Comments on: Yes they can!

By: lakshna

lakshna — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:08:14 +0000

These are fabulous charts. What tool has been used to create these?
thanks

By: Hans Rosling: Global health expert and data visionary | OBRA MAESTRA

Hans Rosling: Global health expert and data visionary | OBRA MAESTRA — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:03:33 +0000

[...] this Video Yes they can! Posted February 16, 2009 Swedish students say: “They can never live like us”Time to [...]

By: Vo Viet Anh

Vo Viet Anh — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:21:38 +0000

Professor, you know much much more than us students but we learned from college a fundamental thing and we can even process our brains to perceive that it’s way true that race and geographic location are two defining elements which decide whether ‘yes they can!’ or ‘no they absolutely can’t!’

By: admin

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:53:21 +0000

In SVT’s (Swedish Television) main studio.

By: Al

Al — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:42:57 +0000

Does anyone know where this presentation took place?

By: Staffan

Staffan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:14:12 +0000

Dear Douglas, such predictions are always very difficult to make. What we can say is that many people WILL increase their standard of living. We can also follow the trends in population growth and urbanization and see that the total population will grow mainly or only in urban areas, and that population growth will decrease in the future with declining fertility rate.

What effect these trends will have on “the world” as you ask, depends completely on how challenges are met and planned for.

/Staffan, Gapminder

By: From a developing country

From a developing country — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:59:01 +0000

Great! I totally agree!
It is much easier to explaing to someone that already had all these things to reduce his/her consume, than to say someone that dreamed about something his/her whole life that he/she will never have this due to environmental change! I love this site…
But, I have a doubt… Is there any statistics that show what can happen to the world if in the next 10 years a great part of this people improve they standard of living?

By: Patricia Jones

Patricia Jones — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:59:01 +0000

The explanation is great. I really enjoyed the presentation. I also feel this perception can be applied to individual countries regarding their population as well as to the world regarding the countries/areas. I am sure even in Sweden there are people who are still living in the “1800’s” even if the country as a whole is in the “2000’s”. It worries me that the human race will always strive to be ‘the best’ and have ‘the best’ but do not see (or care about) the impact this is having on others or the planet. We do not have to look at the big picture to see this – just look around where you are now.

By: Evolutor

Evolutor — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:22:45 +0000

I think Mr. Rosling is a great person and I suppose he’s a great professor. However he seems to be looking at things only from his specific point of view – that of a public health specialist.
The way of life in Scandinavia is not only result of the improvement in public health and getting richer. It was the RATE of the change (200 y = 10 generations) that played a significant role.
Gradually improving the economy eficiency, the education, the healthcare, generation after generation, alows you to maintain stable social structure because it doesn’t allow for great differences in lifestyle to appear between the different social groups.
Imagine now that you are living with a dollar a day in a village somewhere and overnight you become a millionaire. How do you think this will change you life? And imagine how such a change will affect the society you live in.
Thats what’s happening in developing countries now (of course it happened in most of the oil-rich countries but most of them are muslim and that is what kept their social structure stable).
The formation of new elites in the developing countries SO FAST is what will keep their people from reaching the standards of the Swedish society for example. Because when a bunch of guys who have a lot of money take the power in a country where a lot of the people a illiterate, they do everything they can to maintain their standard of living, do as little as possible to improve the standart of everyone else, and do nothing to educate the lower classes because after all people are needed for the dirty jobs as well (and no, technology won’t deprive society of dirty jobs).

Still, this is a great site and I wish you all the best!

By: Endforeignness

Endforeignness — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:59:34 +0000

Information like this is important and Gapminder does a great service in visualising it. It helps us understand that there is nothing at all unchangeable about world poverty, but does it motivates us to act? In 1800 Swedes helped Swedes and Britons helped Britons. Today if we really want to rapidly reduce preventable child mortality (around 150,000,000 between 2000 and 2015) then perhaps we need to think as humans helping humans. Does ‘yes we can’ makes more sense than ‘yes they can’?