With the exception of sports and social news, a large portion of the information we get is rather negative, focusing on crime, foreclosures, nasty weather, verbal attacks of one candidate against the other(s), and foreign threats.
It’s no wonder that so many Americans think that our country is going in the wrong direction. But to get a better perspective, it’s useful to consider how people live in the developing parts of the world.
These developing countries have 82 per cent of all humans now alive. The developing countries include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
The developed countries have only 18 per cent of the world’s population. The developed countries include the United States, Western Europe, Australia and Japan.
ENERGY: Since 1956, Shell (an Anglo-Dutch Multinational Oil Company has worked in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Over that time, there have been 4,000 oil spills, far more oil discharged than the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago.
ENVIRONMENT: In 1983, the gold mining in Ghana (on West Coast of Africa) was deregulated. 80 percent of the mining is now controlled by foreign companies. This has led to the destruction of 60 oercebtof Ghana’s rainforests.
MONEY: The economy of the African country of Zimbabwe collapsed, when hyperinflation reached 231 million percent in July 2008. In 2009, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued a $100 trillion dollar note. (One hundred trillion has 15 zeroes!)
AIR: Just 1 percent of China’s 560 million urban inhabitants breathe air considered safe by the World’s Health Organization.
LIFE EXPECTANCY: Swaziland, a small landlocked country in southern Africa has a life expectancy of 32 years. Swaziland has a HIV rate of 39 per cent, the highest in the world. This epidemic has surged due to high unemployment, poverty and traditional/religious beliefs regarding sex.
SANITATION: 2.6 billion people (37 per cent of all humans) don’t have basic sanitation. 1 billion people use unsafe sources of drinking water. Five times as many children die from diarrhea caused by unclean water than die from HIV/AIDS.
BIRTHS: 99 per cent of all women who die in childbirth are in developing countries. The chance of dying in childbirth is one in 16 in sub Sahara Africa versus one in 3,700 in North America. The African country of Niger has the world’s highest birth rate (51.6 births per 1000 people), with an average of nearly eight children per woman.
LITERACY: Two thirds of the world’s 800 million illiterate adults are women. Two thirds of these illiterate women are in eight countries (five in Asia and thhree in Africa).
POPULATION: Nearly 60 per cent of the global population live in just 10 countries. China and India account for three eighths of all humans. The United States has 4.6 per cent of the population. The remaining seven countries range from 3.4 per cent (Indonesia) to 1.9 per cent (Japan).
SLUM DWELLERS: Urban slum dwellers in the developed countries is a tiny fraction of the population. In the less developed regions, the proportion of slum dweller is 37 per cent. In the poorer countries of Africa, the slum population is at 90 per cent. The world’s largest slum is Kibera on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya with a million people. The average mud shack there has an area of 38 square feet and sleeps eight people.
Reference: The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts, 2010, compiled and designed by Barnbrook Design.
SKY THIS WEEK: The moon has now shifted out of the early evening sky, appearing near the planet Saturn in the midnight sky tonight. On Tuesday, the moon will appear half full in the southern dawn.
In February, the star group Orion is highest in the South in the early evening hours. Orion’s belt points down and left to Sirius, the night’s brightest star.
Venus is that brilliant point of light in the West as it gets dark, shining with a steady light.
Above and to the left is the bright planet Jupiter. The planet Mars is impressive in the late evening sky (after 9 p.m.), shining in the East with a steady orange light.
FREE SUNDAY PROGRAM: “Bears and their Skies” is featured at 4 p.m. in Frostburg State’s Compton Science Center today in room 224. Compton’s doors facing the large open area of campus (Northeast) will be opened about 3:30 p.m. The program will end in our Science Discovery Center on the first floor where seven preserved bears are on display. Cameras are welcome.
Bob Doyle invites any readers comments and questions. E-mail him at rdoyle@frostburg.edu . He is available as a speaker on his column topics.
