Suffering in our Village

Dustin Barrington — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:45:58 +0000

“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. Fifty 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 clean drinking water area only 16 people have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only two have a college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on two dollars a day or less. In brief, as the World Bank describes it, two thirds of the planet lives in poverty.”

[1] (Daniel G. Globalization, spirituality, and justice, page 3-4)

The World as a Village of 100

Dustin Barrington — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:05:52 +0000

“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 the 1 Australian or New Zealander. Drawing people together from many different cultures, languages, and religions, 14 in this village would speak, as their first language, (sic)[14] Mandarin, 5 English, 5 Spanish, 3 Hindi, 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. Making the earth a hospitable and peaceful home for the diverse members of the human family is one of the enduring challenges of this global village.”

[1] Daniel G. Groody, Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice, 2-3