Chapter Summaries In The Power Of Place

“The Power of Place” is a compelling novel about where you are in the world matters because contrary to popular belief; it isn’t as flat and interconnected with opportunities as we may think. Harm de Blij does a spectacular job explaining how this world is a rough terrain with numerous borders that close off many people from having new lives and chances. He explains that the world is separated with one massive boundary (core and periphery) where the rich mostly reside in the core and the poor reside in the periphery. Many people in the periphery already have a tough life as it is, but there are even more boundaries that they face over religion, geography, language, and even gender. Take for example in chapter four, the Indian Hindus and Pakistani
Muslims that have constant disputes and tension between them over Kashmir and terrorist attacks that Indians claim are all caused by the Pakistani Muslims. This tension between two strong willed faiths causes a boundary and hostile behavior, creating unsuitable living conditions to coexist between the two groups. Another example of barriers causing issues with people trying to coexist is seen in chapter nine in which it references the conflict that occurred between Serbia and Kosovo in 1998.
Muslims in Kosovo launched a large campaign to withdraw from Serbia, which caused a tragic response from Serbia that tore one-third of Kosovo’s two million Muslims from their homes. Serbia was punished for their claimed, “ethnical cleansing” and not taking multiple warnings from NATO by getting bombed. Those are some very heavy barriers that not only block off people from tolerating each other, but it also causes aggressive behaviors that lead to war and countless deaths. That also brings in the power of place because many countries can tolerate different ethnicities and religions, but the ones that do not can often be a treacherous place to live. But, that isn’t the only thing that makes place matter when it comes to power. Gender unfortunately can play one of the biggest roles in a human’s existence when living in a place as seen in chapter seven. It can determine your job, your salary, your treatment around people in a social situation, and ultimately, it can determine your whole life. Countless women around the world (including women in the core) are constantly being discriminated against for being
female. Whether that means a lower paid salary compared to a male coworker or having to go under the knife to remove a sexual organ because your religion and men demand it. Women have a much rougher time than men do making this world not so flat for them. They have limited choices in their life as to what they can to because of barriers such as religion, where they were born, controlling husbands, and just straight up misogynists that were unfortunately given positions in the political world.
This is another very important example as to why the power of place matters, but sometimes, it isn’t the humans we need to worry about in certain locations. Sometimes it’s disease. Disease is found everywhere in the world, but we see a lot more of it in the periphery than we do in the core. Numerous diseases plague places like the countries of Africa with illnesses that can range from Malaria to Dengue Fever to HIV/AIDS as shown on multiple maps in chapter four. Although other places may have seen these horrible maladies, countries in the periphery tend to suffer more because they tend to be closer to wildlife and moister climates, which can cause an infestation of unwelcome parasites that disease at uncontrollable rates. Also, places in the periphery don’t usually have access to good healthcare services like the people in the core where they can be given the necessary treatment for their illness. These are all very big reasons that support Harm de Blij’s idea as to why power of place matters and how this world isn’t flat at all because of its endless barriers and every
turn. All in all, “The Power of Place” was a dynamic novel that truly brought the light to the readers eyes that where you are born matters and not every place in the world is as flat as we would like to see it.