Development Roast Giving international development a proper roasting
By: Lykke E. Andersen*
There is probably nobody I admire more in the entire World than Hans Rosling, so getting him as keynote speaker for the next Bolivian Conference on Development Economics is a major coup. Unfortunately my biggest hero and role model seems to be largely unknown among Bolivian Economists. This is a disappointing fact, which I am going to work on remedying before Rosling comes to Bolivia; starting with this newsletter.
There are several things I love about Hans Rosling. The first is his chosen mission: To replace devastating myths with a fact-based worldview. This is absolutely crucial, because we can’t make sensible decisions and policies, if we have a completely distorted view of the world. And as Rosling has repeatedly pointed out, most of us know less about the World than a chimpanzee (see his first TED talk from 2006 “Debunking myths about the ‘third world’” or take his recent “Ignorance Test” at the BBC News Magazine yourself).