2007 24
Gapminder: Just In Case You Think The World Doesn´t Suck
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
One of the toughest problems of humanity is that most of the people who can vote global problems out of existence don´t vote. Many don´t vote in their own countries because they are not democracies, but most can´t vote these problems out of existence because humanity is a very weak concept. As schooling in America, humanity is about being born in the right side of the tracks. Unfortunately “humanity” as a value is a distant second to the extremely to nationality. Income distribution among nations reflects that.
If humanity held world elections, the world would not be as unfair as it is. But in case you are one of those people who thinks the world does not suck, please study this presentation by Gapminder in detail. And please don´t write to me that I have a great life. I know I do, but I would feel much better in a world with much greater opportunity for all.
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Levi on September 12, 2007 ·
You are percisely wrong. The whole point of the gapminder presentation is that the world has made incredible progress in fundamental development indicators over the last 40 years. This progress takes a long time, so we tend not to notice it, but you have to be extremely pessimistic (or perhaps stupid) not to take notice of the incredible global progress evidenced by the tools at gapminder. The point of the gapminer presentations is that the world doesn’t suck nearly as bad as you might suppose.
Try watching it again and maybe you’ll get it.
Martin Varsavsky on September 12, 2007 ·
Levi, I agree that the world has made progress but there are still billions of people living in horrible conditions around the planet. In Africa people on the average live in worse conditions now than 30 years ago. Moreover even in the USA and Japan the average citizen as measured by median income is not better off now than 20 yrs ago
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Juan Gonzalez on March 27, 2007 ·
In fact I believe that many of the problems that affect humanity can’t be solved within the confines of nations. Corporations have acted on this simple fact for decades and they’ve mastered the art of evading all sort of national restrictions. I’ve been developing the idea of Global Culture with the ultimate mission of creating awareness of the leverage that a well organized community of global citizens can accomplish. Just like yourself, there are many global citizens that have seen the many faces of the reality and can form a valuable opinion on how to tackle real problems with real solutions. In an age where online communities are popping all over the place, I’m hoping this one can replace obsolete institutions with organic arrangements of concerned citizens ready to act at a global scale. This, of course, is a long term mission.