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Will Life Get Better for the Poor?

2015-01-27 · letter vlog · John · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta, heavy topic

John relays the 2015 Gates letter's prediction that the poorest people's lives will improve dramatically in 15 years, argues the gap between rich and poor worlds is unnecessary, and urges listening better to people in poverty, since there is only one world.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The 2015 Gates annual letter predicts dramatic improvement for the poorest in 15 years; progress so far, yet 'two worlds'

  • ★★ John says Bill and Melinda Gates's annual letter just came out, calls it his favorite letter of the year, and urges reading the whole thing. — 00:00:01
  • ★★★ John says the Gates letter predicts that in the next 15 years the lives of the world's poorest people will become dramatically better. — 00:00:10 · extreme poverty
  • ★★★ John says hundreds of millions of people have left absolute poverty in the last 25 years, child mortality has been cut by half, and more kids than ever are vaccinated. — 00:00:16 · extreme poverty, child mortality, vaccine
  • ★★★ John says that despite this progress we still kind of live in two worlds. (hedged) — 00:00:23

00:00:28 — The two worlds compared: child deaths, malaria, vaccines, malnutrition, schooling; unacceptable and unnecessary

  • ★★ John says in the rich world fewer than 1% of kids die before age 5, almost no one gets malaria, few lack vaccines for want of refrigeration, and serious child malnutrition is extremely uncommon. — 00:00:28 · child mortality, malaria, vaccine
  • ★★★ John says in the other world 1.5 million kids die yearly of vaccine-preventable diseases, there are about 200 million malaria cases a year, and over 25% of kids are stunted by malnutrition. — 00:00:44 · vaccine, malaria
  • ★★ John says kids in the poor world are far less likely to go to school or learn to read, especially girls. — 00:00:59
  • ★★★ John calls all of that totally unacceptable and also unnecessary. — 00:01:04

00:01:09 — Halving child mortality again with cheap measures: breastfeeding, antibiotics, oxygen masks, warmth, cord care; no population explosion

  • ★★★ John says global child mortality halved in the last 25 years, and the Gates letter argues it can halve again in the next 15, without expensive specialists or new procedures. — 00:01:09 · child mortality
  • ★★ John says infants breastfed for six months are 14 times more likely to survive. — 00:01:22
  • ★★ John says access to cheap injectable antibiotics could save 300,000 kids a year. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says inexpensive hand-pumped oxygen masks could prevent a third of infant deaths. (hedged) — 00:01:31
  • ★★ John lists drying the baby with skin-to-skin warmth and keeping the umbilical cord free of infection, which can be done with an ingredient in his mouthwash. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John reminds viewers that cutting infant mortality does not lead to population explosions in the long run, but quite the opposite. — 00:01:47 · child mortality
  • ★★ John says the Gates letter also discusses other investments and innovations that improve poor people's lives, like mobile banking, better farming practices and online education tools. — 00:01:54

00:01:54 — Imagining the world the letter envisions: food, mobile banking, girls' education, diseases eradicated, half the child deaths averted

  • ★★★ John imagines the world the letter envisions: enough food grown in Africa for every African, mobile banking, girls educated, those diseases gone, half of today's child deaths averted, good for all. (hypothetical) — 00:02:02
  • ★★ John says 2.5 billion people lack a bank account, and that polio, river blindness and guinea worm kill or disable tens of millions of people. — 00:02:08

00:02:34 — There is one world: online reach and the empathy gap; listening to people in poverty; 'us problems'

  • ★★★ John says we do not actually live in two worlds; it only feels so because no one in his neighborhood, or whom he follows on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram, has stunted kids. — 00:02:34 · Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, othering
  • ★★★ John says the reach of his online life can feel infinite but isn't, which inevitably creates an empathy gap. — 00:02:48 · empathy
  • ★★ John quotes Bill and Melinda Gates: there is overwhelming evidence that people care about others who are suffering when they can see that suffering. — 00:02:54
  • ★★★ John says we often can't see that suffering, not because people in the developing world are silent but because we listen badly, preferring voices that feel close, like us. — 00:03:01

  • ★★★ John says how we imagine 'us' must include people in poverty, because there is just one world; distant, foreign-seeming problems are human problems, us problems. — 00:03:14 · othering

    “They're human problems; they're us problems.”

00:03:27 — Sign up to be a Global Citizen; hope to revisit the predictions in 15 years; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says the letter invites people to sign up as Global Citizens to become more informed and so more engaged, and hopes viewers join him; link in the doobly-doo. (hedged) — 00:03:27
  • ★★ John thinks the Global Citizen idea, that becoming more informed makes us more engaged, is brilliant, and hopes it helps him at least to listen better. (hedged) — 00:03:37
  • ★★ John hopes the brothers are still making videos in 15 years so they can discuss which of the Gates letter's predictions came true. (hedged) — 00:03:48

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: child mortality · empathy · extreme poverty · Gates Foundation annual letter · othering

Also: People: Bill Gates · Melinda French Gates

Organizations: Global Citizen · Instagram · Tumblr · Twitter

Concepts: Antibiotic · breastfeeding · dracunculiasis · echo chamber · human overpopulation · kangaroo care · malaria · malnutrition · mobile banking · onchocerciasis · oxygen mask · polio · stunted growth · umbilical cord · vaccine

Places: Africa

Also centred on Gates Foundation annual letter: Are Poor Countries Doomed? · How Energy and Time Change Everything · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. · I Predicted the Pandemic (over and over and over again)

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