Information is Beautiful
February 25th, 2011It is a long time since I have been given a book which I cannot stop looking at. Today Owen gave me a fantastic book and I was dipping into it all day! It is called Information is Beautiful, by David Candless. Owen must know me very well… This is a book which I wouldn’t have known how to find, but which I love. It basically presents statistics (some comical, some sobering) in a graphical/visual format. Information graphics at their best.
Here is an example:
I cannot believe how much the war is Iraq is costing, compared to how much it would cost to lift 1 billion people out of extreme poverty!!
This book is brilliant… I am hooked!
February 28th, 2011 at 09:17
To be strictly correct, the $300M to lift a billion people out of debt is obviously some sort of estimate. We have seen large amounts given in the past to ‘aid’ poorer countries and it tends to be stolen or re-directed. Trade is how to make countries richer so a better plan would be to remove these unfair subsidies that some westerns farmers are given and also to stop sending food aid where it is possible to help the locals grow their own, i.e. invest $1M in the local farming community in preference to sending $1M worth of food which puts the locals out of business!