Learning activity 4

Many times, if we listen to the news, it will seem that the world is getting worse. In

reality, except for a few indicators, the world is getting better. This is contrary to

what can be intuitively expected or what it may seem to us by looking at certain

indicators, but when we see the “big picture”, we see that it is true.

How is it getting better and better? And the crisis? It is true that there are areas

that may have worsened a bit, but the truth is that if we look at the world as a

whole, we will see that so many people have never been able to read and write,

that extreme poverty has never dropped so much or that there are fewer and fewer

wars.

Did you know that at least two of the world's great powers have been at war for

more than half the time since about 1,500?

The first half of the 20th century was especially bloody. There were two world wars

practically in a row but now we can say that, for the first time in all of history, there

have been no wars or conflicts in Western Europe in three generations.

More or less, half of the world's population lives in democracy today, something

unthinkable a few centuries ago.

90% of the population that lives under autocracies is in China and it seems that the

Asian country is opening up little by little and many experts think that its economic

development will lead to democracy.