Glass half full dept: FP’s optimist has one of the year’s top ideas
The New York Times Magazine‘s Year in Ideas issue and all of it is fascinating and well worth a read. But we were particularly happy to see that our colleague Charles Kenny’s notion that 2000-2010 was the greatest decade in human history made the cut. Here’s part of the write-up by Clay Risen: Average worldwide ...
The New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas issue and all of it is fascinating and well worth a read. But we were particularly happy to see that our colleague Charles Kenny's notion that 2000-2010 was the greatest decade in human history made the cut. Here's part of the write-up by Clay Risen:
The New York Times Magazine‘s Year in Ideas issue and all of it is fascinating and well worth a read. But we were particularly happy to see that our colleague Charles Kenny’s notion that 2000-2010 was the greatest decade in human history made the cut. Here’s part of the write-up by Clay Risen:
Average worldwide income, at $10,600, is 25 percent higher than it was a decade ago. Thanks to increases in agriculture efficiency, cereal production grew at double the rate of population in the developing world. Vaccine initiatives have helped cut the death rate from common diseases like measles by 60 percent. Child mortality is down 17 percent.
One of the many factors behind these improvements was increased telecommunications (especially television) in Africa and Asia: education and better health practices could penetrate communities where illiteracy and geographic isolation long stymied public-health efforts.
Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New American Foundation, wrote about the awesome aughts for FP’s print edition in September and about the positive effects of Television in Oct. 2009.
You can also now get Kenny’s shockingly positive take world events every week online. Check out his first two columns, debunking the idea of the oil curse, and celebrating the transformative power of the LED lightbulb.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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