Have we argued about this before?
My dear, I never argue with you. That would be the height of stupidity. For I believe you enjoy it, and I know I loathe the sport. Cajole, kid or taunt you? Sure. But, enough of arguments. We're too far away from each other for that to really work, doncha think? <w>
Here's some grist for your mind mill:
"New Perspective"
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
.…………………..8 Africans
………………….14 from the Western Hemisphere
…………………______________
…………………100
> > > >> > > >
52 would be female
48 would be male
30 would be white
70 would be non-white
30 would be Christian
70 would be non-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 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
As far as the poor, no one really is going to do anything substantial with satellite comms for them. You do know that the Iridium system has been taken over by the US military, don't you? This is the sad truth. Satellites will perpetuate war and war machines. And won't do diddly to relieve the suffering of the underclass of the world. First of all, in order to be able to use the dang things, you have to be able to afford a handset, then it would be most helpful if you could read, unless chatting was the end goal. So, I don't share your enthusiasms for something as avant garde as satcomms to aid the poor. We'd be much better off in the first place controlling rampant population growth. 200,000 new humans born every day? To what end? Speeding up the depletion of the planet is the only result I can see occurring. The majority of these children are born into poverty and will live miserable existences. I see no way that satcomms makes any difference whatsoever to these sad lives.
Cordially, Kerm Udgeon |
