00:21it's been called the birthplace of
00:23humanity the land where our ancestors
00:27took their first steps
00:31it only recently revealed as the home of
00:34a vast tropical civilization
00:38cities and kingdoms once spread across
00:45then vanished leaving barely a trace
00:50what happened to this great achievement
00:55professor Jared Diamond has set out to
00:59explore the great patterns of human
01:03it's a journey that has taken him from
01:06the jungles of New Guinea to the
01:09snow-capped peaks of Peru
01:13his quest to understand why one people
01:18Europeans have conquered so much of the
01:22world Diamond argues that the roots of
01:27stretch back thousands of years and rest
01:31on the power of geography geography gave
01:36Europeans the most productive parks and
01:39animals on the planet
01:41and these allowed them to develop Guns
01:49three great forces of conquest that if
01:55now Dimond is sitting out on the last
01:59stage of his quest to discover what
02:02happened when Guns Germs and Steel came
02:06to Africa and to ask what role these
02:14but diamonds journey will test much more
02:18than theories it will also test the man
03:14a class 19d south african railway steam
03:20locomotive built Glasgow Scotland 1932
03:25it is a testament to technology and
03:29human achievement a tool built to carve
03:36a path across a continent a lasting
03:42symbol of the triumph of European Guns
03:57this engine and its tracks of steel will
04:02carry jared diamond through the story of
04:09it is a tail with its reach and ambition
04:12and greed the peoples of Europe reaching
04:15out beyond their native lands in a quest
04:25as Europeans expanded around the world
04:28they conquered other people they built
04:32railroads they developed rich societies
04:36modeled on Europe they had done this
04:39successfully in North America and South
04:41America in Australia and then they
04:44arrived in Africa and it looked as if
04:46the same thing was starting all over
04:48again but Africa would be different a
04:57place of dangers and secrets hidden from
05:01these foreign invaders the first
05:06European settlers arrived in southern
05:09Africa in the mid 1600s they landed here
05:13in the Cape of Good Hope at the
05:16southernmost tip of the continent
05:20they quickly established themselves in
05:23this new land laying out farms planting
05:28wheat and barley ranching cattle and
05:37this may sound strange but it's from
05:41ordinary agricultural lightness that my
05:43theory of Guns Germs and Steel Burroughs
05:51my quest began more than 30 years ago on
05:54Krypton happened beginning when I began
05:59to try to understand why the people
06:01there live so differently from Europeans
06:04and Americans the beginnings of the
06:10answer I realized depended on farming
06:14minions had only a few native crops they
06:17could grow and no native farm animals
06:21while my ancestors even ten thousand
06:25years ago have been cursed with an
06:27abundance of domestic plants and animals
06:32over the centuries this had given them a
06:34huge invade that let them develop cities
06:39nations and even colonies abroad
06:54but Southern Africa is 5,000 miles
06:58through Europe how is it possible for
07:01the settlers to import European props
07:04and animals to such a distant part of
07:10as much as skill it came down to good
07:14geography had dealt the settlers and the
07:17mince meat lucky hand they had stumbled
07:21across one of the few parts of the
07:23southern hemisphere that feels just like
07:26Europe because the Cape and Europe lie
07:31at a similar latitude or distance from
07:34the equator this means that the
07:38temperature and climate of these widely
07:40separated regions are almost exactly the
07:44same the Europeans were able to
07:50establish prosperous farms and
07:53settlements properties now owned by
07:58people like Hempfest Dutoit so your
08:03family has been here for centuries on
08:07this land how do you feel about the land
08:09yourself then I've always loved and and
08:13since childhood days and it comes
08:16agriculture been in our family for so
08:18many generations tell me about that
08:21history of this farm of the land was
08:24occupied in 1683 years after settlers
08:31came to the Cape but settlers like to do
08:35tois knew that this was not an empty
08:38land even today their farms turn up
08:42evidence of the capes original
08:44inhabitants a people known as the
08:47Khoisan prior to the occupation of this
08:57land in 1683 by the settlers this land
09:02was most probably occupied by quite some
09:06people these were the tools they used to
