A little presidential humor

State of the Village Report

If the world were a village of only 100 people, there would be:

- 60 Asians
- 14 Africans
- 12 Europeans
- 8 people from Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean
- 5 people from the USA and Canada
- 1 person from Australia or New Zealand

In the village there would be:

- 33 Christians
- 22 Moslems
- 15 Hindus
- 14 Nonreligious, Agnostics, or Atheists
- 6 Buddhists
- 10 of other religions

In this 100-person community:

- 80 people would live in substandard housing
- 67 adults would live in the village, and half of them would be illiterate
- 50 would suffer from malnutrition
- 33 would not have access to clean, safe drinking water
- 24 would not have any electricity
- of the 76 that do have electricity, most would use it only for light at night
- in the village would be 42 radios, 24 televisions, 14 telephones, and 7 computers (some villagers own more than one of each)
- 7 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one)
- 5 people would possess 32% of the entire village's wealth, and these would all be from the USA
- the poorest one-third of the people would receive 3% of the income of the village

The following is also something to ponder...

- If you woke up this morning healthy... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
- If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pain of starvation... you are better off than 500 million 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 more comfortable than 75% of the people in 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 world's wealthy.
- If you can read this, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Courtesy of jesus-is-savior.com

An excerpt

Right now there is the biggest pandemic in the history of civilization, happening in the world now with AIDS. It's bigger than the Black Death, which took a third of Europe in the Middle Ages. Sixty-five hundred Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease. And it is not a priority for the West: two 9/11s a day, eighteen jumbo jets of fathers, mothers, families falling out of the sky. No tears, no letters of condolence, no fifty-one gun salutes. Why? Because we don't put the same value on African life as we put on a European or an American life. [...] We say we can't get these antiretroviral drugs to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can get them our cold fizzy drinks. The tiniest village, you can find a bottle of Coke. Look, if we really thought that an African life was equal in value to an English, a French, or an Irish life, we wouldn't let two and a half million Africans die every year for the stupidest of reasons: money.

-- from Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas.

Action / ideology

Leviticus 25:35-38:
"If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

Deuteronomy 15:7-11:
"If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart [...] and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'

Acts 2:44-47:
All who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 4:32-27:
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

2 Corinthians 8:14-15:
Your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, "Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack."

Ephesians 4:28:
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Titus 3:14:
And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

1 John 3:17-18:
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.