If Earth's population was shrunk into a village of just 100 people, with all human ratios existing in the world still remaining, what would this tiny, diverse village look like?In 1999, Phillip M. Harter, a medical doctor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, defined these population statistics. They have been revised to reflect more current demographices:
61 would be Asian
12 would be European
14 would be from the Western Hemisphere
13 would be African
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
68 would be non-Christian
32 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
50 would suffer from malnutrition
6 would not be able to read at all; 4 of the 6 would be women
1 would be near death
1 would be pregnant
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
Think of it this way. If you live in a good home, have plenty to eat and can read, you are a member of a very select group. And if you have a good house, food, can read and have a computer, you among the very elite. If you woke up this morning with more health that illness... you are more fortunate 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 fortunate, more that three billion people in the world can't. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on you back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of the 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.
If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than over one billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
I forget sometimes how much I have to be grateful for.
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4 comments:
So why is it that the more we have, the poorer we feel?
it sure does put things in perspective doesn't it?
My parents are still alive, still married (to each other) and still in love (with each other)! I have known and appreciated this all my life. So first and foremost I am grateful to my parents and all the rest which I have in life now I still owe to my parents' teaching and example. Putting it all in perspective it is the parents, heavenly and earthly, who have the greatest impact on your life.
Happy thanksgiving to all of you but especially to my mother and to my father.
I second that vickers!! And to add upon that I am thankful for my awesome sisters whom I have looked up to for a long time and have tried to emulate!! You both are the greatest examples to me!
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