09:12scrape the skin when I came the skin you
09:16can see how nice it fits into your hand
09:22with the arrival of Europeans these
09:26native peoples were driven from their
09:28land but they also faced an invisible
09:37and even more devastating agent of
09:40conquest a force demon has identified as
09:46one of the greatest in human history
09:50Germans realizing the importance of
09:56farming led me to the next big surprise
09:59and discovery of Guns Germs and Steel
10:04domesticated animals had given Europeans
10:07one advantage of which they were
10:09completely unaware by living in close
10:14proximity to be a livestock they had
10:17become infected with viruses and germs
10:20of those animals which evolved into
10:27through exposure over centuries
10:29Europeans had developed some resistance
10:32to those diseases but as Europeans
10:38spread around the world they encountered
10:40people who didn't have that same
10:42resistance and who then fell victim to
10:46devastating outbreaks of infection
10:51especially of smallpox in Americans
10:56millions of native people died from this
10:59one disease and here in the Cape it
11:05warped the same havoc on the Kois on
11:15through their farming and their germs
11:20Europeans had established a firm
11:22foothold in the southern tip of Africa
11:27now they look to expand
11:48in the 1830s there was a burst of the
11:53pioneer spirit such as have been seen in
11:56the European expansion across North
11:59America and Australia this time it was
12:02Dutch settlers and these pioneers moved
12:06into the interior like the Pioneers
12:08movie of course North America and or
12:11spread over the course of the 1830s
12:17thousands of Dutch farmers with their
12:20families and possessions loaded into
12:23wagons left the Cape in search of new
12:26land to settle they called themselves
12:30the board trackers these pioneers all
12:34wielded another agent of European
12:37conquest the gun this is a muzzleloading
12:45rifle typical of a weapon or ticker
12:49would have had in his wagon he was
12:53meticulous dicted using this weapon they
12:56could reload it and fire from horseback
13:04these muzzleloading rifles are still
13:07much admired by the Voortrekker
13:09descendants every single man that was in
13:17good health and had at least two or
13:20three of these particular offals in
13:24those days it must have been the
13:26person's life you know he depended on
13:34that dinner and hunted with them
13:38protected themselves with them it was
13:41part of a mirror I see if you didn't
13:43handle a gun that day there was
13:44something at all ways
13:51guns and the steel for which they're
13:54made were the last two of the great
13:56advantages that Europeans carried with
13:59them around the globe Shaunie's are the
14:09result of thousands of years of complex
14:12technological developments which began
14:15outside Europe but which Europeans
14:18perfected and now is law because of the
14:23head start that their father had given
14:26them thousands of years previously it
14:35was shouldn't really say this but it was
14:38nearly like as important as the cell
14:39phone is today you can't go that your
14:43cell phone in those days you couldn't go
14:45that your flintlock rifle
14:58armed as they were the European settlers
15:02must have been confident they could
15:04overcome any obstacle as they pushed
15:07further into the African interior
15:17by February 17th 1838 the board trekkers
15:22had reached 800 miles inland from the
15:33but they were entering an alien and
16:17suddenly out of the darkness swept and
16:20made an African army the victims barely
16:25had time to fire a single shot from
16:28their rifles before they were completely
16:44within hours nearly 300 war trekkers lay
16:48dead their enemy had struck without
17:06mercy killing men women and children
17:15alike who could have committed such a
17:23ruthless and calculated assault stopping
17:27the Europeans in their tracks
17:38in fact the Voortrekker x' had
17:41trespassed across the border of a mighty
17:44african kingdom inhabited by people very
17:50different from the Khoisan of the Cape
17:56they had encountered the Zulus when they
18:06ran into the Zulus they ran into a group
18:09of people very different anybody else
18:12they'd been up to up against up until
18:14that point in time this Wilson organized
18:17a group of people were the authors of a
18:24unique and highly developed African
18:26state their military skills had allowed
18:30them to overwhelm their native African
18:32neighbors they held more than 30,000
