Le Web3 Live

Hans Rosling’s presentation was billed as a 20-minute speech about “Why books and school lectures still exist.” But the Swedish researcher decided to replay some of his Gapminder shows, which are familiar to many on the Web, but nevertheless fascinating.

You can see the videos of the same presentations on his blog.

Rosling’s first software-animated presentation tracked the progress of different developing countries - in terms of life expectancy and GDP per capita - by comparing them with Sweden’s progress since the 18th century. Today, Sierra Leone, for instance, is on a par with Sweden in 1709. Mozambique is comparable to Sweden in 1810, Guatemala 1933, etc.

Next came a comparison sketching the trajectories of two countries through time. The first “race” was between France and Singapore, regarding progress in GDP and drop in child mortality. Rosling provided a blow-by-blow commentary in the manner of an excited sports journalist, which provoked some big laughs. In the end - the present day - Singapore finally won out.

Turkey and France were the competitors of the second statistic race, and the “third world” country passed over the “rich” one, again.

So the so-called “rich” countries should not consider the rest of the world as inferiors, and despise them, or they “will have their head cut off as French people did with Marie-Antoinette!” said Rosling with a laugh that can be taken as a warning….

Listen to the conclusion of Hans Rosling, after Loïc Le Meur asked him “what can we do?” :