BookMarks #63: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Title: Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years

Author: Jared Diamond 

Genre: Anthropology, History, Geography

Published: 1997

Setting: Entire human history across the world

Summary

Guns, Germs, and Steel attempts to understand how the human society across the world, reached into its current form and how different regions developed differently leading to the dominance of Eurasian societies.

BookMarks

“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own” This was the question asked by a New Guinean politician Yali to the author Jared Diamond. Cargo here being a generic term for all technology & goods brought by the western civilization. Through this book, Diamond tries to answer this question.

The book attempts to trace the evolution of the modern human societies in different parts of the world and the factors which influenced their growth. As per Diamond, humans started as hunter-gatherers, then moved on to building agriculture based societies. Stable food production led to increased population and development of a bureaucratic societal structure. More people had more ideas and more innovations leading to technological advancements. Technology diffused and spread from one society to its neighbours. However, the rate of such advancement was different in various regions. Diamond attributes this to geography, climate factors, availability of suitable crops as well as potential large animals which could be domesticated. Geographical barriers play a major role in preventing/aiding the diffusion. 

Exposure to different animals lead to animal borne diseases being spread into human society. The exposed societies later developed immunity to these. Advanced military technology as well as new germs helped decide which group won the battle of that region. And how one group was able to displace the other.

The book is an interesting exercise in attempting to summarize more than 10,000 years of human history. The readers may or may not agree to Diamond’s interpretation. And there are enough evidences being unearthed regularly which present new facts to the contrary. However, the book certainly makes you think about human evolution. Is it only geography or climate which is the contributing factor or are there other factors at play too. And how does it impact the modern society which is getting increasingly inter-connected and even a bit more homogeneous. With changing climate across the globe (another hotly debated subject) how does it impact the future development. As we have seen, different regions have been the leaders in technology at various points in time. How does this equation change in the future? With increased digitization, who becomes the new leader? That’s an interesting point to ponder upon.

Previously on BookMarks: Anne Frank’s Diary 

BookMarks #62: Anne Frank’s Diary

Title: The Diary of a Young Girl

Author: Anne Frank

Genre: Diary, Autobiography

Published: 1947 (Dutch), 1952 (English)

Setting: 2nd World War

Summary

The accounts of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl in hiding in Amsterdam, during the 2nd World War.

BookMarks

The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings; otherwise, I'd absolutely suffocate. (Anne Frank, 16 March 1944.)

This is the line on the diaries which sums it all up. Why young Anne Frank wrote. It was the one outlet for her feelings as her world drastically changed due to overwhelming political circumstances. Her frustrations at being virtually a prisoner in the Secret Annex, changing emotions while growing up, changing feelings towards her co-hiders, her feelings of being alone and no one understanding her!

The book provides a glimpse of the impact of the War and especially the Jewish population who had to leave everything and go into hiding to escape the Nazis. One fine day, the people are free, and then they become effectively prisoners on their own account! To avoid being imprisoned by the Nazis, they go into hiding and hope to wait it out till better days come.

The diary entries are spread over two years and then they abruptly stop one day. And that is after the Allies have come close to winning the war. There is no happy ending here. Anne herself could not survive the war after being taken as prisoner. 

Previously on BookMarks: The Alchemist 

Road To Tokyo: Episode 8

Since Episode 7, a month back, we have had some significant progress in the qualifications for Tokyo 2020 with Quota places earned in Shooting, Wrestling and Athletics. This Episode got delayed by a week to incorporate results from the 2019 World Athletics Championships. 

Quotas Earned 

Shooting – 2 more Quotas arrived through the Shooting World Cup taking the count to 9. 

Sanjeev Rajput earned India’s first Quota in the Men’s 50m Air Rifle 3 Positions. This is the 4th Olympics in a row in which he has earned a Quota place, although for Rio 2016, his Quota place was reallocated. Hope this is not the case this time around. 

Yashashwini Deswal earned India’s 2nd Quota in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol event. 

Given the current Quota configuration India should have representation in the Mixed Pairs Rifle & Pistol events. However, there is some confusion over the number of teams a NOC can field in the Mixed events. Would be a tragedy if only a single team from each NOC is allowed! Currently India can send 2 pairs in both rifle and pistol events and in the last World Cup, all 4 pairs won medals! 

The Asian Shooting Championships in November provides more opportunities for booking Olympics Quotas, especially for the Shotgun events, where India is yet to open its account. 

Wrestling – 4 Quotas 

Vinesh Phogat (Womens 53 KG Freestyle), Ravi Kumar (Mens 57 KG Freestyle), Bajrang Punia (Mens 65 KG Freestyle) and Deepak Punia (Mens 86 KG Freestyle) have earned quotas through the World Wrestling Championships. 

Deepak got a Silver while the other 3 earned a Bronze each. Overall, it was a creditable show for India with Rahul Aware also winning a Bronze in 61 KG Freestyle (which is not included in the Olympics). 

For the wrestlers, the Asian Qualification Tournament in March, 2020 provides the next opportunity to book Olympic berths in the remaining 15 categories. 

Athletics – 2 Quotas (Total 3 Now) 

The 4x400 Mixed Relay team reached the Finals in the World Athletics Championships in Doha thus qualifying for the Olympics. 

Avinash Sable broke the National Record in 3000m Steeplechase twice in 3 days to beat the Olympics timing cut-off after reaching the Final. 

Special mention - Annu Rani became the first Indian women to qualify for the Javelin Throw finals with a National Record throw. However, it was still short of the Olympics cut-off. 

Other Sports 

Boxing 

In the Men’s Boxing World Championships, Amit Panghal became the first Indian male boxer to reach the finals where he got a Silver medal, while Manish Kaushik earned a Bronze. Given the shenanigans of AIBA, unfortunately no Quotas could be earned through the World Championships. The Olympics qualification tournaments begin early next year. 

The women’s tournament is currently underway. However, like their male counterparts, they will not be able to qualify for Olympic spots. 

Weightlifting World Championships 

Mirabai Chanu finished 4th with her personal best. And given that there two Chinese ahead of her (and an NOC can have only participant in an event), the medal prospects seems good. 

Volleyball – Indian men have qualified for the Asian Volleyball Qualifiers after finishing 8th in the 2019 Asian Volleyball Championships. 

Hockey – The men’s team have been drawn to face Russia while the Women will face United States in a 2-match series to determine the Qualifiers for Tokyo. 

Swimming – Virdhawal Khade has achieved the B qualifying mark but has yet to achieve the A Qualifying mark and hence not included in the Qualifiers count yet. 

Total Count – Sports - 4, Events – 17, Entries -23, Participants – 22. 

Links:  Road To Tokyo: Episode 7