ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Simon Anholt - Policy advisor
After 20 years working with the presidents and prime ministers of 54 countries, Simon Anholt has a plan to make the world work better.

Why you should listen

For 20 years, Simon Anholt has worked with the presidents, prime ministers and governments of more than fifty nations, devising strategies and policies to help them to engage more imaginatively and productively with the international community. 

In 2014, impatient to do better, Anholt founded the Good Country, a project aimed at helping countries work together to tackle global challenges like climate change, poverty, migration and terrorism, by mobilizing "the only superpower left on the planet: global public opinion."

According to The Independent, Anholt's aim is to change the way countries, cities and companies work "...by us all encouraging their leaders to think about the global impact of their actions, rather than cut-throat self-interest."

Measurement of Good Country progress is done through Anholt's Good Country Index, the only survey to rank countries according to their contribution to humanity and the planet rather than their domestic performance. According to The Guardian, "He has built his career in part as a formidable cruncher of data." Since 2005, his research into global perceptions of nations and cities has collected and analyzed over 300 billion data points. 

In 2016, Anholt launched the Global Vote, a project that enables anybody in the world to vote in other countries' elections, choosing the candidate who is likely to do most for humanity and the planet: three months later over 100,000 people from 130 countries took part in the Global Vote on the US Presidential Election. The Global Vote now covers an election somewhere in the world almost every month.

Anholt is an Honorary Professor of Political Science and the author of five books about countries, cultures and globalisation. He is the founder and Editor Emeritus of a leading academic journal focused on public diplomacy and perceptions of places.

 

More profile about the speaker
Simon Anholt | Speaker | TED.com
TEDSalon Berlin 2014

Simon Anholt: Which country does the most good for the world?

