Africa’s Geographic Challenges

[JTL]

Hey, guys! Just so that Leo put out an video on his blog about africa's geography, and how the geography negatively impacts africa. It reminded my about a video I watched a month ago, it talks about the geography ofcourse, but also about diseases; wondered why so many diseases came out of africa, languages and a huge amount of ethnic groups, and how all of this have made development in africa extremely hard. I recommend everyone watch it, it is so instructive. Have you seen it as well @Leo Gura  

 

[aurum]

RealLifeLore does some seriously good political videos. People don't even recognize it.

If you watch 30 RLL videos, you will drastically upgrade your political worldview.

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, JTL said:

Have you seen it as well

Yup. I've seen various such videos.

[PurpleTree]

But Latin America seemingly would have a similar geography, no?

[Applegarden8]

I don't buy it. I think in the distant future Africa could be a superpower. The corruption is the problem.

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Applegarden8 said:

I think in the distant future Africa could be a superpower.

No one said they couldn't.

Please be more nuanced.

[Inliytened1]

5 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

No one said they couldn't.

Please be more nuanced.

It's more than just geography surely.  Although the idea is interesting - I will watch.

Edited Tuesday at 10:57 PM by Inliytened1

[ryandesreu]

11 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

But Latin America seemingly would have a similar geography, no?

Yes and no. Africa has much more desert, more landlocked countries, and other challenges that Lat Am doesn't. And Africa's rivers suck. God hates Africa. 

Edited yesterday at 12:16 AM by ryandesreu

[Leo Gura]

Landlocking is a real bitch. It basically dooms a nation. South America is not nearly as landlocked. Tropical disease is also huge. And it's much worse in Africa.

Edited yesterday at 12:34 AM by Leo Gura

[Basman]

Africa is like a hardcore PVP server with permanent survival debuffs. Europe is more like creative mode in comparison (they patched out PVP after the WW2 expansion).

[Applegarden8]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

No one said they couldn't.

Please be more nuanced.

I think the narrative that Africa can become a superpower is not really evident. While no one said they couldn't, how many people have come to this conclusion without watching this video? Right now, it's as if it's impossible (i think) due to factors like corruption being the main one.

[Leo Gura]

23 minutes ago, Applegarden8 said:

I think the narrative that Africa can become a superpower is not really evident. While no one said they couldn't, how many people have come to this conclusion without watching this video? Right now, it's as if it's impossible (i think) due to factors like corruption being the main one.

It won't happen in our lifetime.

[PurpleTree]

Happening right now

 

[Alex4]

I think the geography of the American continent is worse due to the fact that it was completely isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years.  
This topic is very interesting. I will watch the documentary carefully. 

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, Alex4 said:

I think the geography of the American continent is worse

America has one of the best geographies possible. America is life on easy mode. Africa is Dark Souls.

[Twentyfirst]

I miss Pangea 

[Daniel Balan]

13 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

America has one of the best geographies possible. America is life on easy mode. Africa is Dark Souls.

Also Europe is so fortunate geography - wise. So many warm water ports, so much fertile land. We have to appreciate it. But the climate is changing, severe draughts have hit hard on eastern Europe, Low rainfall. The land is prone to desertification now. I bet that mankind has had decisive negative impact on this regard. I hate mankind so much. We are clearly very very evil on regards of how we treat the environment. I think that if Terra had one wish to come true that wish would imply that mankind would completely vanish off the earth. 

[Peo]

51 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

America has one of the best geographies possible. America is life on easy mode

Also Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway and Danmark also easy mode, since we have the the gulf stream. Without the gulf stream we would be fucked. Also a lot of fish. Only downside with Norway and Sweden is little land good for agriculture because of a lot of mountains, with expection of eastern norway and some parts of Sweden. Danmark has very good land for argiculture. 

[PurpleTree]

10 minutes ago, Peo said:

Also Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway and Danmark also easy mode, since we have the the gulf stream. Without the gulf stream we would be fucked. Also a lot of fish. Only downside with Norway and Sweden is little land good for agriculture because of a lot of mountains, with expection of eastern norway and some parts of Sweden. Danmark has very good land for argiculture. 

What about very harsh and dark winters? That’s not for everybody 

[zazen]

Watching/reading Peter Zeihan really helps in understanding how geography plays a role. US is truly blessed - he also mentions Argentina, France.

Think of geography like the physical hardware, and people like the psychological software within that geography / hardware.

Geography / hardware sets the limits, people / software maximize what’s within those limits or constraints.

Similar to the whole DeepSeek saga - they maximized for efficiency within supposedly even less hardware (GPU’s - compute).

Zeihan is too fatalistic though - he’s been calling for Chinas fall since forever (due to poor geography) and doesn’t consider the human element enough. Argentina for example which he say is blessed geographically hasn’t made the most of its geography.