If We Could Shrink The Earth's Population

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 would be 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

• (ONE)1 would be near death;

• (ONE)1 would be near birth;

• (ONE)1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education;

• (ONE)1 (yes, only 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.

And, therefore . . .

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 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 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 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 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 hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

 

If you can read this blog entry, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

As you read this and are reminded how life is in the rest of the world, remember just how blessed you really are!

Time For Reform

Former Grand Falls Windsor town councillor Barry Oake will not be going to jail. Oake was convicted of sexually assaulting teenaged boys and through a plea bargain had agreed on house arrest. First of all when did we start allowing convicted criminals to choose their own sentence? Secondly how can anyone say that house arrest is a sentence? But in a surprise decision, the provincial judge, Bruce Short, ignored the original deal and imposed a tougher sentence; 22 month prison sentence plus three years probation. We need more judges in Newfoundland & Labrador like him.

Of course Oake appealed the judge's decision and the Court of Appeal overturned the the decision and sentenced Barry Oake to just 14 months of house arrest. For the next 14 months, you probably won't get the smile off of his face. He had beaten the system. That's the way the judicial system is going in Newfoundland & Labrador and it doesn't surprise me.

Judges are giving lower sentences all the time for violent crimes, while the victim suffers, sometimes their entire life. Precedents are being set all the time. Every time a judge gives a lower sentence, the criminal coming behind them is saying, "Yeah, wait a minute! That guy got 2 years for the same crime, why can't I have that?" Many times they get what they want, the judge will knock a few months off and another precedent is set for the next criminal in line. At the rate that is happening in Newfoundland & Labrador, the future will see the criminals get no sentence for the crimes they do, just because the one ahead of them got away with it. It is time for reform.

It is time for the judicial system in Newfoundland & Labrador to be reformed. We need to erase all precedents and start giving higher sentences for the crimes criminals do. The justice department of the government, of course, would never do that. Maybe we as a people of Newfoundland & Labrador need to reform the government.

Those of You Born 1930 - 1979

To all the kids who survived the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's:

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing.....that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, As long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. We had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?