Filmed:
6,237,290 views

It's an unexpected side effect of globalization: problems that once would have stayed local—say, a bank lending out too much money—now have consequences worldwide. But still, countries operate independently, as if alone on the planet. Policy advisor Simon Anholt has dreamed up an unusual scale to get governments thinking outwardly: The Good Country Index. In a riveting and funny talk, he answers the question, "Which country does the most good?" The answer may surprise you (especially if you live in the US or China).
- Policy advisor
After 20 years working with the presidents and prime ministers of 54 countries, Simon Anholt has a plan to make the world work better. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
I've been thinking a lot about the world recently
0
988
3057
00:16
and how it's changed over the last 20, 30, 40 years.
1
4045
3687
00:19
Twenty or 30 years ago,
2
7732
2419
00:22
if a chicken caught a cold and sneezed and died
3
10151
2530
00:24
in a remote village in East Asia,
4
12681
1969
00:26
it would have been a tragedy for the chicken
5
14650
2370
00:29
and its closest relatives,
6
17020
1197
00:30
but I don't think there was much possibility
7
18217
2208
00:32
of us fearing a global pandemic
8
20425
2675
00:35
and the deaths of millions.
9
23100
1993
00:37
Twenty or 30 years ago, if a bank in North America
10
25093
2728
00:40
lent too much money to some people
11
27821
2145
00:42
who couldn't afford to pay it back
12
29966
2021
00:44
and the bank went bust,
13
31987
1732
00:45
that was bad for the lender
14
33719
1017
00:46
and bad for the borrower,
15
34736
1632
00:48
but we didn't imagine it would bring
16
36368
1863
00:50
the global economic system to its knees
17
38231
2215
00:52
for nearly a decade.
18
40446
2802
00:55
This is globalization.
19
43248
1586
00:57
This is the miracle that has enabled us
20
44834
2486
00:59
to transship our bodies and our minds
21
47320
3094
01:02
and our words and our pictures and our ideas
22
50414
2362
01:04
and our teaching and our learning around the planet
23
52776
3185
01:08
ever faster and ever cheaper.
24
55961
3008
01:11
It's brought a lot of bad stuff,
25
58969
1488
01:12
like the stuff that I just described,
26
60457
1644
01:14
but it's also brought a lot of good stuff.
27
62101
2602
01:16
A lot of us are not aware
28
64703
1590
01:18
of the extraordinary successes of
the Millennium Development Goals,
29
66293
3977
01:22
several of which have achieved their targets
30
70270
1730
01:24
long before the due date.
31
72000
1687
01:25
That proves that this species of humanity
32
73687
3015
01:28
is capable of achieving extraordinary progress
33
76702
3004
01:31
if it really acts together and it really tries hard.
34
79706
4450
01:36
But if I had to put it in a nutshell these days,
35
84156
2317
01:38
I sort of feel that globalization
36
86473
2898
01:41
has taken us by surprise,
37
89371
1843
01:43
and we've been slow to respond to it.
38
91214
2780
01:46
If you look at the downside of globalization,
39
93994
2231
01:48
it really does seem to be sometimes overwhelming.
40
96225
2952
01:51
All of the grand challenges that we face today,
41
99177
2109
01:53
like climate change and human rights
42
101286
3157
01:56
and demographics and terrorism and pandemics
43
104443
4298
02:00
and narco-trafficking and human slavery
44
108741
2643
02:03
and species loss, I could go on,
45
111384
2720
02:06
we're not making an awful lot of progress
46
114104
1956
02:08
against an awful lot of those challenges.
47
116060
2382
02:10
So in a nutshell, that's the challenge
48
118442
1863
02:12
that we all face today
49
120305
1439
02:13
at this interesting point in history.
50
121744
2498
02:16
That's clearly what we've got to do next.
51
124242
1902
02:18
We've somehow got to get our act together
52
126144
3046
02:21
and we've got to figure out how to globalize
53
129190
1878
02:23
the solutions better
54
131068
1935
02:25
so that we don't simply become a species
55
133003
2544
02:27
which is the victim of the globalization of problems.
56
135547
4916
02:32
Why are we so slow at achieving these advances?
57
140463
3647
02:36
What's the reason for it?
58
144110
2157
02:38
Well, there are, of course, a number of reasons,
59
146267
1944
02:40
but perhaps the primary reason
60
148211
2511
02:42
is because we're still organized as a species
61
150722
3454
02:46
in the same way that we were organized
62
154176
1602
02:47
200 or 300 years ago.
63
155778
2672
02:50
There's one superpower left on the planet
64
158450
1688
02:52
and that is the seven billion people,
65
160138
2072
02:54
the seven billion of us who cause all these problems,
66
162210
2390
02:56
the same seven billion, by the way,
67
164600
