Prof. G is going to TED2009!

I am ecstatic!!! I am getting SO EXCITED about going to TED Feb 2-6, 2009!

They just sent me the line up of speakers that includes Bill Gates on Day One. It is said that you can measure your influence by the people you interact with. My influence will be exponentially shifting from this event and it's already shifting from my introduction to the other 30 fellows. We are movers and shakers on the planet. About the conference theme:

Our theme is "The Great Unveiling" and every speaker is planning to share something they've never shared in public before. Stand by for new discoveries, new ideas, new beginnings. (In addition to the featured speakers, we have more than 50 members of the audience offering shorter contributions.)

I won't be speaking on stage but I have the opportunity speak among the TED fellows and be recorded for a TED U TALK!!! I am there!! Enjoy the video and stay tuned to the blog in February. I'll blog each day about it. For now, check out this teaser that was sent to us.



PS. There is one AMAZING TED talk I didn't get to show this term. It's by HANS GOSLING. Look in our tag cloud and check it out. It is relevant to what we think about the THIRD WORLD and how to debunk the stereotypes we have about us vs. them. Simply look for Hans Gosling in the blog's tag cloud.

Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world

Another Ted Talk video!


What point is Professor Gosling making with his finale? Does it work? Why or why not? And for whom might it work? Why or why not?

TED TALK: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen

Thursday September 27th, in our Introduction to Cultural Anthro at Baruch College, we watched a TED TALK video (Technology Entertainment and Design) of Hans Gosling Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen.

In the video he uses the acronym "OECD" that stands for:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. For more see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OECD. Here's the video for those who missed class Thursday.


After the 4:05 section, one student asked a great question, which went over my head at the time. Gosling is debunking third-world myths but after viewing the video, the student said, they are still considered third-world myths after viewing the video. Gosling doesn't ask us to stop using "third world". I explained his intention but I had an epiphany about his question just after the student left class. We think we are trying to change things (change "third-world" to ???). But this video is about attacking people's PERCEPTIONS. Perceptions are the front-line of sustaining "social constructs" and this is why the study of cultural anthropology can be so meaningful with its emic and etic perspectives on the so-called Third World or on those who led us to using those terms in the first place (precursors to OECD??).

What do you think is the power of the video? What does it attack in your own preconceptions of the world not just the "third world"?