I AM sure many of you are trying to follow the developments of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
There have been many enticing news – including the participation of North Korea, and the use of drones to put on a sky show, which was even more impressive than the traditional fireworks. And the great offer of South Korean conglomerate Samsung to all athletes participating in the games getting a free Samsung limited-edition special Galaxy Note 8.
Wow! And it also has a special Olympic logo at the back and a preloaded app which lists event schedules and Olympic events. It’s expensive, but it’s a great promotion to get your device to the top athletes in the world.
There was a slight controversy about this, though, as giving them to North Korean and Iranian athletes would violate international sanctions, but it seems to have been worked out.
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Every year, I am also excited to know about Mark Zuckberberg’s personal challenge project. Every year, he puts out a challenge for himself to do. Some of these were to visit every state, to run at least 365 miles, to build artificial intelligence for his house, and to read a book every two weeks (for a total of 25 books for the year). The most impressive for me was his plan to speak Mandarin. After that, he delivered a speech in China entirely in Mandarin. I am in awe.
This year, he vowed to do what everybody wants him to do – fix Facebook. This is work – Facebook has become so pervasive that it becomes important that they must do more to block fake news and online abuse. I hope he succeeds. Facebook has become too important to be misused without serious consequences.
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The last one I want to write about is about Bill Gates. As you may know, he founded Microsoft and became for many years the world’s most influential businessman, richest guy and technology leader. He later donated almost all his wealth to create the world’s biggest foundation to combat disease and improve education.
His Gates Foundation has been credited with saving millions of lives, particularly in Africa where simple vaccinations have saved lives. He has spent over $15 billion in the last 18 years and it is estimated that because of his work, where a projected 10 million would die before five years old in 2000, it went down to five million last year.
One of the questions he tackled this year is, if you save so many lives of kids, would that lead to overpopulation? Some interesting studies, especially by famous advocate Hans Rosling, have pointed out that it is not so.
Studies show that when more children live past the age of five, parents actually end up having fewer children when they’re confident the children will survive adulthood. The reason countries in Africa or most poor countries have many children is that it is an insurance policy against the tragic likelihood of losing a son or daughter and losing somebody to support you in your old age.
This pattern is actually clear in history. As death rates of children go down, so do birth rates. This happened to France in the 1700s, to Germany in the 1800s, to Argentina in the 1910s, and Bangladesh in the 1980s. I think we should stand at ease that lowering our death rates may not necessarily be bad for us in the long run.