1883
02:58
who will resolve them all.
68
166483
1840
03:00
But how are those seven billion organized?
69
168323
2439
03:02
They're still organized in 200 or so nation-states,
70
170762
3690
03:06
and the nations have governments
71
174452
2497
03:09
that make rules
72
176949
1815
03:10
and cause us to behave in certain ways.
73
178764
2932
03:13
And that's a pretty efficient system,
74
181696
1890
03:15
but the problem is that the
way that those laws are made
75
183586
2981
03:18
and the way those governments think
76
186567
2565
03:21
is absolutely wrong for the
solution of global problems,
77
189132
2486
03:23
because it all looks inwards.
78
191618
2611
03:26
The politicians that we elect
79
194229
1589
03:28
and the politicians we don't elect, on the whole,
80
195818
2392
03:30
have minds that microscope.
81
198210
1499
03:31
They don't have minds that telescope.
82
199709
2700
03:34
They look in. They pretend, they behave,
83
202409
3467
03:38
as if they believed that every country was an island
84
205876
4394
03:42
that existed quite happily, independently
85
210270
1981
03:44
of all the others
86
212251
1475
03:45
on its own little planet
87
213726
1817
03:47
in its own little solar system.
88
215543
1952
03:49
This is the problem:
89
217495
1803
03:51
countries competing against each other,
90
219298
2118
03:53
countries fighting against each other.
91
221416
1802
03:55
This week, as any week you care to look at,
92
223218
1731
03:57
you'll find people actually trying to kill
each other from country to country,
93
224949
3433
04:00
but even when that's not going on,
94
228382
1821
04:02
there's competition between countries,
95
230203
1935
04:04
each one trying to shaft the next.
96
232138
2612
04:06
This is clearly not a good arrangement.
97
234750
2079
04:09
We clearly need to change it.
98
236829
1961
04:10
We clearly need to find ways
99
238790
1978
04:12
of encouraging countries to start working together
100
240768
2645
04:15
a little bit better.
101
243413
1611
04:17
And why won't they do that?
102
245024
2270
04:19
Why is it that our leaders still persist in looking inwards?
103
247294
4128
04:23
Well, the first and most obvious reason
104
251422
1716
04:25
is because that's what we ask them to do.
105
253138
1913
04:27
That's what we tell them to do.
106
255051
1684
04:28
When we elect governments
107
256735
1420
04:30
or when we tolerate unelected governments,
108
258155
2531
04:32
we're effectively telling them that what we want
109
260686
2476
04:35
is for them to deliver us in our country
110
263162
2683
04:38
a certain number of things.
111
265845
1733
04:39
We want them to deliver prosperity,
112
267578
2955
04:42
growth, competitiveness, transparency, justice
113
270533
4766
04:47
and all of those things.
114
275299
1675
04:49
So unless we start asking our governments
115
276974
2270
04:51
to think outside a little bit,
116
279244
2281
04:53
to consider the global problems that will finish us all
117
281525
2452
04:56
if we don't start considering them,
118
283977
1959
04:58
then we can hardly blame them
119
285936
2318
05:00
if what they carry on doing is looking inwards,
120
288254
2715
05:03
if they still have minds that microscope
121
290969
1812
05:04
rather than minds that telescope.
122
292781
1926
05:06
That's the first reason why
things tend not to change.
123
294707
2938
05:09
The second reason is that these governments,
124
297645
3254
05:13
just like all the rest of us,
125
300899
1826
05:14
are cultural psychopaths.
126
302725
2625
05:17
I don't mean to be rude,
127
305350
1307
05:18
but you know what a psychopath is.
128
306657
1407
05:20
A psychopath is a person who,
129
308064
1728
05:21
unfortunately for him or her,
130
309792
1537
05:23
lacks the ability to really empathize
131
311329
2039
05:25
with other human beings.
132
313368
1813
05:27
When they look around,
133
315181
1139
05:28
they don't see other human beings
134
316320
1662
05:30
with deep, rich, three-dimensional personal lives
135
317982
3114
05:33
and aims and ambitions.
136
321096
1128
05:34
What they see is cardboard cutouts,
137
322224
2997
05:37
and it's very sad and it's very lonely,
138
325221
2573
05:39
and it's very rare, fortunately.
139
327794
2738
05:42
But actually, aren't most of us
140
330532
3155
05:45
not really so very good at empathy?
141
333687
2239
05:48
Oh sure, we're very good at empathy
142
335926
1221
05:49
when it's a question of dealing with people
143
337147
1753
05:51
who kind of look like us
144
338900
1427
05:52
and kind of walk and talk and eat and pray
145
340327
2482
05:55
and wear like us,
146
342809
1682
05:56
but when it comes to people who don't do that,
147
344491
2021
05:58
who don't quite dress like us
148
346512
1417
