If the world were a village of 100 people

[ciroccoj]

Saw this on TV the other day, on a kids' show. I've seen it a few times before, but it's worth taking a look and thinking about periodically, IMHO.

Personally I find it strikes a nerve when I've been thinking of personal stuff like budgets and getting through Christmas, and more general stuff like the Canadian election and the post-Kyoto talks. Kinda sobering. While I think of whether or not I can afford to fill up with extra-clean gas or not, 93% of the world never has to worry about that because they can't afford cars. While I bitch about how much it costs and how long it takes to prepare healthy, non-fattening, organic food, 17% have no access to clean, safe water.

While we try to figure out what the frig happened to $100 million of government money that was supposed to go to a sponsorship program, and what it means that it appears the Liberals spread it around like Christmas cheer amongst themselves, while we try to figure out how to get Canada to stop belching out crap that pollutes the rest of the world, and discussing whether our economy can or cannot take the strain of converting to cleaner cars/factories/etc... well.

***
In the world today [2003], 6 billion 300 million people live.

If this world were shrunk to the size of a village, what would it look like?

If 100 people lived in this village,

• 52 would be women, 48 would be men.
  
• 30 would be children, 70 would be adults.
  
• 7 would be aged.
  
• 70 would be nonwhite, 30 would be white.
  
• 61 would be Asian, 13 African, 13 from North and South America, 12 Europeans, and the remaining one from the South Pacific.
  
• 33 would be Christians, 19 believers in Islam, 13 would be Hindus, and 6 would follow Buddhist teachings. 5 would believe that there are spirits in the trees and rocks and in all of nature. 24 would be believe in other religions, or would believe in no religion.
  
• 17 would speak Chinese, 9 English, 8 Hindi and Urdu, 6 Spanish, 6 Russian, and 4 would speak Arabic. That would account for half the village. The other half would speak Bengal, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French, or some other language.
  
• In such a village with so many sorts of folks, it would be very important to learn to understand people different from yourself and to accept others as they are. But consider this. Of the 100 people in this village,
  
  • 20 are undernourished, 1 is dying of starvation, while 15 are overweight.
    
  • Of the wealth in this village, 6 people own 59% (all of them from the United States), 74 people own 39%, and 20 people share the remaining 2%.
    
  • Of the energy of this village, 20 people consume 80%, and 80 people share the remaining 20%.
  
  
  • 75 people have some supply of food and a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 do not. 17 have no clean, safe water to drink.
    
  • If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and spare change somewhere around the house, then you are among the richest 8.
    
  • If you have a car, you are among the richest 7.
    
  • Among the villagers, 1 has a college education. 2 have computers. 14 cannot read.
  
  
  • If you can speak and act according to your faith and your conscience without harassment, imprisonment, torture or death, then you are more fortunate than 48, who can not.
    
  • If you do not live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines, or of rape or kidnapping by armed groups, then you are more fortunate than 20, who do.
  
  
• In one year, 1 person in the village will die, but in the same year, 2 babies will be born, so that at the year's end the number of villagers will be 101.