Ola Rosling ask a question suitable for the saints’ trivia at the very beginning:
– Where did women get the right to vote this year, the last country in the world? The correct answer is the Vatican.
In April, the bishops’ conference granted the right to vote to the laity.
In an unstable international situation, the positive news seems to be overshadowed by the conflicts, but in Ola Rosling’s opinion, the edge of the abyss is far from abating.
Rosling is a founding member of the Swedish Gapminder foundation. Many remember his father, a professor who died in 2017 by Hans Rosling. His book The World of Facts is a worldwide hit. Tens of millions of copies of the book have been sold.
Ola Rosling follows his father as a statistician. He answers ‘s phone interview questions in Stockholm.
Statistician Rosling Foundation follows the statistics of the UN and international research institutes and describes long-term development trends using their data. Based on them, the quality of life has improved in many ways.
The list of successes is actually breathtakingly long. Ola Rosling gives more examples.
Promising results have been obtained from the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine in field trials. At best, it is thought to protect up to 75 percent of vaccine recipients from getting sick, he writes, among other things The Guardian magazine.
Mosquito-borne malaria kills around 600,000 people every year, mainly in Africa.
More and more people also know how to read and have access to the Internet.
Are the problems or awareness of them increasing?
Ola Rosling wants to shake the notion that the year ending was particularly violent. Europeans are especially worried about the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
– Bombs fall and buildings collapse live. We get to know about problems immediately. Therefore, we imagine that the problems will only increase. In fact, what is increasing is awareness of the problems.
Rosling reminds us that a hundred years ago, one might have thought that everything was fine in the world, because many horrors were not immediately known.
– Anxiety is understandable, but the uncertainty we feel is ultimately a luxury problem. We sympathize with the victims of wars. This is what the transparency of the world means. In the past, we did not see bombings and their traces, but information about abuses and deaths could only come years later.
Of course, there is no going back to the time of the mail wagons, but you don’t want to and don’t need to close yourself off to the news.
Ola Rosling’s room chart for controlling the overwhelming news flood is – nothing more and nothing less – than a change of perspective.
Rosling reflects that positivity is almost taboo. Affirmation may be equated with stupidity.
– We are talking about a naive optimist. No one talks about naïve pessimists, but that’s exactly what people are. A negative event gets attention, and the conclusion is drawn that the world is going in a worse direction.
Ola Rosling urges adults to feel their responsibility.
– If parents run around updating the evil of the world and telling their children that everything is only getting worse – that’s just naive and stupid, crushing hope. There has been a lot of negativity in world history. Today there is much less of it.
Remember ozone depletion?
Ola Rosling justifies her position with one more example that literally applies to every person, the climate crisis.
– During my school days, there was talk about ozone loss and harmful radiation. Freon in refrigerators and spray cans was banned. The ban has also been forgotten. Successes should be celebrated more, humanity forgets them easily.
Rosling says that the increase in recycling is actually a global educational success story.
– More and more people are taking environmental issues seriously. We can disagree about the means, but the goal is common.
For example, the recycling of plastic waste is progressing by leaps and bounds. Canada announced during the Christmas week that it will give up plastic cutlery and bags in restaurants and cafes.
Despite the progress, wars and disasters still leave many people with peace of mind, so that more and more people avoid the news.
Foreign policy magazine According to a study by the Reuters Institute cited in March, more than a third of the adult population did this often or sometimes in 45 countries.
Ola Rosling says she understands those who are exhausted by the news.
– If you notice that your thoughts are filled with scary things, it’s good to let go sometimes.
Ola Rosling emphasizes the responsibility of the media and schools.
– Of course, we cannot stop reporting on horrors, but at the same time we can look for solutions and tell about what could be the way forward. What could it be in Gaza and Israel? We should discuss more about the possibilities of diplomacy.
Of course, this is easier said than done, and Rosling doesn’t want to fuel unbridled optimism in unpredictable times.
However, according to Ola Rosling, you should not give up when looking for positive things. Rosling’s Gapminder Foundation annually publishes a list of one hundred things about improving the quality of life.
– You can’t read that list on the radio. It’s too long, he laughs.
Ola Rosling slips positive news on the side again.
Solar panels are being installed more and more. They are up to 300 times cheaper than 40 years ago.
– Think that the pandemic vaccine was introduced in a year. That’s a world record. Technology and research are developing.
Ola Rosling is a sought-after lecturer around the world, including at the UN.
In father’s footsteps
Ola Rosling’s father, the doctor Hans Rosling, who died in 2017, worked for a long time both in Africa and in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute.
Isä-Rosling looked for solutions to promote sustainable development and health challenges and awakened people to hope.
– I grew up in Mozambique. There were two of us at school, my sister and me. Father emphasized already at that time that people have a distorted image of the world and the superiority of Europe.
Here, Hans Rosling was right. The importance of Western countries is decreasing. Economic success stories can be found from China to Brazil, and political stability has increased from Botswana to Namibia.
And when have you heard news from Chile? asks Rosling and answers his own question.
– There is less news about stable development. Dictatorships and overthrows get attention. General Augusto Pinochet since then it has been quieter.
Ola Rosling says that her father often thought about the divided world view.
– It is not true that only we Europeans are hard-working and rich and the rest are poor people.
It is now five years since the death of Professor Hans Rosling. What would he think of the world now?
– Father noted the president Vladimir Putin to be upset, but he couldn’t predict this. You can’t read the start of the war from the statistics.
Ola Rosling’s calendar is full to the minute before the turn of the year, when the media makes lists of the year’s events. Toivo’s traveling preacher’s phone is ringing and interview requests are pouring in.
– I would rather be a positive realist every day of the year.
What kind of positive news have you noticed?