WHEN I'M UP WITH THE SUNRISE I WANT MORE THAN JUST BLUE SKIES: I WANT MORE THAN JUST OK
Here are some of the things I've learned in my Foundations of Mission class:
* Six out of every ten people in the world will live in Asia in 2025; only one of every seven will live in the West in the same year.
* Of the 83 million people born each year, 82 million are in the developing world.
* Each night 800 million people go to bed hungry, most of which are women and children - yet there is enough food produced in the world to feed everyone.
* As many people are now malnourished in the West from eating too much of the wrong things as are undernourished in the Developing World.
* Fifty-five countries with almost 1 billion people lack access to clean water and this situation will get worse.
* The number of major conflicts has risen dramatically from 10 in 1960 to 38 in 2000, affecting almost 21 million people.
* Ninety percent of the casualties in today's armed conflicts are civilians.
* Global military spending was US$740 billion in 1997.
* If the money spent on arms worldwide in one day was put to good use it could feed a Third World country for ten years.
* Annual estimated costs:
- Money Laundering - US$1.5 trillion
- White-collar Crime - US$1.5 trillion
- Financial Fraud - US$930 billion
- Gambling - US$915 billion
- Organized Crime - US$750 billion
- Tax Cheating - US$250 billion
- Drug Traffic - US$200 billion
- Shoplifting - US$100 billion
- Computer Crime - US$51 billion
- Pornography - US$25 billion
- Arms Black Market - US$5.8 billion
- Electronic Warfare - US$5.8 billion
- Credit Card Fraud - US$1 billion
* Just over 32% of the gross world product is related to these "structures of sin". Their estimated cost is US$9.3 trillion.
* The great majority of these activities are done by the well-off.
* The cost of extending basic social services - primary education, clean water and safe sanitation, and health care and nutrition - to people in absolute poverty is estimated at US$580 billion annually. (Pocket change in comparison...)
* Twenty four percent of the world lives on less than US$1 a day, and I'm paying $16 000 each year (almost $44 CAN a day for 365 days) for my education.
I feel sick.