06:00
and don't quite pray like us
149
347929
1847
06:01
and don't quite talk like us,
150
349776
2405
06:04
do we not also have a tendency to see them
151
352181
1879
06:06
ever so slightly as cardboard cutouts too?
152
354060
3426
06:09
And this is a question we need to ask ourselves.
153
357486
1708
06:11
I think constantly we have to monitor it.
154
359194
2486
06:13
Are we and our politicians to a degree
155
361680
3094
06:16
cultural psychopaths?
156
364774
2386
06:19
The third reason is hardly worth mentioning
157
367160
1648
06:21
because it's so silly,
158
368808
1451
06:22
but there's a belief amongst governments
159
370259
1940
06:24
that the domestic agenda
160
372199
1514
06:25
and the international agenda
161
373713
1507
06:27
are incompatible and always will be.
162
375220
2700
06:30
This is just nonsense.
163
377920
1910
06:32
In my day job, I'm a policy adviser.
164
379830
1478
06:33
I've spent the last 15 years or so
165
381308
2459
06:35
advising governments around the world,
166
383767
1810
06:37
and in all of that time I have never once seen
167
385577
3054
06:40
a single domestic policy issue
168
388631
2364
06:43
that could not be more imaginatively,
169
390995
2749
06:45
effectively and rapidly resolved
170
393744
2384
06:48
than by treating it as an international problem,
171
396128
2604
06:50
looking at the international context,
172
398732
1791
06:52
comparing what others have done,
173
400523
1795
06:54
bringing in others, working externally
174
402318
2959
06:57
instead of working internally.
175
405277
3367
07:00
And so you may say, well, given all of that,
176
408644
3222
07:04
why then doesn't it work?
177
411866
1669
07:05
Why can we not make our politicians change?
178
413535
2381
07:08
Why can't we demand them?
179
415916
2322
07:10
Well I, like a lot of us, spend
a lot of time complaining
180
418238
2878
07:13
about how hard it is to make people change,
181
421116
2353
07:15
and I don't think we should fuss about it.
182
423469
1779
07:17
I think we should just accept
183
425248
1596
07:19
that we are an inherently conservative species.
184
426844
2771
07:21
We don't like to change.
185
429615
1793
07:23
It exists for very sensible evolutionary reasons.
186
431408
2944
07:26
We probably wouldn't still be here today
187
434352
2767
07:29
if we weren't so resistant to change.
188
437119
2070
07:31
It's very simple: Many thousands of years ago,
189
439189
2553
07:33
we discovered that if we carried on
190
441742
1946
07:35
doing the same things, we wouldn't die,
191
443688
2430
07:38
because the things that we've done before
192
446118
1842
07:40
by definition didn't kill us,
193
447960
1578
07:41
and therefore as long as we carry on doing them,
194
449538
2077
07:43
we'll be okay,
195
451615
1407
07:45
and it's very sensible not to do anything new,
196
453022
1668
07:46
because it might kill you.
197
454690
2460
07:49
But of course, there are exceptions to that.
198
457150
2282
07:51
Otherwise, we'd never get anywhere.
199
459432
2502
07:54
And one of the exceptions, the interesting exception,
200
461934
1766
07:55
is when you can show to people
201
463700
1714
07:57
that there might be some self-interest
202
465414
2348
07:59
in them making that leap of faith
203
467762
1687
08:01
and changing a little bit.
204
469449
2267
08:03
So I've spent a lot of the last 10 or 15 years
205
471716
2402
08:06
trying to find out what could be that self-interest
206
474118
3138
08:09
that would encourage not just politicians
207
477256
2149
08:11
but also businesses and general populations,
208
479405
2553
08:14
all of us, to start to think a little more outwardly,
209
481958
3015
08:17
to think in a bigger picture,
210
484973
2239
08:19
not always to look inwards,
sometimes to look outwards.
211
487212
3342
08:22
And this is where I discovered
212
490554
2091
08:24
something quite important.
213
492645
2475
08:27
In 2005, I launched a study
214
495120
3560
08:30
called the Nation Brands Index.
215
498680
2590
08:33
What it is, it's a very large-scale study that polls
216
501270
2508
08:35
a very large sample of the world's population,
217
503778
2087
08:38
a sample that represents about 70 percent
218
505865
2497
08:40
of the planet's population,
219
508362
3229
08:43
and I started asking them a series of questions
220
511591
2036
08:45
about how they perceive other countries.
221
513627
2884
08:48
And the Nation Brands Index over the years
222
516511
1644
08:50
has grown to be a very, very large database.
223
518155
2503
08:52
It's about 200 billion data points
224
520658
2432
08:55
tracking what ordinary people
think about other countries
225
523090
2576
08:57
and why.
226
525666
1983
08:59
Why did I do this? Well, because
the governments that I advise
