Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Human Perspective

If the world is represented by 100 people, then...

  • 50 would be male, 50 female
  • 26 would be children, 74 adults of which 8 are 65 or older
  • 23 would have no roof over their heads
  • 13 would have no safe drinking water
  • 15 would be undernourished, 1 would be starving and 23 would be overweight
  • 78 would not have access to a computer, 7 would have a college degree
  • 17 would be unable to read or write
  • 33 would be Christians, 22 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists, 12 other, 12 no religion
  • 60 would live in Asia, 15 in Africa, 14 in The Americas and 11 in Europe
  • 70 would be non white of which 21 would be Chinese and 17 Indians
  • 32 would breathe polluted air
  • 22 would have no electricity
  • 16 would have no toilets, 19 would have only the crudest of facilities
  • 48 would live on $2 (US) or less per day, 1 of 2 children would live in poverty 
  • 48 wouldn't be able to freely speak or act according to their faith or conscience due to harassment, imprisonment, torture or death
So, in the real world of 7 billion people:

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes to wear, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and some spare change, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.

If you have never experiened the danger of battle, the agony of inprisonment or torture or the horrible pangs of starvation, you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.

If you can read this, you are more fortunate than 1 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

100% of the people share one planet--no exceptions!

Kinda makes you think, doesn't it? That "Do unto others... " thing takes on little more meaning in real life.

Caveat: These are aggregated statistics from several sources and are accurate to estimate order of magnitude.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting Jerry, I had seen this once before years ago. And I needed to read it again. I find it very profound. I had to facebook share. :o)

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