The following was sent to me by email and it got me thinking....as it should. Have a read, get angry.

Listening to: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire

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:

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.

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 place of worship 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 world's 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 are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.



“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.” - Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)

AJ