227
527649
2762
09:02
are very, very keen on knowing
228
530411
1305
09:03
how they are regarded.
229
531716
1615
09:05
They've known, partly because
230
533331
1445
09:06
I've encouraged them to realize it,
231
534776
1878
09:08
that countries depend
232
536654
1598
09:10
enormously on their reputations
233
538252
1556
09:12
in order to survive and prosper in the world.
234
539808
2947
09:14
If a country has a great, positive image,
235
542755
2249
09:17
like Germany has or Sweden or Switzerland,
236
545004
2517
09:19
everything is easy and everything is cheap.
237
547521
2095
09:21
You get more tourists. You get more investors.
238
549616
2236
09:24
You sell your products more expensively.
239
551852
2047
09:26
If, on the other hand, you have a country
240
553899
1958
09:28
with a very weak or a very negative image,
241
555857
2013
09:30
everything is difficult and everything is expensive.
242
557870
2430
09:32
So governments care desperately
243
560300
1901
09:34
about the image of their country,
244
562201
1265
09:35
because it makes a direct difference
245
563466
2134
09:37
to how much money they can make,
246
565600
1641
09:39
and that's what they've promised their populations
247
567241
1709
09:41
they're going to deliver.
248
568950
2357
09:43
So a couple of years ago, I thought I would take
249
571307
1963
09:45
some time out and speak to that gigantic database
250
573270
3229
09:48
and ask it,
251
576499
2207
09:50
why do some people prefer one country
252
578706
1892
09:52
more than another?
253
580598
1763
09:54
And the answer that the database gave me
254
582361
1539
09:56
completely staggered me.
255
583900
1696
09:57
It was 6.8.
256
585596
2189
09:59
I haven't got time to explain in detail.
257
587785
2089
10:02
Basically what it told me was —
258
589874
2356
10:04
(Laughter) (Applause) —
259
592230
4222
10:08
the kinds of countries we prefer are good countries.
260
596452
4232
10:12
We don't admire countries
primarily because they're rich,
261
600684
2821
10:15
because they're powerful,
because they're successful,
262
603505
2024
10:17
because they're modern, because
they're technologically advanced.
263
605529
3364
10:21
We primarily admire countries that are good.
264
608893
2853
10:23
What do we mean by good?
265
611746
1363
10:25
We mean countries that seem to contribute
266
613109
1671
10:26
something to the world in which we live,
267
614780
2569
10:29
countries that actually make the world safer
268
617349
2559
10:32
or better or richer or fairer.
269
619908
2577
10:34
Those are the countries we like.
270
622485
1465
10:36
This is a discovery of significant importance —
271
623950
2521
10:38
you see where I'm going —
272
626471
1353
10:40
because it squares the circle.
273
627824
1867
10:41
I can now say, and often do, to any government,
274
629691
2872
10:44
in order to do well, you need to do good.
275
632563
2858
10:47
If you want to sell more products,
276
635421
1495
10:49
if you want to get more investment,
277
636916
1536
10:50
if you want to become more competitive,
278
638452
2998
10:53
then you need to start behaving,
279
641450
1665
10:55
because that's why people will respect you
280
643115
1643
10:56
and do business with you,
281
644758
2069
10:59
and therefore, the more you collaborate,
282
646827
3083
11:02
the more competitive you become.
283
649910
2845
11:04
This is quite an important discovery,
284
652755
1778
11:06
and as soon as I discovered this,
285
654533
1080
11:07
I felt another index coming on.
286
655613
2245
11:10
I swear that as I get older, my ideas become simpler
287
657858
2346
11:12
and more and more childish.
288
660204
1296
11:13
This one is called the Good Country Index,
289
661500
3968
11:17
and it does exactly what it says on the tin.
290
665468
4053
11:21
It measures, or at least it tries to measure,
291
669521
2354
11:24
exactly how much each country on Earth contributes
292
671875
2763
11:26
not to its own population but to the rest of humanity.
293
674638
3155
11:29
Bizarrely, nobody had ever thought
294
677793
1267
11:31
of measuring this before.
295
679060
1689
11:32
So my colleague Dr. Robert Govers and I have spent
296
680749
2047
11:34
the best part of the last two years,
297
682796
1743
11:36
with the help of a large number
of very serious and clever people,
298
684539
3654
11:40
cramming together all the reliable data in the world
299
688193
2686
11:43
we could find about what countries give
300
690879
2643
11:45
to the world.
301
693522
1593
11:47
And you're waiting for me to
tell you which one comes top.
302
695115
2378
11:49
And I'm going to tell you,
303
697493
1728
11:51
but first of all I want to tell you
304
699221
1530
11:52
precisely what I mean
305
700751
2705
11:55
