The biggest shocker of ? That it really is a wonderful world. I was on LBC radio earlier, discussing the leading article in the Spectator Christmas special which explained why was the best year in human history. Never has the world been wealthier, never has the growth been more fairly distributed. Never has there been more of us but never has there been less hunger.
Progress against one of the biggest killers, Malaria, was slow ten years ago. The UN believes Africa could be just 12 years away from the end of famine. Good news seldom makes good copy, and not because of a wicked conspiracy by the press. The positive stuff is less likely to be read, or to sell newspapers. But what about that climate chaos? Quite the reverse. The storms still come, of course, but a richer world is better-prepared for them.
The developing world is never been better able to confront the fury of nature. We tend not to hear about all this because journalists, like politicians, are in the business of identifying and drawing attention to problems. But what is going wrong with the world is vastly outweighed by what is going right.
And the run of depressing news stories can actually blind us to the greatest story of our age: we really are on our way to making poverty history. Thanks to the way millions of people trade with each other, via a system known by its detractors as global capitalism.
But the story is there, for those with an eye to see it. PS And for anyone interested in this general idea, I can heartily recommend two things. The other is a short book that explained it all to me β and changed my mind about a lot of things and one I still give as a present to friends : In Defence of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg. Violence Vanquished. We believe our world is riddled with terror and war, but we may be living in the most peaceable era in human existence.
