Global Village

So I am sure we have all received emails talking about if the world were reduced to 100 people how many people would be educated, have computers, clean drinking water, etc..etc.. And I am reading this book called Globalization, Spirituality and Justice by a guy named Daniel Groody, and he talks about this global village of 100 people, but for some strange reason this one really hits home with me. He says that if the world as we know it today was proportionally reduced to a village of 100 people, 51 would be male; 49 would be female; 60 would be Asian, 14 African, 11 European, 14 American (north, south, central and Caribbean), and 1 Australian or New Zealander. 14 in this village would speak, as their first language, Mandarin, 6 English, 5 Spanish, 3 Hini, 3 Portuguese, 3 Bengali, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese, 1 Arabic, and 1 German. The other 61 would speak Indonesian, French, Italian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and many other languages. From a faith perspective, 33 would be Christian; 20 Muslim; 14 atheist, agnostic, or nonreligious; 13 Hindu; 13 from other religions; 6 Buddhist; and 1 Jewish.

In our global village of 100 people, the resources are unevenly distributed. The richest person in the village has as much as the poorest 57 taken together. 50 do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time, and 30 suffer malnutrition. 40 do not have access to adequate sanitation; 31 people live in substandard housing; 31 do not have electricity; 18 are unable to read; 15 do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 16 have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only 2 have a college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on 2 dollars a day or less.

In the book he shows that 95% of people live on less than $49/ day, 75% live on less than $10/day...how much do you spend in one day if you broke it down?? We may think we are poor and need to make more money, when the truth is...we are soo rich in comparison to so many! I look at those statistics and think...I am one of those that DOES have a reliable source of food, I am one of those that does NOT suffer from malnutrition, I am one of those that DOES have adequate sanitation, electricity, safe drinking water...I am one of those 16 that has access to the Internet (or else I wouldn't even be writing this!!)...I also own an automobile..and only 12 out of 100 people own one?...and last but not least...i am one of those 2 that has a college education, but not only a college education, I have the opportunity to pursue a masters. Now if these statistics don't put things into perspective for you...I truly don't know what will. We are soo very blessed, but what are we doing with these blessings?