18:36square miles of land and had established
18:40a sophisticated economy and society
18:49the ferocity of the zulu defense of
18:52their land was something that more
18:54trekkers had simply not expected it was
19:00small of the words could handle they
19:02they they were not prepared for the
19:05attack from Mozilla's though up against
19:08the king who could mobilize an army of
19:11Tim to 15,000 men without any problem
19:15war that could take on almost any button
19:20they were absolutely fearless
19:24the Voortrekker 's were stunned and
19:27devastating it had they and the power of
19:31Guns Germs and Steel met their match in
19:42the Voortrekker showed little interest
19:44in who the Zulus were or how they
19:47developed such a sophisticated state
19:52they wanted this showdown
19:56they gathered their scattered forces
19:59behind a great circle of wagons and
20:01readied themselves for battle at dawn in
20:11the 16th of December 1848 more than
20:1510,000 Zhu Li stormed across the horizon
20:21charging in to destroy the outnumbered
20:23centers but this time the Europeans were
20:30able to use their technology to maximum
20:36to increase the rate of fire from their
20:39muzzleloading rifles someone shoot while
20:42others can be long it was shoot and the
20:47gun over take the next gunfire and the
20:51gun over but every five or six seconds
20:56you could fire a shot
21:15this time not a single Zulu could get
21:18within ten cases of the in commitment it
21:27the future cuz they probably killed an
21:31estimated three to three and a half
21:33thousand Jews the words themselves
21:36suffered any through injuries
21:42the conflict became known as the Battle
21:45of Blood River the Zulus had been broken
21:52Guns Germs and Steel had prevailed
22:18the victorious European settlers pushed
22:21on beyond Zulu lands our new
22:25developments in their technology that
22:27will increase the pace of conquest
22:39where roads were tea with real Roseman
22:45could transport lots of people and the
22:48supplies over vast areas and so in
22:54Africa Europeans started to build mere
22:58lights move into the interior and
23:00transport themselves and their support
23:08this was the era of the Industrial
23:11Revolution a revolution that introduced
23:14one further weapon to the colonization
23:17of Africa a weapon that put the same
23:22devastating firepower seen at Blood
23:25River into the hands of just a single
23:33what made this weapon such a great
23:36weapon as opposed to the old single-shot
23:38weapons that had been used in years
23:40before if this gun could fire
23:43continuously for up to 500 rounds a
23:47it had the equivalent firepower of
23:50probably a hundred men in the company
23:53the single-shot weapons as they draw
24:00further into Africa Europeans
24:03encountered new tribes some just as
24:06hostile to invasion as disease
24:12but four people's like the matter
24:14believe there was simply no answer to
24:17the world's first fully automatic women
24:26mad abili conflict of October 1893 last
24:31in a matter of hours
24:49the settlers mowed down as matadv
24:53warriors until they were only a few of
24:56the left it was a real case of ancient
25:03technology up against the latest and
25:06greatest as far as European inventions
25:23it seems like the birth of a new age
25:28Europeans carve in the path into the
25:31interior of Africa [ __ ] we cried after
25:37crawling settling where they please
25:44Guns Germs and Steel triumphant
25:49except man those settlers would find
25:53themselves facing an entirely new enemy
25:57one that had once been their greatest
26:23as they move north settlers cleared land
26:27for farms confident they could build a
26:30prosperous life in Africa but with
26:39little warning things began to go awry
26:45the land became impossible to plow
26:55and their crops refuse to grow
27:02their shoes fell apart in the mud
27:19and that was only the start come on man
27:31the second big problem that Europeans
27:34encountered was the animals died the
27:41horses and oxen had been the big part of
27:45the European advantage elsewhere in the
27:47Oksana's draft animals and horses as the
27:52military animals but here the animals
27:56were dying for thousands of years these
28:04domesticated animals and crops had
28:07sustained European civilization without
28:10them there would have been no Guns Germs
28:17no history of conquest and colonization
28:23and now the settlers themselves began to
28:27fall ill with terrible fevers
28:33while all around them they could see
28:36native Africans farming herding cattle
28:47how was this possible what were the
