hans rosling's 53-second talk

this was taken from the tedxsummit 2012 in the city of doha, qatar, attended by many tedx organizers from all over the planet. i've always wanted to be like him - a medical doctor and a statistician - and i still do, but this is wishful thinking from a man with so many numbers swimming inside his brilliant head.

at some point i want to disagree with him, because in my 2 and a half decades of existence the poorest in my province hasn't made much progress. they're still stuck beneath that thing you call the poverty line. multiply their numbers by 70x for the other provinces in this developing nation and by 100x for all other third world countries. easily that's more than 1 billion in the world who are not moving up the social ladder.

that's just something to think about. positive predictions are pretty and all, but when it comes down to facts needed in policy-making, scientists and politicians alike should get a grip at reality, because the truth will set us free.