When I was a kid if we didn’t eat all the food on our plate our parents would say, “Don’t you know there are people in China that are starving.” That doesn’t apply much anymore.

How much do you think you know about the world? On this Christmas Eve I’m going to start out with a quiz. For each pair tell which nation has the highest infant mortality rate.

Sri Lanka or Turkey

Poland or South Korea

Malaysia or Russia

Pakistan or Vietnam

Thailand or South Africa

Professor Hans Roslings will give you the answers in a fascinating speech about the changes occurring in the developing world. It is about 20 minutes long and divides the Third World into winners and losers. It culminates in a graph that compares the US and China and tells us what we know is transpiring, except in graph form it seems more menacing.