28:52secrets of this strange new land the
29:07ideas behind cousins Wilson steel mall
29:10springing from an understanding of
29:12geography and geography explains why
29:17Europeans were now failing European
29:22crops had grown well in the Cape because
29:25the Cape was a mirror of the European
29:28world lying on a similar latitude but as
29:33the settlers progressed into the African
29:36interior they've been moving north
29:38closer and closer to the equator at
29:43about 23 degrees south near the river
29:47Limpopo they passed a major geographical
29:50boundary known as the Tropic of
29:56they were leaving behind their familiar
30:00European climate and entering a totally
30:06they had entered the tropics compared to
30:14the European or temperate zones the
30:17tropics operate by entirely different
30:20rules instead of the four seasons of
30:25Europe North America and the Cape here
30:28there are just two the dry season and
30:39wheat and barley the crops that had
30:42sustained European civilization for
30:45centuries have not evolved to survive in
30:48this tropical climate
30:58yet the native Africans the Zulus Motta
31:02Billy all the tribes that the settlers
31:05had encountered depended on agriculture
31:08just as much as the Europeans
31:11how were they succeeding as the
31:22even today the continent of Africa is
31:25composed of thousands of different
31:28tribal groupings each is suddenly
31:32distinct from the next in custom and
31:35language such diversity means that most
31:51Africans have to master more than one
31:54language and they acquire those skills
31:58in a very young age who here speaks does
32:21anybody else know how to understand or
32:25speak Lucy you speak closely do you also
32:31is there another language that you speak
32:34also though that that's four languages
32:41most Americans speak only one way
32:55after a little exposure to these
32:57different languages you begin to realize
33:00one thing they all sound remarkably
33:04similar languages where if I've been
33:11going I'm asking what's your language
33:14and tell me some words in your language
33:16so here's what I found out for the word
33:19walks on in the Nyanja language son is
33:22you booked in the Denver language it's a
33:25super in chi-wah it's two Zuba and in
33:30the same language is Zubin again for the
33:34word water and in the on Qi Lang guack
33:37it's Monsey and in bandar it's an NG and
33:42in Qi it's mymzy similar to each other
33:46again what do these linguistic
33:51similarities tell us that there is a
33:55common mood for most of the modern
33:58languages of travel Africa a single
34:03ancestral language spoken by a single
34:06group of people from which the many
34:08languages of today have to sandal
34:20linguistic analysis has isolated a
34:23family of languages known as Bantu which
34:27originated in tropical West Africa about
34:35five thousand years ago the early Bantu
34:39speakers began to spread into new lands
34:41bringing their crops their animals and
34:45their language with them and over
34:51centuries Bantu culture evolved
34:55diversifying into hundreds of tribes
34:58expanding across the tropical region of
35:08but the truth of this pan-african
35:11civilization was suppressed for many
35:14years dr. alex Kerman is trying to
35:21overturn the legacy of south africa's
35:24racist past she has been excavating an
35:29archaeological site on the banks of the
35:38in the early part of the 20th century
35:42and the room is in the white South
35:45African community about this place and
35:48their minds names the queen of sheba or
35:51some other really white civilization in
35:54southern Africa China sure that the
35:57Phoenicians or the Saban's basically
35:59anybody was a bit lighter skin than
36:01Africans we're here first and they found
36:03the opposite that Africans actually had
36:07an amazing great Christian that they had
36:09earlier States running before way before
36:14any white six-foot in Africa this site
36:20known as map on Buble the place of the
36:24jackal formed the heart of the kingdom
36:27similar to the earliest civilizations in
36:58like who was the call it was the capital
37:01of a massive state about 5,000 people
37:05living around this hill
37:07the thing you had several thousand other
37:10people living in the valley we produced
37:13agricultural surplus to feed the city of
37:15town on the cheap they grew sorghum
37:25millet they worked iron it was a massive
37:44and this was not an isolated State it
37:48formed part of a much larger economic
37:51network that had spread across southern
37:59these are nothing of where beads they
