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:

There would be:
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.

The following is also something to  ponder...

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 church meeting 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 just received a double blessing in that someone was  thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Someone  once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don't need  the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's  watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's Heaven on  Earth.

After thinking about this over-night, I suggest that the writer of this interesting note research and add to his list the following statistics:
1. The number of those suffering from malnutrition in democratic free societies?
    The number of those suffering from malnutrition under governments ruled by
    Dictators, Kings and other Monarchs?

2. The number of those living in sub-standard housing in democratic free   
    societies?
    (Please give serious thought to the definition of sub-standard housing)  
    The same statistic for those living in Dictatorships and Monarchies?

3.  Re check your statistics for this one:
    How many of the 100 can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment,
    arrest, torture or death in democratic etc ., etc. countries?
    How many can do that in governments ruled by Dictators and Monarchs (That's
    RULED BY, not those that happen to have a King or Queen because they     
    believe the symbolism is valuable).

When you add these additional statistics, I agree with the writer that there is a great need for acceptance, understanding, and education, BUT the most "glaringly apparent" thing to ponder would seem to be that   the drought's, malnutrition, sub-standard housing, rampant disease, arrests and torture for your religious beliefs, etc., are concentrated in those countries (or areas) that are ruled by Dictators, local War Lords, and corrupt governments that drain whatever income the country receives leaving their people destitute.

How can we educate people to understand that democracy and free people is the answer to their problems?