I know the conventional wisdom is that we’re all going to hell in a handbasket, that if Climate Change doesn’t get us then the Global Financial Crisis will, that, in fact, as my namesake foretold, we’ll all be rooned, but, I thought, for my inaugural column, I would push against type and consider at least a couple of things that are going right in the world. Just so that, as the rants become more vitriolic, I can say to those critics of my negativity look what I wrote in April, month of mists and mellow fruitfulness…
So, lets start with the really big picture. Here’s a remarkable thing: according to the World Bank we’re on track to deliver one of the major Millenium Development Goals (MDGs); that is to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015.
Hold on a moment. Sorry. Did your eyes glaze over there? I don’t know what it is but I can only get half-way through the word millenium before I fall into a trance. Combine it with ‘development’ and ‘goal’ and I’m gone.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. Fortunately help is at hand. Switch on your computer, do it this minute, I mean it. Go to www.ted.com and, under ‘Speakers’ type the name Hans Rosling, then watch his talk - Debunking Third World Myths - if you like it – and you will – watch the speech he gave a year later. They are both remarkable, beyond wonder.
Not only does this unassuming Swede (who co-founded Medicins sans Frontieres in Sweden) illustrate statistics so they make sense, he also manages to demonstrate that nearly every assumption we harbour about the state of the world is wrong.
Incidentally the whole TED website is outstanding. It is an example of what we dreamed the web could be – the only problem with the site is the sheer volume of ideas presented, and where to begin. Recent speakers include athlete and activist Aimee Mullins, talking about her dozen pairs of prosthetic legs, Nicholas Negroponte, on his One Laptop per Child Project, and Bill Gates unplugged.
But back to the MDGs. Peter Singer has recently been talking up his new book, The Life You Can Save. One of the more extraordinary stats he mentioned was that, even though there are twice as many people on the planet now as there were in 1960, there are, in fact, fewer people in real poverty (defined as living on less than US$1.25 a day).
Singer is not, however, promoting complacency, or being self-congratulatory. What he wants us to do with this information is to realise that what we’ve always assumed was impossible, is within reach: we now have the ability to lift the entire population of the world out of abject poverty. That not only can we do it, but we need to do it, if not for moral or ethical reasons, then as a sound investment in our own future.
The evidence is now well and truly in, that it’s only when people have their basic needs met that they have time to become aware of how they affect the environment.
Great times we live in, if we grab the moment. Singer, in his usual difficult way, wants us to take hold of it firmly. If we all give just three percent of our income to help alleviate poverty we’ll win, he says. If we don’t we’ll all be rooned. I said that.
Hanrahan
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