Liberal Free Chat Zone

[ksquared]

Fred Reed afterthought that came to me in the middle of the night:
I owe an apology to the third world.
It occurred to me that the concept of zero came from the middle east and apparently the Mayans and Indians. According to this, the Sumerians developed the counting system.
http://www.livescience.com/27853-who-invented-zero.html

The use of zero moved math forward.
White people picked it up and ran with it thus creating the basis of modern technology.

Civilization began in those areas especially the middle east.
What the hell happened?