Fascinating

When you reach my advanced years not many books are able to change ones view about the state of the world. But this one has succeeded and given me a little more hope for my grandchildren.

Hans Rosling, who sadly died in 2017, was a Swedish Professor of International Health.
I first came across him by watching some of his brilliant TED Talks on my iPad. ( you can watch these by downloading the free TED App. There are many hundreds of them to choose from on a vast variety of topics. TED’s Philosophy is that if you have something original and interesting to say then you should be able to say it in less than 20 minutes.)
I found his talks fascinating, convincing and hugely entertaining. And above all they cheered me up about the state of the world.

Basically Prof. Rosling is able to show that most people, including high level decision makers, are far more gloomy about the state of the world’s people than is justified by the facts.
In fact when given a series of multiple choice questions ( such as for example what percentage of the world’s children are vaccinated or what percentage of girls go to school) almost everyone gets the answers wrong. In fact almost all the hundreds of groups he has tested score less than chimpanzees. Given that in multiple choice with three possible answers the chimps would get 33% right.

It is sad that Prof. Rosling died. But his of changing the mindset of people is being carried on by his son and daughter in law.

Oh and you will see that I am not the only one who finds this book worthwhile as it a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller.