In his award winning book Guns, Germs and Steel, the author Jared Diamond talks about why some societies developed, spread and went onto conquer and dominate other societies. Why did the Spanish travel to Peru and conquer the Incans, and not the other way around?
One factor was that the societies who developed spread east – west as opposed to north – south. Given the climate is similar along parallels of latitude, as opposed to meridians of longitude, societies that spread east – west were able to replicate food production more efficiently. Members of their societies could eventually specialise in food production at scale, freeing up others to become scientists, leaders, and soldiers to name a few.
When I was reminded about this part of the book recently, I began to wonder what spreading east – west looks like for us as a charity.
How do we allocate more time, energy and attention to those kinds of initiatives, and avoid the temptation to spread north – south.
However, some resistance is worth pushing through though.
And expanding without a clear purpose isn’t always a good idea.
What does east – west look like in your corner of the world?
Potentially Kinetic 