{"id":2156,"date":"2021-12-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2021-11-30T13:22:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T12:22:31","slug":"factfulness-a-book-that-gave-me-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/2021\/12\/factfulness-a-book-that-gave-me-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Factfulness: A Book That Gave Me Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image:\u00a0<\/strong>“Hans Rosling”<\/span>\u00a9<\/span> mihi_tr.\u00a0Source – CC License<\/span><\/h2>\n \n

Author<\/strong>: Katharina Schwarck<\/p>\n\n\nMy dad had read Hans Rosling\u2019s book several months ago, had really enjoyed it and would recommend it to me on regular basis. I did not take him up on that offer very quickly. What he was telling me about the book sounded really interesting but I had already 33 books on my to-read-shelf on goodreads, so what\u2019s a girl supposed to do. One day this summer, however, I found myself on a train trip with said book and, for some reason that is still obscure to me today, I was more interested in reading that than the five novels I carry with me at all times (never be underbooked!). And so, I started reading Swedish doctor Hans Rosling\u2019s\u00a0Factfulness \u2013 Ten Reasons We\u2019re Wrong about the World \u2013 And Why Things Are Better than You Think,\u00a0<\/em>a book that gave me hope.\n\n\n\n\n\nNow, if you were asked how many people in this world have some access to electricity, what would your estimate be? 20%? 50%? My guess was around those numbers. According to the data used by Hans Rosling, it is 80%. I was impressed. When Rosling asks his readers whether they believe that in the past 20 years the proportion of the world living in extreme poverty has a) almost doubled, b) remained more or less the same, or c) almost halved, I was convinced the number of people living in extreme poverty must have grown over the past years. Surprise: the number has almost halved. Interestingly, politicians, doctors, diplomates, a gigantic number of people whom Hans Rosling asked these questions, all answered the same as me: wrong, and on top of that; incredibly pessimistic. Spoilers: that is exactly what\u00a0Factfulness<\/em>deals with: if everything is so much better than we think, then why do we think it?\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re a Zillenial like me, or any sane person really, you probably don\u2019t enjoy watching the news and you probably don\u2019t have a lot of faith in humanity left. There is war, people are starving while others die of obesity, people still get killed for their skin colour and there\u2019s the one that shall not be named that is making us feel like everything we do is in vain anyway: cLiMaTe ChAnGe.\u00a0So much fun<\/em>.\n\n\n\n\n\nThat is where Hans Rosling steps in. He says \u201cwait, guys, no, no, look back. We have come such a long way, don\u2019t give up now.\u201d I think\u00a0yeah, sure, Hans, when I watched the news last night everything seemed so great. Absolutely<\/em>. No, no. Everything is really much better than before. Remember how extreme poverty was almost halved in only two decades? Now we might say \u201cyeah, but Hans, that means there is still extreme poverty out there\u201d. Yes, but that means that something is working. It means that something is working and if we analyse what we\u2019ve done correctly, we can keep doing what has been working so well and hopefully halve it a second time as soon as possible.\u00a0Alright<\/em>.\n\n\n\n\n\nTo be completely honest with you, I often feel guilty for thinking that things are going well when there\u2019s still so much to do and I\u2019m sitting on my privileged Western high horse. \u201cBut what\u2019s the use in feeling frustrated about a future that isn\u2019t yet defined when we can look back at the past, be proud of it, learn from it, and keep going?\u201d\u00a0You\u2019re right, Hans. I feel a bit better now.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cAnd that thing about climate change\u2026 Fear and guilt will paralyse you, they won\u2019t save the world. Take your time and look at the data. Look at what works. Educate yourself and keep going. Nothing is as urgent as your fear makes you think.\u201d\u00a0Thank you, Hans. That sounds really nice\u2026<\/em>\n\n\n\n\n\nThe \u201cNegativity Instinct\u201d, the \u201cFear Instinct\u201d and many other fears and instincts are deconstructed in\u00a0Factulness<\/em>. All of the chapters aim towards analysing our fears and then dissolving them, while giving us concrete tools on how to analyse situations better and act better in them, based on Rosling\u2019s personal experiences as a doctor, as well as more general events that we have experienced as humanity. Sounds pretty nice, eh? I enjoyed it. But really, you should read it yourself, see what Hans has to say. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll enjoy it. I\u2019m just a girl with too many books on her to-read list who\u2019s writing a book review\u2026\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image:\u00a0“Hans Rosling”\u00a9 mihi_tr.\u00a0Source – CC License Author: Katharina Schwarck My dad had read Hans Rosling\u2019s book several months ago, had really enjoyed it and would recommend it to me on regular basis. I did not take him up on that offer very quickly. What he was telling me about the book sounded really interesting but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002188,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[69],"class_list":{"0":"post-2156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-2021-winter","7":"tag-book-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}