[Leica] : Cell Phone Parts at the Gate - Kabul NOW MAJOR QUESTION?

[leicaslacker at gmail.com (kyle cassidy on the LUG)]

You're forgetting the great civilizations of Egypt and Persia which lasted 
for thousands of years developed writing, arithmetic, medicine, agriculture, 
astronomy & engineering.  By comparison North America's position at the top 
of the food chain for less than two hundred years is just a flash in the 
pan. 

I suspect things would be a lot less volatile in the Middle East right now 
if it didn't have a lot of oil and wasn't surrounded by countries that need 
it in enormous quantities.

Jared Diamond spends a lot of time answering this question in "Guns, Germs & 
Steel" http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552 
there's a NOVA special about it too.



On Oct 10, 2010, at 1:17 PM, <tedgrant at shaw.ca> <tedgrant at shaw.ca> 
wrote:
> 
> So how is it we evolved to the thriving modern countries we are, when 
> there was nothing here a few hundred years ago? Compared to the people of 
> the middle east, sub-continent wherever on that side of the world who have 
> been there thousands of years and it always appears they are still 
> wallowing in slums, dirt roads of the past thousand years? And they were 
> there long before anyone sailed to North America with nothing, in many 
> cases nothing but the clothes on their back?