Factfulness by Hans Rosling
We are all conditioned in one way or the other to think of the worst when it comes to issues regarding the world and its development. At the beginning of the book, Hans offers 13 fact questions related to poverty and wealth, education, population growth, health among others to help the reader test their knowledge of the world. Based on the questions, he shares 10 reasons and misconceptions of our view of the world. Reading this book opened my eyes and changed my perspective on the growth of less developed countries like Uganda. Although there is still a lot to be done, they have made considerable progress.
Instead of generalizing the world into developed and developing countries, Hans introduced four income levels and shows how different countries/ individuals have progressed through these levels. He uses vivid examples such as mode of cooking and transport to explain each of the levels in detail. Reading the examples and characteristics of people on the different levels helped me see my evolution from level one to where I am now. The book also compares Sweden in the past to some of the countries on each level and shares insights on how they have progressed.
There is so much to learn from each chapter, with a wealth of statistics that will help change your perspective of the world.
The world is surely much better than we think!