38:01gorgeous blue ones these are glasses
38:04that came down Indian Ocean coast I am
38:09through then we know that my finger was
38:11part of international trade network and
38:14link aired all the way to the coast
38:17there's an infertile African
38:19accomplishment to set up such a complex
38:22to network that links all the way into
38:26northern Botswana bring material from
38:29man taking it all the way to the Indian
38:45so Africans had overcome the problems of
38:49Agriculture that defeated the European
38:51settlers they had developed a unique
38:57tropical system of Agriculture that it
39:00spread across the continent and become
39:03the foundation of complex societies
39:06trading as far afield as India
39:15but there was an even more extraordinary
39:18story at the heart of this flourishing
39:20tropical civilization
39:29as soon as they entered the tropics
39:32Europeans and their imported animals had
39:36fallen victim to terrible disease fevers
39:45wracked their population yet tropical
39:51Africans showed fewer of the same
39:53effects many of them even survived that
39:57most lethal of European weapons smallpox
40:01the disease that had devastated the
40:07native peoples of North and South
40:10America and the Kois and of the African
40:19how was this possible Diamond believes
40:27it all comes back to geography many of
40:32the diseases that were killing the
40:34settlers and their European livestock
40:36were unique to the tropical world they
40:42have never encountered them before it
40:48was a complete reversal of the usual
40:51pattern of conquest in the new world the
40:56germs had been a weapon on the side of
40:58Europeans killing indigenous people here
41:02it was indigenous germs to which
41:04Europeans had lot of history of
41:06expungement so here we have Guns Germs
41:10and Steel again but the germs working in
41:13the opposite direction
41:22the settlers and their imported
41:25livestock had fallen victim to a host of
41:28tropical infections and diseases
41:39but African cattle over thousands of
41:42years had developed resistance to many
41:45of these tropical germs and these cattle
41:51might also explain why tropical Africans
41:54had not succumbed to smallpox on the
41:57same scale as the Khoisan people of the
42:00Cape the smallpox virus originally
42:05crossed over from cattle to man
42:07centuries ago and experts now believe it
42:11may have first originated in tropical
42:14Africa Africans were certainly familiar
42:19with the disease they had even developed
42:23methods of vaccination that bestowed an
42:26immunity for life and there was more
42:37native Africans had also developed
42:40antibodies against one of the most
42:42virulent diseases on earth
42:53carried by the humble mosquito this was
42:58the disease that was now overwhelming
43:00the European settlers
43:16but tropical Africans were combating
43:19malaria with more than just enemies
43:24their entire civilization had evolved to
43:28help them avoid infection in the first
43:31place they tended to settle in high or
43:37dry locations away from the width humid
43:41areas where mosquitoes
43:45and by living in relatively small
43:48communities spread out over vast areas
43:52Africans could limit the level of
43:55malaria transmission it was an
43:59extraordinary achievement
44:08but the Europeans understood level of
44:11the Africans way of life they built
44:15settlements by the rivers and lakes they
44:18used for water in places infested by
44:22mosquitoes thousands died
44:41so it seemed that the tropics had
44:44defeated European Guns Germs and Steel
44:50and that Africans have merged triumphant
44:55they had evolved to complex civilization
44:59well-suited to the tropical world a
45:04civilization that had spread throughout
45:06the continent in a vast cultural
45:14was this the end European Guns Germs and
45:19Steel and Africa what would the future
45:24hold for this movie the tropical
45:27civilization the Europeans had failed to
45:39settle Africa's land this would become
45:44no North or South America
45:49but Africa still had one great draw for
45:52the colonizing powers
45:55vast reserves of natural resources
46:04European conquest and the story of Guns
46:08Germs and Steel would now enter a whole
46:17in the late 1800s and what is now the
46:21Democratic Republic of the Congo
46:24the Belgians throw millions of native
46:27Africans from their villages setting
46:32them to work gathering rubber mining cop
46:45burning their homes behind reducing
46:49their thousand-year-old
46:51tropical civilization to dust and ashes