when I say a good country.
306
703456
2059
11:57
I do not mean morally good.
307
705515
2224
11:59
When I say that Country X
308
707739
1962
12:01
is the goodest country on Earth,
309
709701
2013
12:03
and I mean goodest, I don't mean best.
310
711714
1309
12:05
Best is something different.
311
713023
1453
12:06
When you're talking about a good country,
312
714476
1294
12:07
you can be good, gooder and goodest.
313
715770
2134
12:10
It's not the same thing as good, better and best.
314
717904
3472
12:13
This is a country which simply gives more
315
721376
2501
12:16
to humanity than any other country.
316
723877
2326
12:18
I don't talk about how they behave at home
317
726203
1742
12:20
because that's measured elsewhere.
318
727945
2400
12:22
And the winner is
319
730345
2060
12:24
Ireland.
320
732405
1811
12:26
(Applause)
321
734216
5674
12:32
According to the data here,
322
739890
1905
12:33
no country on Earth, per head of population,
323
741795
2890
12:36
per dollar of GDP, contributes more
324
744685
2925
12:39
to the world that we live in than Ireland.
325
747610
1636
12:41
What does this mean?
326
749246
1095
12:42
This means that as we go to sleep at night,
327
750341
2222
12:44
all of us in the last 15 seconds
before we drift off to sleep,
328
752563
3068
12:47
our final thought should be,
329
755631
1995
12:49
godammit, I'm glad that Ireland exists.
330
757626
2317
12:52
(Laughter)
331
759943
2198
12:54
And that — (Applause) —
332
762141
7097
13:01
In the depths of a very severe economic recession,
333
769238
3000
13:04
I think that there's a really important lesson there,
334
772238
2518
13:06
that if you can remember
your international obligations
335
774756
2116
13:09
whilst you are trying to rebuild your own economy,
336
776872
1970
13:11
that's really something.
337
778842
1038
13:12
Finland ranks pretty much the same.
338
779880
1655
13:13
The only reason why it's below Ireland
339
781535
1265
13:15
is because its lowest score is
lower than Ireland's lowest score.
340
782800
3083
13:18
Now the other thing you'll
notice about the top 10 there
341
785883
1797
13:19
is, of course, they're all, apart from New Zealand,
342
787680
2860
13:22
Western European nations.
343
790540
1710
13:24
They're also all rich.
344
792250
1680
13:26
This depressed me,
345
793930
1740
13:27
because one of the things that I did not want
346
795670
1512
13:29
to discover with this index
347
797182
1578
13:30
is that it's purely the province of rich countries
348
798760
2356
13:33
to help poor countries.
349
801116
1025
13:34
This is not what it's all about.
350
802141
2056
13:36
And indeed, if you look further down the list,
351
804197
1576
13:37
I don't have the slide here, you will see
352
805773
2326
13:40
something that made me very happy indeed,
353
808099
2289
13:42
that Kenya is in the top 30,
354
810388
2531
13:45
and that demonstrates one
very, very important thing.
355
812919
2885
13:48
This is not about money.
356
815804
1863
13:49
This is about attitude.
357
817667
1397
13:51
This is about culture.
358
819064
1466
13:52
This is about a government and a people that care
359
820530
3447
13:56
about the rest of the world
360
823977
1194
13:57
and have the imagination and the courage
361
825171
1992
13:59
to think outwards instead of only thinking selfishly.
362
827163
3237
14:02
I'm going to whip through the other slides
363
830400
1780
14:04
just so you can see some
of the lower-lying countries.
364
832180
2948
14:07
There's Germany at 13th, the U.S. comes 21st,
365
835128
3282
14:10
Mexico comes 66th,
366
838410
1741
14:12
and then we have some of
the big developing countries,
367
840151
2118
14:14
like Russia at 95th, China at 107th.
368
842269
3140
14:17
Countries like China and Russia and India,
369
845409
3004
14:20
which is down in the same part of the index,
370
848413
2553
14:23
well, in some ways, it's not surprising.
371
850966
2353
14:25
They've spent a great deal of time
372
853319
1539
14:27
over the last decades building their own economy,
373
854858
2163
14:29
building their own society and their own polity,
374
857021
2686
14:31
but it is to be hoped
375
859707
1666
14:33
that the second phase of their growth
376
861373
1367
14:34
will be somewhat more outward-looking
377
862740
1985
14:36
than the first phase has been so far.
378
864725
2527
14:39
And then you can break down each country
379
867252
2108
14:41
in terms of the actual datasets that build into it.
380
869360
3356
14:44
I'll allow you to do that.
381
872716
849
14:45
From midnight tonight it's going
to be on goodcountry.org,
382
873565
2662
14:48
and you can look at the country.
383
876227
1183
14:49
You can look right down to the
level of the individual datasets.
384
877410
3868
14:53
