As I was watching Hans Hosling's TED talk presentation on the topic of poverty, economy, and health, I found myself deeply satisfied with his way of professional and well thought-out presentation skills. He started his talk with a chart showing the relationship between the average birth amounts per country, versus the average length of life per country. Intriguingly enough, from the year 1950, there existed two "clumps" of data on the opposite ends of the chart depicting a relationship between the countries with the most technological development such as America, to the less modernized countries, such as Africa. From this time to to the year 2003 however, this polar opposite relationship moves greatly towards the upper, more longer-living side of the chart. Aside from this data, I found it very interesting to the fact that, on another graph depicting the relationship between mortality rate in infants and wealth per capita, as the U.S. progressed further in time, it held a strong hold to the wealth side of the chart while the mortality rate side stayed relatively
higher than other countries. A statement on a capitalist society? Maybe so, but every one person has their own opinions, and sometimes those opinions aren't as readily accepted by others as one may think. Reflecting back upon Hans' presentation, one will see that all of the information that I found personally intriguing, along with much more, is presented very effectively. This man is truly one of the most inertly extravagant thinkers that I have seen speak about the world we live in. Not only due to his professional attitude and presentation techniques, but also due to his ability to speak fluently and rationally without pausing or breaking amidst his presentation. The hard-hitting ideas provoked by him were impressive, and to have to think about them can literally boggle one's mind. He was also able to tap-in to the audience's humorous side, only further keeping his audience interested and attentive. Aside from all of his presentation of global statistics, which could, if looked upon with the right mind could change the world, he did something to further prove his point that the seemingly impossible is indeed possible. At the end of the show, he ripped-his shirt off, was given a sword, and swallowed in in front of the entire TED audience.
Crazy, right? Although it may be a little bit of a cliche way of proving a point, it definitely impressed the audience. What I, and what I think everyone else who watches this video should take from it, is that human existence has been proven throughout time to be successful and revolutionary, and just recently it has come to a point of almost absolute success. Take a look at Africa, fifty years ago, one would describe the country of having medieval-like traits, to being a country flourishing, (in the sense that mostly
anything is flourishing compared to medieval times) and in many cases, educated. It's like a dried-out, unused clay mound thrown under a desk, amidst world of carefully crafted clay statues. Then, in the past fifty years, that clay statue was found, moistened, and crafted by an apprentice statue-maker. Still not much compared to the beautiful artwork of the modern world, but at least it's
something now. It just goes to show anyone, when something is labeled "impossible" what they are really saying is that it's going to take a lot of work to accomplish. The point is, though, that any problem in this world can be solved by human creativity and will, all it takes is the correct form of determination.
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