46:56fewer as brutal as the Belgians but
47:00across the continent millions of
47:02Africans were compelled to abandon a way
47:05of life perfectly adapted to the tropics
47:10and to labor for Europeans
47:17to ferry Africa's natural wealth back to
47:21Europe the colonizers turned again to
47:24their technology building ever greater
47:28railroads after more than half a century
47:33and a labor of tens of thousands the
47:37tracks of shining steel reached all the
47:39way from the Cape into the very heart of
47:52constructed for europeans to extract
48:00built on the ruins of African
48:18all this time I've been uncovering the
48:21trail of Guns Germs and Steel across
48:24Africa and even this train and the track
48:30had rides on lie at the heart of my
48:39these tracks are still in use still
48:42fulfilling their original purpose trains
48:47travel from the southern tip of Africa
48:50into modern Congo and Zambia fairing
48:53back tons of copper and other minerals
48:59but Africa today is no longer a
49:02continent of colonies this nations are
49:07free and independent
49:11what places the earth my theory of
49:14carnal germs and steel in modern Africa
49:27and Ola northern Zambia the end of the
49:32line for Jared Diamond Civil War and the
49:37neighboring Congo makes it too dangerous
49:39to travel the last few miles of this
49:41track but even here the reality of
49:47modern Africa is clear now in the centre
49:53of the African tropics and I didn't
49:57Zambia one of the poorest countries in
50:00Africa and really in the whole world
50:03the average annual income here is a few
50:05hundred dollars and the lifespan average
50:09lifespan of a thing I mean is 35 years
50:12so I myself have now lived nearly to a
50:16bird's ambien lifestyle what goes
50:20through my mind here is what can history
50:24and geography in Guns Germs and Steel
50:26tell us that would help us understand
50:29the plight of Zambia today
50:41in modern Zambia I see few signs around
50:45me of the great native civilizations
50:48that once flourished in tropical Africa
50:53what I see instead is the country shaped
50:57I see tans and cities that grew up next
51:02to the mines and where roads established
51:04by Europeans and built on the European
51:08model what about the great forces that
51:14originally shaped this continent and its
51:17people the forces behind its conquest by
51:21Europeans we era Guns Germs and Steel in
51:32in Zambia malarek mimic this is the
51:37number one public health problem and
51:40when you look at the children
51:42particularly when you get in health
51:44facility up to forty five percent of the
51:48children in the outpatient facility of
51:51the hospital will actually be presenting
51:56one of diamonds great forces of history
51:59are still shaping the story of modern
52:03Zambia not just a recent scourge of AIDS
52:09but also that ancient tropical disease
52:13that defeated Europeans malaria malaria
52:20is now the number one killer of African
52:23children under five years old
52:25this old register you just show you the
52:31picture of of the number of deaths that
52:34could have occurred within the hospital
52:37most of them are children below five
52:42years one year six months three years
52:48five months one year most of them are
53:01tropical Africans once lived in
53:04settlements spread out over large areas
53:07which minimized the spread of malaria
53:10but now they're living in modern
53:13high-density cities and towns and the
53:16rate of infection has increased
53:23the burden of germs is one of the
53:25greatest problems afflicting the country
53:29undoubtedly malaria has a very big
53:32economic burden on us as a country
53:35because as you may be a wave so many
53:37children will be suffering from malaria
53:39if we just look at the children who are
53:42these mothers would be working somewhere
53:44and being productive so that's one
53:47direct way in which we know productivity
53:50is being affected to a large extent it's
53:54been estimated by eminent economists
53:56that the 1% negative growth each year in
54:01Africa over the last half a century can
54:04be attributed entirely to malaria the
54:08immunities and antibodies that Africans
54:11have developed over thousands of years
54:14to protect them from malaria no longer
54:17provide sufficient protection the
54:21strains of the disease are mutating and
54:24standard drugs are becoming less
54:26effective in the high malaria season up
54:30to 7 children a day died in this
54:34hospital you're used to this
54:43what is this what is seeing they feel
54:49concerned I wouldn't say I'm used