Now that's the Good Country Index.
385
881278
2218
14:55
What's it there for?
386
883496
1369
14:57
Well, it's there really because I want to try
387
884865
2285
14:59
to introduce this word,
388
887150
2451
15:01
or reintroduce this word, into the discourse.
389
889601
4323
15:06
I've had enough hearing about competitive countries.
390
893924
2189
15:08
I've had enough hearing about
391
896113
1795
15:10
prosperous, wealthy, fast-growing countries.
392
897908
3786
15:13
I've even had enough hearing about happy countries
393
901694
3248
15:17
because in the end that's still selfish.
394
904942
2041
15:19
That's still about us,
395
906983
1504
15:20
and if we carry on thinking about us,
396
908487
1868
15:22
we are in deep, deep trouble.
397
910355
2542
15:25
I think we all know what it is
398
912897
1631
15:26
that we want to hear about.
399
914528
1123
15:27
We want to hear about good countries,
400
915651
3045
15:30
and so I want to ask you all a favor.
401
918696
3630
15:34
I'm not asking a lot.
402
922326
1596
15:36
It's something that you might find easy to do
403
923922
1953
15:38
and you might even find enjoyable
404
925875
1025
15:39
and even helpful to do,
405
926900
1603
15:40
and that's simply to start using the word "good"
406
928503
3282
15:43
in this context.
407
931785
1682
15:45
When you think about your own country,
408
933467
2187
15:47
when you think about other people's countries,
409
935654
2129
15:49
when you think about companies,
410
937783
1783
15:51
when you talk about the world that we live in today,
411
939566
2211
15:53
start using that word
412
941777
1898
15:55
in the way that I've talked about this evening.
413
943675
2768
15:58
Not good, the opposite of bad,
414
946443
1904
16:00
because that's an argument that never finishes.
415
948347
2276
16:02
Good, the opposite of selfish,
416
950623
2344
16:05
good being a country that thinks about all of us.
417
952967
3183
16:08
That's what I would like you to do,
418
956150
1410
16:09
and I'd like you to use it as a stick
419
957560
1385
16:11
with which to beat your politicians.
420
958945
2643
16:13
When you elect them, when you reelect them,
421
961588
2307
16:16
when you vote for them, when you listen
422
963895
1412
16:17
to what they're offering you,
423
965307
2535
16:20
use that word, "good,"
424
967842
1712
16:21
and ask yourself,
425
969554
1484
16:23
"Is that what a good country would do?"
426
971038
2073
16:25
And if the answer is no, be very suspicious.
427
973111
3293
16:28
Ask yourself, is that the behavior
428
976404
2425
16:31
of my country?
429
978829
1436
16:32
Do I want to come from a country
430
980265
2132
16:34
where the government, in my name,
431
982397
1567
16:36
is doing things like that?
432
983964
1862
16:38
Or do I, on the other hand,
433
985826
1756
16:39
prefer the idea of walking around the world
434
987582
1628
16:41
with my head held high thinking, "Yeah,
435
989210
2154
16:43
I'm proud to come from a good country"?
436
991364
2491
16:46
And everybody will welcome you.
437
993855
1988
16:48
And everybody in the last 15 seconds
438
995843
1624
16:49
before they drift off to sleep at night will say,
439
997467
2670
16:52
"Gosh, I'm glad that person's country exists."
440
1000137
2881
16:55
Ultimately, that, I think,
441
1003018
2187
16:57
is what will make the change.
442
1005205
1754
16:59
That word, "good,"
443
1006959
1717
17:00
and the number 6.8
444
1008676
1647
17:02
and the discovery that's behind it
445
1010323
2258
17:04
have changed my life.
446
1012581
1668
17:06
I think they can change your life,
447
1014249
1887
17:08
and I think we can use it to change
448
1016136
1859
17:10
the way that our politicians
and our companies behave,
449
1017995
2420
17:12
and in doing so, we can change the world.
450
1020415
3865
17:16
I've started thinking very differently about
451
1024280
1550
17:18
my own country since I've been
thinking about these things.
452
1025830
2693
17:20
I used to think that I wanted to live in a rich country,
453
1028523
2087
17:22
and then I started thinking I
wanted to live in a happy country,
454
1030610
2400
17:25
but I began to realize, it's not enough.
455
1033010
2614
17:27
I don't want to live in a rich country.
456
1035624
2045
17:29
I don't want to live in a fast-growing
457
1037669
1933
17:31
or competitive country.
458
1039602
2683
17:34
I want to live in a good country,
459
1042285
3118
17:37
and I so, so hope that you do too.
460
1045403
3493
17:41
Thank you.
461
1048896
2584
17:43
(Applause)
462
1051480
4000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Simon Anholt - Policy advisor
After 20 years working with the presidents and prime ministers of 54 countries, Simon Anholt has a plan to make the world work better.

