americans were allowed to own property, had obtained land from the Southern Homestead Act and led to having a successful descendents. On the other hand he states that if the poor African Americans were given land now that they were not given long ago the community would improve and they would work harder to achieve a better life. I agree that some of the people given land and ownership would try to improve their life with education and harder work but
In this episode of “Guns, Germs & Steel”, the audience learns about the European colonization of Africa. Each continent has African and European influence still today, and this episode walks us through how the world sees present-day Africa based on its history. To me, one of the more interesting pieces of Africa’s colonization was how disease affected the people involved.
Jared Diamond’s first quest to find the roots of inequalities began on the island of Papua New Guinea. There, in 1974, Yali, a man who lived there asked Jared Diamond a seemingly simple question: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” To Diamond that seemingly simple question turned into a rigorous process of finding where inequality began. It was from that question, that Diamond developed inquires of his own to find the roots of inequality. Jared Diamond knew that it was not an issue about genetics for he knew too many extremely smart New Guineans. Nor was it about are adaptive, engineers, and quick learners. It made him wonder why the New Guineans weren’t the ones to end up with what he calls the agents of conquest. Which would be: guns, germs and steel. To explore the reasons why the Europeans were more successful, Diamond realized he had to start from scratch. To a time of equality, where people everyone lived the same way.
Why has the world been so unequal in the past? the world is unequal not because of sexuality or race like most people would think, it’s actually mostly because of geographic location. geographic location in different areas such as eurasia or Papua new guinea will either boost or restrain the agricultural and domesticated animal advancement. which could free up the time for specialist to find and forge iron into steel weapons and better tools. While the generations build up the immunity to the germs and diseases within their country, given to them because of the domesticated animals located with them.
Part of the reason why Americans do not exactly see inequality as an issue is because they have been conditioned their entire lives to believe that this is how life should be. Many have grown up being so accustomed to the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer that they fail to even think about the concept of inequality and, instead, blame the income disparities on work ethic rather than economic conditions. In India, people are not opposed to the caste system, even though there is essentially no social mobility, because they were born into it and have never known anything else. By comparing the social and economic statistics between many different countries, it allows individuals in a society to look past what they see as “normal”
After reading the select chapters from Diamond’s book, I agree that the roots of inequality lie within the geography of the land. Diamond states, “Geographic variation in whether, or when, the peoples of different continents became farmers and herders explains to a large extent their subsequent contrasting fates” (86). The location of where people resided in played a significant role in determining what their future would be like.
Why is it that in the 1960’s Papua New Guinea was still using stone tools while Eurasia had stronger and more improved steel tools? Inequality is all over the world. Do we know what started it? Inequality isn't something that can happen overnight, it takes thousands of years to develop. Geography is the biggest reason we have inequality, depending where you're at on the latitude line controls your climate. Europe's geographical location allowed their civilizations to have access to better agriculture, domesticated animals, immunities to germs and steel. These early advantages propelled Europe into an unprecedented position of power which allowed them to control and decimate other cultures throughout the world.
Man will always choose to put his own needs ahead of others as his “first concern was that of his preservation,” (69). All the items in the earth could have been equally distributed if it were not for varying talents among men, as certain men are better at turning things to their advantage. For example, a wise man seeking to obtain more money would choose to claim a certain plot of land in order to start a business. Rather than randomly choosing the land, this man would most likely choose a portion of land suitable for his business in both size and quality. This man created an atmosphere of inequality with his fellow man when he chose to claim his preferred plot of land before any other man could think to do the same. With finite resources in existence, certain men will get their preferred items, while other men will get less valued items or no item at all. The origin of this example of inequality began with a man’s desire for a certain good, private property, and his preference for a specific type of that good, which ultimately created an inequality of wealth between this man and his fellow
The world is a very complicated place to be in, with many questions and problems. One thing that has always intrigued me about how our society functions is why people are treated so differently based on their class. For example, a rich upperclass man can afford a better lawyer in a court case than someone who lives in poverty, giving the rich man a better chance at winning their case. Justice is served differently based on your position in a job and how well off you are financially. Social classes actually date back as far as 1200 BC when caste systems were formed in India, separating everyone from each other. They started with priests, went to kings, warriors, merchants, landowners, peasants, servants, and even went an entire step lower to
For as long as human beings have been around there has never been true equality among societies. More developed countries have better technology and access to more goods that allow for a higher standard of living for the people in these countries, than those in a less developed country which results in inequality worldwide. The main reason there is so much inequality throughout the world is because of the differences in how societies have and will continue to progress. The progression of a society depends on the geography of the society and the raw materials that can be of use in that area along with the diffusion of these materials to different areas.
Where are you right now? Chances are, there’s a lot more to the way your society has formed than you think. Why are some people still foraging for food every day while others simply have to go to the fridge? When you really look into it, it’s not a simple question to answer, but there are major factors that help you understand the inequality across the globe. We’re unequal due largely in part to agricultural accomplishment, the successful domestication of animals, the immunity to certain diseases, and advancements in technology. All of these factors were determined at one point by the climate and geography of the Earth.
Have you ever wondered why the world is so racially and culturally diverse? Inequality didn’t just start with people thinking one race was more entitled than the other, or the mindset of having more power, it has deeper roots than you might think. As it may be obvious, different parts of the world are going to have different resources. In turn, not everyone is going to be able to make or develop the same things. But, if a civilization can have surpluses of food and domesticate animals, its gives them two advantages. One, they can become immune to the germs and diseases they get from being in close quarters with animals, and two, they will have enough time to become specialists and develop things like steel, which is a rolling snowball of benefit
When the resources in a society are distributed unevenly it leads to social inequality. Often inequality is understood as being socio-economic and it is now closely associated with social inequality. “Social inequalities are differences in income, resources, power and status within and between societies. Such inequalities are maintained by those in powerful positions via institutions and social processes.” (Warwick-Booth, 2013 p.2)