54:56because I don't think there's anyone who
54:59can be used to sickness and eventually
55:04death especially of people that you love
55:06so very much and buy a part of you it is
55:09it is something that in fact I would say
55:13because of the magnitude of the problem
55:16one would wish to do everything they
55:38because of the fact that there's a
55:56difference between understanding
55:58something intellectually an experienced
56:02County firsthand in my book
56:09germs was one of the three main forces
56:11of history and it seemed personal and
56:21it's still different than it hits me to
56:24be in a place where germs are in action
56:42thirty years ago I set out on a journey
56:48a quest to understand the origins of
56:53inequality in our world
57:00I discovered that this story stretched
57:02back to the beginning of civilization
57:05and rested on the geography of our
57:12when humans first started falling one
57:15small area in the world was lucky enough
57:18to have the best crops and animals which
57:21gave one group of people a unique
57:24advantage in history
57:29Europeans perfected guns and steel
57:34evolved lethal diseases and germs
57:41they then use these tools to conquer
57:44continents and to build extraordinary
57:51I conclude the geography in Guns Germs
57:54and Steel have been the strongest forces
57:57to shape the history of our world
58:04here in Zambia is forces a still shaping
58:12tropical germs were overwhelming this
58:15country and its people and driving them
58:25does that mean that zombie will always
58:28remain a victim of these great forces of
58:31history and geography
58:36and that Africa is condemned to a future
58:39as poor as is present
58:46and I would say that the message is a
58:48hopeful one it's not a deterministic
58:51fatalistic one that says forget about
58:54Africa and undeveloped areas and says
58:57there are specific reasons why different
58:59parts of the world ended up as they did
59:02and with understanding of those reasons
59:06we can use that knowledge to help the
59:09places that historically were at a
59:15Malaysia and Singapore are among the
59:18richest and most dynamic economies in
59:21the world like Africa they are tropical
59:25countries with the same problems of
59:28geography in health the same endemic
59:32malaria but both transformed themselves
59:35by understanding their environment
59:40fifty years ago these countries realized
59:43the burden that geography and germs
59:50through concerted effort they managed to
59:53almost entirely eradicate malaria from
01:00:00transforming their economies and way of
01:00:08the story of Malaysia and Singapore
01:00:11shows what an understanding of geography
01:00:21explanations give you power they give
01:00:24you the power to change they tell us
01:00:26what happened in the past and why and we
01:00:29can use that knowledge to make different
01:00:31things happen to the future the
01:00:34government of Zambia agrees they have
01:00:38set up a nationwide project to try to
01:00:40eliminate malaria from the country just
01:00:44as in Malaysia and Singapore new drugs
01:00:48even a possible vaccine are giving them
01:00:51an increasing chance of success malaria
01:00:56will mean an improvement in the world
01:01:00health of the people and an improvement
01:01:02in the world of the people will mean
01:01:05increased productivity and increased
01:01:08productivity will mean that we will be a
01:01:11wealthy nation because that will mean
01:01:14that then people will have sufficient
01:01:18not only food but sufficient time to be
01:01:22able to do things that make a human
01:01:25being complete and warm and able to live
01:01:42jared diamond's quest has been to
01:01:45understand the great forces of human
01:01:52but it is still the very smallest of
01:01:56details the lives of individual human
01:02:00beings that lie at the heart of his work
01:02:03when we talk about history we talk about
01:02:06development we talk about competition
01:02:09between societies of the wealth of
01:02:11nations it can sound intellectual but
01:02:15here in Africa they were human faces on
01:02:25and for Diamond even after 30 years of
01:02:29thought and ank worry the questions
01:02:32behind Guns Germs and Steel remain as
01:02:36important as they ever did why is our
01:02:41world divided between rich and poor
01:02:46and perhaps can we change it I feel that
01:02:52whatever I work on for the rest of my
01:02:54life I can never work on questions as
01:02:57fascinating as the questions of Guns
01:02:59Germs seal because they are the biggest
01:03:01questions of human history