Why you should listen

For 20 years, Simon Anholt has worked with the presidents, prime ministers and governments of more than fifty nations, devising strategies and policies to help them to engage more imaginatively and productively with the international community. 

In 2014, impatient to do better, Anholt founded the Good Country, a project aimed at helping countries work together to tackle global challenges like climate change, poverty, migration and terrorism, by mobilizing "the only superpower left on the planet: global public opinion."

According to The Independent, Anholt's aim is to change the way countries, cities and companies work "...by us all encouraging their leaders to think about the global impact of their actions, rather than cut-throat self-interest."

Measurement of Good Country progress is done through Anholt's Good Country Index, the only survey to rank countries according to their contribution to humanity and the planet rather than their domestic performance. According to The Guardian, "He has built his career in part as a formidable cruncher of data." Since 2005, his research into global perceptions of nations and cities has collected and analyzed over 300 billion data points. 

In 2016, Anholt launched the Global Vote, a project that enables anybody in the world to vote in other countries' elections, choosing the candidate who is likely to do most for humanity and the planet: three months later over 100,000 people from 130 countries took part in the Global Vote on the US Presidential Election. The Global Vote now covers an election somewhere in the world almost every month.

Anholt is an Honorary Professor of Political Science and the author of five books about countries, cultures and globalisation. He is the founder and Editor Emeritus of a leading academic journal focused on public diplomacy and perceptions of places.

 

More profile about the speaker
Simon Anholt | Speaker | TED.com

Data provided by TED.

This site was created in May 2015 and the last update was on January 12, 2020. It will no longer be updated.

We are currently creating a new site called "eng.lish.video" and would be grateful if you could access it.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to write comments in your language on the contact form.

Privacy Policy

Developer's Blog

Buy Me A Coffee