PHM-Exch> Food for changing and transforming a thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 279



WE ARE SWARMED BY TOO MANY STATISTICS AND DATA THAT, AT THE END OF THE DAY,
PROVIDE TOO LITTLE VALUABLE ACTIONABLE INFORMATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.



-These days, we do not say or do anything that does not have numbers
attached (statistics); judgment comes from the latter. More numbers, more
graphs, more histograms with a % on the top and history thrusts forward
defying anyone who contradicts…

-Beware: Indicators only indicate, they do not explain; they can be seen as
snapshots of a small part of the reality.



Over millennia, we have progressed from hunter-gatherers to [uncritical?]
information gatherers. There has simply been an exponential increase in
often profoundly disruptive information. Too bad, because right now,
statistics have often become “human beings with the tears wiped off”.
Information may be power, but it is not knowledge, it certainly is not
wisdom.



One of the barriers to progress in our human rights (HR) work, I contend,
has been that statistical agencies around the world are run by economists
and statisticians… and they are not always people who are comfortable with
human beings or with HR. The selected national measures they employ tell us
a good deal about the economy, but almost nothing about the specific things
in people’s lives that really matter to them.  We thus have to stop acting
as if just more/better ‘any-data’ will make a difference in HR.



For the full Reader, go to

http://wp.me/plAxa-1xm

Claudio
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