Some
closing thoughts
Dear
Editors and Translators:
If
we could shrink the earth's population to a village of Precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the
same, it would look something
like the following:
There
would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52
would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and
all 6 would be
from the United States.
80
would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When
one considers our world from such a compressed perspective,
the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes
glaringly apparent. The following is also something to ponder...
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...
you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this
week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the
loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs
of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the
world.
If
you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three
billion people in the world. If you have food in the refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you
are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the
bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ...
you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy. If your parents
are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even
in the United States and Canada.
If
you can read this message, you just received a double blessing
in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are
more blessed than over two
billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
Michael
|